From Sorghum to Shrimp : A Journey Through Commodity Projects

Projects that focus on agricultural commodities are a common approach to economic development. By improving the production, processing or marketing of a commodity, such projects aim to alleviate poverty among farmers and small-scale traders and processors, as well as benefiting the wider economy. But how should such projects be designed and implemented? Development agencies and managers of such projects are confronted with a series of practical dilemmas. This book answers eight of the most important questions they face: 1) Choices: How to design simple solutions when problems are complex? 2) Responsibility: How to share project responsibilities between public, private and producer organizations? 3) Participation: How to ensure stakeholder participation at the different stages of a project? 4) Flexibility: How to engineer flexibility into the project design? 5) Dependency: How to spend grant funds without creating project dependency? 6) Sustainability: How to ensure lasting effects of temporary activities? 7) Market: How to make the best use of market opportunities? 8) Impact: How to ensure a positive impact on poverty? The answers given in this book are based on the experiences of 11 commodity development projects funded by the Common Fund for Commodities, an Amsterdam-based international development organization. The projects represent a mix of agricultural commodities '¬ ; from sorghum to shrimp '¬ ; in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The book provides rich examples and insights into how managers of the 11 projects dealt with the dilemmas they faced. The book will be a valuable guide for project designers, implementers and evaluators of commodity projects. It will help them anticipate and overcome the many challenges that await them as they guide their projects towards success.