Famer empowerment

Malawi RIU wants to have more farmers effectively participating in the commodity innovation platforms. It has recruited a core group of around 20 people who identify draft indicators of farmer empowerment. Through a series of facilitated learning groups they identify a core issue of whether the measure should look at individual farmers or farmer organisations.

While the working group noted measurements for some of the indicators are hard to collect, they could rate the data in terms of importance. The following table shows the work in progress at the September meeting. A guide book is due to be published in December and the approaches suggested will be tried out in early 2010.

The working group convened in September 2009 identified three categories:

• absolutely essential for an effective farmer organisation with empowered members
• important to sustain optimal functioning
• useful for optimal effectiveness

Absolutely essential for an effective farmer organisation with empowered members	Important to sustain optimal functioning
Decision making skills Have a voice Demand for information and services Self-organised 'Adopter of new technologies' (risk taker) became 'entrepreneurial creative and innovative spirit' 'Market-orientated' (farming as a business) became 'business oriented'	Leadership Skills Membership to a sustainable organisation Saving/investment orientated - record keeping Sustainable management of natural resources

The working group has suggested indicators for the ten areas. These change slightly from the initial model proposed:

Absolutely essential for an effective farmer organisation with empowered members	Indicator	How to measure?
Decision making skills	Making choices Number of service providers consulted	Observations
Have a voice	Challenge issues openly Takes on anything impinging Fights for a change Choose right leader	Interactive observation
Demand for information and services	Service providers consulted Frequency of demand Timing of demand	Reports Feedback mechanisms
Self-organised	Conducting meetings Action plans Timing of demand Use of services	Documents of plans Frequency of meetings
Entrepreneurial creative and innovative spirit	Has appropriate technologies on the farm Market investments	Visits and observations
Business orientated	Uses current market information Grows market demanded crops/livestock Has diversified for increased income Produces more than subsistence

Important to sustain optimal functioning	Indicator	How to measure?
Leadership skills	Managing conflicts Take up leadership roles Facilitates generation and adoption of new ideas	Coherent group Members implementing agreed plans
Membership of a sustainable organisation	Active participation in group activities Membership to an organisation Subscription to the organisation	Assigned responsibilities Membership fees
Savings/ investment - record keeping	Has assets Has savings account Production and financial records	Interviews and observations Farm records
Sustainable management of natural resources	Natural resource management practices in place	Observation

An example of the way that RIU Malawi is supporting farmer empowerment is through its work with ASSMAG. It is helping to build the capacity of ASSMAG farmers to participate in production of legumes breeder seed. Interventions will include: training, technical backstopping by breeders and offering inspection services by the Seed services section of Chitedze Research station; and provision of seed and other inputs on loan basis.