Annual Report: CIRAD 2008

Since the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and the recognition of the Millennium Development Goals, structural inequalities linked to under-development have been a priority for the global community. Reducing these inequalities inevitably means introducing political regulation and mobilizing civil society. Public policy is thus a major research topic with a view to understanding what lies behind resistance to change and development levers.

Since 2000, the knowledge CIRAD has built up in Madagascar as regards public decision support in the rice supply chain and studies of public policy has led to a review of the regulatory methods applied since Independence. An analysis of rice prices revealed the chain’s inability to accumulate capital long-term, which condemns the players involved to poverty. A new framework has been proposed, which reinstates public policy and gives the State the possibility of creating the conditions that favour effective market functioning.

Nevertheless, it is still vital to ensure that all the players involved understand the aim of any proposed changes. For instance, the move to make fish farming in the Philippines comply with EU standards rapidly benefited the main economic players, who were convinced by the idea of seeing the opening of economic highways to Europe. However, other players, who failed to see the importance of the issues relating to better management of health risks, have not changed their practices in any way. The consignaciones (which act as shrimp landing stages, sorting and grading stations and fish auction sites, and provide producers with funding and inputs) are more sensitive to local consumers’ views, and have continued to ignore EU standards... To seduce them, it would have been better to play on other expectations: those of local consumers, who are also on the lookout for safer products. However, the link between local players and consignaciones has been broken by the various intermediation processes. The case of the Philippines highlights the new issues surrounding trade globalization: problems need to be tackled globally, taking account of local aspects and mobilizing all the players concerned. This is what prompted the founding in Thailand of the Hevea Research Platform in Partnership, which set out to improve the rubber supply chain. The platform involves the whole range of players, centring on CIRAD, Kasetsart and Prince of Songkla Universities, and the Thai Ministry of Agriculture. For around a decade, CIRAD has been working on public policy with universities in the South: University of Pretoria in South Africa, Cheikh Anta Diop and Gaston Berger Universities in Senegal, etc. Based on the data acquired over several years of field work,CIRAD now has expertise that can be transposed to other situations.