Thank you Emem and Paul for your contributions. They are most appreciated.
1. Enem, please don't think it is just Nigeria where joint enterprises have been mostly a failure, but it is really across the board for anyone who take a closer look. You might be interested that the garri example mentioned in the original statement is from Benue, Nigeria. The main question is how do we convey to the powers that control project design that joint enterprise are waste of good donor money, and might up that to a scandalous waste. I would hope that this money could be more effective when devoted to alternative activities. You might like to visit my website and look at several pages devoted to how ineffective they are and how they get perpetuated in the donors imposed program design. The website link is: https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/
2. Paul, you are approaching the problem from a more social scientist perspective that I, as a crop production agronomists, normal don't focus on. Have you ever looked at joint enterprise from a pure business perspective and computed the sustainable overhead costs including the time an effort for consensus building or conflict resolutions, and compared this to individual enterprises and their profit margins. I think if you did you will note that relying on joint enterprises would force the members more deeply into poverty.
Again you might look at the website mentioned above for some more detailed discussion.
3. While I very much appreciate the comments on group vs individual enterprises, I noted no one as attempted to address the other issue. That of operational limit such as labor and how that impacts on timing of operations, decline in potential yield, and ultimately food security. Is the lack of comment to date a confirmation that operational limits still falls into an administrative void between the agronomist and the social scientists? Can we ever assist smallholder farmers out of poverty until this concern is addressed.
RE: Supporting smallhoder agriculture: what are your experiences in using evaluation?
Thank you Emem and Paul for your contributions. They are most appreciated.
1. Enem, please don't think it is just Nigeria where joint enterprises have been mostly a failure, but it is really across the board for anyone who take a closer look. You might be interested that the garri example mentioned in the original statement is from Benue, Nigeria. The main question is how do we convey to the powers that control project design that joint enterprise are waste of good donor money, and might up that to a scandalous waste. I would hope that this money could be more effective when devoted to alternative activities. You might like to visit my website and look at several pages devoted to how ineffective they are and how they get perpetuated in the donors imposed program design. The website link is: https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/
2. Paul, you are approaching the problem from a more social scientist perspective that I, as a crop production agronomists, normal don't focus on. Have you ever looked at joint enterprise from a pure business perspective and computed the sustainable overhead costs including the time an effort for consensus building or conflict resolutions, and compared this to individual enterprises and their profit margins. I think if you did you will note that relying on joint enterprises would force the members more deeply into poverty.
Again you might look at the website mentioned above for some more detailed discussion.
3. While I very much appreciate the comments on group vs individual enterprises, I noted no one as attempted to address the other issue. That of operational limit such as labor and how that impacts on timing of operations, decline in potential yield, and ultimately food security. Is the lack of comment to date a confirmation that operational limits still falls into an administrative void between the agronomist and the social scientists? Can we ever assist smallholder farmers out of poverty until this concern is addressed.
Thank you,
Dick Tinsley