Rapid market appraisal (RMA): understanding market opportunity for market-oriented smallholder agroforestry systems

The advent of market economies and improved rural infrastructure has expanded commercial opportunities to many farm communities. However, traditional tree management often leaves communities ill-equipped to produce reliable quantities of high-quality products that meet market specifications. Smallholders generally have weak market linkages and poor access to market information (Hammett 1994; Arocena- Fransico et al. 1999). Working in the Philippines, Predo (2002) found that tree farming was more profitable than annual crop production, but uncertain marketing conditions deterred tree planting. The existence of accessible markets for tree products is a vital criterion for site selection (Scherr 1999 and 1995; Landell- Mills 2002). Otherwise, the development of economically viable systems is doubtful. Experience in Indonesia indicates that farmers generally: i) lack access to market information (product demand, specifications and prices); ii) lack understanding of market channels; iii) produce products of unreliable quality and quantity; iv) rarely engage in grading or processing to improve product quality (and their profit-margin); and v) sell their products as individuals (not through groups to achieve economies of scale). These conditions also have negative consequences for market agents. They spend a lot of time and other resources searching for, collecting and sorting smallholder products of some quantity and mixed quality. Many smallholder farmers do not try to study their market. They tend to continue planting and producing agricultural product as they learned locally or as they neighbors' are doing. Everyone is competing for a smaller and smaller portion of the market. They do not even talk to their customers, but only sell their products through middlemen.

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