Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
1. What is the current level of technical skills for natural resource extraction,
postharvest operations, processing and marketing?
2. How could these technical skills be improved to meet the requirements of
new markets?
3. What are the costs of the technical improvements?
All the actors in the market chain should be interviewed concerning the
uses and requirements of the products (such as size, colour and quality),
processing techniques and related aspects. The study can be conducted with
local or national professionals. For example, in the case of a small enterprise, it
is usually easy to learn the price of simple equipment from local sources, but
for a larger-scale enterprise it might be necessary to visit equipment distribution
centres. All the components of the technical study include a cost analysis. This
analysis would be indicative of whether the proposed technology, or the skills
training needed to bring a competitive product to market, is too costly in
relation to the value of the product or not. In this case, either the product
should be eliminated or an alternative design of the product should be
considered and its feasibility should be studied.
15.3 Methodology
The methodology followed in assessing the feasibility of the various enterprises
is based on the conceptual framework described above. The products for which
feasibility studies were conducted were chosen following general scoping studies
for potential processing groups as identified by the Commercial Products from
the Wild Group (CP Wild) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF-Southern
Africa). The specific enterprises were selected using a broad market analysis
method, taking into consideration possible market opportunities. These scoping
studies took the perceived market opportunities; the capacity of the specific
community enterprise, the perceived capacity of the selected community-based
enterprises to reliably and consistently produce the specific product, and the
resources that were readily at the disposal of the enterprise into account before
deciding on a specific product. Table 15.1 details the country, the specific
location of the proposed enterprise, and the product for which a feasibility
analysis was conducted, to determine the viability of these enterprises.
Data pertaining to the four core areas of feasibility analysis, the market and
economic environment, the resource environment, the social and institutional
environment, and the science and technology environment, were collected. For
each of the sites, primary data were gathered by means of formal and informal
interviews and questionnaires with five
ten stakeholders in each of the selected
countries. Secondary data such as country statistical data, trade statistics,
demographic data and socio-economic data were also consulted to complement
the primary data. In some instances it was necessary to make assumptions when
data were especially hard to come by or not available. These specific
assumptions were educated assumptions and are clearly documented in each of
the feasibility studies.
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