The Case Studies

The case studies recommended for study by the regional partners in the five countries show a very wide diversity of situations. In six out of the sixteen studied, the forms of farmers’ organisation encountered were in fact structures established by extension services (contact groups in Ghana and The Gambia) or localised producer groups of a fairly informal type (Ghana, The Gambia and Burkina Faso [Diébougou]). The remaining cases involved structured farmers’ organisations as defined here [see Glossary entry] The different forms of organisation studied are summarised in Table 1.

Table 1: Different forms of organisation studied in the case studies

The case studies revealed the diversity of situations and contexts within which agricultural service providers and farmers’ organisations operate, and the conditions that permit them to form effective linkages. More detailed reports can be accessed in the near future via the ODI web-site:
ODI: http://www.odi.org.uk/

Summaries of six detailed case studies of stronger and weaker linkages can be found at:
World Bank: http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/essd/essd.nsf/producer/casestudies

Box 3 summarises the cases studied as part of this research, giving an indication of the wide diversity in types of organisation and depth of linkages that exists in West and Central Africa.