Recommendations for application and scalability
Based on these lessons learned, a number of general recommendations are relevant to future development of similar models.
- Develop policy consensus to ensure adequate ownership of the process by stakeholders nationally and locally. Farmers and/or FOs should take responsibility for driving demand and the management of AAS, while the relevant government authorities need to focus on and strengthen their regulatory and facilitating roles.
- Make allowance for both time and resources to develop the capacity of farmers and FOs to formulate demands, know what services are available, monitor services, and manage their funds and organisations.
- Based on user demand, consider financing educational programmes, in-service training, and back-up services. Promote links within the innovation system, particularly to research and the private sector.
- Promote new and innovative demand-led financing mechanisms for AAS, for example through production levies, taxes on imported food, or other funds for AAS programmes managed by FOs or boards with a majority of farmer representatives.
- Facilitate market opportunities for smallholders alongside demand-oriented financing systems. This can encourage farmers’ interest in contributing financially to services, which promotes real interest in the services and their quality.
This paper was produced by the Food and Agriculture Organ- ization of the United Nations (FAO) with financial support provided by the agencies with the logos below.
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This work was undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). This publication has not gone through IFPRI’s standard peer- review procedure. The opinions expressed here belong to the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of IFPRI.
