Presenters

Biography:

Fritz Kramer is Chief Operating Officer of International Development Enterprises, a development organization with some 500 employees in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. IDE is primarily known as "The Treadlepump Organization" after having put together supply chains that have provided more than 2,000,000 low-cost microirrigation technologies to small farmers in Asia and Africa. Today, IDE is focusing on the incorporation of the rural poor into expanding markets by focusing on the development of value chains for high value crops, produced by the smallhold sector.

For more than 20 years, Fritz served with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), being associated in such capacities as Leader of Training, Director of Communications, Director of International Cooperation, and Deputy Director General of the Centro International de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), in Cali, Colombia.

IDE recently has proposed an intervention paradigm with the aim of reaching some 30 million smallhold families through pro-poor market development. This proposal goes under the name of Smallholder Irrigation Market Initiative (SIMI), and will also be presented at Sustainable Resources 2003. More information on IDE can be found under http://www.ide-international.org/

Summary of Presentation:

Based on its experience with supply chain development for low-cost water technologies (which has resulted in the availability of more than 2 million microirrigation systems for small farmers in Asia and Africa), International Development Enterprises (IDE) is in the process of developing an approach that allows for the creation of pro-poor markets based on an appropriate combination of technology, capital/credit, training, and market information systems. This approach--referred to by IDE as PRISM (Poverty Reduction through Irrigation and Smallholder Markets)--currently is being put in practice in selected areas in India, Nepal, Zambia, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. 

The approach emphasizes the need for water control at the farm level, which is achieved through the introduction of low-cost microirrigation technologies, including low-cost solutions for water lifting, water storage, and water distribution (drip- and sprinkler irrigation). This is accompanied by farm intensification methods that allow smallholders to make maximum use of their limited assets (land, water, family labor) by concentrating on high value agricultural products. Of particular importance in PRISM is demand-led market development, which is achieved by paying particular emphasis on so-called "value chains" that integrate the smallholder producing community with input markets (seed, implements, fertilizers, services, etc.), as well as with outlets for their products that provide the smallholder with relatively stable and profitable markets.

Results to-date indicate that smallholder participation in expanding markets for high-value products can readily result in net additional income of $500-$1000 per year/family, an amount that is sufficient to propel a family out of poverty. IDE has suggested that through the large-scale application of PRISM-type pro-poor market development efforts, it should be possible to reach as many as 30 million smallhold families within the timeframe considered in the Millennium Goals (2015).