The impact of collective actions on rural farming incomes in Peru: The case of the APOMIPE program

Abstract

Peru continues fighting back against the persistently high rural poverty. Recent data suggest that 75% of the rural population is below the poverty line (Jonasson, 2009). Even though agricultural development traditionally has been the main ingredient in rural development strategies, scholars have for long emphasized the need for diversified approaches to fighting rural poverty in order to take the heterogeneity of the rural population into account. In this sense, several strategies have been applied in order to improve agricultural productivity. Collective actions rise as an alternative to alleviate the poverty situation, especially in rural areas. An interesting initiative has been implemented since 2005 in Peru: the APOMIPE Program, which focused on the conformation of small entrepreneurial networks, adapting the "MSE Networking Methodology”. The entrepreneurial networks shows an experience in which farmers are able to improve their productivity, have more access to markets, and improve the standard way of living of the households. In order to measure the effects of the APOMIPE Program on the farmers’ income and to analyze its determinants, it will be used a model that shows the relationship between farmers’ incomes and key factors during the implementation of the Program such as collective actions. The main purpose of this study will be to analyze the effects on the beneficiaries’ incomes who participated in the Program and who were involved in the entrepreneurial networks model. The specific objectives will look for determining the main factors that have contributed to the increase of investment to carry out collective actions and to analyze the impact of collective investments on the farmers’ incomes This study attempts to study the impact of the APOMIPE Program on the beneficiaries through quantitative and qualitative method by using a survey carried out before (a baseline was developed in 2005) and after the Program (the Program ended in 2011). It will be analyzed the determinants of farm income among the farmers who participated in APOMIPE. In this model, it will used be a household resource set that consists of human capital (e.g., education, experience, and demographic attributes), and social capital (e.g., access to social networks and institutions), which affects the farmers’ incomes. In this model, the links between a household’s resources and income can be considered as a production process, with resources corresponding to factors of production and income as the output. Focus group reports made by the Program before and after its execution will be used. There will be carried out interviews to key agents such as governmental representatives and other Non Governmental Organization’s (NGO) functionaries that have implemented similar projects in the regions where the Program was executed. By using qualitative methods, not only provide qualitative measures of impact, but also help in the deeper interpretation of results obtained from a quantitative approach by giving more reliability on the processes and causal relationships. Since one of the specifics objectives is to measure the influence of social factors on the process of conformation of entrepreneurial networks, it will be important to determine if those factors have really impacted in the conformation of networks through the perception of the main representatives that have been involved during the process of the Program. Through the interviews, there will be a closer perception of those functionaries that have worked directly with the farmers. Another objective of the interviews, that will enrich the qualitative sources, is to determine the main elements that have been successful for similar Programs (in terms of incomes or productivity) as well as the obstacles that had to be faced by other ONGs and Government’s Programs. This information will be complementary in order to identify the determinants of farmers’ incomes that could not have been recognized by the APOMIPE Program