Malvuwasi Smallholder Wasu Farming

CASE STUDY: CAREY BUSINESS SCHOOL

MALVUWASI SMALLHOLDER WASU FARMING

You are members of a multi-disciplinary problem-solving team comprised of academics and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines, e.g., forage specialists, livestock and farming systems scientists, social scientists and resource economists. Your team has been engaged to assist the government of Malvuwasi, an Asian island nation taking its name from the wasu (plural, wasi), an animal indigenous to Malvuwasi and several other countries in the region. In fact, in the native language, 'malvuwasi' means 'land of the wasi'.

Wasi husbandry represents an important economic activity in Malvuwasi. Indeed, most smallholder households in Malvuwasi (households that own and utilize small plots of land) build their livelihoods around it. The government has requested your team’s assistance in growing this critical sector of society. In particular, the Malvuwasi Ministry of Agriculture has tasked you with recommending a program to facilitate the development of smallholder-sourced wasu production such that Malvuwasi can be self-sufficient to meet domestic consumption demand for wasu by 2035.

Your team has had several days to gather some initial background data (i.e., to conduct a preliminary version of what we will call a Scoping Analysis). During those few days, you have a) had a couple of phone interviews with mid-level managers in the Ministry; b) conducted an initial literature search on Malvuwasi itself (economic development, political structure, etc.); c) learned a little bit more about the nature of smallholdings in the country; d) leveraged some other contacts to gain initial insight into the producer-to-consumer supply system for wasu meat.

Following are the key findings from the initial scoping analysis. Please review these findings and the attached figures carefully in preparation for our second class.

BACKGROUND

Malvuwasi is a country in Asia, made up of more than 25 islands of varying sizes. As of the 2014 census, the total population of Malvuwasi was approximately 40 million. Of that total number, roughly 40 percent is located in three major population centers: the capital and largest city (located on the largest island), and major population centers on each of two separate islands. The 60 percent of the population that is not located in the three main cities is composed overwhelmingly of agricultural smallholders, with crop-livestock farming households the preponderant form of agriculture.

Since Malvuwasi became independent more than forty years ago, it has developed a robust democratic political structure. The country is composed of 14 regions, with each of the three major cities comprising their own regions. At the national level, there are four political parties, with the two main parties reflecting a center-left and a center-right policy orientation, respectively (the center-left part currently forms the government). The third and fourth parties are smaller, and one of them has recently exhibited a strong nationalist flavor in its policies. Those same four parties represent the major players at the regional level, but they coexist with other regional parties, whose policies tend to reflect local needs and concerns.