Changing Agri-Food Markets - Impacts upon Small-Scale Farmers
Regional Seminar of Regoverning Markets Project "Changing Agri-Food Markets - Impacts upon Small-Scale Farmers" took place at Warsaw University on November 8-9, 2007. The major objective of the seminar was to discuss the results of the Regoverning Markets projects in Central and Eastern Europe with special reference to the studies and survey completed in the Polish dairy sector.
35 scientists, business and public sector representatives from 12 countries (Armenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom) participated in the event. The seminar was jointly organized by the University of Warsaw Regoverning Markets Team and the regional Coordination of the project at Corvius University of Budapest.The Warsaw University provided an outstanding venue and first class organization .
During the first day of the Seminar the results of the research on Polish dairy sector were presented. The detailed results of the research in Poland were presented by the Polish team led by Prof Jerzy Wilkin and Dominika Milczarek. The main conclusions and discussion concerned the determinants of market channel choices of local dairy farms and possibilities of small-scale farmers' inclusion into modern market channel. Access to funds were found to be the most important factor allowing for necessary adjustments. In addition, the role of intermediaries - dairy companies - in restructuring at the farm level was stressed.
The programme of the second day included examples of innovative practices in connecting small-scale producers with dynamic markets. Results of research within Regoverning Markets project in Hungary, Bulgaria and Russia were presented.In the last session the situation of small-scale farmers in Moldova and Armenia were presented and discussed. These presentations were supported by FAO. The presentations of the case studies were followed by vivid discussions emphasizing the needs to support small farmers cooperation and inclusion to the new market chanels.The importance of external support was an overall conclusion.
The seminar program included a presentation of Bill Vorley on the preliminary outcomes of the overall project. Csaba Csaki outlined the main global conclusions of the country specific case studies.The seminar concluded by a panel discussion based on the remarks of Bill Vorley ,Jerzy Wilkin ,Csaba Forgacs and Csaba Csaki .It was aggreed that the regional papers will be jointly published. The detailed programme of the seminar with links to presentations is below.
"Changing Agri-Food Markets - Impacts upon Small-Scale Farmers"
Results of Regoverning Markets Project, Regional Seminar
November 8-9, 2007
Uniwersytet Warszawski
Programme
November 8
09.00 - 09.30 Welcome: agenda and objectives for the day 1 (Jerzy Wilkin) [0]
09.30 - 10.30 Project description and discussion (Bill Vorley) [0]
11.00 - 12.30 Dairy sector in Poland - results of meso-study (Dominika Milczarek-Andrzejewska, Agata Malak-Rawlikowska, Jan Fałkowski) [0]
12.30 - 13.00 Discussion
14.30 - 15.30 Results of micro-study in Poland (Dominika Milczarek-Andrzejewska, Agata Malak-Rawlikowska, Jan Fałkowski) [0]
15.30 - 16.00 Incentive structure in public policies - example of the Law on Producer Groups in Poland (Ilona Banaszak) [0]
16.00 - 16.30 Discussion
17.00 - 17.45 Inclusion of small-scale farmers into dynamic markets - policy recommendations: Panel discussion moderated by Jerzy Wilkin
November 9
09.00 - 09.15 Welcome: summary of the day 1, agenda and objectives for the day 2 (Jerzy Wilkin)
09.15 - 09.30 Innovative Practice in Connecting Small-Scale Producers with Dynamic Markets - Introduction (Csaba Csaki) [0]
09.30 -10.00 Case studies:
MÓRAKERT COOP: a successful case of linking small farmers to markets of horticultural products in Hungary (Lajos Zoltán Bakucs and Gábor G. Szabó) [0]
10.00 - 10.30 AVIUM agricultural co-operative and AVIUM 2000 poultry processing co-operative - Successful co-operatives in the Hungarian poultry sector (Gyöngyi Kürthy) [0]
11.00 - 13.00 Case studies:
Inclusion of small-scale dairy farms in supply chain in Bulgaria: A case from Plovdiv region (Dimitre Nikolov) [0]
Case Study for the Analysis of Innovative Practice in Connecting Smallholder Producers with Dynamic Supply Chains: Tomato Small-Scale Producers in Astrakhan Region of Russia (Dmitry Zviaginstev)
14.30 - 15.30 Case studies:
Options for farmers development in Moldova - fruit and vegetable sector (Viorel Gutu) [0]
Linking Small-Scale Farmers to Local and Export markets through Farmers Associations: Case of Milk, Fruit and Vegetable Producers of Armenia (Artur Grigoryan) [0]
15.30 - 16.30 Policy recommendations and discussion
Panel discussion: Csaba Csaki, Csaba Forgacs, Bill Vorley, and Jerzy Wilkin
16.30 - 16.45 Seminar closure