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Introduction:

With Joseph Hanlon: Do Bicycles Equal Development in Mozambique, 2008, Chapter 3, you find information especially well fitted to consider development policies of NGOs and the dependence of small farmers on market access.

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A number of NGOs have dealt with agricultural inputs and used substantial resources to promote this or that crop and to set up systems of extension workers and overall focused on increased production. The book states that despite some good examples there is a trend of NGO behavior which has put too much emphasis on production and by far too little attention to the marketing and sale of the production. Besides this, the NGOs have been in the pocket of their headquarters in Europe, often changing policies for what they would support leading to a disruption of the locally based NGOs practice.

Much work has been carried out, but marked by inconsistency and the belief that 3 years of input should be enough, while experience shows that 3 years is just enough to get out of the starting phase and 10 years altogether are needed to get a production going so it can sustain itself.

So pulling out too early or changing the policies of intervention have been disruptive. Likewise the lack of financial support in the form of credits and management support to lend assistance to entrepreneurs who could be successful on several accounts but in need of managerial expertise.

The chapter states that a government interventionist and activist attitude is needed and the chapter sites examples of such interventions in for example neighboring Zimbabwe.

All in all, the chapter provides examples of agricultural failures and analyses the reasons. But the chapter also provides some successful examples and it reaches a conclusion that agricultural support from state and from NGOs has to be long term, include financing, marketing and sales.

In other words &ndash; it is not enough with a good idea for production of a crop. It is not enough that an NGO promotes a certain production and promises to buy the product and then 1 year down the line it is buying minimally and the market is too far away for the peasants themselves to reach it.

The whole value creating chain, from training and production assistance, to producing the right product and securing that there is an accessible market for the peasants, must be considered.

You can enjoy much well selected and well researched&nbsp; information in this chapter and be inspired to start methodically right, when you investigate how the poor can lift themselves out of poverty.

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