And on we go… Here is the recently received input on topic #1: "Cooperation among small farms”
Q1.1/12 - Question: "1.1. What are different experiences of small farms’ cooperation in other regions? How has this changed over the past 10 years?"
(Moderator: Victor’s input was submitted as a reaction to several past inputs received under topic #3 and topic #4 which referred to “cooperation” as part of the past or future challenges. So I took the liberty of posting his input under this topic, which
was centered around “cooperation”)
Hello, I am Victor Martinez, agricultural economist working at Universidad Politecnica Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
Several of the previous interventions to topics 3 and 4 (I think Winonna raised the issue) have put under the spotlight the lack of cooperation, the side-selling (Yakubu), etc.
In my region the collective action used to group small farmers through cooperatives but currently is, at best, stagnated, with similar problems as the ones referred by the previous replies. We are participating in a series of farmers’ cooperatives initiatives
aiming at bringing back to cultivation some abandoned land. And we have noticed that two elements are crucial for the success of these initiatives, at least in their early stages: Thorough explanation and external trust.
First, all the meetings to explain the initiatives were small meetings (less than 20 people) were everyone could raise their remarks, doubts,… so they eventually felt actors of the initiative, not only reactive agents. Besides, there were meetings organized
for every interest group (local administration, cooperative workers, farmers, other coops, non-farming land owners,…). At the end of the day, lots and lots of meetings to carefully explain the initiative.
Second, usually these initiatives came from a “bandwagon person” well known in the village/county, with previous successful records. However, people have told us later that the external support provided by the university and by a rural bank also involved
gave plenty of credibility to the initiatives and made them more trustworthy.
My comment is a reaction to Solomon Elorm Allavi’s contribution on Q1.1 /1
It is very difficult to generalise for cooperatives in Ghana. There are a lot of differences from area to area. Official
Large scale cooperative societies in the 70s to late 90s are all collapsed eg Food Distribution Cooperation. What is emerging for about 14 years now is the ‘Project-led’ groups formed along commodity lines at local levels. These are not strong and are unable
to get to the levels of Association, Unions or Federations, which most of the projects plan to achieve.
All the other types of cooperatives mentioned by the other contributors also exist in Ghana.
Government adopting the "Value Chain Approach" as an agricultural policy created by FBO/CBO Desk officers in the Ministry
of Food and Agriculture offices in all the Districts (FBO – Farmer Based Organisation: CBO Community Based Organisation). They have facilitated the formation of several
FBOs but they have not been sustainable. They don’t last long, they may be there but not functional.
Groups which the farmers form themselves, are still functioning, but they are have periodic activity.
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Q1.2/9 - Question: "1.2. Could you provide specific examples of the advantages and/or disadvantages of cooperation among small farms?"
I have led a part of a project ‘1000s+’ by IFDC in the formation of Pepper Value chain and Market Oriented Agricultural Project (MOAP) by GTZ (now GIZ).
During the period of the project the groups functioned very effectively and members benefitted from trainings and links to other actors in the value chain resulting in high yields and income.
Three years after the project the groups are no more vibrant because there is no external facilitator to follow them up.
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Q1.3/8 - Question: "1.3. Are there any forms of collaboration between small farms that work particularly well? Why? How does the size of the farm affect cooperation?"
As mentioned by Elorm (in a previous input), the Cacoa Abrabopa, is a strong farmer-led Cooperation (Business). Their success is mainly because cocoa is an export crop and gets all kinds of support from both government
and NGOs.
There is also an apex body (National) -the Peasant Farmers Association - which has survived but its main function is advocacy .
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Q1.4/7 - Question: "1.4 In what way does gender influence cooperation among small farms? Please share experiences from your region."