Scientists, Industry and Farmers Marketing Sorghun in Andhra Pradesh

The Andhra Pradesh sorghum coalition illustrates the valued added by working in coalition. By combining different perspectives to give rise to new, synthesised ideas, the member organisations worked at a faster pace and achieved their objectives more successfully and sustainably than they could have done if working separately. The methodology of their research was designed collaboratively. As a result, scientists carried out repeat experiments on poultry, at the request of poultry farmers and feed manufacturers, which greatly increased their confidence in the evidence. It is likely that if the scientists had been working in isolation, the poultry farmers and feed manufacturers would have been dissatisfied and ignored the results. The way the organisations worked – for the first time for all members – offers lessons for both strategic alliances and all institutional partnerships.