Strategies for developing the small grains food system

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Priorities for developing the small grains food system must be derived from a sense of the structure of supply and demand for these grains. They must also reflect an understanding of how grain policies, infrastructure, and technology affect incentives for production and consumption. Strategies designed to improve the performance of the small grains food system should be defined in terms of specific changes in the various components of this enabling environment.

Below is a brief list of some of the critical components of a small grains development program, highlighting policy variables and infrastructural issues as well as opportunities for technological change. This list is clearly incomplete, but it identifies some of the critical pressure points in the small grains food system.

Strategies for improving the performance of the small grains food system

Aggregate development strategies

• Development plan for semi-arid regions
• Household food security strategy
• Environmental sustainability strategy

Production development strategies

• Technology development
• Input supply systems
• Extension support systems
• Credit
• Market information systems

Market development strategies

• Grain storage systems
• Grain transport systems
• Price/market information systems
• Rural roads
• Grain processing systems
• Grain standards and grading
• Trade regulations

1. licensing
2. movement and price controls

• Capital accessibility

1. finance for market infrastructure
2. finance for trade operations

• New product development

The introduction of structural adjustment policies throughout the SADCC region offers new opportunities for developing a framework of policies to support the small grains food system. Grain market reforms, including reductions in both direct and indirect subsidies for maize, will dramatically shift the structure of incentives facing producers, marketing agents, and consumers in the extensive semiarid areas of southern Africa.

Significant improvements are still needed in the productivity of small grains, but priority must also be placed on the establishment of a postharvest market system to employ these technologies efficiently. Broadly defined strategies are needed to ensure that sorghum and millet will become more competitive on both rural and industrial markets and, more importantly, to increase the contribution of small grains to the resolution of persisting food deficits.

Bibliography

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) 1988a. Production yearbook. FAO, Rome, Italy.

• 1988b. Trade yearbook. FAO, Rome, Italy.

Hedden-Dunkhorst, B. 1990. The role of small grains in the semi-arid farming systems of smallholders in Zimbabwe-preliminary findings (draft 3). SADCC/ICRISAT, Zimbabwe.

Market Development Bureau, 1987. Annual review of sorghum, millet, cassava and beans. Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Dar-esSalaam, Tanzania.

• 1990. Annual review of agricultural marketing, 1989/90. Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock Development and Cooperatives, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.

Ministry of Finance and National Commission for Development Planning, 1989. Traditional crops promotion study: options in the baking, brewing and stockfeed industries (consultancy report). Lusaka, Zambia.

National Early Warning Unit, Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, 1991. Monthly food security bulletin, 5 (5). National Early Warning Unit, AGRITEX, MLARR, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Rohrbach, D.D. 1990. Small grain production, marketing and utilization in Zimbabwe. Presented at the Small Grains Workshop of the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, ENDA-Zimbabwe and the Canadian International Development Agency, 5-7 March 1990, Harare, Zimbabwe.

• 1990. Marketing constraints and opportunities for sorghum and millet in southern and eastern Africa. Presented at the 7th Regional Workshop on Sorghum and Millet Improvement in Eastern Africa, 24-28 June 1990, Nairobi, Kenya.

Rohrbach, D.D., Stack, J., Hedden-Dunkhorst, B., Govereh, J. 1990. Agricultural growth and national food security. In Jayne, T.S., Rukuni, M., Wycoff, J.B. (eds.), Integrating food and nutrition policy in Zimbabwe: proceedings of the first annual consultative workshop on food and nutrition policy. University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Summaries of supplementary presentations

Policies for grain

E. Muzvondiwa
Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural
Resettlement, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe government policy on grain production is intended to ensure food self sufficiency for Zimbabwe on a sustained basis and to provide sufficient quantities for export. Current policy, therefore, has extractive aims and rural surpluses are assumed at all times and in all areas. Grain deficit areas are supplied with processed maize meal from a central supply. Policy effectively inhibits movement of grain from areas of surplus to those with a deficit. The major shortcoming of the current system is its inability to make grain available to numerous, geographically dispersed, consumer units in the semi-arid areas where 60% of the communal population lives.

Policy options in the context of market liberalization include: abolishing restrictions on the movement of grain; decentralizing markets and encouraging the formation of small rural processing centres; introducing seasonal pricing to encourage longer on-farm retention and to spread marketing board intake more evenly over the year; and reexamining reasons for past failure of reliance on private and cooperative sectors.

To permit the entry of private traders into the sector, a number of issues will need to be addressed: access to credit for small traders; improvement of infrastructure, including roads and access to vehicles and spare parts; and understanding the complexities of risk for the small trader. Continuing liaison among government, parastatals, and the private sector must be initiated and sustained.

Technology available to smallholder producers

C. Chiduza (crop science) and
J. Govereh (agricultural economics) University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe

The level of adoption of new technology is determined by its suitability to farmers and the strength of the extension messages. In the current system, both within agricultural colleges and the university, sorghum and millets are given cursory treatment. Extensionists in the marginal areas lack information about the small grains.

Farmers will adopt production technologies if the yield of new varieties approaches that of maize in reasonable rainfall years and if price incentives are strongly coupled to market access and other infrastructure. Although fertilizer, tillage, and pesticides, for example, are available, the interaction of existing seed technology with the poor environment is not profitable enough to merit their use.

Existing programs related to education in research development and extension in sorghum and millet food systems

M. Hakutangwi
Agricultural Technical and Extension Service Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Zimbabwe

Small farmers in the semi-arid areas are starved of appropriate pre- and postharvest technologies to suit their farming systems and circumstances. The tradition of selection and management for maximum yield of a single crop does not meet the need to maximize returns from a multicommodity farm system

Researchers are too isolated from farmers. Most research is initiated on research stations; not enough takes place on farms. More emphasis must be placed on diagnosing problems on-farm by multidisciplinary teams and analyzing indigenous technologies and current farmer practices. The interfaces between education, research, extension, and the farmer must improve.

Storing the grain

T. Rukuni
Development Technology Centre
University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe

The technical issues with respect to storage of grain include: preventing contamination; preventing germination in storage; grading in accordance with standards; practicing fumigation appropriately; assessing the strengths and weaknesses of traditional storage systems.

The prevailing marketing system in the region consists of central market organizations that procure, store, and market the grain. This practice ensures a stable supply, an assured price for the farmer, and better pest control. However, the system has high transportation costs for redistribution to deficit areas. Two models for change can be considered:

• The central marketing organization could operate in commercial or highly productive areas, while private entrepreneurs operate in marginal regions and manage rurally located storage. Consideration will have to be given to ensuring business viability and sources of financing and the design and introduction of new storage technologies, including training in their use.
• The central marketing organization could retain its monopoly position and farmers would be either paid for their grain or given an incentive for on-farm storage. Consideration has to be given to the ability of farmers to practice new technologies, some not yet devised.

Processing small grains in rural areas

Joshua Gwitira
Environment Development Activities (ENDA) Zimbabwe

ENDA is executing a project for the wider dissemination of small grain mills, including dehullers for use on sorghum and pearl millet. One reason for a shift from small grains to maize is the ease of processing of maize. Eliminating the processing "bottle-neck" for small grains may increase their production and use. The strategy is to bring the processing equipment as close to the producer as possible to stimulate the rural economy.

The Rural Industries Innovation Centre (RIIC) in Botswana and ENDA in Zimbabwe have demonstrated that rural processing of small grains can be achieved. There must be effective demand for processing, sites must be carefully selected, the scale of technology must be appropriate to the needs of the communities, credit must be generated, maintenance systems must be established, and entrepreneurship must be stimulated and developed in potential mill owners. A sustainable system of delivery of the machinery and training in its use must be established.

Small grains as industrial raw materials

M. I. Gomez
SADCC/ICRISAT Regional Sorghum and Millet Improvement Program, Zimbabwe

From a utilization perspective, small grains are not viewed merely in the context of competitive advantage" over maize; they are an additional and underused resource in the cereal subsector of the food supply. Care must be taken not to differentiate too sharply between urban and rural demands and markets. In terms of uses and products, similar demands exist in both target areas, e.g., porridge meat bread, and opaque beer. The main differences lie in level of technology and scale of operations. Conversion of the grains to usable products can be simple or complex, small scale or industrial scale.

The aim in upgrading and improving the small grains sector is to accelerate transition of the current peasant-grown, subsistence crop to a commercial crop and to bring these grains into the mainstream of cereal use and trade.

Efforts to ensure good genetic quality must be matched by good postharvest practices to achieve consistent and high quality for market. Grades and standards for food use of small grains are lacking in most SADCC countries or are inappropriate, because they were developed mainly for feed grains and brewing sorghum.

Industrial processors, such as millers or brewers, enforce specific and stringent quality standards for evaluating their raw materials. Unreliable quality of small grains has discouraged and frustrated commercial processors who attempt to use them. In addition, work is needed on the forward and backward linkages that ensure a continuous and consistent supply of grain for processing.

Current research work of the Food Technology Unit comprises: identification of potential and current products and technologies and opportunities for replacing imported grain or making up deficits with local grains in existing and new food products; development of appropriate food products; bulk grain production for a pilot plant and in-plant trials; product and process optimization in in-plant trials with processors; technology transfer and adoption leading to eventual full-scale industrial processing.

Discussion points

The participants were asked to join one of three discussion groups whose broad themes were:

• Policy for the food system,
• The rural food system, encompassing the domain of the producer who is also a consumer of the grains, and
• The urban food system, encompassing the domain of the consumer who is not a producer of the grains.

Each group was asked to state its perception of the broad objectives for the production-to-consumption system (PCS), to set utilization priorities, and to identify desired strategies. Groups were also asked to identify critical (or limiting) problems; priorities for intervention and solutions to be provided by policy, research, and investment in infrastructure; and to indicate the main actors in the desired improvement. Preparing recommendations for future action was the final step.

The results of the deliberations of the three groups were merged into the points that follow. The recommendations are grouped in relation to the PCS. However, the reader can extract the implications for the main factors influencing the supply of and demand for these grains: policies, infrastructure, and technologies.

Broad objectives

1. To achieve food sufficiency and security at the household level;
2. To ensure an adequate and consistent supply of good-quality sorghum and millet in rural and urban markets;
3. To improve grain handling and storage technology at the farm and medium-scale levels; and
4. To improve the market for sorghum and millets by introducing better processing techniques and products for rural and urban markets.

Problems and limitations

Production

• Availability of seed and high-yield varieties acceptable for different end uses;
• Sound extension and educational packages on sorghum and millets;
• Availability and access to credit for producers via financial institutions;
• Loss of grain, especially white varieties, to birds from the soft-dough stage on; and
• Informed agroecological characterization of the cropping systems for development of information packages for farmers.

Handling storage, and marketing

• Grain threshing technologies at the smallscale level;
• Conducive environment for better private-sector storage and marketing of grains (which will be inevitable with the structural adjustment programs);
• With development of private-sector marketing of grains, the following factors must be addressed:

1. better information and experience in the design and management of medium-scale stores,
2. access to credit,
3. transport and distribution infrastructure, and
4. market information systems;

• Practical grading standards.

Processing and utilization

• Belief that sorghum is a "poor man's food.;
• Gaps in knowledge about traditional processing and consumption patterns;
• Focus of R&D support (governmental and nongovernmental);
• Effects of pricing policy;
• Storage facilities that are inadequately equipped for separate and appropriate classification of varieties;
• Inadequate awareness of consumer needs and wants; and
• Policy environment that is not conducive to investment in the sector.

Summary

There were some fresh contextual themes that differed from those raised in the 1987 meetings:

• Broad recognition of the potential contribution of the private sector, including small-scale rural enterprises; there is need for greater government support and encouragement to develop the private sector and investment;
• General concern with the impact of deregulation and relaxing of control and a recognition of the readiness of the private sector to participate; and
• Recognition that grains are used in different end products and that their quality and characteristics are important to both industry and the consumer.

These led to several strategic priorities:

• To study the impact of deregulation and discover new opportunities offered by it;
• To encourage development of the smalland large-scale private sector, its involvement in storage, trading, and marketing, and the formation of competitive trading networks;
• To compare experiences across countries, including those in West Africa, and integrate the results in the national planning process;
• To improve productivity in relation to market requirements and consumer acceptability (have national agricultural research systems addressed this issue adequately?);
• To ensure quality of products (there is a need to identify and implement appropriate grading and quality standards);
• To develop new products and uses and to encourage urban utilization of these grains; and
• To create a system of government support that is comprehensive (the policies favouring extraction must be replaced with ones favouring intrarural grain markets).

Specific action

• Increase the level of training of professionals working in all aspects of the PCS;
• Develop and implement quality standards in relation to end products and for all stages of the PCS; and
• Develop new relations between government and the private sector to exploit the competitive niche of the semiarid food grains.

Recommendations

Covering the whole system

• Create effective government policies to encourage investment in the small grains sector, e.g., support to R&D, pricing policy, drought relief, credit for entrepreneurs; and
• Forge strong R&D linkages among national, international, and mentor organizations.

Production

• Develop high-yield, stable varieties of seed suitable for the different agroecological zones and end uses (must include verification trials);
• Assure availability of quality seed to all producers;
• Develop sound information and training packages for extensionists and farmers in the semi-arid regions, including material about:

1. available cultivars,
2. planting populations,
3. inputs,
4. pest control,
5. economics of production; and

• Government encouragement of banking institutions to extend credit to producers.

Handling, storage, and marketing

• Research and development of grain threshing technologies suitable for smallscale farmers;
• Government creation of an environment conducive to private-sector investment in medium-scale storage, e.g.,by

1. removing prohibitive legislation and
2. extending credit to private-sector ventures;

• Investigation through research and feasibility studies of private, medium scale storage of grains with a focus on

1. market research,
2. economics,
3. classification and grading of commodities,
4. design of storage structures,
5. transport and infrastructure,
6. registration and use of pesticides;

• Development of quality standards for sorghum and millets for different end uses.

Processing and utilization

• Determination, through national studies, of gaps in knowledge about traditional processing and uses of sorghum and millets, i.e., processes and socioeconomic factors;
• Research and development of food products made from sorghum and millets, such as

1. soft and stiff porridges,
2. composite flours,
3. traditional and industrial brewing,
4. rice sorghum,
5. snacks (popped sorghum, etc.),
6. pasta, and
7. malt;

• Research and development of industrial products from sorghum and millet, with closer cooperation between public and private sectors, including

1. stockfeed,
2. ethanol
3. yeasts and other fermented foods, and
4. cellulose.

Participants

Juliet Aphane
c/o Director of Agriculture
Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives
PO Box 162
Mbabane, Swaziland

Bruce R. Champ
ACIAR Postharvest Research Program
GPO Box 1571
Canberra, Act 2601, Australia

S.S.M. Chiputu
Senior Agricultural Officer (Crops)
Ngabu Agricultural Development Division
Private Bag
Ngabu, Malawi

Paul Coomans
Institute of Agricultral Engineering
PO Box 330 BW
Borrowdale
Harare, Zimbabwe

G. Fliedel
Senior Cereals Technologist
CIRAD/IRAT
Laboratoire de Technologie des Cereales
2 Place Pierre Viala
34060 Montpellier, Cedex 01, France

Manel Gomez
Food Technology/Crop Utilization
SADCC-ICRISAT Regional Sorghum
and Millet Improvement Program
PO Box 776 Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Jones Govereh
Department of Agricultural Economics
and Extension
Faculty of Agriculture
University of Zimbabwe
PO Box MP 167

Mount Pleasant
Harare, Zimbabwe
Joshua Gwitira
Deputy Director
ENDA-Zimbabwe
PO Box 3492
Harare, Zimbabwe

Marcus Hakutangwi
Chief Training Officer
AGRITEX
PO Box 8117
Causeway
Harare, Zimbabwe

R. Harnisch
GTZ-Post Harvest Project
Pickbuben 4
2000 Hamburg 11, Germany
Leland House
Executive Director

SADCC-ICRISAT Regional Sorghum
and Millet Improvement Program
PO Box 776
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

S. Jiriyengwa
Planning Manager
Grain Marketing Board
PO Box 8014
Causeway
Harare, Zimbabwe

Mackson Kaputo
Head, Food Technology Research Unit
National Council for Scientific Research
PO Box CH 158
Chelston
Lusaka, Zambia

Rapula Kgotlele
Deputy General Manager
Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board
Private Bag 0053
Gaborone, Botswana

B.N. Mitaru
Department of Animal Production
College of Agriculture and Veterinary
Sciences
University of Nairobi
PO Box 29053
Nairobi, Kenya

J.L. Mokotjo
Marketing Division
Department of Economics and Marketing
Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives
PO Box 24
Maseru, Lesotho

Felix S. Msiska
Sorghum/Millet Agronomist
Chitedze Agricultural Research Station
PO Box 158
Lilongwe, Malawi

E. Muzvondiwa
Economics and Markets
Ministry of Lands Agriculture and
Rural Resettlement
Private Bag 7701
Causeway
Harare, Zimbabwe

Thokozile Ncube
Senior Nutritionist
Office of Provincial Medical Officer
PO Box 441
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Nigel Nicholson
Foods (Botswana) Pty Ltd
PO Box 1131
Serowe, Botswana

Tunde Obilana
Sorghum Improvement
SADCC-ICRISAT Regional Sorghum
and Millet Improvement Program
PO Box 776
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

John R. Pedersen
(Correspondent)
Food and Feed Grains Institute
Kansas State University (KSU)
Shellenberger Hall
Manhattan, Kansas, USA 66506

F. Mikael Pepke
CTA/Project Manager, Improving Post
Harvest Crop Practices for Small Farmers
FAO Project ZIM/88/018
Institute of Agricultural Engineering
PO Box 330 BW
Borrowdale
Harare, Zimbabwe

R. Guy Poulter
Overseas Development Administration
Natural Resources Institute
Central Avenue Chatham Maritime
Kent, UK ME4 4TB,

Peter F. Prevett
GASGA Joint Secretariat
Overseas Development Administration
Natural Resources Institute
Central Avenue Chatham Maritime
Kent, UK ME4 4TB,

David Rohrbach
Agro-Economics
SADCC-ICRISAT Regional Sorghum
and Millet Improvement Program
PO Box 776 Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Tunga Rukuni
Development Technology Centre
University of Zimbabwe
PO Box MP 167
Mount Pleasant
Harare, Zimbabwe

Ozzie Schmidt
Senior Program Officer
Post Production Systems
International Development Research Centre
Office for East and Southern Africa
PO Box 62084
Nairobi, Kenya

Robert Semple
Consultant
Prevention of Food Losses Program
c/o Director, Agricultural Services Division
FAO
Via delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy

S.Z. Sithole
Pest Control Project
Food Security Technical and
Administrative Unit
PO Box 4046
Harare, Zimbabwe

J.Z. Tichivangana
Food Technology Research Service
Private Bag 008
Kanye, Botswana

B. Tiisekwa
Dept Food Science and Technology
PO Box 3006
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Morogoro, Tanzania

Francis Troude
Chef de Division Mécanisation Agricole
(Correspondent GASGA)
CIRAD-CEEMAT
Domaine de Lavalette
73 Rue JF Breton
34000 Montpellier, France

Servi van den Akker
Institute of Agricultural Engineering
PO Box 330 BW
Borrowdale
Harare, Zimbabwe

Bhola-Nath Verma
Sorghum Improvement Programme
Department of Agricultural Research
Mount Makulu Research Station
Private Bag 7

Chilanga, Zambia
Edward J. Weber
Associate Director
Post Production Systems
International Development Research Centre
PO Box 8500
Ottawa, Canada K1G 3H9

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