Smallholder Timber Marketing: A Kenyan Experience

1. Smallholder Timber Marketing: A Kenyan Experience FAO/ICRAF/GoK multi-stakeholder programme International Workshop on small holder timber production. 29th November- 1st December 2004 Christine Holding Anyonge (FAO) Sammy Carsan, Tony Simons (ICRAF) Paul Njuguna (GoK)

2. Why small-holder timber? • logging bans in natural forests and plantations • wood supply crisis govt. zero rated imports & policy change • 1% per capita increase in wood demand 1996-2000 • consumer preference for sustainable grown timber • large plantations difficult to site in many countries • risks of large plantations (e.g. fire) & re-planting backlogs • experience developing from out grower, group schemes • poplars in India, Eucalyptus in South Africa, hardwoods in Ghana

3. Smallholder Timber R&D Activities • Research activities run alongside and interface with policy/advocacy and development activities • PRA’s and preliminary surveys • Timber businesses census - Eastern Mt. Kenya • Sample survey for timber business market chains • On farm timber tree inventories • Farm planning for timber production- HH’s survey • Collate secondary data on current national market for timber, demand and consumer characteristics • Corroborate information with other related timber out grower and certification programmes (e.g. private sector IIED, CIFOR, ICRAF and FAO)

4. Stakeholder Activities Step by Step… • Analyze existing situation • Identify target group: PRA’s, farmer surveys, local baraza • Identify products for target group. • Rapid farm surveys to catalogue the richness of diversity, its distribution and potential economic value • Raise awareness on the benefits of working together (collective action) • Analyze policy & legislation governing tree business. • Stakeholder consultations • Advocacy activities • Conduct chain surveys (know constraints) • On farm tree domestication • Germplasm source, Niche, Diversity &Tree management

5. Smallholder Timber Marketing in Meru Comprising of a Multi-stakeholder System. Stakeholder profiles Capacity building needs, track record, interest Strategic alliances, partnerships, collaborators etc Feed back mechanism: illegal logging & sourcing Prov. Adm.(Chiefs Act) checks logging of indigenous trees Organizing barazas. Forest Dep't., KEFRI. Recovery rates Movement permits Enforcing bans F F 2 1 GOK, FAO & ICRAF Extension, Policy & Research 1 2 1 2 F Formal & informal Meetings Timber & F/wood Industry timber yard owners mobile saw benchers tea factories & other firewood outlets Farmer Groups small holder timber firewood sale on farm nurseries input to farmer groups and feedback mechanism 1, F input to the timber & fuel wood industry 2

6. PRAResults….. • Gender - men are decision makers on choice of species, marketing & utilization • Important farm enterprises: cash crop (coffee, cotton, Tea), dairy &, subsistence maize, beans & groundnuts • Fuelwood and timber in AF: Grevillea, Vitex and Cordia • Knowledge gaps on tree mgt. • Poor market information- entry points, niches • low prices for tree and tree products, • poor conditions of roads, lack of capital hindered value addition • Wood handling, preservation & storage concerns

7. Initial survey findings… • Farmers: • Formerly used timber domestically- did not consider tree on farm as an enterprises like other farm enterprises • Now sell trees to neighbours or traders who may come to the farms • Trees sold to any willing buyer at an agreed price usually below the mkt. price- had poor mkt informaion • Poor knowledge on marketing, silvicultural techniques, mensuration, valuation

8. Initial Survey findings…. • Saw millers • Not concerned with input volumes (difficult to ascertain volumes) • More knowledgeable than farmers on tree valuation & mensuration • Have problems in acquiring timber/logs from farmers • Need information, equipment & training for enhanced conversion and better tree utilization • Require information on existing supply of trees and logs on farm • Need for value adding of timber

10. Core Research Components • Timber Business Census • Recorded principle characteristics of 252 businesses on Eastern edge of Mount Kenya • All business, no matter previous sourcing were currently sourcing from farm • Census identified type and size of business species utilized, stock, customers, and trends in sourcing and demand

11. Dimensions of market chain analysis (filiere) • Technical: technology, skills, conversion rates, technical constraint and bottlenecks; qualitative and quantitative production • Institutional: actors direct and indirect, relationships between actors; objectives of different costs – brokers, microfinance; transporters etc. • Economic net margins for each operator ; added value at each stage of the chain; proportion of final price amongst actors; • Resource sustainability: combines the result of the market chain surveys and the on farm timber inventories to assess e.g. sustainability of on farm production under current practices.

12. Indicative market network for farm sourced timber Farms and households Power saw operatorSawmill functions wastages onCutting and crosscuttingrecoveries. Casual labour (loading) Tractors on farm (splitting) Tractor/lorries for transport Sawmill functions(splitting) Timber yard and furniture shops Customer characterization by product Technical Economic Institutional

13. Farm planning for timber production – HH Survey • Tree planting decision points (mgt, expansion, substitution, replacement) • Sourcing of quality and quantity of preferred Germplasm • Species imbalances addressed: >spp. in lowland than upper midlands, farm practices • Farm planning for timber: land sub-division, planting niches identified, tree mgt.

15. Over 23 tree species are preferences for timber and fuel wood. • avg 140 Grevillea trees/farm • There trends of use of certain species e.g Grevillea, Eucalyptus, Cassia • Trend to increased planting of exotics than indigenous • Choices of harvesting are in response to market signals

16. Expected Research outcomes…. • Data to show nature of businesses, raw material sourcing & demand, size, preferences, distance, customer characteristics, • Timber businesses preferences from future farm production • Recommendations on preferred species to plant from the perspective of farmers preferences, species diversity and markets. -results to input into national extension programmes • Methodologies developed for market chain analysis and assessing on farm timber resource sustainability • Producers associations capacity building - increased information access, production and marketing skills

17. ConcludingRemarks…. • Trees on farm act as buffers to smallholders in times of hardships, however, they lack the necessary knowledge, capital or legal rights to exploit market opportunities • Opportunities to build capacity on farmer-led market analysis & dvpt • Communities are heterogeneous, made up of individual producers who have different tree production objectives. These objectives, may occasionally conflict along gender issues, wealth class, political elite etc • To achieve desired impact, recognize that the relative success of such programmes depend to a great extent on political and economic forces well beyond the control of any local initiative • On farm tree growing and rural development can be compatible and mutually beneficial in enhancing farmer livelihoods and preserving landscape biodiversity.