Developing Private Sector Input Supply Systems
Event Information
One of the most difficult challenges for smallholder farmers is finding a reliable source of high quality agricultural inputs, such as seed, fertilizer, farm equipment, veterinary supplies and services, and sustainable extension services. Access to these farm services directly results in higher quality and quantity farm production, which in turn yields higher profits and promotes increased on-farm production. However, smallholder farmers often have to travel far to get inputs, pay high prices for them and face limited choices in input availability.
At this seminar, the presenters addressed the benefits of private sector input supply systems and how these systems are increasing smallholders' production, incomes and livelihoods.
Speakers
Patrick Norrell
CNFA
Patrick Norrell is an international development professional with over 13 years of project management experience in both field implementation and home office oversight of interventions ranging from matching grants, to training/capacity building and volunteer-based technical assistance. Mr. Norrell currently serves as CNFA’s Vice President for Program Development, leading CNFA’s new business development, recruiting and communications efforts, in addition to overseeing CNFA’s global input supply initiatives. Previously he served as CNFA’s Country Director for Georgia where he built and managed a portfolio of four programs worth $47 million, including, through the Millennium Challenge Corporation-funded Agribusiness Development Activity (ADA) and the USAID Access to Mechanization (AMP) Program, a network of 33 commercial Farm Service Centers and 21 Machinery Service Centers serving smallholders. Mr. Norrell has been with CNFA since 2000, having previously worked as Farm Store Program Director for Moldova and Romania, where he pioneered the development of CNFA’s Farm Service Center model.
Dinnah Kapiza
Tisaiwale Trading
Dinnah Kapiza is a CNFA-Certified agrodealer from Malawi. Mrs. Kapiza, a mother of 10, owns four successful rural input supply shops that form a critical linkage between Malawian smallholder farmers and output markets. Mrs. Kapiza enrolled with CNFA in July 2002 to receive training in business management through the Malawi Agrodealer Support Program. After completing her training, Mrs. Kapiza gained access to the CNFA credit guarantee enabling her to access secure credit and build a relationship with international seed and input suppliers to supply a full range of quality inputs to local farmers at affordable prices. In less than 10 years Mrs. Kapiza built a chain of agrodealer shops that today boasts $190,000 in annual sales and provides roughly 3,000 small-scale farmers with farm tools, seeds, crop protection products and fertilizer. Her agrodealer business, Tisaiwale Trading, provides credit for farmers, critical technical advice and extension services through demonstration plots and field days.
Douglas T.
CropLife America
Douglas T. Nelson is Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of CropLife America the not-for-profit trade organization representing the major manufacturers, formulators and distributors of crop protection and pest control products. Dr. Nelson is also Vice Chair of CropLife Foundation, a 501(c) (3) research and educational foundation created to promote and advance sustainable agriculture and the environmentally sound use of crop protection products and bioengineered agriculture and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Nelson is a member of the United States Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Trade in Chemicals (ITAC3) and is active in numerous international organizations. He serves as Vice Chair of the Food and Ag Committee of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the OECD, and as a speaker at the OECD in Paris (March 2009) on innovation in global agriculture and the FAO (December 2007) on global trade in agriculture. He is an NGO delegate to the annual meetings of the United Nation’s Commission on Sustainable Development and was a delegate to the World Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002. Dr. Nelson has also been a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Codex Alimentarus Commission meetings and a speaker at the Codex Summit on International Food Standards in New Delhi, India, in January 2003. Dr. Nelson has been a CropLife delegate to the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conferences in Hong Kong (2005), Cancun (2003), and Seattle (1999). A Phi Beta Kappa and Summa cum laude graduate in history from Rutgers University, Dr. Nelson earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in modern European history from Columbia University and a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law.
Event Registration Information
Spotlight Event
In-person Event
Ronald Reagan Building
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., USAID Public Information Center, Room M17/18
Washington, District of Columbia, United States