Business oriented farmers’ organization enterprise;

A potential key actor for the participatory Research &

Agricultural Transformation

Jonas MVA MVA

Country Manager

STCP Cameroon

Ibadan, June 24,2008

Presentation plan

- Context

- Clarification of concepts used

- Potential Areas of intervention for the cooperatives in

Participatory research and agricultural transformation

- Key actors for the agricultural transformation

Context

source: 2005 IITACA baseline survey, Centre and South

West provinces of Cameroon

STCP Cameroon Project Location

low productivity

limited access to farm

equipment

rural exodus/Ageing of farmers

limited access to technical know-how

difficult accessto agricultural

inputsweak farmer

organizations

limited access

to financing

lack of professionalism

of MFI

low farm-gate prices

no valorization of cocoa

by-products

inefficiency of marketing channels

old cocoa farms

deterioration of the quality

decrease of the farmers’

income

difficult accessto information

high interestrate

General constraints of the Tree crops

sector in Cameroon

research for alternative crops

institutional framework not favorable

1- Enhancing productivity of cocoa farms;

2- Increasing marketing efficiency at the farmer-

level;

3- Diversifying income of farmers;

4- Improving policy environment to enable rural

transformation in cocoa communities

Challenge:

to move Cameroon from subsistence

agriculture towards market oriented/

commercial system by:

STCP Cameroon approach in PR and

agricultural transformation

STCP = Develop/

Introduce new

techniques/

Technologies

Coop=Dissemi

nate in rural areas

STCP= facilitate

access to

information/ market

Coop= improve

quality of the

products

STCP= Develop/

test and validate

with coops tools/

approach to built

business

enterprises

Guiding Principles

Testing of innovative development options and

approaches (production, institutional, market)

Assessing the process, impact, and conditions for

success of the innovations

Sustaining and institutionalizing innovations

Integrating lessons into national development efforts

(cost effective scaling up)

Using tree crops as a pathway for broader investment

in rural development

Clarification of concepts used:

- Agricultural Transformation

- COOPERATIVE = Business oriented

farmers‟ organization enterprise

- Participatory Research

Agricultural transformation is the process by

which individual farms shift from highly

diversified, subsistence-oriented production

towards more specialized production, oriented

towards the market.

The process involves a greater reliance on input

and output delivery (marketing) systems and

increased integration of agriculture with other

sectors of the domestic, regional and

international economies.

Agricultural Transformation

COOPERATIVE = Business

oriented farmers organization

The social thing of coops is that they generate a better income for the farmer’s household

Economic & Business like

1- Business and market economy based

2- Producers coop. orientation

3- Economic principles

4- Members need to understand and accept risks, liability

and business principles

5- Proportionality in voting

6- Efficiency of cooperatives and therefore profitable for

members

Participatory research=

Farmer field Research-The farm research activities are identified,

oriented and guided by the farmers' organizations

and other potential partners with input of the

research;

- Potential innovations are jointly tested by

farmers„organizations & research;

- Improved innovations are adopted and

disseminated by farmers„organizations (Farmer to

farmer approach); and capitalized, documented

and made public goods by research

Potential Areas of intervention for the

cooperatives in Participatory

research and agricultural

transformation

1- Effective organization of farmers

2- Technology Dissemination

3- Marketing

4- Diversification

5- Credit

6- Policy

Improving skills and knowledge of :

• Farmer/farm organizational

entrepreneurial skills

• Organizational development

(governance, accountability…)

• Efficiency of operations;

• Discipline of members;

• Business principles

• Management

• Financing & capitalisation

• Legislation

1- Organization of Farmers:

Cooperative can play an important role in the

improvement of the production and supply

chain efficiencies to the benefit of farmers

PRODUCTION

Supply chain

cooperati

ve

EducationEducation, , entrepreneursentrepreneurs

hiphip

Marketing, Marketing, qualityquality

control, MIScontrol, MIS

ProductionProduction, , regeneraregenera--

tiontiondiversifidiversifi--

cationcation

SocialSocial

Members

MODEL under testing

Few field achievements

-12 Business oriented farmers

Cooperatives; and

- 1 Union of cooperatives in the

Centre province

Develop approach/

Tools to establish and/

or strength Farmers

Cooperatives

-12 Cooperative organs (Board ,

Supervisory Committee) /Union trained;

- 12 cooperatives employees trained

in entreprise mgt, credit,

good governance and marketing.

Develop tools/methods

for the enhancement

of cooperative

management

Develop tools/approach

to strengthen existing

Public and private

entities such as

local NGOs in the area

of agric business

development

3 Public institutions (MINADER, MINRESI and

MINTRADE) and 18 Private entities(9 NGOs,

6 consultants,3 exporters) strengthened to

deliver effective and efficient services

to cocoa/ oil palm farmers in the supply chain

STCP Coop/Public & Private

Next challenge

1- Develop necessary tools/methods & approach to create

appropriate conditions for business oriented organizations;

2- Develop mechanisms for community associations and

farmer organizations to access production support

services;

3- Develop mechanisms for community associations and

farmer organizations to provide production support services

4- Develop approach to strengthen local private sector to

provide quality production support services

5- conduct impact studies

6- produce public goods: “systematization guide for the

cooperative implementation (in collaboration with

SOCODEVI)”

2- Technology Dissemination

Cooperative play an important role to deliver

key knowledge and technologies to farmers

effectively

Enhancing productivity of cocoa

farms

• Farmer production training

• Use of improved planting material

• Integrated pest and disease

management

• Integrated soil fertility

management

• Safe labour practices …….etc.

Few field achievements

-a farmer-near improved germplasm delivery

System (cocoa, oil plam, plantain, fruit trees)

-More than 300 nursery managers (cocoa,

oil palm, banana plantain, and fruit trees)

-50 000 improved cocoa pods ; 130 000

pre germinated oil palm nuts delivered

to farmers through the system

Develop a participatory

Bio control of pest

and diseases with farmers

in their farms

Trials of bio control products set up with

farmers to maintain their exploitation

and protect the environment

Develop/scale up

appropriate

agricultural

practices for cocoa

through FFS

Develop sustainable

mechanisms to

facilitate farmers

access to improved

vegetal material

An extension rural system set up

-124 FFS operational;

-3 100 cocoa producers directly trained

through FFS

- 6 200 cocoa producers indirectly (F-t-F)

-cocoa yields on average 15 to 40% higher,

while requiring 10 to 20% less pesticides

CooperativeSTCP

Next challenge

1- Develop/test the participatory bio control of pest and

diseases experiment with farmers in their farms;

2- Validate the development of the agricultural extension

system with farmer/cooperatives

3- Develop and scale up knowledge and technology

dissemination approaches (farmer field schools, video viewing

clubs, complementary extension materials, radio messaging,

Farmer-to-Farmer Diffusion Approach, Farmer Learning Groups)

4- Test mechanisms for farmers to access fertilizers

5- Conduct impact studies :

6- Produce public goods: « Oil palm training manual for small

producers”

3- Marketing:

Cooperative can play important role in the

development of marketing strategies and trade &

information systems able to deliver benefits to

farmers and quality products to users

Increasing marketing efficiency

at the farmer-level

• Access to information

• Organizing farmers

• Collective marketing

• Achieving quality responsive

to markets ….etc.

Marketing strategies identified

FOB

CAF

traders

AMSTERDAM

London -NEW YORK

TRADING OF COCOA

Goal of coopérative - create richeness for members

OBJECTIVES OF THE COOPERATIVE

- to sell members products at the best price

- to supply members at the lowest price

FO FO FO FO

ROLE OF THE COOPERATIVE

Reduce the number of intermediaries Short term : from the member to the port

COMMERCIALISATION OF COCOA LONG TERM : from the member to the user

Add value to through processing

Port

DOUALA

Farmgate exp

Rep exp

Buyers

coxeurs

COOPERATIVES

Few Field achievements

Improve access to

Markets by linking

cooperatives

with market-based

buyers

Develop new

market information

systems for the

marketing of products

- Cooperatives linked to SIF

set up by ONCC

Develop quality

control centers within

the cooperatives to

assess the quality of

products put in the

market

- Linkage estalished between coops and

OLAM, ADM;

- Delivery to Douala port strategy tested;

- farmers received 5-15% higher farm-gate

prices.

-About 10 000 tons of good fermented

cocoa marketed from 2005 to 2008

cocoa season

-Price premiums of 9 to 10 percent

-Increase in household cocoa income

on average between 23 and 55% higher.

STCP Cooperative

1- Test/validate collective marketing strategies to

the port of Douala with the cooperatives, and private sector

(OLAM/ADM/CARGILL);

2- Develop/test export marketing strategy with the Union of

Cooperatives and Private sector (ADM/CARGILL);

3- Develop/test/validate access to information for the union;

4- Test/validate quality control mechanisms with the coops

5- Develop approach to integrate marketing of non-cocoa

products from cocoa farms

6- Identify and evaluate market-driven product tracking systems

for differentiated cocoa

7- Explore by-products commercialization opportunities

Next challenge for STCP

4- Diversification:

Cooperatives can play an important role in diversification

strategies to benefit to farmers and increase his revenues

Diversifying income of farmers

• Neighbor trees of cocoa

(timber, fruit);

• Other crop enterprises;

• Agri-business opportunities

…….etc.

Few field achievements

Farmers trained in setting and

monitoring demonstration plots

on cocoa/oil palm agroforest models

Develop new farm

management models

STCP Cooperative

Promote oil palm/

cocoa

by products and

Associated products

-Promotion of mix cropping with maize,

banana plantain and fruit trees,

-Promotion of mushroom production

from oil palm wastes;

-Production of 262 500 plantain suckers;

-Seed funds established in coops

-Setting of 9 oil palm processing units.

Next challenge

1- Identify promising diversification options (introduction of tree

species, e.g. fruits, timber, medicinal) through participatory

research;

2- Develop participatory learning and monitoring approach

3- Integrate farmer-near planting material multiplication with

cocoa planting material delivery systems

4- Study new Agri-business opportunities;

5- Develop Farmers' business school approach/tools

6- Identify promising diversification options (e.g. rubber, oil

palm, cassava, maize)

7- Develop farm-level decision tools on diversification options

8- Produce public goods

5- Credit:

Cooperative can contribute to the development

strategies in order to create a sustainable

financial environment to benefit to farmers and

their enterprises

- Identify/analyze competitive financing

mechanisms

- Study the feasibility of setting up a saving-

loan/credit scheme within cooperatives

Few Field achievement

Experiment new credit

scheme

Develop Micro

finance Institutions

capacities

Develop tools/

strategies to

strengthen

farmers' organizations

capacities in

loan management

-Testing of a rural credit scheme with

an interest rate of 6% for ag. Activities;

-83 millions cfa credit loaned to 10 cooperatives

-15 985 000 FCFA of cooperative saving blocked

at FIFFA;

-48 new accounts opened besides the

Cooperative members‟ones;

-A total of 6 862 769 FCFA saved by non

cooperative members (civil servants,

traders,etc.);

An amount of 201 350 000 FCFA

for FIFFA to test the credit scheme

-Involvement of FIFFA in the project;

-Training of FIFFA agents in rural

entreprise principles;

STCP Cooperative

1- Identify appropriate strategies to create a sustainable

financial environment to benefit to farmers and their

enterprises

2- Facilitate linkages to and development of programs

promoting enterprise development and micro-finance

Next challenge

6- Policy:

Cooperative can participate in the development of

policy changes necessary to promote production

and supply chain efficiency

Policy enabling rural transformation in cocoa

communities and agro-ecologies

Using a multi-market model;

Organizing Public debate and stakeholder

consultations on national policy priorities;

Formulating Policy recommendations with

appropriate authorities

Field achievements

International Private-

Public Partnerships

Effective national & international

collaboration & buy in, exchange of know-how

& experiences across partners

(public institutions such as:

MINADER, IRAD, MINPMESAA,MINRESI;

private such as: OLAM, ADM, farmers coops,

Donors such as: GTZ/DED, Plan International,

FODECC

Regionality

collaboration & exchange between

country projects guaranteeing transfer and

broadening of innovations, tested techniques,

methods and strategies are ensured

a national task force set up including

MINADER, MINEPAT, MINTRADE, ONCC and

CICC to contribute to raising the awareness

of the importance of tree crops to rural

development strategies,

Policy Advocacy

STCP/COOPS

1- Organize Public debate and stakeholder consultations on

national policy priorities;

2- Formulate Policy recommendations with appropriate

authorities

3- Develop and implement social, economic and environmental

sustainability indicators together with cocoa sector

stakeholders to monitor and evaluate rural transformation

processes

4- Conduct regular national round tables to discuss and review

policy and investment issues of national interest

Next challenge

Public Sector

Country/regional understanding, knowledge of development,

networks of expertise/research, support services, labour

environment, infra-structure, policy/institutional framework,

financing capacity

Private Sector

Market discipline, specific knowledge of industry, experience

to design market focused actions, research support, service

provision, input supply, investments in value chain, marketing

Cooperative/Farmer Organizations

Ensure that priority needs of the farmers are addressed,

advocacy, self-regulation, marketing & production services,

linkage between research and producers, platform for

technology testing and transfer/dissemination

Research

Assist the other actors in their respective areas of needs

KEY ACTORS of the Agricultural transformation

IMPORTANCE OF COOPS IN THE AGRICULTURAL

TRANSFORMATION AND PR

1. Private enterprises owned by members

2. linking production with the supply chain, and

providing a conduit for the transfer of knowledge and

technologies

3. Linking social messages with technical ones (child

labour and HIV/AIDS)

4. Participatory approaches building the skills of

farmers, e.g. Field Schools, Business schools,

Learning Groups and Field Research

5. Creating employment in rural areas (hiring Managers,

accountants, warehouse clerks, drivers, etc)

STCP areas of Research and

support to empower the farmers

& their organizations

improve (main stream) cocoa production,

Income diversification and marketing in

general,

linking social, environmental & technical

messages

Production

production, input supply, information,

marketing, farmer organization development

Supply Chain Approach

considering

Integrated &

Participatory Approaches

participatory learning methods (e.g. FFS, FBS

FLG), business-oriented farms and farmer

organizations, collective marketing

& shortening the supply chain

developing & realizing a national/regional

cocoa vision to contribute to raising the

awareness of the importance of cocoa to

rural development strategies, local private

sector development, employment and

foreign exchange earnings

Policy Advocacy

THANK YOU