Developing Nations as the New Organic Front

In this third installment of the Cooperative Initiative, we focus on the inherent advantages that many small and developing nations have with respect to organic agriculture. Despite problems arising from internal politics, regional control figures, and cultural resistance, the developing world stands as perhaps the greatest potential market in the burgeoning organic food industry. These advantages come from the relatively unsophisticated business infrastructure – and enforcement – present in most of the world’s less developed economies, whereas advanced thought movements such as cooperatives are little known entities.

The Information-Lag in Developing Nations

The internet has had a painstakingly slow introduction, leading to a gradual inclusion into the daily lives of consumers and organic farmers alike in developing nations. Until very recently, the flow of pertinent information from the global organic farming industry into developing nations, critical for helping create new influences, trends, and consumer attitudes has been woefully absent. This critical information may include statistical comparisons of organic vs. non-organic farm productivity and their associated health reports, increasing denouncements of chemical farm-product peddlers, and the recent rocket-surge of consumer demand for organics in industrial countries. These factors, along with local farmers’ own experiences are apparently having a profound effect in the marketplace of developing nations, as these organic “food-truths” are now held as common household facts among global consumers, which finally include families as well. Thus, with the emergence of conscious consumers more apt to seek out and insist on organic products in developing nations, comes ripe opportunity for local organic farmers, which still comprise a relatively high percentage of the farms in these regions.

Contract Farming

This kind of opportunity is often easiest to implement within the infrastructure of developing nations. For example, in a recent cooperative-type arrangement between Laos and Brazil, the practice of contract farming is being introduced and implemented in four selected regions, whose support will remain on-site for an additional two years. Contract farming is an agreement between producers, markets, and ultimately consumers to assure market plenitude and supply, and thereby set a table of benefit for all participants. According to Somxay Sisanonh, Deputy Director of the Department of Agricultural Extension and Cooperatives in Laos, “The aim of this workshop is to strengthen the capacities of the provincial agricultural officers and farmers to obtain benefits from fair contract farming arrangement.” Before this workshop, program officers embarked on a tour of several agroindustry sectors in Brazil to study first-hand, how the contract farming markets were operating and gain insights for application in Laos. The contract farming model, in addition to providing positive food-security and nutrition benefits – and therefore ripe economic opportunity and growth – added undeniable environmental benefits as well. According to Chanthalath Pongmala, Deputy Director of the FAO in Laos, contract farming is a “great mechanism to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, which are the main drivers of our action”.

Developing Nation Advantages in the Organic Marketplace

Most governments in developing nations have limited funding for populace control measures such as mass surveillance, inspections, and enforcements of local regulations, as is commonly found in wealthier nations. This results in farmers having a relatively free latitude to move their produce to the various local markets – both wholesale and retail – without the usual impediments and expenses wrought by local authorities. This relative freedom of movement, together with infrequent product inspections and similar organic enforcement measures, can clear the way for many organic producers in developing nations with known familiar or contracted situations, whereas integrity and trust among all participants – as opposed to government enforcement – becomes the bellwether of doing business.

Chemical Farming

The use of chemical fertilizers tends also to be less frequent in small farms in developing nations, as farmers often do not have the funds for outside, manufactured inputs. A well-balanced small farm in a developing nation often becomes an organic producer by default. According to Thinle Dawa, manager at the local governmental agricultural agency in the Himalayan Ladakh in northern India, throughout the last decade they have seen less local farmers relying on artificial fertilizers and treatments, as the loss of chemical field productivity raised an operational alarm to many producers and has hastened a return to traditional organic methods. A traditional Ladakhi farm will typically keep dung-producing animals – cows, goats or chickens – and produce vegetative composts to augment their cropland integrity. These animals will in turn feed on weeds and forage created when produce is harvested, balancing the nutrient-cycle necessary for the survival of many small organic farms. This basic level of operation, more commonly found among farms in developing nations, results in a kind of built-in incentive to merely continue operating in their normal living situation, without needing to modify operations significantly in order to participate in the organic market.

When The Tables Turn – Developing Nation Disadvantages

However, these relatively loose governmental infrastructures in developing nations, have often given rise to a “wild-west” business landscape – fraught with corruptions of every kind, such as local mafias and officials dubiously paid to thwart any businesses who are not paying. Thus, the pertinence – and sensibility of – organic farming cooperative measures in developing nations comes to the fore. This is further reason for the incentive, the return to human values in food production and supply; the enigma surfaces in regions without organic certification or enforcement – now the organic farms are responsible for their own accountability and organic product authenticity. Farmers, thus, can find themselves in quite a volatile position, unless personally known by customers and suppliers alike, and having a proven track record of quality product, coupled with an assured reliable business practice, are factors a well-organized cooperative can offer markets in otherwise questionable conditions.

Human Values Call the Shots

This market-integrity advantage may simply be this. Distrust, particularly in the neighborhood markets of developing nations, is not generally a problem between farmers and vendors, as the economic reality in small nations and communities tend to foster deep personal producers-to-customer relationships within markets. Both reliable and dubious players are more easily observed in such tight, self-enforcing social interactions. Without a sufficient societal infrastructure to rely upon – such as in the West – small farms in developing nations have always had to base their survival – and success – on personal integrity and the reliability of their spoken word. Perhaps there is no better tool in any organic farmers’ operational arsenal, than simply this.

Introduction of the Developing Nation Cooperative

Cooperatives, by definition, are business collectives organized and assembled for the benefit of member producers and laborers alike. Cooperatives derive their power and success from a strength-in-numbers scenario, which only improves with membership. Another vital cooperative success factor is a strong sense of solidarity among members, coupled with an inherent resiliency during economic crises and employee benefits not usually present in many employment arrangements in developing nations. One of these benefits can be a collective legal or litigation spokesperson for – or between – local farmers during disputes. At present time, cooperatives for farms in developing nations are a rarely utilized business concept. However, with consumers poised for purchase, an ever-present need for farm protections, and a favorable lack of governmental interference, now may indeed be the ideal moment for entrepreneurs to seize opportunities with unprecedented potential in recent agricultural history. Small organic farms thus stand to reap many a benefit, and often only must ‘crack the egg’ of finding safe and affordable passage of their produce to the appropriate markets. This leads us back to the pertinence and practicality of the Organic Farming Cooperative.

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