Benefits and Challenges of Integrated Initiatives for Sustainable Rural Development: The Case from Northern Mexico

New forms of rural development approaches are encouraging endogenous development strategies as a mean to generate active participation of local actors to assume shared responsibility for bringing about their own socio-economic development (Ellis, 2000; Ellis and Biggs, 2001; Durand and Van Huylenbroeck, 2002; Drabenstott, 2003). Endogenous development, as addressed by Nemes (2005), represents a significant change from traditional strategies based on capital investments (infrastructure, incentives and subsidies) to investment in developing the knowledge, the skills and the entrepreneurial abilities of the local population as a way to foster improvement. Although traditional packages of infrastructure development, grant-aid, loan-finance, business and community support services are still necessary, development agencies have recognized that long-run development gains are likely to be secured more effectively by encouraging local entrepreneurship at regional level adapting the traditional strategies to local social and cultural context (Slee, 1994, Nemes, 2005). Related to this line of thoughts, Ray (2000) recommended three key concepts that must be considered when designing development strategies: act in a territorial basis, utilization of local resources, and generate local contextualization through active public participation. In other words, for rural development policies to meet diverse needs and circumstances, they must consider the mobilization of local actors supported by partnership structures and proper arrangements (Schucksmith, 2010). Integrated rural development "IRD" comprises the cooperation between policymakers, administrators from the various economic sectors and the citizens for the benefits of their rural region in the foundation of successful development (Giessen and Bocher, 2008). Integrated rural development includes a new role for the state as a coordinator, manager or enabler rather than as a provider and director. Other expected activities are the formation of tangled hierarchies; flexible alliances and networks; the inclusion of new partners, notably from the private sector and volunteers; and indeed governing through local governments and representatives (Shucksmith, 2010). Private firms are also an important part of the integrated rural development strategies (Goldsmith, 1985). Since the IRD philosophy demands changes in traditional behaviors from all actors (Murdoch, 2000), the main change expected from private firms is to switch into a more pro-active role, turning from their traditional position as a mere "buyer" or "job provider", to act as a driving force for development. Private firms in an integrated value chain are expected to act as a strategic partner providing not only market opportunities for rural producers, but also to share with them technology, skills, and knowledge necessary to help them improve the added value of the rural outcome (Morgan, 1997; Goldsmith, 1985). In return they shall obtain different benefits such as a continuous supply of their products; strengthen of their supply chain; and improvement of their position to manage the risks involved in the process (Goldsmith, 1985; Saraceno, 1995; Ray, 2000). Other opportunity for private firms generated through IRD is to diversify their product portfolio with value added products to gain access to specific market niches. Companies could therefore gain recognition and positive market perception through social responsibility and responsible sourcing strategies (Carroll, 1991; Martin, 2002; O’Connor and Meister, 2008; Archel et al., 2011).Although the benefits implicit in the process and briefly mentioned above, there are sufficient challenges that must be addressed by most of the actors in order to succeed in integrated rural development initiatives. Within the challenges that might hinder the success of development initiatives, we found: the level of (dis)integration of supply chains (Goldsmith, 1985); the high grade of risk involved in working with rural producers (Shortfall and Shucksmith, 1998; Murdoch, 2000); inflexible and traditionalist rural policies (Giessen and Bocher, 2008); and the differences in interests and expectations from the involved actors (Nemes, 2005; Giessen and Bocher, 2008; Shucksmith, 2010). Most of the theoretical background related to integrated rural development explores the expected changes in policies and interactions from the involved institutions, describing how organizational culture should be modified in order to ensure the success of development strategies. However there is limited exploration about the interests and drivers that could possibly encourage the participation of key actors, given the challenges that must be addressed when participating in such integrated strategies. The present research work focuses in a theoretical exploration about the different implicit benefits and challenges found when designing and applying integrated rural development initiatives. For this analysis we evaluated the main differences that exist between traditional and integrated strategies and explored the expectations and motivation drivers from the involved actors to actively participate in IRD. Due to each case-study is framed by its own characteristics, in order to analyze the theoretical background and its empirical applicability; we explored the analyzed concepts in a selected case from the northern part of Mexico where integrated projects have been encouraged to promote rural development. In this empirical case we analyzed the challenges that have been undertaken by the different actors, their main motivation drivers, as well as the experiences gained during the designing and development process of the integrated projects. The main objective of this paper is to explore in an empirical case what literature is identifying as motivation drivers, benefits and challenges in integrated rural development. Additional to demonstrate whether its benefits can overcome all sort of challenges that must be addressed by the involved actors to succeed in integrated ventures generating sustainable business models.