Suiting the action to the word
Activity report 2008

• Prologue
• Introduction
• I Farmers Fighting Poverty: Funding & Expenditure
• II Projects: the building blocks
• III Advisory services
  • Introduction
  • Organisations in 2008
  • Missions in 2008
  • AgriPool
  • Agriterra’s advisory services in 2008
  • Cooperation from farmer to farmer
  • Building bridges
• IV Achievements
• V Agriterra in 2008
• VI Conclusions and recommendations
• Supplement
• Annexes
• Download Activity Report 2008

III Advisory services

Introduction

In the previous chapter we illustrated that projects are important building blocks for Farmers Fighting Poverty. The cement between these blocks is formed by the advisory services mobilised by the agri-agencies. It is through these advisory services that projects do not remain a separate activity of an organisation, but are integrated in the daily workings of the organisation as such. This ensures that in the end the organisation is strengthened and more self-reliant.

In this chapter we will first present some statistics on the organisations that we supported in 2008 (section 2). We offer our advisory services to organizations and organizational matters. Often the advisory services are provided directly in missions, but they are also offered from behind the desk or by continued presence in ‘the field’. It is not only personnel of agri-agencies that offers the advice. Preferably it is provided by farmers (AgriPool experts) themselves. These farmers offer their expertise individually, but also through the longstanding cooperation between their farmers’ organisations and an organisation in a country in development (section 6). However, since the demands from farmers’ organisations can be quite complicated we also rely on the expertise of other consultants and we build alliances with organisations that complement our expertise (see section 7).

Organisations in 2008

The projects presented in the previous chapter stem from farmers´ organisations all over the world. They are discovering the agri-agencies, also by virtue of the various websites of the agencies and agro-info.net. This, and the exposure through IFAP and events ensure that a wide audience gets acquainted with the work of the agri-agencies. Before looking at the special services we offer to organisation in order to strengthen them, we first present some statistics on the organisations we worked with.

The agri-agencies generally do not have preference for specific countries with regard to identifying new, possible clients, as long as the organisations are from an OECD/DAC country. Fragile states, countries in transition (former communist countries) and to some extent the Arab region and China, do have our special attention in order to strengthen democratic processes. Ultimately, the farmers’ organisation and not the country is the point of departure. Agri-agencies support producer organisations that operate at various levels, varying from village level to those working worldwide.

Agri-agencies believe in the federated structure at (sub-)national level as the entry point for their support. This is not only efficient (larger membership) but also more effective because the negotiation power towards other stakeholders is often larger at this level. That we put this belief in practice is affirmed by table 8 showing that mainly organisations that work at (sub-)national level (respectively 54 and 60 in 2008) were supported.

At the same time the agri-agencies and national farm leaders agree that the support provided through a federated structure also has to reach grass-roots level. Evidence gathered on the basis of our projects shows that this happens (see Chapter II). Additionally, Agriterra has introduced the micro-project approach as one of the strategies to ensure that the lowest tiers of a federated structure (i.e. farmers’ groups) are reached. The idea behind micro-projects (discussed in more detail in chapter 2) is that member organisations at local level can implement a small project with the help of their national umbrella organisation. If these local organisations with micro-projects had been counted separately, the number of clients at local level would be much higher than indicated in the table above.

In order to ensure that we are working with eligible organisations we follow specific procedures (organisational quick scans) to verify if an organisation is a rural people’s organisation. Four basic criteria need to be fulfilled, i.e. membership base with a minimum number of members, governance system with elected board members from the membership base, active at different levels (federated structure), type of services (i.e. related to economic development, lobby and advocacy).

In 2008 a total number of 42 organisations received the status of prospect i.e. a potential client. Out of these prospects 30 organisations became a client during 2008. As you can see from the table most of the organisations are based in Africa. In total four organisations are either from a fragile state (Congo, Burundi) or from a country in transition (Armenia, China). The organisation from the USA actually is a platform from coffee cooperatives (Pachamama) from Latin America and Ethiopia who have their office in USA to be in a better position to lobby

click to enlarge

Missions in 2008

In Farmers Fighting Poverty it was planned that 471 persons would be involved in international contacts via missions and events in 2008. The actual number of participants in missions was 532.

When we look at the division in the different types of experts, we see that the number of AgriPool experts that participated in missions was lower than the number planned in Farmers Fighting Poverty (82%). Although there is still room for improvement, the relative share of AgriPool experts participating in missions has increased (62% in 2007).

The number of missions by employees was higher than planned (165%). These missions also include networking activities and participation in international events. The fact that the frequency in which employees participated in missions was higher than planned, is compensated by a lower number of consultants that participated in missions. Only 60% of the planned number of consultant actually took part in a mission. This is not considered problematic, taking into account that often the expertise of consultants and agri-agency staff is interchangeable.

During 2008 ten events were organised. The number of visitors of these events was higher than planned in Farmers Fighting Poverty (185%). Visitors of events are mostly farmers.

The chart below shows the destination of the missions per continent . We see that most persons travelled to Africa, with an increase of almost 150%. A large number of farmers from the developing countries visited Europe and Canada for events and exchange visits. All continents were represented by the eighteen farmers that took part in the 10-year anniversary of Agriterra and the Dairy Farmers Tour 2008.

Chart 3: Number of participants in missions

Source: http://www.agro-info.net/

The details of most of these missions can be found on agro-info.net in the missions module. In the following sections we analyse the content of the missions by Agriterra in more detail.

AgriPool

The approach of AgriCord and its agri-agencies revolves around the exchange of knowledge from farmer to farmer.

In the case of Agriterra this exchange is organised under the name AgriPool (see: http://www.agripool.org/). Agriterra has set up a database of experts who have the right expertise and can successfully participate in advisory and farmer-to-farmer exchange missions. Deploying AgriPool experts has priority, but Agriterra also makes use of other types of experts, such as its own employees or consultants.

The year 2008 has been a dynamic year for AgriPool as strategic decisions have been taken about the meaning and management of AgriPool. We defined and communicated what AgriPool exactly is, because the word was being used in different ways at different places: AgriPool is the pool of experts who are available to give advice at the request of farmers’ organisations in the developing countries (the clients of Agriterra) and have an “agricultural” background (either as farmer or are/were active in farmers' organisation or cooperatives worldwide).

This leads to the following categorisation in the entire set of experts:

• AgriPool experts (peer-to-peer): farmer-to-farmer advice
• Employees: employees of agri-agencies
• Consultants: external consultants with longstanding experience in working with farmers’ organisations and expertise related to agricultural themes
• Other: interns, volunteers, etc.

In agro-info.net the module ‘Persons’ contains all data about the people linked to our work. This module was further developed so experts can be identified and searched more easily by liaison officers. Various search options have been added, such as the type of experts, the type of mission (advice, exchange, representation, training, internship, others), fields of expertise and linguistic skills.

For management of the missions in general, to promote the deployment of more peer-to-peer experts and ensure their quality, three new positions were created within Agriterra:

• AgriPool manager, who’s tasks are the identification, registration and deployment of experts, giving priority to AgriPool experts
• Project officer, who is responsible for missions and mission contracts
• Travel manager, who organises and coordinates the journeys

Agriterra’s advisory services in 2008

In the previous sections we presented some statistics on missions and the deployment of experts. We also explained how Agriterra took profound steps in order to optimally manage the advisory services. In the following section we will give an overview of the content and effect of the missions from Agriterra. We distinguish three types of advisory missions: farmer-to-farmer missions (AgriPool), consultant missions and missions by employees (advise missions).

In 2008, Agriterra was responsible for the advisory services in 210 projects, including the micro-projects. The agri-agencies took care of advisory services in the remaining 88 projects.

AgriPool expert missions

The essence of Agriterra’s approach to advisory services is put into practice in AgriPool missions. During these missions farmers, farm leaders or employees from producers’ organisations exchange knowledge, introduce each other into their daily practice or give technical advice on a variety of topics.

From the 154 missions managed by Agriterra, 53 missions were executed by AgriPool experts only. AgriPool-experts also participated in other missions together with employees and/or consultants, but these are not analysed in this section.
AgriPool missions can be divided in two kinds:

• exchange missions
• advisory missions

Exchange missions

Exchange missions can be about monitoring the use of funds invested by the Northern organisation. More importantly, in exchange missions the cooperation between a producer organisation in the North and in the South gives way to actual and mutual learning from farmer-to-farmer. Because of this mutual learning effect, the exchange missions are very important for the strengthening of the support for development cooperation in general.

The visit of four women from Tikonna and Mialebouni (Benin), for instance, coincided with a large manifestation held by NBvP (Netherlands). At this occasion, the Beninese women could easily approach the Dutch female audience. During their stay with Dutch farmers the Beninese women came to recognise the large differences between the position of women in The Netherlands and Benin. At the same time they felt that NBvP should open up for women from different races, seen that currently their constitution is mainly white.

The specific aim of the collaboration between NBvP and the women’s organisations in Benin is increasing their entrepreneurship. So, follow- up was given to an earlier training on cost-benefit analyses. A local consultant will ensure together with the female participants in this mission that this training is extended to other members. In this way knowledge is spread within the farmer groups.

Advisory missions

Advisory missions are often, though not always, technically oriented and focus on particular issues of farmers’ groups. AgriPool experts bring in practical experience that can be shared at community level and at all tiers within the farmers’ organisation.

Two female AgriPool experts from ZijActief Limburg visited UNAG Chontales in Nicaragua to discuss the guarantee fund that was granted by ZijActief. This guarantee fund is administered by the Caja Rural Chontales. The experts identified the need to monitor the Caja Rural more closely in order to know better how the fund is used. It became clear that the female members of UNAG Chontales need further support in the use of micro-credit. ZijActief realised that a long term support from their side is required to uplift the economic position of the women. Following their own conclusion, ZijActief already guaranteed their commitment.

Thanks to an AgriPool expert, who is member of LTO Noord, farmers of SYDIP (Congo, DR) now know how to fix the farm-gate prices and make optimal use of (chemical) fertilizers for growing their potatoes. The expert saw that the farmers are well on their way to get better prices in the local and regional markets. Half of the farmers now raise goats and use the manure to increase productivity. The selection of seed potatoes and the detection of potato diseases still needs improvement. The organisation itself needs to improve its financial management and give more technical advice to the potato growers.

Two members of BAJK (Netherlands) visited their colleagues of PASAKA (Philippines) in order to support them with the preparation of a business plan and the visit of a possible foreign buyer of their product (Holland Potgrond). Together they discussed how PASAKA could best present itself as a serious business partner. They also reviewed which forms of partnership could be possible. Regretfully, Holland Potgrond decided to set up its plant elsewhere. PASAKA has learnt, however, how to develop a business-plan and how to present its case to other agribusiness firms interested.

An adviser from CRV Delta, accompanied by a local consultant, visited three producer organisations in Andra Pradesh (India) in order to improve the local cattle breed. There was need for improvement seen the high number of cattle and buffaloes producing only a few litres of milk a day. They identified three main fields for improvement: cattle feeding, identification and registration systems and enhancing the capacities of the farmers’ organisations’ in cattle improvement.

Consultant missions

A total of 29 missions were executed by 22 consultants. Agriterra and/or the producer organisations already had a long-term relationship with fourteen of the consultants.

The content of these missions can be divided into five categories.

• organisational development (13 missions)
• specific technical advisory (9 missions)
• liaison officer work (4 missions)
• organisational mapping (2 missions)
• work area management activities (1 mission )

We can carefully conclude that consultants are mainly called in for missions on organisational development and specific technical topics. The advice can be offered during a regular mission, but is can (as opposed to the other types of experts missions) also be long-term. This long-term advise is often provided by former local staff of Agriterra (‘PO-advisors’). They are still directly involved in providing advisory services. By means of some examples, the distinct character of the consultants missions will be discussed below.

Organisational Development missions

Most of the missions related to organisational development concern both long-term and regular missions to producer organisations covering a variety of topics such as leadership training, human resource management, gender and lobby & advocacy.

Highlights in 2008 are briefly indicated below.

• Strategic planning: Five missions dealt with strategic planning processes. For Fupro (Benin) this has resulted in better understanding of strategic-planning methodology among the board members. For several organisations in DR-Congo this resulted in better recognition of the importance of participation of members to ensure ownership.
  In India (FFA) the framework for strategic planning was prepared with the help of the consultant. They shared tools for analysis and decision-making. An internal team will write the actual strategic planning.
  Strategic planning has helped Camfad (Cambodia) in getting insight in improving their services to the members (market-access and credit) and gave FNN (Cambodia) better insight in determining their priorities.
• Financial management: three missions of consultants dealt with financial management. In DR-Congo staff has been trained in financial management using SAGE software, improving the accuracy and efficiency of the bookkeeping.
• Human Resource Management: one mission to Fopac-NK (DR-Congo) focused on human resource management. Through a workshop, capacity was built in areas such as staff training and the organisation of meetings, etc.
• Gender: A mission to Lofepaco (DR-Congo) elaborated on a previous mission on gender and women leadership. Women leaders had introduced the so-called CERA (circles of reflection and action). CERA allow women to meet, discuss and exchange their experiences as women leaders.
• Evaluations: two external evaluations (FUPRO and ROPPA) were conducted by consultants, see chapter IV for the result on FUPRO. The evaluation of ROPPA indicated that ROPPA performs its primary role as organisation for representation, lobby and advocacy well. However, other roles in the field of capacity development of the national platforms, institutional learning, communication and information sharing and the internal management of ROPPA require further attention.

Technical Advisory missions

The technical missions mostly concern concrete topics in the field of agro-business development and agricultural production.

• Micro-credit and micro-insurance: A mission in Senegal (UPP-UF) resulted in the identification of credit management gaps within the organisation. In a market study the niche of starting a micro-insurance programme in Uganda (UCA) was identified. Unfortunately, a micro-insurance programme in the Philippines (PMBA) will be discontinued due to underperformance.
• Onion seed production: In 2008, the long-term advisory support commitment (10 years) from De Groot en Slot (onion seed producer) to FCMN in Niger has resulted in the identification of three pilot areas where seed can be produced. Advice focused on improving the harvest and storage techniques of bulbs and seeds. It also led to the identification of institutions that can provide support in the field of research, certification and general agronomic advice.
• Tourism: Three agro-tourism consultants helped to formulate business plans in Bolivia (Tusoco) and Madagascar (Fekritama) and in the identification, development and promotion of marketable agro-tourism products.

Missions of Agriterra employees

In 2008 a total of 54 employee missions were carried out. A considerable number of short-term missions close to home, are missions conducted by members of the AgriCord board and Project Committee to build and strengthen the alliance (26); the other missions by employees only are the advisory missions conducted by liaison officers and/or project officers, to clients in developing countries (28).

The 28 advisory missions can be divided into the following themes:

• financial management (3 missions)
• strategic planning (6 missions)
• women participation in IFAP (3 missions)
• analysis of advisory needs (8 missions)
• acquisition (4 missions)
• other (4 missions)

In 2009 much attention has been given to strategic planning sessions and analysis of advisory needs, in order to get a clear idea on the support Agriterra should provide. Agriterra also took a closer look at its advisory services and concluded that advice to an organisation and supervision of its project activities are not always sufficiently separated. The separation of advise and project funding requires that project supervision is done by the project department, whereas the liaison officers organise the best advice for their organisations, by means of their own expertise and/or appealing to that of others and for instance by making use of the Solutions.

We give some examples below to illustrate the results of these missions or highlight new developments.

Financial management mission to Uganda (UNFFE and UOSPA)

A project officer analysed the financial and administrative management system of both UOSPA and UNFFE. On this basis they prepared their global action plan for improvement. The SAGE accounting software was introduced to help them strengthening their present system further.

Strategic planning mission to Benin (Fupro)

A liaison officer and head of the advisory department visited Fupro and their member organisations in the various districts to support them with the development of a global strategic plan and strengthen the participation of women in the federation. This was quite a puzzle, since Fupro needs to take their broad mandate as member organisation and the needs of the commodity member organisations and the women’s programme into consideration. Especially for ANAF (the women’s wing), it is a challenge to find its place within the federation. What to do with separate women’s organisations like Tikonna and Mialebouni? Will they agree becoming part of the Fupro federation? Also the position of Fupro within the West African regional 1000+ programme needed considered. SNV expressed willingness to advise Fupro in the further development of its strategic plan. Agriterra’s follow-up needs to result in a better structured organisation with a clear vision about the services it can deliver towards its members.

Women Participation in IFAP: Regional workshop Asia - Armenia

In 2008 IFAP organised regional meetings on strengthening women’s participation. Agriterra’s liaison officer assisted IFAP in the Asian regional meeting in Armenia. A mandate was issued by the IFAP Committee of Women Farmers and Regional Committee for Asia. AgriCord agreed to support a programme to promote capacity-building among women so as to foster their participation and inclusion in (mixed) farmers’ organisations in general and in rural women’s organisations in particular. As a result of this workshop systematisation of lessons learned has taken place and participants were able to build a network among each other. A number of women organisations submitted project proposals to Agriterra for support after this workshop.

Analysis of advisory needs in Tanzania

The new liaison officer for Tanzania planned a visit to acquaint herself with three producer organisations (Mwivata, Mviwambo and TFC) and used this visit to analyse their advisory needs based on their future strategic directions. The topic of discussion with Mviwata was agro-tourism. The mission resulted in mutual understanding of the strategic directions and clear advisory requirements of the three organisations. With Mviwata the way forward for its agro-tourism activities was mapped out.

Acquisition: mission to China, Yunnan province

A consultant went on mission in April 2008 to identify farmers’ organisations in Yunnan with the potential to become clients of Agriterra. He discovered that there are many cooperatives and associations in Yunnan and that the Yunnan government stimulates farmers’ cooperatives. Namely, the government invited farmers’ cooperatives and associations and organisations that support their development, to participate in the establishment of a provincial federation: the Yunnan Federation of Farmers' Professional Cooperatives. This provided Agriterra with an excellent opportunity to cooperate with farmers’ organisations in Yunnan. Therefore, a mission was organised to grasp this opportunity. A liaison officer and the director of Agriterra visited Yunnan to establish the first contact with the Yunnan Agricultural Bureau (AEMS) and other stakeholders involved in the establishment of the Yunnan Farmers Federation. The main difficulties that professional farmer cooperatives encounter were identified. Agriterra proposed the introduction of Peoples Participation Programme (PPP) to AEMS, as well as promotion of access to credit (guarantee funds or guarantees for loans) and it proposed international advisory support to existing cooperatives to address issues as business planning, entrepreneurship, gender, financial management and group-shareholding.

Field research on value chain in fragile states: Palestine (Gaza) and Srebrenica (Bosnia)

Missions to the Palestinian Territory (including Gaza) and Srebrenica studied cases of private sector development in a context of conflict or post-conflict. They resulted in clear recommendations to Agriterra in how to support organisations in fragile states. In a region with a weak or absent government, the private sector and the development organisations have an important duty to fulfil. In fragile countries, Agriterra should focus its financial and advisory support more explicitly on agricultural entrepreneurs as drivers for rural development.

Concluding remarks

In summary, we see that each expert type has a specific role in providing advisory services. We hire consultants for very specialist advice and for long-term on-the-spot accompaniment. Although they do not have a direct link with farmers’ organisation, they mostly are very closely linked to agriculture and have long-standing experience in advising farmers’ organisations.

The surplus value of our own liaison officers mainly lies in starting relationships, identifying organisations and their needs, and to do strategic planning. The missions of AgriPool experts are mostly short–term assignments to bring in the practical experience at every level. They advise on technical topics at grass-roots level or for specific businesses, as well as on more general topics as organisational strengthening and institutional development.
We see that local consultants and liaison officers bring in country specific, cultural and organisational knowledge that matches the professional expertise of the AgriPool experts, who often have no specific experience in countries in development. Together, they have the unique, complementary mix of advisory services that allows us to optimally answer to the demands of farmers’ organisations.

The AgriPool manager has to carefully identify AgriPool experts with appropriate skills and expertise and combine them with experts of other categories to put together the optimal mix of expertise. Likewise, the liaison officers need to match the farmer’s demand with the right AgriPool experts. Therefore, the number of AgriPool experts in our database needs to increase.

Cooperation from farmer to farmer

The AgriPool experts often are members or employees of the supporting organisations of the agri-agencies. These organisations are the national farmers’ organisations that have accumulated experiences and knowledge that can be useful to colleague organisations in developing countries. The agri-agencies mobilise such knowledge and experience on for instance, production techniques, strengthening of organisations and participation in local development. They act as a mediator in the realisation of various forms of cooperation between the organisations and are always based on needs expressed by farmer organisations in developing countries. The role of the agencies is to mobilise know-how and skills among the farmers and producer organisations. Some of these partnerships go back many years.

Direct cooperation with colleagues in developing countries is by no means a form one-way traffic: on the contrary. The contacts also bring about changes in the European farmers’ organisations, as illustrated in the quote below:

This structural cooperation certainly has had influence on our approach during international negotiations. Our delegations now have a less defensive attitude and are more willing to consider measures that specifically benefit farmers of developing countries. I saw this very clearly during the WTO talks last year in Geneva. The fact is, we now know better what happens in those countries, we are aware of their needs, and this has had consequences for our positions and attitudes. The relations between the farmers’ organisations and the government officials were such that an agreement was at arm’s reach.
Albert Jan Maat, chairman of the board of Agriterra and LTO-Nederland

Below the various forms of cooperation per agri-agency are presented.

Agriterra

Several provincial departments of the Dutch Agricultural Youth Organisation (NAJK) maintain contacts with organisations in Brazil, Peru, Kenya, Nicaragua and the Philippines. With the Unión Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos in Nicaragua the Dutch young farmers focus on agrarian education in practice and the development of cooperation. In the Netherlands it is normal that young people organise themselves and that they stand up for their rights, but in most countries this is not the case. This matter is the basis of the partnerships between the NAJK and the organisations in the countries mentioned above.

The LLTB (Farmers and Horticultural Growers Organisation in the Dutch province of Limburg) has partnerships with Pasaka in the Philippines, the Union of Farmers and Female Farmers (Union des Producteurs Privés et Union des Femmes) in Senegal and with Zadruga Vocar in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Senegal the LLTB works on the strengthening of the organisation and special attention is paid to the position of rural women and access to credit for both male and female farmers. Furthermore, members of the LLTB give technical support to the horticulturists of Zadruga Vocar (and its sister organisations Zadruga Prunus and the womens association Anima) to improve the horticultural production and the marketing conditions.

The starting-point in the cooperation of ZLTO (Southern Organisation of Agriculture and Horticulture) and farmers' organisations in Thailand, Niger, Tanzania and Romania is that the cooperation works both ways. The organisations in development can learn from the experiences and history of ZLTO. The other way around ZLTO wants to learn about the functioning and the organisation of farmers' organisations and cooperatives in such different circumstances than in the Netherlands. One example is the cooperation between ZLTO and SorKorPor in Thailand. This organisation is founded according to the example of ZLTO. SorKorPor wants to become the national agent for all Thai farmers and the ZLTO advices them in the process. In Tanzania, they help the organisations Mviwata and Mviwambo in Tanzania with dairy farming.

LTO Noord (Northern Organisation of Agriculture and Horticulture) supports farmers' organisations around the world to improve the situation of the farmers. LTO Noord has contacts in Uruguay, Benin, Moldavia, Congo and Kenya. In Congo they work together with the organisation Sydip to improve the cultivation and sales of potatoes. LTO Noord assists the Comisión Nacional de Fomento Rural and the Asociación de Mujeres Rurales del Uruguay (both in Uruguay) in becoming strong and professional organisations. They do this for instance by assisting in drafting the year plan and budget.

Four women organisations in the Netherlands joined their forces in their effort for equal rights for women and men and for strengthening the position of female farmers worldwide. They cooperate with women's organisations in Belarus, Benin, Costa Rica, Philippines, India, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Nicaragua and Moldavia. In Burkina Faso women of the organisation FEPA-B (Fédération des Professionels Agricoles) are stimulated to take part in the decision-making process. Dutch rural women help their colleagues in Sierra Leone in finding credit and started a fund for micro credit.

A complete overview of Dutch organisations and their colleagues in developing countries can be found on http://www.agriterra.org/en/text/support-base .

AFDI

Afdi is an organisation of French farmers involved in international cooperation. It was created in 1975, by the main French producer organisations:

• FNSEA, a national union of French farmers,
• JA, a national union defending young farmers interests,
• APCA, the national agriculture chambers,
• CNMCCA, a network of agricultural, credit and insurance cooperatives, federations of producers etc.

Afdi is a network of 14 regional and 7 local associations, each closely linked to the local producer organisations named above that are directly responsible for the decisions and orientations of each association. Each regional association is developing partnerships with farmer organisations from developing countries. Afdi aims at helping the creation and strengthening of producer organisations in developing countries in order to develop family-based agriculture.

Finally, in France and Europe, Afdi informs and enhances the awareness of farmers and people living in rural areas. Besides that Afdi also aims at creating close links between French farmers’ organisations and producer organisations from developing countries. Afdi members think that French farmers and farmers from developing countries have common interests to defend together.

FERT

FERT is an international cooperation organisation created in 1981 by several French professional cereal organisations joined together in Cereal Farmers of France (groupe Céréaliers de France) concerned by the problems faced by the food and agriculture economy in developing countries. FERT’s mission is to contribute to create the conditions for farmers in these countries to provide a better supply for their country by improving their living and working standards.

FERT is leading about twenty actions at field level in over 10 countries in which French professionals are mobilised in a step of solidarity to share their long and rich experience in professional commitment and in the management of their organisations.

FERT has developed partnerships with French farming structures (cooperatives, agricultural credit cooperatives, national federations of producers, training institutes). Not only do these structures bestow their technical skills, but also and foremost their experience and know-how on matters of mutual insurance systems and management of cooperative systems. Among those farming structures, FERT is specifically linked to:

• UNIGRAINS, which supports FERT financially,
• AGPB, a national union representing the cereal producers,
• ARVALIS, a national research institute about crops.

SCC

The Swedish Cooperative Centre, SCC, was created by the Swedish Cooperative Movement in 1958. The founders and present member organisations of SCC are national federations representing all major Swedish cooperatives and sectors where cooperatives play a central role in Swedish society and economy Currently, SCC has more than 60 member organisations in Sweden representing sectors such as agriculture, housing, consumers, banking and adult education. SCC members, who contribute with their commitment, funds and technical expertise, provide a strong base for SCC development cooperation. SCC is a global organisation, with three regional offices and operations in more than 20 countries worldwide.

Their mission is to:

• Support poor women and men to enable them to increase their incomes, improve their living conditions, defend their rights, and organise themselves.
• Strengthen the democratic and economic development of partner organisations
• Contribute to the development of democratic and just societies.

SCC’s primary target group is poor women and men, mainly in rural areas, who are members or potential members of democratic organisations (Co-operative organisations or farmers associations) or informal groups working for common goals. The extremely poor often lack opportunities and organisation. SCC therefore supports mobilisation and the development of member-based organisations with the aim of indirectly, and in a long-term perspective, reaching the most vulnerable among the poor.

Their projects are mainly financed through fundraising and by Sida, the Swedish Agency for Development Cooperation.

TRIAS

TRIAS supports the Landelijke Gilden, Boerenbond, KVLV, KLJ in Flanders (Belgium) in their solidarity with farmers and entrepreneurs and their organisations in developing countries.

KLJ (the Catholic Rural Youth of Flanders) has started, together with Groene Kring (young farmers), an exchange trajectory with Mviwamo, a producer organisation in Tanzania. Mviwamo has started a process to incorporate a youngster working for its members. The involved organisations are interested in themes such as youth in agriculture and the countryside and strengthening of the movements.

KVLV (the Rural Women Movement of Flanders) is exchanging with FOP, a producer organisation in Guinée on reinforcing and uniting women farmers in the organisation, solidarity, information and communication within the movements.

An exchange has been initiated between Landelijke Gilden (the Rural Movement of Flanders) with farmers’ groups in Congo. We notice that many initiatives are started up by farmers’ movements in Congo, but these are mainly top-down steered processes, while the core of capacity building lies in its functioning starting from the basis, on which Trias mainly works. Landelijke Gilden has good experience in 'working at the basis' and this will be used in the exchange with the farmers’ groups in Congo.

Boerenbond (the biggest Farmers Union in Belgium) has started up a cooperation with UNICAFES, a union of cooperatives in Brazil. In first instance the cooperation aims at knowledge exchange between family farmers in Belgium and Brazil in the dairy cattle sector to guarantee professionalism and mutual understanding. Secondly, the institutional relations between UNICAFES/PR and the Boerenbond in Belgium will be deepened. The development of formation activities and research activities in companies of family dairy producers, will be taken up in order to become a reference for technological spread.

UPA-DI

UPA Développement International transfers the expertise the Québec farmers’ union movement (UPA) has developed regarding organising producers and collective marketing towards farmers in the South. The core of the work is farm communities everywhere sharing expertise and building farmer-to-farmer solidarity. UPA-DI does this through exchange visits of Quebec farmers that are members of UPA with farmers in West-Africa and Latin America and through AgriPool missions of UPA farmers.

Building bridges

Introduction

Agriterra is active in building alliances with those organisations, enterprises and institutions that render additional services or resources. In that way Agriterra is able to enlarge the support to farmers' organisations. Nowadays, we are active in three alliances in the Netherlands: with SNV, PSO and Agri-ProFocus. We are working on an alliance with the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD).

Agri-ProFocus - Agriterra partnership

Agri-ProFocus was set up as a result of the work of the Doornbos committee in 2004. Since then it has been a fast-broadening alliance that now comprises over 25 Dutch knowledge institutions, NGOs, banks and others, as well as two ministries as observers. The internal evaluation of this partnership at the end of 2007 confirmed that we want Agri-ProFocus to keep its focus on producer organisations, and its role as matchmaker between the demand of producer organisations and the supply of Agri-ProFocus members. As an active member of Agri-ProFocus, Agriterra will not cease to stress the need for a clear focus on producer organisations.

Agri-ProFocus’ demand-driven approach followed till 2008 has not lead to a substantial number of requests from producer organisations, that could be matched to specific support from Agri-ProFocus members. Therefore, Agri-ProFocus decided to follow a more pro-active approach and selected seven focus countries in its strategic plan 2009-2012. It is anticipated that the Agri-ProFocus members will collaborate more intensively in these countries, which leads to more optimal support to producer organisations.
In 2008 the Agri-ProFocus - Agriterra partnership has led to additional involvement of Agri-ProFocus members at the value of € 213.032 with clients from Agriterra.

Apart from Agriterra’s involvement in the strategic planning of Agri-ProFocus, we were also actively involved in the preparatory phase of the Rwanda country focus which is the first of the seven country focus initiatives. Together with Van Hall-Larenstein Agriterra has been involved in the HIV-Aids trajectory in Eastern Africa. Besides this, Agriterra has also participated in a number of workshops and events organised by Agri-ProFocus or its members during 2008. With Wageningen International initial discussions took place to develop a joint basic training course that could be offered to producer organisations as well as agencies that provide services to producer organisations. With Heifer a number of meetings have taken place to join efforts in a.o. Albania.

The SNV-Agriterra collaboration is a result of the intermediation and assistance of Agri-ProFocus. Possibilities for collaboration in Albania have been explored. This collaboration with SNV will be further discussed in the following section.

SNV - Agriterra partnership in 2008

The partnership between Agriterra and SNV is formalised in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between SNV, Agriterra and Agri-ProFocus. It gives explicit details on expenditures and advisory services to be rendered respectively by Agriterra and SNV. In 2008 Agriterra and SNV intended to collaborate in seven countries with seventeen organisations (see table 8). The actual collaboration has however been reduced to thirteen organisations (in bold: see table 8) due to SNV policy changes or a longer start-up phase than originally was foreseen.

In 2008 the joint collaboration in Latin America needed to be discontinued due to phasing out of SNV’s programme. At the same time SNV and Agriterra initiated collaboration in Albania and Macedonia (mapping of producer organisations) and looked into potential collaboration in Laos and Bhutan.
Notwithstanding these changes, the involved expenditure of Agriterra was almost € 2 million in 2008. This is more than three times the originally planned amount of € 0,6 million. SNV invested almost 1164 advisory days i.e. 7,6 fte during 2008, which is also 26% above the target set in the Memorandum of Understanding (6 fte for 2008). Next to that SNV invested an additional (unplanned) € 110.000 in these organisations.

The added value of the collaboration between Agriterra and SNV is best visible in Teasec, Nepal. For Agriterra this is a new organisation, while SNV has some years experience of working with them. Agriterra provides financial support and advises the organisation on how to develop into a democratic organisation. SNV provides technical support to make the producer organisation more effective and allow it to become a service provider itself.

SNV and Agriterra also join hands in supporting Fupro, Benin. This national producer organisation has been supported by Agriterra for quite some years. SNV came in last year to support Fupro’s involvement in the cotton market value chain and provide additional support in developing the strategic plan of Fupro. Moreover SNV ensured that Fupro took place at the negotiation table with the Ministry of Agriculture to lobby on behalf of its members.

Although comments are coming in scarcely, producer organisations are generally very positive about the involvement of SNV. They value the support from SNV especially because of the professional expertise in the specific value chain (tourism, value chain analysis, organic tea, milk processing, palm oil, cotton). Additionally, SNV is well respected for its input in overall capacity development of the organisation. However, some concerns have been expressed about the changes in SNV-personnel and country specific policies, which sometimes hamper the collaboration with the producer organisation and Agriterra. In order to determine the added value of the partnership, we need more information from the producer organisations involved on the impact of the joint support from Agriterra and SNV. Therefore, as from 2009 each producer organisation will have to include expected results from the collaboration and report on the results specifically.

Joint support in Albania and Macedonia will start in 2009. In Asia joint support will be initiated in Cambodia (SNV) and Bhutan (Agriterra). In the countries with ongoing support, distinction will be made between the countries with general SNV-Agriterra support and the seven Agri-ProFocus focus countries. As far as the latter is concerned the collaboration SNV-Agriterra will follow the agenda of the Agri-ProFocus country trajectories.

PSO - Agriterra collaboration

Agriterra is member of PSO since 2006. In 2008 a total budget of € 100.000 was made available by PSO for long-term advisory support to producer organisations. With this support the following activities were implemented in 2008:

1. Long-term technical assistance to producer organisations:
   1. Tanga Dairy Cooperative Union (TDCU)-Tanzania: During 2007-2008 one full-time technical advisor was assigned to the union and developed a suitable distribution system for dairy products in Dar el Salaam. As a result of this, the milk processing plant of TDCU has almost doubled its sales and the income of more than 3000 farmers has increased, although no specific information is available on the magnitude.
   2. Nepal Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperative Unions (NEFSCUN)-Nepal: During the period November 2007-October 2009 a full-time advisor supported NEFSCUN with the establishment and strengthening of the NEFSCUN Mutual Aid Program decreasing risks of households with low income that are members of the Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOS). As a result important progress was made in the development of the NEFSCUN Mutual Aid Program. A mixed product (policies on insurance and savings) has been developed and already 23 SACCOS have signed the Memorandum of Understanding of Cooperation and can provide both policies to their members. Nine SACCOS have already sold 1603 policies to their members since October 2008. The new Cooperative Security Policy has been launched and sales are more or less according to planning.
   3. Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU)-Laos: 1 fte for the period 2008-2009 has been foreseen. Due to some institutional hick-ups the planned technical advice could not come into effect during 2008 and is postponed to 2009.
2. Youth Zone programme (on top of PSO budget commitment of Euro 100,000)
   1. Union Naçional de Agricultores y Ganaderos (UNAG)-Chinandega, Nicaragua: 1 fte for the period March 2008-March 2009. Budget 2008: Euro 41,860. During this period the junior advisor supported UNAG-Chinandega in the coordination of the Agro-service Centre (CEGE). The advisor developed service packages for the members of UNAG and provided support with the formulation of projects related to the Agro Service Centre.
      Results: CEGE was strengthened so that it now has become part of UNAG and CEGE’s activities are renown among civil society in Nicaragua. Support was also given to the internal organisation with the aim to make meetings more effective and manage information better. The team is now working in a more coordinated and organised way.

Apart from the above direct support, Agriterra made use of services offered by PSO in the field of learning trajectories.

1. Institutional Learning Trajectory: In November 2008 the Institutional Learning Trajectory between Agriterra and PSO was drafted (the final version will come forth in 2009). Within this trajectory Agriterra’s intervention strategies for capacity development of producer organisations will be adapted to the specific context of fragile states. It consists of long-term PSO technical advisory support in combination with short-term learning events for staff and involved producer organisations (clients). In 2009 a start will be made with a programme on economic strengthening of producer organisations in the fragile states of DR Congo, Burundi and Rwanda.
2. Collective Learning Trajectories: Agriterra participated in a number of trajectories related to thematic and institutional subjects. One trajectory dealt with fragile states, another was about finding the balance between a role as financer and advisor. Due to limited manpower, Agriterra could only participate in some of the trajectories. In 2009 we aim to participate in more of these collective learning trajectories.