Hi everyone,
Oh WOW..
We're receiving an influx of incoming feedback during our last day of this e-conference. We are doing our best to keep up with you all... :-)
Here is the aggregated input we received on topic #1 - "Cooperation among small farms "
Thanks for everyone's input!! -- Peter
Q1.1/14 - Question - "1.1 What are different experiences of small farms’ cooperation in other regions? How has this changed over the past 10 years?"
Cooperation among small farmers is particularly effective when there is a focus of activity and an organizing agent.
A great example of this is with pest control, and in particular against wide-area challenges such as fruit flies.
Biofeed (http://biofeed.co.il) offers a strong, safe (no spraying), easy to use solution to fruit fly infestations that is most effective when utilized across a group of small farmers rather
than on individual farms.
In India (through farmers cooperatives) and Africa (through regional authorities) implementing Biofeed is the focus of small farmer cooperative activity, and Biofeed is the organizing agent to define and guide the cooperative
activities. With reductions of fruit fly infestation of over 95% such cooperation is financial very beneficial to farmers, and all parties "win" through the highly effective multi-farmer cooperation that a wide-area pest control project entails.
My name is Lily Kisaka i hold a PhD in Agricultural economics and work with the East African Community, Lake Victoria Basin Commission. Based in Kisumu, Kenya.
I would like to share an example of a successful dairy farmers cooperative in Kenya called the "Lessoss Dairy Farmers Cooperative". They have survived through all the challenges that have been discussed here and have
been running since the 1960's falling and rising a few times. they now have a successful marketing cooperative. The cooperative bulks, cools and sells milk for its member as its primary objective. However as they grew they expanded the services they provide
to their members to include extension in proper dairy management, artificial insemination, pasture management. at the milk bulking center they have also provided an input shop where their members can buy what they need for their farms without having to go
to larger town centers that are far away. they have also provided a saving and credit facility at the buying centers where members are encouraged to save and borrow to cover their financial needs.
I believe their success can be attributed to the diversity of services they provide to their members which address members needs. they have built trust and confidence in their members through good leadership, and provision
of information to their members. They have also tried to encourage communication and participation by all members by providing smaller forums of peers for discussions to enable all members give their views freely, and a farmer to farmer learning experience
that fosters improved communication as well. They also invite facilitators to train their members in technical as well as soft skills covering issues of governance, communication and group dynamics.
This is a reply to the question from Teresa Pinto Correia <[log in to unmask]> (Portugal), who said: I
would like to raise a question related to this topic. In Southern European countries there are soft skills required for a fruitful colaboration among small farmers, which is an issue. Small farmers, as many other groups in society, do not have the soft skills
which are needed for cooperation to be established with a larger group, in the long run. Is this an issue in other countries and how is the issue tackled, to enhance the cooperation skills?
To which Richard replied:
Lack of soft skills is an issue in cooperatives in Ghana as a whole and the RR in particular. The attempt at cooperation are all facilitated by people outside the RR. They try to build the capacity of
the farmers to manage the cooperatives but in many cases illiteracy is high and the few literates try to hijack the whole cooperative. This brings about mistrust and soon they disintegrate.
Leadership of the cooperative is not a paid job in most cases in Ghana. As a result it is difficult to get a volunteer to devote time to lead the cooperative to success.
There is a Department of Cooperative in Ghana. In the past the staff were giving training both home and abroad to facilitate and assist registered cooperatives to survive. The department is now neglected
and about to collapse hence the source of soft skills is almost dead. Most of the officers left in the department are very old and out of touch with the current realities. In fact, cooperatives scholars are now scarce.
To the input from Mahesh Chander <[log in to unmask]> (India), who asked: Are
there any connections the participants see, of youth with small scale farming sustainability?
To which Richard replied:
Most farmers in Ghana are very old and the youth are not interested in farming. There is the fear that if nothing is done soon we may have to increase our food imports. As a result 'Youth in Agriculture
and Agribusiness' programmes are rolled out to encourage and entice the youth into agriculture. This is gaining some results. If it is sustained thee could be some sustainability.
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Q1.3/9 - 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?"
I am Oladeinde Kayode Benjamin, a Nigerian and a M.sc research student from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.
In Nigeria there are several forms of farm cooperation, cooperatives societies and farmers associations, and another larger cooperation is Farm Clusters which are usually more crop specific and may involve farm holdings from either a farm cooperative
or association with a geographical area or landmark. These groups are unique in their characteristics, Membership of any of these groups helps farmers contributes to the resilence of there food systems, However these resilience depends on whether the cooperatives
or farmers associations meets its target goals as In many cases Farmers join these group to access institutional support and financing.
In Ogun, the Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) funded by IFAD and the Federal Government of Nigeria encouraged farm associations to be in clusters of at least 100 farms per cluster, after which these clusters are linked with offtakers to buy
off the farm produce from these cluster according to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreements they already have.
These cooperations helps cassava and rice farmers access improves varieties, institutional and private extension services, market access, infrastructural upgrades, access to farm machinery if accessible and financing. In effect 40 cassava clusters with
687 members who cultivated 970ha of cassava were linked with 4 cassava offtakers, while 15 Rice Clusters with 242 members who planted 365ha of FARO 44 and OFADA upland rice Variety were linked with 3 Ofada Rice Offtakers. The terms in the MOU is usually farm
size specific as individual farm holdings is usually not less than 1ha.