Farmer Organisation Segmentation
What is this guide and why does it matter?
This guide contains actionable steps on how businesses can design and implement Farmer Organization (FO) Segmentation within their smallholder-inclusive business models. Companies often work with farmer organizations to provide goods and services to smallholder farmers more efficiently and to give farmers more agency over their livelihoods. We discuss this in our analyses of Service Delivery Cost & Target Group and Farmer Value Created & Target Group, respectively. For companies, implementing FO segmentation can improve farmer organization efficiency, reduce the company’s risks and service costs, and optimize impact by grouping farmer organizations with similar profiles (e.g., needs, performance, and level of professionalism). FO segmentation is often, but not always, accompanied by graduation support. This guide reflects on how to combine the two and whether or not to do so. The information in this guide is based on the evidence and direct experience of companies that have implemented FO segmentation in a variety of contexts.
This guide is for companies that are either segmenting or looking to implement FO segmentation. It can also serve development or support organizations that help companies with their FO segmentation and graduation strategy.
What is Farmer Organisation Segmentation?
The term Farmer Organization (FO) refers to a local association of smallholder farmers. FOs come in a variety of levels of organization, formality, ambition, and asset ownership. They are also subject to different regulatory environments, in some cases, having to meet clear legal governance and reporting standards and in other cases, operating under much less formality. Their primary goal is to improve the livelihoods of their members through collective action by increasing bargaining power and facilitating access to goods and services, information, and markets. Formal and informal farmer groups, as well as cooperatives, Village Savings and Loans Associations (VLSAs), and Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) are all types of FOs.
Farmer Organization (FO) segmentation categorizes FOs into different groups or levels, whereby the provision of goods, services and incentives are tailored to each group depending on needs, profile, organizational capacity, performance or any other relevant factors. Additionally, some businesses may also choose to support farmer organizations with graduation. Through training and support, Farmer Organization graduation enables FOs to transition to a higher level by building professionalism and encouraging better performance.
FO segmentation applies the same logic as, but takes a different entry point to, Farmer segmentation, where the focus is on tailoring services at the level of the individual farmer (rather than FO level). For more insight into Farmer segmentation, check out this brief.
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How does it typically work?
FO segmentation can take different forms, depending on the context and value chain. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. This guide provides an overview of the key considerations for any company designing or strengthening an FO segmentation strategy. The graphic below provides an illustration of how FO segmentation typically works. This guide’s section on “How to implement FO segmentation” provides more detailed guidance on how to design, optimize, and complement an FO segmentation strategy.
- Develop a segmentation strategy.
- Assess all FOs in a standardized way and categorize the FOs into pre-defined segments based on the outcome of the assessment.
- Provide each FO with the support, goods, and services defined by their segment.
- Provide each FO with the rewards defined by their segment, when earned.
- Repeat the assessment of the FOs to monitor performance and professionalization.
- Evaluate whether the purpose and function of the strategy require adjustment, and make amendments as needed.
Why implement it?
Companies often work with FOs to reduce the costs of engaging with individual farmer organisations. In our analysis of Service Delivery Cost and Target Group, we demonstrate how working with farmer organisations can generate efficiency. However, variation among farmer organisations means that treating them all the same may not deliver the required outcomes. Please click below for more details on the benefits that farmer organisation segmentation can bring for different actors:
- Improved supply chain management - Companies can set segmentation criteria and rewards that incentivize FOs to act in line with the company’s interests and values. For example, companies often use sourcing volume as segmentation criteria, rewarding those who meet such standards with additional services. This can give companies more control over farming and marketing practices, setting the stage for improved sourcing security.
- Better value for money - Our data shows that on average, the cost per farmer is lower when farmer organisations are present and professional. Graduation support facilitates FO professionalization, thus reducing cost. More professional FOs can play a more extensive role in service delivery and procurement, thereby reducing costs. Additionally, understanding the specific needs and ambitions of FOs and segmenting them makes it possible to provide only relevant services to each segment, rather than providing services to FOs that they do not need or benefit from.
- Reduced administrative burden - Segmenting FOs allows a company to identify which FOs are best positioned to take over certain operational activities from the company (for more efficient service delivery) and which FOs require support - and what kind of support - to reach that level. As FOs professionalize and graduate, companies can further rely on FO leadership to play a more extensive role in providing training and record-keeping.
- Reduced credit risk - Segmenting farmer organisations based on creditworthiness and professionalism can help reduce risk for the company and any financial service providers offering financing products to FOs and their members. Furthermore, a good segmentation strategy supports FO retention, allowing companies to build trust and relationship continuity, encouraging timely repayment of loans.
- Increased training opportunities - As FOs professionalize through a clear development pathway, companies can train the leadership of farmer organisations to become trainers and service providers themselves. This tiered approach to training offers FO leaders the opportunity to receive professional training in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), financial literacy, business, technology, and more, so that they can train their members.
- Increased opportunities for vertical growth - A good FO graduation strategy can help farmer organisations build enough capacity to achieve vertical growth - expansion into activities upstream or downstream in the supply chain. This leads to more leadership and economic opportunities for its members. Additional vertical growth activities can include seed multiplication, trading, or processing.
- Strengthened position in the value chain - When FO segmentation is accompanied by comprehensive graduation support, FOs become professionalized and can better take advantage of collective bargaining opportunities. This empowers FOs (and by extension, farmers) to use their voice in other parts of the value chain that affect their livelihoods. Furthermore, involvement in a segmentation strategy over time can also lead to improved demand and price stability in the market in which the FO operates.
- Increased stimulus for members to sell through the FO - FO segmentation strategies offer incentives and direct paths to market that encourage farmers to sell through the FO, boosting volumes and profit for the organisation and allowing it to further grow and professionalize.
- Access to finance - FO segmentation strategies can group together creditworthy FOs to reduce the risk (for companies and financial institutions) of providing or facilitating access to finance. The result is more professional FOs (and therefore FO leadership) accessing loans or credit for inputs or other income generating activities.
- Improved governance and leadership - FO members can benefit from the additional skills, knowledge, and information gained by their leadership through services provided by the company. This is true, not only for the increased collective knowledge of agricultural practices, but also for the improved skills that can result from business, financial literacy, and leadership training. Access to these services by FO leadership can result in a more professional FO that is more soundly managed, better performing and has increased influence in the value chain.
- Opportunities for additional revenue streams - In more professional FOs, vertical scaling can lead to additional revenue streams for farmers. For example, if a grain FO is supported to do their own milling, they can increase farmer incomes by allowing them to sell a value-added product instead of (or in addition to) the less expensive raw material. This can also create employment opportunities for farmers and their communities as more value-adding activities take place closer to their community. An alternative example from our experience, comes from FOs that have been supported to do seed multiplication as an extra revenue-generating activity.
- Increased access to (premium) markets - Through segmentation, farmers can be supported to comply with organic certification standards, export quality standards, or other specialized criteria that can help them gain access to more markets or more premium markets, thereby increasing the sales volume and/or price of their produce.
- Improved opportunities for women and youth - Segmentation criteria can also look into the enhanced inclusion of women and youth. For instance, we support an agribusiness in East Africa where female farmers make up 45% of their total farmer base, but a much lower proportion of FO leadership positions. To boost women’s participation in leadership, the segmentation strategy includes criteria requiring a minimum of two females in the board for FO’s to reach higher segments.
- Improved ability to target the right FOs for support - Segmentation allows for better collaboration and coordination between companies and support organizations working with the same FO's or within the same sector. When companies segment FOs, they also shed light on which FOs require graduation support. However, there may not be a business case for companies to work with weaker, less mature FO's, where their return on investment is limited (or far in the future). By sharing assessments of FOs, companies can better coordinate with support organizations who can then effectively direct further graduation support.
- Increased effectiveness of support - When companies collect data for FO segmentation, they capture crucial information that exposes the characteristics and needs of those FOs. Even if the company opts out of working with certain segments of FOs, support organizations can leverage this information through to design and implement more effective interventions.
Context matters: What are enabling conditions for Farmer Organisation Segmentation?
Context also plays a major role in the viability of FO segmentation and graduation. From implementing innovations across businesses in different contexts, we are able to identify the conditions in which FO segmentation and graduation flourishes. For comparability, this list of contextual factors is standardized across all innovation guides and thus may not be exhaustive for FO segmentation in particular.
Value chain Perishability Geographical dispersion of farmers Degree of farmer organisation Policy environment Digital infrastructure Rural Infrastructure
Why not? Key limitations, risks and unintended consequences
From the perspective of the implementing organisation, there are a number of limitations that should be taken into consideration before you implement Farmer Organisation segmentation (and graduation), including:
Complicating business operations Increased data collection costs Unclear return on investment of graduation support
Similarly, there are unintended consequences that can emerge as a result of segmenting and graduating FOs. These can impact (certain segments of) farmers, the environment, local community, partner organisations and other stakeholders. For instance
Limited farmer recognition Farmer misrepresentation Assessment fatigue Damage to the local environment
Smarter design choices can help mitigate some of the limitations, risks and unintended consequences of segmenting and graduating FOs. Read on further to see how you can smartly design your intervention.
How to implement Farmer Organisation Segmentation
This section first outlines the steps involved in segmenting farmer organisations, before providing key recommendations on how segmentation can be optimized to improve key performance outcomes. This section also includes insight into how to add a graduation strategy. Click on each of the sub-headings below for more details.
How to get started
From our work supporting companies in the design and initial implementation of Farmer Organisation segmentation, we propose the following four steps with an optional fifth step for a graduation strategy:
- Map farmer organisation landscape in a country and region. Understand the regulatory framework governing FOs as this can dictate the roles, responsibilities, and administrative structure of the FOs. For instance, FO membership for farmers can be mandatory, optional, or crop-related, while direct farmer-company relations can be limited or prohibited. Understanding the impact of other contextual factors mentioned in the section, Context Matters, such as infrastructure and geographical dispersion of farmers, can also be critical for successful implementation. Assess the company’s current FO partners and the context in which they work. In case a company looks to expand to new areas or expand the number of FOs in areas in which the company is currently active, those should be mapped as well.
- Understand value chain characteristics. Understand how the value chain is organized and how FOs fit into it. This includes understanding who the different actors in the value chain are, what their roles are, what the power dynamics are, what the degree of competition and consolidation in different parts of the value chain is, and more. These factors inform the positioning of FOs within the value chain and help identify what challenges and opportunities they face, what roles they can best play, and what other actors they can interact, compete or partner with.
- Define the goals of the segmentation strategy. Determine the goals of the segmentation strategy based on your overarching business strategy and targets (e.g., procurement volumes, input sales etc.) as well as expectations around FO professionalization and performance (e.g., governance, financial management, contractual performance on volumes and quality, capacity for service provision, farmer membership). For instance, if you are looking to reach higher procurement volumes, determine what targets within your segmentation strategy will allow you to meet those ambitions.
- Decide on the need for graduation. Decide whether a segmentation strategy providing tailored services and incentives to each segment is sufficient to meet those outlined goals or if a graduation strategy is also needed to support FOs to professionalize and transition to higher segments.
- Identify focus areas for segmentation criteria. Either use off-the-shelf solutions such as those of SCOPEinsight for developing a segmentation strategies or design your own. Segmentation strategies can look into areas of FO professionalization, FO performance, assets, and other relevant factors. For instance, widely used focus areas in FO professionalization are: financial management, membership, governance and capacity of service provision, while performance areas can include: contractual agreements, volumes and quality of produce. Within each focus area, establish criteria that is clear, well-defined and easy enough for FOs to be measured against. To enable effective assessment, create clear guidance on how to measure criteria and which supporting documents are required to validate answers. This
table provides a non-exhaustive overview of criteria that companies have applied in their segmentation strategies (note: segmentation criteria used by companies can differ from criteria created via support organizations due to an increased focus on business performance). - Consider scoring. For simple segmentation criteria, FOs may need to meet a limited number of requirements to reach the next segment. For more complex criteria, a scoring mechanism might be needed where different criteria are weighted and an average score is used to define where an FO sits among the segments. In these cases, you can assign scores to different answers. For example, no financial records may yield a score of zero, manual records a score of one, and accounting software a score of two.
- Define segments and tailor support and services. Use these criteria to identify different segments and specify the tailored provision of goods, services and support for each segment. This should be formalized as part of the framework. For example, if you are segmenting FOs based on organic versus inorganic farming practices, you can facilitate access to different input packages and different training on agricultural practices. The organic segment may receive practical or financial support in obtaining the necessary certifications. Alternatively, if you are segmenting on the basis of contractual compliance, it may be beneficial to only offer loans to FOs with a track record of selling their produce.
- Keep it simple. When developing a segmentation strategy, it is easy to get carried away by complexity by including a lot of criteria on FO professionalization and performance. Make sure to reflect on the practicality of the segmentation criteria and implementation of the strategy. The complexity of the segmentation criteria should match the company's ability to track the related KPIs, both in terms of limitations in data collection such as availability and access to supporting documents per criterion, as well as company staff's time requirements. Similarly, the number of segments should match the company's business and be fit for future scaling. Good practice is to select the most relevant segments and limit the set of criteria.
- Develop a Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) or internal policy. Make sure to document the segmentation strategy (goals and criteria) in an SoP or internal policy to guide company staff on the implementation of the segmentation. The SoP or policy could include directions for which FOs to segment, when, how often, how and by whom. This is especially relevant when there are more segments and/or segmentation criteria, as well when scaling to more FOs.
- Collect data to assess and segment FOs. Collect data in a systematic and replicable way. This can be done based on existing documentation from the FO or through surveying FO leadership and members. Depending on the maturity of the FO, companies may be able to leverage it for data collection to reduce the administrative burden. For instance, an FO with well-established accounting and record-keeping can provide or even fill in the needed data, otherwise, companies can use their own staff to collect data. Based on this data, grade the FOs if applicable and assign each FO to their respective segments.
- Manage data. Properly store the data from each FO assessment, so that it can be easily accessed and used. Keep track of the changes of the FO over time. Make sure to take into account local data privacy regulations on data storage and sharing.
- Pilot segmentation strategy. Test the segmentation scheme over a limited timespan and/or with a subset of the FOs to allow you to review whether the process runs smoothly, all criteria are well understood and easily measured, the scoring is unambiguous, and the segments are well defined. Piloting will also clarify the time requirement from your staff.
- Communicate the segmentation strategy to FOs. Internally align if and how to communicate the strategy to the FOs. Informing FOs about long-term opportunities for collaboration and available support as incentives might be better in some cases, while the segmentation and associated support services can be used as an internal policy on how to manage long-term relationships with different segments of FOs. Keep in mind that insufficient communication about the purpose of segmentation can affect FO's collaboration with assessments and sharing their data.
- Monitor, evaluate, and iterate segmentation strategy. On a recurring basis, monitor and evaluate whether the segmentation strategy continues to work in the local context and value chain you operate. If needed, make adjustments to the targets, criteria, support, rewards and procedures. Even though it is an iterative process, be sure to safeguard the continuity and consistency of scoring.
- Design a graduation roadmap with clear support and rewards. Once the FOs are segmented, map out the different pathways that an FO can follow to move through the segmentation criteria to another segment. Decide which graduation support activities should be given to each segment based on the data from the FO assessment to help professionalize FOs in alignment with those pathways. For instance, if an FO performs well on governance and membership criteria, but lacks proper financial administration, support should be target towards financial literacy training and establishing proper processes.
- Monitor, evaluate and iterate graduation strategy. Use the segmentation criteria to monitor the FOs on a regular basis to determine further needs around graduation support. If FOs are not progressing as expected, consider whether more (or different) graduation support is required.
How to optimize your Farmer Organisation Segmentation strategy
From our work supporting companies on the ground, we have identified a number of enhancements that can be made to improve outcomes for companies, farmer organisations, and farmers.
- Set minimum criteria for inclusion. When developing segmentation criteria and tailored support per segment, consider the cost versus the benefit of bringing the least mature segments up to a level of professionalism that is mutually beneficial for both the company and the FOs. It may be necessary to set minimum criteria for inclusion, below which it is not possible to define a business case and as such, to justify the costs of collaboration. The minimum inclusion criteria should cover all critical areas of segmentation. For example, an FO may seem successful due to good sourcing volumes but the financial systems do not function. This FO may not be suited for your segmentation strategy.
- Partner with governments and NGOs for graduation support. The business case of investing in graduation support for less mature FOs may be low. Partnering with NGOs and governments that support FOs with professionalization services can help reduce the initial costs of graduating those FOs to a more professional level that requires fewer support services from companies.
- Use existing FO structures and resources for service provision. Actively collaborate with well-performing FOs on last mile delivery, collection and storage. In cases where the management and organisational structure of an FO is mature, leverage that structure to carry out last mile delivery and other services, reducing the need (and associated cost) of using your own staff and/or paid agents. Also, make use of the existing facilities of the FOs, such as warehouses or aggregation centers.
- Use digital solutions where applicable. Digital data collection is faster, requires fewer human resource hours, and can be more protected from major errors. Data can be entered manually into digital applications or connected to supporting tools, such as digital weighing scales, for better accuracy and less vulnerability to human error or tampering. Keeping digital records can allow you to quickly spot trends and make adjustments to the segmentation and graduation framework before inefficiencies grow into challenges that hinder the effectiveness of the scheme or lead to the need for costly fixes.
- Sense check FO assessments. Perform additional checks to ensure the information captured in assessments is aligned with the realities within FOs. When segmentation strategies are developed with information gathered only from FO leadership, there is a risk that the strategy is not effective or impactful for the farmer members. Assessment findings that represent FO leadership but not FO members can lead FOs to be placed into the wrong segments. This could result in companies providing expensive services to the wrong FOs, while other FOs miss out on the most effective services for their current needs. Understanding existing FO governance structures can help companies assess the members’ involvement, trust, and buy-in into uptake of new processes and services. It may be expensive to perform these additional checks, so you may want to periodically do them with just a sample of FOs.
- Use off-the-shelf solutions where applicable. Though contexts differ, support organisations have developed modular assessments that can be tailored to many of those differences and carried out in your chosen context. In some cases, using a tried and tested approach may reduce the risks of your strategy not matching your goals. However, customization is often also needed to ensure that only relevant criteria are applied.
- Limit riskier services to mature FOs. Segmentation strategies should only provide higher risk services (for example, facilitating loans or credit access) to segments of mature FOs with a low risk profile based on relevant segmentation criteria. Even amongst mature FOs, risk profiles may vary and high-risk services can be differentiated to reflect that. Using the loan or credit access example, medium risk FOs may be given access to Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) support and savings accounts, while lower risk FOs may be linked to banks. The lowest risk FOs may be offered opportunities for long-term finance.
- Communicate requirements, support, and rewards clearly. Clear, timely communication about how segmentation criteria is assessed and why can lead to improved buy-in from the FO management and ensure that information is substantiated with the right documents. Communicating a clear overview of the support services and rewards to each FO can reduce uncertainties and mitigate the risk of future conflicts, assessment fatigue, and breaches of trust.
- Use formalized contracts where necessary. To encourage compliance and predictability, especially with factors that can significantly impact the company's profitability, formalized contracts with the FOs and other relevant partners should be used. This is especially important for FOs receiving higher risk services. Contracts protect all parties by formalizing their responsibilities to each other, which can help build trust and loyalty between the cosigning parties.
- Follow through. When promised services are not delivered as advertised or payments are not timely, the company risks high attrition rates, side selling, or other forms of non-compliance. By following through with all promised service delivery and payment expectations and schedules, the company builds trust with the FOs, thus controlling for these risks.
- Be cautious when dropping FOs to lower levels. There may be times when underperforming FOs no longer meet the criteria to remain in their segment. In this situation, it is tempting to relegate the FO to a lower category. In such cases, explore the reasons for underperformance. It may be that there is a small number of underperforming farmers or the enabling environment was not conducive to success. Being too quick to relegate FOs down a level can negatively impact the reputation of the company or the FO and can lead to negative social consequences for some FO members or leaders. We recommend only doing this on the basis of important criteria that exposes the company to excessive risk.
- Frequently reevaluate the segmentation strategy. When scaling a segmentation strategy, reevaluate it to make sure that it remains fit for purpose against all of the changes that come with scaling. It may become cost-effective to outsource assessments or services and service provision may need to be standardized or adapted in order to be manageable at a larger scale.
- Encourage FOs to increase their membership. Companies can scale whilst keeping their segmentation scheme manageable by encouraging FOs to add new members rather than adding new FOs to the scheme. Adding membership size into segmentation criteria can incentivize this. This is more efficient for the company as it builds on existing relationships with FOs instead of having to invest in new ones. Companies can guide or incentivize FOs to pass on training and knowledge to new members internally, whilst enjoying the higher volumes that can come with more farmers. Scaling the FO can also be beneficial for the FO itself, as larger FOs deal with larger volumes, and as such, have more bargaining power in the market.
- Scale through collaboration. The two main costs of scaling - customer acquisition and expanding graduation support - can both be mitigated by partnering with support organisations that are also working with FOs. These types of collaborations allow you to tap into existing networks of reputable FOs and benefit from the services that they are already receiving from the support organisations, thus reducing the cost of expanding internal graduation support.
- Maintain relationship continuity. Building longer term relationships with FOs is critical to recovering the high initial costs of assessment and graduation. Return on investment is often lower with less mature FOs that may not produce as much crop nor require as many services as other FOs. High attrition rates are therefore a barrier to cost recovery as the high cost of the early stage activities is not recovered during the subsequent seasons, when productiveness of the FO and service payments are typically higher.
- Taper subsidies for services. FarmFit data finds that direct cost recovery tends to be higher in higher-cost models, so providing subsidies to earlier-stage FOs can help them reach a point over time where they can receive and pay for higher-cost (and higher value) goods and services. As an FO grows and professionalizes, its profitability and access to finance will likely also improve. As such, an FO will become more able to afford new services from companies that were previously out of reach.
How to complement your FO Segmentation strategy
The successful implementation of
- Contract farming - Signing contracts with farmer organisations contributes to the transparency and formalization of the relationship. Moreover, the contract can include clauses regarding expected targets, minimum prices, and quality premiums, which can be used as additional criteria to segment FOs on or as a reward in a graduation scheme.
- Farm Information Management System – This allows FOs to digitally facilitate data collection and storage, which allows a company to have better quality, more up-to-date information on FOs for evaluation, comparison, and ultimately, segmentation. Click here to access a guide on implementing FMIS.
- Direct input financing - Providing pre-financing to FOs for the purchase of inputs can benefit the FOs as they can purchase in bulk at lower prices. It can also help them overcome working capital constraints. This innovation can be used as an incentive for FOs to graduate to more professional or higher performing FO segments.
- Tripartite financing agreements - The company and a financial institution working together to develop a financing scheme, where the risk and administrative burden of the loan are shared between the organisations, increases FOs access to capital and generally provides them with better terms (e.g. lower interest rates, repayment schedules aligned with harvesting periods, longer loan duration). It is typically, a reward for better performing FO segments. Click here for more details on tripartite financing agreements
What is the impact of FO segmentation?
There are a number of ways in which segmenting Farmer Organisations can impact outcomes:
FarmFit data confirms a commonly-held hypothesis in the sector: working with groups of farmers (i.e. Farmer Organisations) can be a more efficient method of service provision compared to engaging with individual farmers. This is because well-organized farmer groups often play a role in the last mile delivery of services and procurement, reducing
FO segmentation (absent of graduation) seeks to bring the cost of working with FOs down even further by tailoring support rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach. While our evidence is not yet conclusive, we have seen several instances where service delivery cost per farmer was reduced via segmentation.
FarmFit data suggests that companies that segment their FOs and provide different services to different segments tend to have marginally higher
For particular models, we have seen that when businesses tailor their support to FOs’ specific needs, performance and ambitions can increase the willingness of FOs to pay for services. However, we don’t have conclusive evidence across the full portfolio of business models that we’ve observed. Nonetheless, in numerous models, more comprehensive services are limited to FOs that are of higher maturity and thus lower risk. In these models, cost recovery tends to be better in higher segments where FO risk of default is lower and companies are more willing to provide such services on credit.
Based on direct experience, our expectation was that companies segmenting their Farmer Organisations provide higher
However, it is likely that where graduation is included, this improves farm-level outcomes by increasing the effectiveness of FOs. Our analysis on this topic is not yet conclusive and will be refined as we generate more evidence.
Where to find more inspiration
- SDM Case Study: Africa Improved Foods, Rwanda:
https://www.idhsustainabletrad... - Case Study: CMS, Kenya:
https://www.idhsustainabletrade.com/publication/sdm-case-study-cms-kenya/ - Case Study: Anatrans, Burkina Faso:
https://www.idhsustainabletrad... - Case Study: Union Service Stores Limited, Tanzania: https://www.idhsustainabletrade.com/publication/sdm-case-study-union-service-stores-tanzania/
- Guide to the AMEA toolbox for assessment and training: https://amea-global.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/20230217-AMEA-Toolbox-Guide-2023_v3.docx-1-1.pdf
- SCOPEinsight assessments: https://scopeinsight.com/how-we-do-it/assessments/
- AgriGRADE – Graduating the cooperative landscape: https://agrigrade.org/
- IWA 29:2019 from ISO - Common guidelines for improving FO business performance:https://www.iso.org/standard/75808.html
- Mobilizing Agricultural Finance - Bankability metrics from Agra: https://agra.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Mobilizing-agricultural-finance-2021-02.pdf
- Partner with support organizations - Agriterra: https://www.agriterra.org/businesses/
In this article
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What is this guide and why does it matter?
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What is Farmer Organisation Segmentation?
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Why implement it?
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Context matters: What are enabling conditions for Farmer Organisation Segmentation?
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Why not? Key limitations, risks and unintended consequences
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How to implement Farmer Organisation Segmentation
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What is the impact of FO segmentation?
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Where to find more inspiration
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