for the low volume of vegetables transported. We also taught them to plant herbs, spices, salad vegetables and other exotic crops because of their high demand and value. We discouraged the production of low value, high volume crops. We also taught them crop scheduling to avoid over production. Farmers were trained and informed on market demand and requirements of the institutional buyers. Some institutional buyers adjusted their requirements upon learning of the situation of smallholder farmers. Some have been touched by the sacrifices that smallholder farmers had to make, hence, they offered various types of assistance such as cash basis payments and farm inputs.. We wanted our farmers to supply vegetables with dignity, hence, we did not only impose standards on the production but also chose buyers who offer fair prices to our farmers. We chose buyers who have the capacity to extend their patience and reduce their profit for our farmers. 46
4. Understanding imbalances in supply and demand and price fluctuations Competitiveness is a word which is often misunderstood by farmers. Many farmers thought that competitiveness means high price for quality. This impression was quickly changed when they met institutional buyers preaching competitiveness to the tune of low price, high quality and world class service. In the experience of the OURFood farmers, retailers did not appreciate GAP and thus offered low prices for the farmers’ produce. Their hopes that certified crops would command higher prices were dashed. We had to change our tack from getting premium prices to achieving market access through lower prices and sustained high volume of produce. We negotiated for them on some terms such as cash payments and ordering process. Seasonality plays a big role. It gives not only an accurate forecast of the