Public-Private Partnerships and Sustainable Agricultural Development

Abstract

Agriculture in Africa is not sustainable because average yields have been stagnating for decades due to underinvestment, especially in the development of agricultural markets, crop improvement and the sustainable management of agricultural systems. Low public sector funding for agricultural research and lack of incentives for the private sector to operate in areas where there is no market largely explain the yield gap in many food-importing developing countries. Yet, there are effective ways in which the public and the private sector could work together and jointly improve agricultural sustainability in poor countries. The public sector provides a favorable institutional environment for the development of agricultural markets and investment in rural infrastructure, facilitates local business development and funds research with local relevance. The private sector, in return, brings its considerable expertise in product development and deployment. This article illustrates how new forms of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for agricultural development can work in challenging environments. It discusses three promising examples of PPPs in which the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) is actively involved, and shows that an experimental approach can sometimes be more effective than social planning in efforts to achieve sustainable agriculture.

Increasing Food Production in Africa by Boosting the Productivity of Understudied Crops

“…Nowadays, public-private partnership (PPP) is considered as an effective system to bring together the public and the private sectors towards enhancing agricultural sustainability in the developing world. Ferroni and Castle [241] presented several promising PPPs in which the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture has been actively involved over the last decade. These partnership projects in Africa include a lodging tolerant and semi-dwarf tef [242], rust-resistant wheat, and biofortification of sweet potato.…”

The Requirements of Initiating a Mangosteen Supply Chain Management in Banyuwangi District, Indonesia

“…According to Ferroni and Castle (2011), small farmers in developing countries generally have limited access to technology, extension services, and market integration. This condition also occurs in a small Mangosteen farmers in Banyuwangi District that cannot meet the demands of export markets such as the continuity of quantity, quality, food safety and competitive prices.…”

Key Determinants of Effective Partnerships: The Case of Partnerships Between Lead Firms and Farmers in Pineapple Value Chains in Uganda and Kenya

“…It was therefore not surprising to find the eight constructs in an empirical study on a Dutch cable company reduced to a smaller number of five factors: openness (containing items of the original concepts of coordination, communication, dependence, and trust); mutual interest in the partnership (related to trust and conflict); equality (derived from items on dependence and communication); conflict management (related to conflict and diversity); and closeness. In the same vein, it is interesting to note that strands of literature on partnerships, that differ in the scope and complexity of the partnerships examined, converge on similar determinants of success: mutual interest in the partnership=involvement (Ferroni & Castle 2011;de Waal, 2012); trust among the stakeholders (Drost et al, 2012) as indicated by mutual interest and openness in the partnership ; and the relational aspects of partnerships (Scott, 2011).…”