Educational Engagement in the Pantanal Region (Brazil)


Program Modules (continuation...)


Module 3: Innovation

Training module which main objective will be the development of a sub-product or include some added value to the produced       commodity. It will include:
     Market analysis - who buys the products and what are they for; do they get industrialized in another region / country? What could be       done in terms of local improvements to offer more added value to the products?
      What are the local differentiators and how can those be added to the product image.
      Bio matters
      Quality matters
      Brand development (regional/cooperative based)
      Pricing (linked to the Financial Know-how module)
      Communications tools - ring-tones about the developed product; product/regional website (linked to the Information module)
      Meeting the product delivery time
      Customer relations


Program Root-cause Analysis

Social
 1. Generation transfer is key to the continuity of small-holder farm;
2. To keep the youngsters in the country-side will depend on a proactive process of creating opportunities and challenges that make this option competitive in relation to moving to the larger cities;
3. Many small family-owned agricultural properties are being sold as the main administrator, in general the family father, ages and there are none of the children around to take over the property.

Economic
 4. Difficulty in accessing financing options and by the time they do so it is even harder to manage it;
5. Short-term view of cash-flow and low spending control;
6. Unexplored potential for strengthening trust networks and access to local / international markets;
7. Asymmetric information and lack of knowledge about markets (i.e. commodities prices in the international market; final industrialized product price, etc);

Environmental
 8. Family farming watches for land preservation and inform civil society, governments and NGOs about deforestation threats
9. No monoculture (small-holder produce average three types of products)
10. High tendency towards organic production