Dear all,

Here is 2nd aggregated input, received on question “1.1 - What are different experiences of small farms’ cooperation in your regions? How has this changed over the past 10 years?”

Peter

1. A view Zimbabwe: Cooperation through a “ward”-system
From: Daniel Nkomboni <[log in to unmask]>

My name is Daniel Nkomboni, I work for the Department of Research and Specialists Services, Matopos Research Institute, in Zimbabwe.

In Zimbabwe the land reform programme (of the 1980s and year 2000), released more land for livestock production resulting in some wards (a ward comprises of  >100 households) having their own grazing areas. Though this brought relief, there are conflicts (especially during droughts) when animals from other wards cross boundaries (that are not demarcated by fences).
Some villages/ wards are now practising "holistic grazing management" (refer to as "Allan Savoury Grazing systems"), where herders are contributed by the community. This has increased livestock security and land rejuvenation as the system involves rotational grazing.
In the past when the traditional systems involving the chieftainship were in place, villagers used to contribute crop produce to the Chief that was used to support the orphans and used as relief during droughts but now there is more individualism as farmers are commercialising their agricultural produce. Services or produce is sold for individual household.
Overally there have been changes towards intensification of small farms (a shift from subsistence production) and therefore segregation of land units into informal individual land holdings although the land is still communally owned.

2. Input from Pakistan: Is the cost of running a formal cooperation system prohibiting the actual cooperation?
From: Ghulam Qadir Arbab <[log in to unmask]>

My Name is Ghulam Qadir Arbab. I am an agri-economist and working as M&E Specialist (Agri) in a World Bank funded project implemented by Government Of Sindh "Sindh Agricultural Growth Project" for small and medium growers.

As such there is no any successful formal system of cooperation among small or medium size farms in Sindh province of Pakistan. I have been part of evaluation team for a FSL (Food Security & Livelihood) project that focused mainly on small farms (Project facilitated organization and registration of Cooperatives) but the concept did not work at all due to several factors. The most important one is that small farmers have little surplus of crop produce to sell. The project facilitated farmers by paying transportation cost. Due to support of the project, the farmers could get extra income of around US $ 3,000/- But (..) the project spent more than US $ 100,000 for this activity. Moreover, neither cooperatives nor the collective selling of farm produce sustained (the activity) after the closure of project.

In Sindh province, normally we see informal ways of cooperation among small farmers such as sharing irrigation water, volunteering to take responsibility of the irrigation (...), harvesting and threshing, and de-silting of water courses. Mostly, small farmers (male only) offer their free services and in return other farmers also provide same services whenever needed by others.

3. Input from Nigeria: Government initiated cooperative structures
From: BALA GAMBO JAHUN <[log in to unmask]>
(PhD Candidate, Dept. of Biological and Agricultural Engineering - Universiti Putra Malaysia)

In Nigeria since the inception of the agricultural development project (ADP) in 1979, small farmers were the target audience. Through the World Bank funding a lot of activities have been done in establishing various departments within the ADP set up. These departments are Agriculture, Extension, Rural Infrastructural development, Engineering and Monitoring and Evaluation. These departments identified the small farmers and formed them into village extension farmers with the apex body within the larger community.

There is more cooperation (amongst) the farmers in terms of input acquisition, access feeder roads to transport their produce, extension services on new technology and innovations, market information.

The extension agents, in collaboration with the small farmers identify major set backs and report (them) to the government for implementation. Fortnight training received by the extension workers are (focused on) small farmers.

The SG2000 trained many farmers in maize and rice production through the programme on doubling maize and rice. The African Development Bank used these structures and also extended their programmes easily.

The small farmers are very cooperative when it comes to assisting each other during land preparation, sharing of information on new innovative.

4. Input from India: - A more historic perspective on the change in cooperation amongst small farmers
From: Dr. Mahesh Chander <[log in to unmask]>

I am Mahesh Chander, Principal Scientist (Agricultural Extension) from Indian Council of Agricultural Research

Small farmers in India used to cooperate in each others' farming operations like ploughing (along with bullocks shared), harvesting, transplanting, farm yard manuring and several other activities requiring labour in bulk. This system used to be named as “ alta" in my region (Uttarakhand) and by different names in other parts too.
But over the years, it has weakened, possibly due to mechanization and increased household incomes, people want to be independent of each other and interdependence is significantly reduced.
People are relying now more on hired labour and mechanized devices to perform the operations faster without looking towards other farmers. Of late, small farmers are coming closer in different ways, in the form of "Farmer Producer Organizations/companies" (FPOs) which are helping in jointly buying inputs and collectively marketing farm produce by negotiating better prices for their produce. The custom hiring of farm implements, shared use of farm inputs and collective sale of farm products are new arrangements in the area of small farms' cooperation assisted by formation of FPOs.

4. Input from Ghana: - Cooperation “facilitated” through the private sector
From: Sylvester Kwame Osei <[log in to unmask]>

I'm Sylvester Kwame Osei, Communications Officer at Wienco Ghana Limited.

Wienco Ghana Limited is an agricultural marketing solutions company (which) operates with about 3 smallholder farming groups or associations in Ghana. The smallholder farmers include Masara N'arziki (Northern region), Cocoa Abrabopa Association (all cocoa regions in Ghana) and COPA Connect (Volta region).

Farmers have continually bonded together to tap into the benefits the company provides to them: inputs supply support, technical support, marketing, pension scheme for cocoa farmers etc.

It is evident that due to the services being provided in the win-win interest of every party, smallholder farmers are able to work effectively in increasing yield.



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