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The discussion is becoming more and more interesting and I think we could ask a simple question, and my question is" how do we measure success?" I would imagine that this has several dimensions. Quantitatively, qualitatively and sustainability. As an East African, I live with a history where 40 years ago coffee was the black gold of the region and many of the coffee farmers were economically stable and progressive by then. To day, having a coffee plot to many farmers is like a curse. the coffee farmers are the poorest in East Africa today . We could blame the International markets but these are dominated by the developed and already rich countries of the West. This is the history from the colonial days. Let the colonies be sources of raw commodities. All processing and value added was done in the developed world, this denying the producers the chances to develop quality production, processing, packaging and marketing chains. In contrast to coffee, tea in East Africa was and has developed differently and to date, the smallscale tea farmer is more economically stable than the coffee farmer within the same areas of production. REASON? The tea sector has developed a complete production, processing, packaging and marketing chain that ensures the stakeholders relatively stable income and local employment. Tea is not only grown for the export market in East Africa. It is widely consumed locally and we have very competitive quality tea that also enters the international market! The tea industry has evolved to incorporate new technologies and responds well to new consumer demands. I am sure the tea bags I can by from any of the well established British supermarkets are no better than what I buy from the Uchumi supermarkets in Nairobi. In Kenya for example, the flower industry is another successful example where the subsector is taking active participation in the production of competitive quality products at source from production, sorting and packaging for specific supermarkets. In the case of tea and flowers, they are both private sector driven and managed. The national policies are support and provide enabling environments. I think it time we address the causes of poverty in developing world and not the symptoms. Brigitte Nyambo Head, Technology Transfer Unit ICIPE P. O. Box 30772-00100 NAIROBI Tel: +254 20861680/802501/3/9 Email:<address removed> ============================================================= To send a reply to this message that goes to all list members, make sure that you send your reply to <address removed> To unsubscribe from this list, send an email to "<address removed>", with the message body: unsubscribe growth-and-poverty <your-email-address>
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