May 2009: Dissemination Workshop on the Effects of Food Safety Standards on the Livelihoods of Actors in the Nile Perch Value Chain

Mwanza, Tanzania, 25 May 2009.

The objectives of the workshop were:

To share the findings of the study on effects of food safety standards on the livelihoods of actors in the Nile perch value chain with District level policy makers and other local government stakeholders
To obtain views of the policy makers and other local government stakeholders on the evidence from the study and the policy implications.

The workshop was attended by a total of 20 participants including District Commissioners, members of Parliament and some local government employees from districts around Lake Victoria on the Tanzania side of the Lake.

The workshop was conducted in Swahili. The main presentation of the workshop was based on the study on effects of food safety standards on livelihoods of actors in the Nile perch value chain. The presentation was preceded by remarks made by the Fish-subproject team leader and opening speech delivered by the Nyamagana District Commissioner on behalf of the Minister for Livestock Development and Fisheries.

The presentation was followed by general discussions on the presentation, policy implications and the role of local government and policy makers in supporting efforts to maintain compliance with food safety standards to avoid loss of export market for Nile perch as well as supporting measures to ensure sustainable fishing in Lake Victoria.

Attached (in Swahili) are:
1. Opening Remarks
2. Effects of Food Safety Standards on the Livelihoods of Actors in the Nile Perch Value Chain (R.M.J. Kadigi et al.)

Summary of outreach and dissemination activities for 2008

Sustainability standards project

(coordinator Dr. Lazaro, SUA)

Carried out training for small scale coffee producers and workers in coffee plantations in collaboration with Machare Coffee Plantation. Machare Coffee Plantation was initially Utz certified and is now Rainforest Alliance certified.

Draft training manuals were prepared for use by extension workers and farmers. The manuals will be field-tested during the first quarter of 2009.

Nile perch project

(coordinator Prof. Mdoe, SUA)

Translated SAFE Policy Brief No. 2 in Swahili and disseminated

Delivered a lecture to postgraduate (Master of Arts in International Trade) students at University of Dar-es-salaam on fish standards and impacts to livelihoods.

Made an official visit to the Ministry of Livestock Development and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Food security and cooperatives. The purpose of the visit was to discuss and present the findings of the fish research to policy makers as well as distributing policy briefs.

Made other engagements with other stakeholders including PASS in Morogoro, and members of BMUs in Mwanza

Organics sub-project

(coordinator Dr. Mbiha, SUA)

Meeting with the Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement (TOAM) and TANCERT as a training and research committee

Attended the closing event of EPOPA

Participation in the design of National Export Development strategy Organized by the Ministry of Industries and Trade. The strategy includes Organic agriculture as a separate sector.

Project on the economic impact of organics

(Simon Bolwig and Peter Gibbon, DIIS)

Carried out seminar on 'Economic Impact of Organic Contract Farming in Uganda - Research Results and Policy Implications' (9 December 2008, Muyenga Club, Kampala)

Fliers for the press and various organisations, in East African and abroad: Small Holder Farmers and Organic Value Chains – The Future? (with Alastair Taylor); Food Security and the Impact of Certified Organic Agriculture (with Alastair Taylor)

Presentations and media appearances (Simon Bolwig):

‘Revenue and productivity effects of organic coffee contract farming in Africa’, presentation at the ‘Coffee and Africa’ seminar arranged by the Danish Coffee Club [Kaffeklubben]. 22 September, IBIS, Copenhagen.

‘Household food security effects of organic export production’, presentation at the seminar ‘Economic Impact of Organic Contract Farming in Uganda. Research results and policy implications’, 09/12/2008, Muyenga Club, Kampala.

‘Economic Effects of Organic Contract Farming in Uganda’ presentation with Peter Gibbon at the seminar ‘Economic Impact of Organic Contract Farming in Uganda. Research results and policy implications’, 09/12/2008, Muyenga Club, Kampala.

‘Airfreight, Organic Products and Africa’, presentation at the Biofach 2008 World Organic Trade Fair, Session on ‘climate change and organic agriculture’, Nuremberg, 21 February.

‘Climate friendly organic food should also be ‘fair food’’ [Klimavenlig økologisk mad skal også være ‘fair mad’]. Presentation at the Annual Meeting of Økologisk Landsforening, Svendborg, 7 March.

‘The Food Miles Debate and Developing Country Exports’, short paper presented at the ‘Buying Local: Miles Better?’ session of the World Export Development Forum (WEFD) of the International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO, Montreux 08-11 October. URL: http://www.intracen.org/wedf/ef2008/Montreux/Html/Buying-Local.htm

‘Flere lande giver ret til det daglige broed’, http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/artikel/299698:Udland.

‘CO2-faktoren. Hvem vinder?’ Max Havelaar Denmark Magazine Fair Nok, No. 7 2008.

e) Project on labour standards in the cut flower industry in Kenya and Tanzania (Lone Riisgaard, DIIS, PhD project)

Key note speaker at the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions’ conference on international solidarity 13.09.2008

Key note speaker at the Danish Trade union Council for International Development Cooperation’ Africa conference 06.02.2008

Paper presentation ‘Competition between social standard initiatives in the cut flower industry’, at the International Workshop on Globalization, Global Governance and Private Standards - 4-5 November 2009 – Leuven, Belgium

Media article ‘Etiske standarder diskriminerer kvinder i udviklingslande’ published in Information 22.05.08.

Project on quality standards in the tea sector in India and East Africa

(Marianne Nylandsted Larsen, post-doc, KU-Geography)

‘The role of quality standards in governing the value chain for tea’, paper presented at the Association of American Geographers Meeting, Boston (USA), 15-19 April 2008

Project on food safety law in the EU

(Morten Broberg, post-doc, KU-jura)

‘Transforming the European Community´s Regulation of Food Safety’, published with SIEPS in Stockholm (http://www.sieps.se/publ/rapporter/2008/2008_5.html).

Transforming the European Community´s Regulation of Food Safety’, presentation at SIPES, Stockholm, 21 April 2008 (http://www.sieps.se/sem/2008/sem_0421/sem_0421.html).
‘EU og ulandene - fra koloniherredømme til partnerskab?, presentation at a workshop at the University of Copenhagen, 3 December 2008 (http://www.ku.dk/Satsning/europa/)

Teaching a master course in the Spring of 2008 at the University of Copenhagen (which also covers SAFE-related topics)

Project on ecolabels in fisheries and quality standards in wine

(Stefano Ponte, DIIS)

“Performing the ‘Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy’: Case Studies on Food Safety and Sustainability,” conference paper prepared for the First ISA Forum of Sociology, Sociological Research and Public Debate; Session 16: The ‘Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy’: Critical perspectives, Barcelona (5-9 September 2008).

“Disjunctures and fragmentations in Global Value Chains: Reflections on ‘quality’ in (South African) wine”, paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Boston (18 April 2008).

“Uganda fisheries: The challenges of EU import regulation, sustainability and media perceptions”, presentation at the Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRC), Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda (17 January 2008)

Tralac Working Paper on fish ecolabelling and BEE in South African fisheries featured in the Cape Times (South Africa), 7 May 2008.

August 2008: New outreach activities

SAFE Fish project coordinator Dr. Ntengua Mdoe visits the Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives (MAFSC) and the Ministry of Livestock Development and Fisheries to liaise on the project activities and outcomes.

New outreach activities

SAFE project: Sustainability standards and coffee production for Tanzania

Activity: Training for small scale coffee producers and workers in coffee plantations
The training was conducted by SUA/DIIS, SAFE project in collaboration with Machare Coffee Plantation. Machare Coffee Plantation was initially Utz certified and is now Rainforest Alliance certified

Main objective of training: To create awareness among smallholder coffee farmers on sustainability standards in coffee

Key issues covered during the training:

The challenges of global agricultural trade
The concept and practice of sustainable agriculture
Concepts of certification, conformity and standards
Basic requirements to comply with sustainable standards

Target group: Two training sessions were conducted. The first session involved 30 employees of Machare plantation out of which 6 were women. The second session involved 36 villagers (mainly village leaders) out of which 5 were women – from 4 villages neibouring Machare plantation. These were.

Outcome of the training session: The participants showed interest in getting more information regarding sustainability standards, certification and marketing of sustainably-produced coffee. To date, we have received a letter from the Ward secretary requesting further training to a wider population in the area. This confirms the findings of the research on inadeaquate information among smallholder farmers regarding sustainability standards.

Way forward: The SAFE ‘sustainability standards team’ agreed with the management of Machare plantation to work on further activities related to encouraging smallholder coffee farmers in the area to adopt Good Agricutural Practices for possible certifiction and to linking smallholder coffee farmers to better coffee markets.

Acknowledgement: The research team acknowledges the assistance of Ms Bente Luther-Medoch of Machare plantation for facilitating the training sessions. The two sessions were conducted on the farm, and she organized all the logistics required for the training.

General profile of SAFE policy and outreach activities

Training and outreach

- Training of three PhD students at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agri-business, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania
-  Training of one PhD student at DIIS and the Institute for Society and Globalisation, Roskilde University, Denmark
-  Development of syllabi on standards and agro-food trade for undergraduate and Master’s courses at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agri-business, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania
- Research training for post-graduate students at SUA in the area of standards and exports of agro-food products; in 2007, three MSc students are doing research on organic, fair trade, and food safety standards
- Collaboration with the Professional Masters in International Trade, Faculty of Commerce and Management, University of Dar es Salaam -- supported by BSPS II
-  Training of workers in coffee plantations in Tanzania that are certified against sustainability certifications to raise awareness of the reasons behind the implementation of practical procedures at the farm level that are linked to the sustainability standard
- Training on standards issues with Small and Medium Enterprise Competitive Facility stakeholders (part of the access to markets component of BSPS II)
- Teaching courses and/or modules on standards in the agro-food sector at the University of Copenhagen

Policy dialogue

General:
- SAFE Policy Briefs related to organics, food safety and sustainability standards
- Policy and Stakeholder Workshop carried out in January 2008
- Dialogue and contract research with standard-setting agencies and NGOs and certification agencies
- Involvement with industry associations and NGOs in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, and India
- Collaboration on standards-related policy issues with Danida’s BSPS II Programme in Tanzania; the Ministry of Trade and Industry; and the Better Regulation Unit, Ministry of Planning, Economy and Empowerment
- International policy and outreach activities through the START network

Food safety:
- Meetings with Members of Parliament of Tanzania in the Lake Victoria zone on dissemination of information on the status of the fish industry, on the status of food safety standards, and on the impact of these on livelihoods in the area

Organics:
- The research report “Household food security effects of certified organic export production in tropical Africa: a gendered analysis” by Simon Bolwig and Moses Odeke was featured in an article in the EPOPA Newsletter No. 6, September 2007. The Newsletter has a broad readership among practitioners involved in the development of organic farming in Africa and is posted at this website: www.epopa.info.
- Engagement in formulation of the East African organic standard
- Soil Association/International Trade Centre study on the impact of a ban on air freighted organic imports to climate change. The sudy was taken into consideration by the Standards Board of the Soil Association (UK) on October 9th, 2007 when making their decision on whether or not to impose restrictions on air freight of organic products imported to the UK. The study shows that 50-60 producer-exporters worldwide will be affected by a ban and that at least 21,500 livelihoods in developing countries will be compromised.
- Policy Brief: Bolwig, S., P. Gibbon, M. Odeke, A. Taylor (2007). Certified organic export production – implications for economic welfare and gender equity amongst smallholder farmers in tropical Africa. (to be published by UNCTAD).

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