Comparison of selected countries

For this study we selected four countries representing the conditions for neem processing on each of the continents considered. It is, however, difficult to find a representative country in Asia; the situation of Thailand for example is very different to that of India or Indonesia.

Nicaragua has been added although no assistance in the strict sense has been given directly to the neem manufacturer, but traditionally good working relations exist.

The backgrounds of all these projects vary, not only due to the varying abundance of the neem tree, the ethno-social environment and size of the pesticide market, but also due to political and economic frame conditions in the individual countries. Some characteristics are presented in Table 6.

Table 6: Characteristics of the agricultural sector in Thailand, Kenya, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua

The data indicate quite clearly that Thailand has the largest pesticide market in terms of quantities and value.

While in Thailand the government is strongly supporting and promoting the use of low-residue locally produced alternative pesticide products, the policies in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Kenya favour high-input agriculture based on agro-chemicals. Only recently has there has been a slight policy change due to pressure from the World Bank and other donors.

Thailand on the other hand also has considerable local pesticide production, while no such production exists in the Dominican Republic, and only a small Pyrethrum industry exists in Kenya, amounting to about US$ 1 million annually.

Compared to the three other countries the contribution of the GTZ to the neem processing activities in Nicaragua is marginal and consists mainly of testing neem products within IPM concepts.

Nonetheless there are quite a number of similarities between the other three countries:

· All of them export considerable quantities of agricultural produce to industrialised countries.

· In all three countries the pesticide market can be classified as "liberal".

· A small number of (international) agro-chemical companies share most of the market.

· Pesticide use has increased considerably in recent years, driven by population increase and subsequent shortage of land.

· In all three countries agricultural production is relatively intense, which also means that all three countries have the same problems such as resistant pests, contaminated resources and intoxicated labourers, and problems with high levels of pesticide residues on crops.

Table 7 indicates the formal structure of the partners, the availability of the raw material and the form of GTZ assistance.

Table 7: Partners, source of neem, form of assistance provided by GTZ

Our partners are in Thailand a small-scale family manufacturing firm, exclusively engaged in neem processing; in Kenya a company previously in the conventional agricultural supply business for about 40 years, but now putting emphasis on bio-pesticides; and in the Dominican Republic an NGO whose pesticide activities are focused on neem. However, the latter also conducts some activities in the field of sustainable agricultural training.

All neem-processing units investigated are relatively small, often family-run ventures. There are further firms (in addition to the one mentioned offering neem products in Thailand) which also offer locally produced neem pesticides, but these have no standardised azadirachtin content.

The following table shows some characteristic data of the plants:

Table 8: Description of the potential capacities of the processing units in Thailand, Kenya, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua

We still hope that some general principles, difficulties and constraints - but also solutions -are illuminated by these case studies which may help to avoid mistakes in other countries if similar projects are going to be started (either by private entrepreneurs or technical cooperation organisations) and that these studies help others to learn from our experience.