Case Study 4

A project had done an analysis of the constraints in the apricot market systems in Central Asia and identified nine main constraints in the sector. The constraints were fairly general, and the team was unsure how to go about addressing them. We went through our prioritization with them based on agreed criteria and were able to isolate the top three constraints that could contribute to unlocking the potential of the market system. One of the constraints the project was trying to address was the availability of skilled and unskilled workforce limits crop yields

We had extensive discussions with the team and facilitated the analysis of the underlying constraints associated with the workforce, the labour market, skills, knowledge, and attitude using our systemic change framework. It turned out that one of the key issues to increasing apricot production was the lack of pruning. Most farmers do not have the time or resources to prune their trees twice a year. There are more than 10 benefits that can be listed for regular pruning and one of them is that it can double the fruit production of each tree. Pruning services providers are high demand and not able to service the market based on their current levels of productivity, difficulties attracting workers and not seeing the pruning market as a real business opportunity.

The team has engaged with exporters of dry apricots but those were not interested since they had no incentive to change their current practice. Farmers too, had no incentive to invest in new tools since they did not have the time to prune their trees and could not afford to co-invest in tools with the project. It was then suggested to equip pruning service providers with high-quality tools, PPE and working on worker welfare to attract, retain, and build the capacity of skilled workforce.

This intervention was met with great enthusiasm by pruning service providers. The intervention was then extended to women grafting brigades. While the initial assumption was about labour shortage it turned out the underlying constraint was productivity, welfare, and business skills.