Support services for Medicinal Aromatic Plants.

 

There are many interventions which have the potential to improve conditions for small-scale farmers and other people involved in smallscale MAP activities, and some are easily delivered by extension organizations directly working with communities and small-scale enterprises, and others are more overarching, and rely on continued policy level work by local, regional and national organizations. Support for community based MAP activities can come from national or regional government, the private sector and NGOs. Often successful interventions have positive knock-on effects for other sectors, and often small changes - encouraging sustainable development based on local activities - result in large outcomes. Building capacity, improving technical skills, and encouraging innovation and resourcefulness, can all guide small-scale producers into the business world. It is important to recognize that MAPs are associated activities and people will rarely want to invest all their efforts in one livelihood activity.  

Projects should be encouraged to go beyond a narrow focus on one product or product area, and look at strategies to trade different complementary products, including other agricultural, forest, horticultural, textile, etc. This is particularly important when many MAPs are often only available seasonally, and through encouraging diversification, it helps communities and households manage risk. Any and all interventions to promote livelihood activities should be planned carefully, agreeing at the outset what small-scale farmer, collector, processor and trader objectives are, exploring any potential trade-offs which may need to be made. Then, asses the skills, assets and resources available, and what market opportunities exist for initiating or expanding trade. Working in joint ventures or partnerships with regional NGOs, and other relevant plant research groups and private organizations working in the area, can help reduce vulnerability and risk for small-scale farmers and/or collectors, and provide them with access to training and other forms of support.

 ■ Setting goals and planning 

Where to start? Setting goals and objectives.

At the outset of an initiative, or at the beginning of an intervention to support an ongoing initiative, it is important to discuss the aspirations of different stakeholders. How households and communities perceive a successful outcome can help in establishing objectives to work towards, and allow for the various trade-offs that might be needed to achieve them. These ‘definitions of success’ may be dynamic however and will likely change in response to variations in socio-economic circumstances, market behaviour, etc. Attributes such as transparency, equitability and social, economic, and ecological sustainability are all important components of successful initiatives to support livelihoods. A useful starting point can be identifying the livelihood aspects which are directly affected by MAP activities, and establish if the stakeholders (household, community, etc), want to:

• Improve trade of an existing initiative or start on a new one; 

• Improve the livelihoods of a few active stakeholders, or establish an initiative which has the potential to allow everyone to benefit; 

• Achieve their objectives through community organization or on an individual basis. 

From these a series of culturally appropriate indicators, based on local perceptions of success, can form the basis for a monitoring system to enable the impact of a new activity to be assessed. A few examples of stakeholder perceptions or definitions of success, which could be used to set the goals or objectives of an activity or project, are presented. It is helpful during initial planning and subsequent monitoring stages of all initiatives or activities, to evaluate current standing i.e. where one is, identify what opportunities and challenges are present, and to decide which direction needs to be taken i.e. where one wants to go. This enables evaluation of what strengths, skills and resources are available to draw on, either as a household, community, or small enterprise. It may be helpful to have more formal public endorsement of traditional health care, given how important it is for so many who have no access to conventional primary health care.  

■ Public policy support

Public investments have an impact on people’s capabilities to carry out an activity or business, whatever the sector, and many fundamental aspects for supporting MAP activities are public goods, including roads, electricity, telecommunications, rural markets and other infrastructure. Broad policy based government interventions to support successful MAP activities include: 

• Implementing multi-sectoral rural livelihood support policies which engage the forestry, agriculture, and health sectors, and by doing so support rural communities to diversify their livelihood base;

• Developing incentives for lending institutions to invest in small-scale local farms and businesses; make credit provision accessible to the rural poor and small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs; and provide technical assistance, through processing and other activities, to achieve the required regulatory standards for MAP materials; 

• Developing standards for MAP production and provide the technical and financial support required to help small-scale producers manage and trade their natural resources and access niche markets; 

• Developing specific policies to help promote secure community based resource access with responsible monitoring and management; to support domestication initiatives; to help establish small-scale enterprise marketing and trade in natural resources, including branding. 

More specific recommendations cited as important in achieving sustainable MAP activities, but which require enabling public policy in order to achieve directly through policy change, or indirectly through technical assistance, are detailed in Box 15.

 ■  Marketing and business skills for successful trade.

 Many societies and cultures have considerable essential traditional knowledge and skills pertaining to the management, processing and use of MAPs. The more successful and sustainable ventures to establish such activities recognize the need to acknowledge and build on these existing skills. Local or regional trade in MAPs typically involves small-scale activities with low capital investment which combine well with traditional domestic roles. This can make them particularly accessible to women, and the skills required very much depends on what scale activities are undertaken. The more sophisticated processing and packaging MAPs becomes, and the more trade moves from local to regional or national, the more complex skills, resources and entrepreneurial expertise is needed. Common types of support required by small-scale farmers, businesses and other entrepreneurial initiatives include: 

• Assistance in developing basic business skills: administration; access to credit; cash flow analysis; negotiation with creditors, clients and suppliers; development of strategies to maintain quality and quantity, and expand markets; 

• Assistance in getting lending institutions to recognize the commercial potential of MAP activities, and furthermore, to make credit provision accessible to small-scale farmers and smallscale businesses; 

• Support in obtaining funds from private and public, domestic and international, sources, for technical projects such as nurseries, processing and storage facilities, and other types of training; 

• Information provision on trends in product price, quantity and quality, understanding how market chains work and how to identify key actors, and training/ support to enable a community to use this information to its advantage; 

• It can sometimes be helpful to initially facilitate an intermediary role between collectors and buyers, and other contacts, to help establish market channels, interpret and meet regulatory requirements, and develop recognized medicinal product brands, etc. 

■ Role of advisor.

When establishing or assisting MAP ventures, it is important to assess the available capacity for resource management, harvesting, processing, and marketing, and facilitate the development of skills to grow a new activity from subsistence into trade, or expand an existing one. Regardless of size, sustainability generally increases when waste is reduced, and value is added locally. It can be useful to assess human capacity to evaluate existing technical skills, know-how, and experience and identify the necessary interventions to support improved collection, processing and marketing. Social aspects, including networks of collector, producer and marketing associations can help in establishing an activity, and then influence how successful it might be. Local associations can provide credit, and various marketing, legal, organizational and policy advice, to collectors and traders to increase their market power. Government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private sector contacts can also provide the support needed to access and utilise wider networks, and tap into resources for capacity building. Medicinal Aromatic Plants (MAPs) activities for local consumption and trade need different levels of equipment and infrastructure than, for example, a small commercial enterprise. For example, shade drying can be undertaken when expensive equipment is not available. Many of the physical assets required to undertake MAP activities are not exclusive items, but rather assets which help to meet general livelihood needs, including transport and communication infrastructure, clean water, an energy source, and buildings for shelter and storage. The more developed a general infrastructure is, the easier it is to establish and carry out new or additional activities. Information on physical infrastructure including the transport network of roads, rivers, railways, airports and their related costs, and the availability of energy, as water, electricity, fuel-wood, etc., are all needed to evaluate how feasible it may be to collect, process, transport, market and sell MAPs. To this end, physical communication networks are also important and facilitate communication between people about price, product quality and quantity, or descriptions of how a MAP product should be presented or processed. It is important to consider a variety of factors both at collection, and early points of trade within and outside a community, as these may be the key determinants of successful marketing. Cash, savings and access to credit or grants, are rarely essential for starting up small-scale MAP activities, when for subsistence or local trade. In fact, such activities often generate a valuable source of instant cash in times of need. Just as with ‘physical infrastructure’, financial resources become more important as MAP activities move from more informal to formal, i.e. from wild harvested to cultivated, perhaps in response to market demand, or become more complex in their processing or packaging to access more specialist markets. Different medicinal species will have different ‘management’ needs: more perishable products or higher value goods may require greater financial investment to secure specialist containers or packaging to facilitate their transport and marketing, and as such, are higher risk activities. Credit may be necessary to undertake quality control, or product grading, and to bulk up supply to a level where traders are willing to purchase i.e. physically bringing MAPs together from different collectors or investing in some form of domestication or cultivation. Access to credit can enable the more marginalized to improve their natural resource-based activities: money may be needed to make long-term investments in species management and/or cultivation, and purchase equipment, but access to financing is often problematic for those who live in rural and remote areas. In such circumstances, often land can be used as collateral for enterprise development, but requires that there are clear access and tenancy rights over such resources. Technical advisors, from governments, NGOs or the private sector, can provide direct assistance to small-scale farmers, small-scale businesses and communities. Support and training identified as important includes:

 • Facilitating organization between small-scale producers and processors, to reduce their vulnerability, increase their market power, and facilitate communication between them, other traders, and consumers.

 • Enabling working partnerships including collaboration between pharmaceuticals and other organizations that may provide credit and technology, and communities who have access to MAP products. 

• Supporting small-scale farmers, businesses and entrepreneurs to develop basic business skills: administration of sales out and cash in, negotiation skills for use with creditors, clients and suppliers; developing strategies to maintain quality and quantity, and expand markets. 

• Providing market information on product price, quantity and quality, and training/support to small-scale farmers and community-based businesses in how to use this information to its advantage. 

• Providing technical and organizational know-how for sustainable resource management, harvesting, and processing, and support to develop management plans and establish monitoring systems. 

• Providing assistance to small-scale producers in being able to understand and fulfill legal and regulatory requirements, for resource management, harvesting, trade, etc. Often the most effective way to provide direct assistance is via on site hands-on training, be it, resource management, or business oriented.

Training a few key individuals and empowering them to impart their knowledge can be a useful way of scaling up capacity building efforts. Participation at national and international medicinal events and trade fairs can also provide exposure to new ideas, and invaluable opportunities to exchange information about overcoming challenges and improving harvesting and processing techniques.