2011 Chairman report

From the beginning, Agrisud’s purpose has been social solidarity. The target was poverty in poor countries. Ten years ahead of the Millennium Development Goals, our NGO joined the great global fight against poverty.

Many believed at the time, and many still do today, that the answers lay in aid and donations. Straightaway, Jacques Baratier, our founder, with his business-mind-set, saw things the other way round, setting out two principles which were quite revolutionary among development actors: 1/ the market economy is everywhere, and therefore any sustainable initiative must be part and parcel of the local economic fabric as an active and dynamic link in the economic chain; 2/ furthermore, any strong project must be built and run by its owner, who should be supported, not just given aid.

The promotion of family-size enterprises, strongly rooted in their markets, profitable and sustainable: this was –and remains– Agrisud’s objective. May I recall our first motto has been "Fighting poverty through enterprise".

Yvonnick Huet, our managing director, was on board from the very first day alongside Jacques Baratier. Sylvain Berton and Raphaël Vinchent joined shortly. The trio remains at the helm of Agrisud to this day. In the course of time, the team expanded, now reaching 180 men and women, mainly local agro-engineers and technicians. You will see portraits of most of those who make or have made Agrisud what it is, throughout this report.

Agrisud very early chose to apply its principles to one area: very small agricultural enterprises and food production. We focused on family farms serving local markets with local food. This field seemed economically and socially appropriate, so much the more since food security became a central goal for development.

Our operations started in Congo. We achieved there remarkable results: over 3,000 small farms launched. The 400 plots on the outskirts of Brazzaville looked superb. Jacques, all dressed in white, happily introduced to visitors the market gardeners, who were so proud of their produce! But Agrisud quickly realised that it was not enough to transfer techniques and develop on-site projects. Cultural and social obstacles were being encountered, often quite different from one country to the next: what value was to be given to economic initiative, to women’s autonomy, to an activity such as growing vegetables? When a family already has its own piece of land, on which it runs very low-yield farming – such as small rice fields in Cambodia or Madagascar - it is not obvious nor easy to become an entrepreneur, with a diversified production and a market-oriented activity.

We therefore had to build up procedures, methods, educational tools and support systems. We tried to do that through grass-root experiments, suited to a broad range of projects. Simultaneously, Agrisud was setting out its technical receipts: cultural processes, soil fertility conservation, low-season crops, economic services, marketing support. Core skills were being developed, exchanges were being organised, such as between farmers in Pointe-Noire and Siem Reap (Cambodia) on mushroom growing, or Paul-from-Congo's contribution to farmers in southern Morocco! The whole of our experience is transferred on a regular basis to our technical and financial partners.

While the number of countries of operation was increasing, two new approaches were introduced, in pragmatic a way, during the 2000s.

Agrisud adopted a sustainable development approach. We emphasised: 1/ preserving resources, stressing first of all the high basic value of soil and water; 2/ ecological practices focused on fertilisation and protection without unnecessary chemical inputs; 3/ improving products and livestock breeds; 4/ cultural processes aiming at a high level of quality which would favour, and no longer harm, the health of farmers and consumers. We also ran experiments, supported by scientific analyses, demonstrating the potential of agriculture to help sequestrate greenhouse gases.

Step by step we have become actors in, and advocates of, agroecology. We have shown, backed by our own experience, that agroecology can quite easily reach high yields and efficiently reduce food precariousness in poor rural areas. At the time, we agreed with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to food, Olivier de Schutter’s statement that "to feed the world, agroecology surpasses large-scale industrial agriculture". Definitely, we believe that agroecology can make a very significant contribution to feeding the world.

We are thus becoming protagonists in an economic and political struggle taking place at a global level. The background is the challenge of the century: how will the world feed, in the near future, nine billion human beings? Facing us are the supporters of a “new Green revolution” behind whom stand many powerful lobbies from the agro-business, genetic engineering and chemicals. Alongside us are some governments, most NGOs on the ground, defenders of the environment and of the producer's and consumer's health. The Rio+20 Conference will address these controversial issues.

We today have a twin activity of developing on-site projects and training partners. By transferring our best
practices, in terms of agricultural techniques as well as operational management, Agrisud offers its experience, through "learning cycles", to its partner associations, to local government entities and to professional bodies. Doing so we have forged a network of partner NGOs able to appropriate our expertise and to use it efficiently. This network goes on expanding.

Nothing makes us more happy than this expansion. When Agridel in Niger, Agri-Cam in Cambodia or Jappoo-Développement in Senegal launch projects using the Agrisud approach, they simply develop methods we believe to be vital for humankind. We like that.

Agrisud has a proud record, since to date around 35,000 small farmers can show and say our approach is relevant. I wish to stress the social impact of these activities we launched: 120,000 jobs created and 230,000 persons lifted out of poverty. Such achievements are the fruit of twenty
years of hard and professional work by the Agrisud teams under the leadership of Yvonnick. Their enthusiasm and their faith commitment to what still lies ahead, combined with a professional management, have made Agrisud a performing NGO, I can say an efficient "enterprise", in the fields of poverty and environment.

Celebrating its twentieth anniversary, Agrisud has still much to achieve: many demands to meet, many projects to run and many struggles to lead! The board I chair is both proud of what has been done and ready to support new commitments.

Our ambition is to remain efficient in order to help andface the immense food challenge of this century.