Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
values of sustainability suh as good environmental practices; health and safety; af-
fordability (as exempliied by the acceptance of hemical storage facilities that bet-
ter suit smallholders' budgets); and simplified record keeping practices for proving
compliance to newly benhmarked Kenya-GAP. he same cannot be said in Uganda,
however, with few practical outcomes of equivalence of direct benefit to producers.
Uganda has, however, had greater success in altering certification and audit pro-
cesses more generally, through the introduction of a domestic organic standard, loc-
al inspections and group smallholder certification through Ugo-Cert. This is prom-
ising, in that the group certification model is set to spread from Uganda, and bey-
ond organics to other quality standards (GLOBALG.A.P, Fair Trade, etc.). Similarly,
the development of a joint inspection protocol in Uganda has provided a precedent
for the establishment of protocols elsewhere, including the recently drafted Regional
Organic Agriculture Standard in East Africa, as well as standards for other African
nations. All of these recent hanges have opened new opportunities (and hallenges)
for smallholders to negotiate and resist definitions of ethics, quality and sustainabil-
ity in South-North horticultural trade.
While FPEAK and Ugo-Cert were positive about the outcomes of hanges to the
content and implementation of ethical or organic standards for smallholder farm-
ers, our findings reveal that smallholders are largely
spoken for
, rather than speak-
ing for themselves. In Kenya, this resulted from structural barriers to smallholders'
participation in the hannels through whih national sectoral bodies suh as FPEAK
have used to 'consult' farmers. The equivalence process failed to involve the groups
in whih smallholders themselves are most active, and instead relied on engage-
ment with a limited selection of producer cooperatives. Unfortunately, equal and in-
formed participation in producer cooperatives is not ensured for all smallholders,
thus resulting in a quite narrow and tehnical set of hanges in Kenya-GAP. Because
exporters provide the 'link' between smallholders, industry representatives suh as
FPEAK and global ethical trade governance institutions, the structural barriers with-
in cooperatives are repeated throughout the supply hain, with adverse implications
for smallholders' knowledge, participation and influence. By contrast, Ugo-Cert was
better able to introduce cultural sensitivity into the organic audit culture in Uganda,
through local inspections. However, these inspection processes remain constrained
by Northern-imposed structures for local-level engagement, the outcomes of whih
can result in processes that are insensitive to cultural - including gender - specificit-
ies.
