Farmers on the move
Activity report 2009

• Prologue
• Introduction
• Achievements
• Advisory Services
  • Introduction
  • Farmers’ organisations in 2009
  • Missions in 2009
  • Individual advisory services
  • Partnerships between farmers’ organisations
  • Building bridges
• Projects: the building blocks
• FFP: Funding & Expenditure
• Conclusions and recommendations
• Download Activity Report 2009

Advisory Services

Introduction

Advisory services are one of the main tools of the agri-agencies to strengthen farmers’ organisations. This chapter will first give an impression of the farmers’ organisations the agri-agencies support. The relations with these organisations are maintained from the headquarters of the agri-agencies, by local staff and through missions. After having discussed the facts and figures of the missions in 2009, we will look further into the content of such missions, executed by the different types of experts such as farmers (AgriPool experts), consultants, employees of agri-agencies. Besides these type of exchanges, knowledge is also exchanged within the partnerships between farmers’ organisations. Lastly, the more strategic partnerships between the agencies and other organisations active in the agricultural field are described. We see that in the entire range of services offered through the various channels the agri-agency have put in place, each channel contributes to the strengthening of farmers’ organisations in a specific way. For instance by providing concrete advise (missions), exchanging experiences from which all participants learn (farmer-to-farmer partnerships) or working on optimal conditions (lobby for support and better policies through strategic partnerships).

Farmers’ organisations in 2009

Introduction

The variety in the farmers’ organisations the agri-agencies work with is large. Some operate at grassroots level, where farmers’ groups or village farmers' associations work at district level. Others are large federations of farmers operating at sub-national level and national level. At international level these are regional and sometimes even continental platforms such as the Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA). The International Federation of Agriculture Producers (IFAP) and Via Campesina manifested themselves at world level. In most cases these organisations have been accompanied by the agri-agencies in their development for years.

The main topics the agri-agencies work on with the farmers’ organisations are developing services to their members in areas such as production, collective marketing, training, seeds production and technical advice. The organisations are also supported in their activities related to lobby and advocacy.

The regional emphasis of work of almost all agri-agencies lies on Africa and more specifically sub-saharan Africa. FERT and Agriterra on the other hand also support organisations in the Mediterranean area and the Middle East (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libanon, Palestina, Jordan). Most of the organisations SCC works with as part of Farmers Fighting Poverty are based in Latin America.

Levels of operation

Producer organisations can be categorised according to the types of services provided to their members. The main services generally are economic services (such as setting up cooperatives or farmer-led businesses) and advocacy services. A combination of these services is also possible within one producer organisation. Local and sub-national level operating producer organisations generally focus on livelihood and economic services while national and international operating structures mainly focus on advocacy services.

The agri-agencies work with producer organisations at all levels and with all services (see annex 12). Some of the agri-agencies are mainly geared towards one particular service such as SCC and FERT (economic services) while Afdi, Agriterra and TRIAS encompass all levels and all services.

In 2009 the agri-agencies supported a total of 187 farmers’ organisations involved in 389 projects. This is an increase of 29% to the number in 2008. When we look more in depth at the division over levels of operation and services of the organisations, we see the following picutre:

The totals in this table show that slightly more attention is given to the organisations providing advocacy services. When we look at the divisions per agri-agency it appears that Agriterra is the only agency who gives more attention to the advocacy organisations. Agriterra however has expressed the desire to work more on economic and business development.

As for the level of operations, 50% of the producer organisations operate at national level, 21% at sub-national and local level, 6% at regional and international level. In 23% of the cases their level of operation was not defined.

When we compare the level of operations of an organisation with the geographical level on which the projects are executed, we see that 32% of the projects of producer organisations operating at regional and international level are implemented at a lower level (i.e. national, sub national or local). Similarly 56% of the projects of producer organisations operating at national level are implemented at a lower or higher level (i.e. sub national, local or international level). The organisations operating at sub-national and local level focus mainly (93%) on their own level. The subsidiarity principle, i.e. the principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest or least centralised entity, is thus not always followed. At the national level we see that platforms implement projects that are not directly related to their mandate. In this way they are competing with their direct members and unclear situations might arise for both members and other stakeholders. On the other hand, in practice we also see that the higher level organisations play an important role as mediator by passing the obtained funds through to the benefit of their members. However, in order to avoid undesirable situations this issue is to be considered well during the assessment of a project.

New organisations in 2009

The number of organisations the agri-agencies work with is in constant, be it moderate motion. As said before, most relations between the agri-agencies and the farmers’ organisations are long-term. However, some clients need to be bid farewell, either because the cooperation is disappointing or because the organisations have reached a stage in which they do not need further external support. And there are also new clients that approach the agencies to propose cooperation.

To get an impression of the intake-process, we take the example of one agri-agency. Most of the requests for cooperation with Agriterra came from Africa (mainly DR Congo) and a substantial number came from India. A total of 27 new producer organisations were formally assessed on their eligibility to become a potential client of Agriterra. Out of these, four were finally rejected. Main reasons for non-eligibility were size (too small), non-farmer led or a combination of several reasons. The remaining 23 organisations were assessed as potential clients. All these organisations were discovered either through Agriterra’s alliances with SNV, Agri-ProFocus, AgriCord, or during a prospection mission or field visit to another client in a specific country.

Twelve of these organisations are now actual clients of Agriterra and have received financial and advisory support. The support was focused on economic activities (10) and lobby and advocacy (2). As most of them received their first financial and advisory support in the course of 2009 it is too early to give an indication of the impact of this support as yet. The remaining prospects could not yet receive financial support due to AgriCord’s limited funds in 2009 and 2010.

Unfortunately no potential clients could be identified in the so-called fragile states. Lack of a good functioning institutional network within these countries make access to international aid organisations a challenge for genuine farmers’ organisations. Moreover the existing farmers’ organisations in these countries are often still very weak and therefore reluctant to contact one of the agri-agencies. Therefore the search for potential clients in these states will be more pro-active in 2010, e.g. through mapping and prospection.

Future

In 2010 Afdi will refine its strategic plan for the next years in order to improve its methods in capacity building of farmers’ organisations. This strategic plan emphasizes the importance of the internal strength of an organisation in order to improve its lobbying and advocacy abilities. In order to improve the efficiency of its partnerships with developing countries Afdi will also work on strengthening its importance within its Northern network and especially among the French farmers’ organisations.

In 2009 Agriterra had to end its support to two organisations. ALGA in Kyrgyzstan turned out to be an NGO and Lakambini (Philipines) presented Lakambini Micro Enterprise Development Center (LMEDC) as an entity operating under the responsibility of the board of Lakambini, which was not true. All efforts to repair the situation failed, and therefore it was decided to end the working relation. Agriterra has refined its exit strategy in 2009, with the aim to clarify its criteria.

Trias is in a similar process of putting up clear strategies. They decided to give more strategic importance to farmers’ organisations in their partner portfolio. Therefore, a good intake strategy is needed to maintain existing dynamics. There are organisations that are not yet partners, like in Congo, El Salvador, Ghana but which are already indirectly served by the program of Trias in these countries. As a result of the strategic decision Trias will assess in 2010 if these organisations are eligible to become partner for their next program 2011-2013 or if this needs more time (after 2013).

UPA DI’s plan for the next years is to continue with the same partners, to pursue the collaboration in the capacity building of these organisations and the development of the economic activities. FERT will make the focus of their work more local, in the context of three projects in Madagascar on national (CSA, FRDA, AROPA). As part of a partnership with AFDI, they widen their activities to Mali, which is a new country for FERT.

Missions in 2009

Staff of agri-agencies, generally from their home countries and in some cases based in the countries of operation, ensure the interface in the support to farmers’ organisations. This, on the one hand consists of identifying the needs (training, advice, etc) and on the other hand responding adequately to these needs by mobilising the right competences. These can either be AgriPool experts (farmers or employees of farmers’ organisations), consultants, employees of agri-agencies or a combination. This way of working, which consists of a combination technical advice on the spot, putting the support base into action, focussed missions of employees and mobilisation of competences within the farmers’ organisations, characterises the approach of the agri-agencies.

The rationale behind the original planning in the programme is to increase the number of AgriPool experts over the years and decrease the number of employees and consultants. The number of persons participating in missions has increased from 2007 to 2009. The chart below shows the destination of the missions per continent . It shows that most persons travelled to Africa (345 in 2009). A large number of farmers from the developing countries visited Europe and Canada for events and exchange visits. The details of most of these missions can be found on agro-info.net in the missions module.

Chart 2: Destination of participants per region (2007-2008-2009)

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

As shown in the chart below, the number of the AgriPool experts indeed did increase the most during the period 2007-2009. Of the 689 participants in missions in 2009, 293 were AgriPool experts.

Chart 3: Type of advisors on missions (2007-2008-2009)

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

In previous years the number of AgriPool experts did not meet expectations. In 2008 this was 80% of the actual plan. In 2009 the numbers increased to 88%. Yet, when taking into account that we had a reduced budget available (19 instead of 24 million), the performance is 10% above planning. The number of visitors from farmers’ organisations who attended events and workshops is almost the same as planned. In 2009 there were no large events such as the ‘Toer de Boer’ event, that did take place in 2008.

The number of employees of the agri-agencies on mission has increased with 15% since 2008. The total number (164) in 2009 is much higher than the original planning (76). Of these, 28 were institutional missions (i.e. related to Project Committee, AgriCord Board and IFAP meetings as well as trips to possible donors of the Farmers Fighting Poverty programme).

So, we can say that although the actual number of AgriPool experts participating in missions was lower than planned, we relatively did meet our targets. On the one hand because less funding was available and on the other hand because the relative share and growth of AgriPool experts is larger than any other type, just as was foreseen. However, figures are just figures and in the end we want to provide the best services to the farmers’ organisations. It has no use to send in an AgriPool expert just for the sake of good statistics. As we will demonstrate below with examples, each type of expert has his or her specific added value and it depends on the type of question, who is best placed to answer it. Nonetheless, we are convinced of the farmer-to-farmer approach and will continue to improve the availability of expertise from and among farmers.

Individual advisory services

Individual advisory services are one of the main tools of the agri-agencies. As was explained in chapter 3 there are three main categories of experts that are involved in providing these services: AgriPool experts, consultants and employees. In this last category we discern between employees at head quarters and those based in the field. More often than not the missions consist of a combination of expert types. In the following paragraphs we will illustrate the unique addition each expert type brings in.

Agripool expert missions

AgriPool experts are professionals in the north and south, usually farmers or employees within a farmers’ organisation or cooperative, who possess specialised knowledge and skills. In the case of Agriterra the kind of exchange referred to is organised under the name of AgriPool (see: www.agripool.org). Other agri-agencies may use a different ‘name’ (for instance, ‘farmer-to-farmer’), but the principle will be similar. FERT is one example of an agri-agency that makes extensive use of the farmer-to-farmer model. They have a solid base of highly qualified and motivated farmers who want to exchange knowledge with their colleague farmers elsewhere.

This was shown during a visit to France of farmers from the Agricultural Development Association of Dibra (Albania). The exchange of knowledge and practical experience regarding issues such as storage and processing of fruits, clearly impressed upon both the North and South farmers and created many opportunities for (self-)evaluation and taking new initiatives.

Other examples give further testimony of the positive effects of the farmer-to-farmer approach. Trias has stimulated and supported its partners in the South with the specific intent to encourage capacity building, knowledge development and exchange. SCC ‘pimped up’ its farmer-to-farmer approach, calling it being, doing and relating, which roughly means that every programme and every project that is carried out according to this SCC philosophy. It promotes strong, legitimate, democratic organisations as well as the synergies between them. UPA DI has sent out with evident regularity AgriPool inspired teams consisting of a farmer and an AgriCord employee.

Three examples may picture in greater detail the positive impact of the AgriPool approach.

In Tanzania, support to the producer organisation TDCU meant, until 2009, support to the Tanga Fresh processing plant. In the realisation that TDCU itself needed overall strengthening so that it could play a more meaningful role towards its members, one AgriPooler was invited to hook up with SNV, Tanzania and start a strategic planning process. TDCU fully participated in these activities and afterwards appeared very pleased with the input of the AgriPool expert. Representatives said that they and the expert spoke the same ‘language’. As a result of this mission TDCU has begun to improve its financial management system and adjust the management and supervision of its programmes.

Customer of Tanga Fresh - Tanzania

Financial management has always been a focus area of the agri-agencies. By aiming at improving the reporting from the farmers’ organisations it was always hoped for that, by improved financial transparency, doors to other funding agencies would open. Additionally the transparency established by doing so might perhaps also trigger trust within funding organisations and among their members. In Burkina Faso a combined mission of an AgriPool expert, consultant and staff member from AFDI took up this challenge. By introducing the SAGE-system for computerised accounting, the three experts assisted in improving the financial management competence of Fepa/B. Afterwards relevant performances indeed went up with all the likely benefits now within reach.

A third AgriPool example is part of the cooperation between ILO and Agriterra. Training materials for setting up cooperatives were written and developed in a collaborative effort in 2009. ILO had provided the existing but outdated materials (MATCOM training modules). Agriterra participated in the process to update and adjust them to the specific needs of today’s reality, based on its experience from working with the cooperative sector. The AgriPool advisers from Kenya and Uganda who were involved from the beginning, have played – and will continue to do so – an essential part in the final preparation of the training materials. Once the validation process is finalised these training modules will become broadly accessible on the websites of both ILO and Agriterra.

Other examples of the exchange between farmers will be discussed in the chapter on farmer-to-farmer partnerships.

Consultancy missions

For long term guidance of a producer organisation a combination of AgriPool advisory support and structural partnership and/or locally available consultants is preferred (and required) when wanting to enforce real changes in the capacity of a producer organisation. Yet, ad hoc consultant missions can be an important instrument for specific focused advice. For instance on assessments, evaluations, strategic planning exercises, audits or when developing a specific tangible instrument like a training manual. In these situations the consultant’s fresh point of view can function as an eye opener for both the producer organisation and the agri-agency.

Consultancy missions have been used to a limited extent only. And even when considered useful, most of the consultants called upon have either worked in a producer organisation themselves or have vast experience in working with producer organisations, such as the local ‘PO-advisers’. In the very special circumstances that the ‘external’ consultant had no links to producer organisations, it has been common practice to complete the team with an AgriPool adviser or agri-agency staff member, in order to create balance and support.

Below some illustrations are given of the most striking results of consultancy missions in 2009. Focus will be on those missions where no AgriPool adviser or staff member participated and the type of activities that has not been addressed earlier.

Mooriben, a farmers’ organisation in Niger, received a consultant who put substantial importance on a participatory strategic planning process. This has resulted in a clearer understanding of the different tools being used in such a process (e.g. SWOT analysis) and a better appreciation of the producer organisation’s own potential and opportunities. Mooriben is currently using the strategic plan to develop a more coherent programme in which the various donor agencies can be integrated to provide the best support to Mooriben.

Consultant missions are often just one small step within a long-term advisory trajectory. This applies most exemplary to the so-called 1000+ programme in Western Africa. Agriterra had realised that a long and engaging investment is required to make a programme such as 1000+ successful. Therefore long-term locally recruited advisors in economic initiatives, also known as CNIEPs (in French) or NAFEIs (in English – see chapter 1.4), were assigned to assist the farmers’ organisations. As pointed out in the chapter on 1000+ this programme is now being evaluated. The use and effect of this specific assistance to the farmers’ organisations will be one of the topics to be evaluated.

Clearly, the advisory services of the consultants must prove themselves in context, and as it happens they are not always automatically acted upon. In DR Congo FOPAK SK, a local producer organisation, benefited in many ways from the energetic ’PO-advisor’ who, among other things, tried to put gender on everyone’s list of priorities. Gender is a crucial topic, even more so in a fragile state like DR Congo. Women empowerment should be engrained in the total capacity development of a producer organisation, to ward off the after-effects of the civil war and the traumatisation of its female members. The work of the consultant was broadly appreciated, by both men and women. However, management has been unable (or unwilling) to translate the support on the specific topic of gender in overall policy guidelines.

Employee missions

Employee missions ideally combine a regular facilitating role in advisory trajectories with the monitoring of progress. Missions for management and monitoring should best be realised by an employee. This is because such training, evaluation or control missions closely intertwine with the vision and protocols as developed by UPA DI itself. These missions are to follow (if not scrutinise) the projects, to readjust the plan of activities if necessary, and to verify the local management of the project. The presence of the employee has an added advantage besides these formal considerations. What they witness with their own eyes and ears has a greater impact and can be understood in the wider and specific local context. This kind of ‘active’ information is very important. As a result, it will be easier for the employee to weigh options, to respond adequately and immediately, or to seek flexible solutions.

NAFSL (Sierra Leone) has seen its governance structure strengthened after it received advice on its constitution and membership base. The effect of these advisory services is that there is better understanding of what is meant by a constitution and how this guarantees the basic democratic principles of a farmers’ organisation. Awareness has also been raised on the role of the farmers movement in relation to the government of Sierra Leone.

A liaison officer, expert on the topic of cooperatives and markets, has led strategic discussions about the future of a cooperative union in Ethiopia and piloted a profiling instrument with the two primary cooperatives of Sidama. As a result of this mission, it became clear that improving the performance of primary cooperatives should be the focus for the coming capacity building trajectories within Ethiopia.

Staff in the field

Afdi, FERT, TRIAS and SCC have staff based in the field that works directly and in close cooperation with the farmers’ organisations. FERT adheres to two essential criteria related to their support to an organisation on its road to autonomy. First of all there is the element of duration. FERT works closely together with their partners for as long as it is necessary to build organisational capacity and grow into an autonomous body. The second element is continuity. Economic activities that constitute the basis for the farmers’ organisation’s existence have to be continuously supported to have the maximum effect.

In order to give its partners a continuous and durable support, Afdi chose to base part of its staff in the field. As a result of this local presence Afdi is able to improve its advisory services and react immediately to changes in the local context.

SCC has shown through its local approach that local presence can be an added value. In Latin America, SCC has learned that its local staff should play a facilitating and accompanying role in formative and training processes to ensure institutional ownership of these capacities. If such ‘embeddedness’ of international agencies and their employees is ‘validated’ by the farmers’ organisations, then automatically the participation of the local organisations becomes very high.

In Africa, the same trend has become visible. Projects in Eastern Africa proved to have more impact if they addressed partner organisations’ own objectives that they laid down in their (business) plans. Employee missions that succeeded in bringing a constructive addition to this, even when dryly directed at efficiency and tools of planning/implementation, were considered very valuable. It has enabled the partner organisations to become more effective in their administrational and financial affairs. Which in turn resulted in them addressing issues of poverty and injustice among their members more effectively.

The advantage of employee presence and readiness for action also manifested itself at junctions of decision-making. SCC personnel in Eastern Africa was made aware early of the disaster of environmental deterioration in the area, and its negative effects on SCC projects. Being such close witnesses, they reacted immediately by informing their superiors. Not only that, they broadened attention for this issue by including in their reports that environmental mainstreaming and climate change adaptation needed to be given higher priority in SCC programmes.

Partnership between agri-business firms and producer organisations

A special form of advisory services is the partnership between agri-business firms and producer organisations overseas. We take the experience of Agriterra. In 2009 four agri-business firms had a partnership with nine producer organisations in the South (see table 10). Together they implemented eight north-south advisory missions with a total of 11 persons involved and realised one south-north farmers study tour with 19 farmers from Niger. All planned missions were implemented in 2009.

In 2009 the involved Dutch agri-businesses provided technical advice on crop (De Groot & Slot and DLV-Plant) and animal husbandry practices (CRV). DLV-Plant also participated in the establishment of a training, research and consultancy department for the Armenian producer organisation FAA-ULE, while MIAN took part in three missions which targeted the development of micro insurance products (in cooperation with Nefscun, Nepal; CCSF, Cambodia; and UCA, Uganda).

The strong impact of these agri-business firms upon local behaviour and well-being is a clear indication of the great potential of innovative, vibrant and free farmers’ exchanges. Half of the sites in Niger that were visited by the De Groot & Slot advisor have seen an increased production and moreover the quality of the seeds improved. Farmers are very enthusiastic about the process and the rewards it delivered to them. They have gained economically relevant knowledge, not only on the production aspects but also on improved storage and marketing techniques and business orientation. The Dutch advisor has by now gained a splendid reputation in West Africa. In Senegal he has been asked to provide support to onion seed growers, using the experiences gained in Niger.

Similarly MIAN’s cooperation with Nefscun (Nepal) and CCSF (Cambodia) has already resulted in substantial steps taken with regard to the role of producer organisations in Nepal and Cambodia as providers of life insurance. Nefscun has been able to professionalise their mutual aid services both in terms of administration and service provision. The technical knowhow of the involved MIAN advisers was immediately recognised. Though MIAN’s advisory support to CCSF consisted of only two missions, CCSF has nevertheless ascribed a great deal of their success to MIAN’s services. MIAN has helped to make the Loan Protection and Life Saving programme more beneficial to CCSF’s members, and in fact, formed the basis of a programme that now has become a unique selling point and very profitable, for CCSF’s members as well as the organisation itself.

Concluding remarks

It is in facing and overcoming the obvious and less obvious obstacles, that the surplus value of the exchange with AgriPoolers, consultants and Agricord employees is recognised. That they all have their specific input and unique qualities has been shown in this chapter, but by and large, it is the complementary mix of professionalism, expertise, insight, objectivity and concern that makes it such a potent recipe for addressing farmers’ issues and shaking up rigid behaviours. The agri-agencies believe so, and farmers worldwide know so.

Having said this, Agricord is ultimately committed to promoting the concept of the AgriPool. Among the various kinds of advisory, it is the AgriPool mission that is the one most suited to its tasks and closest to the AgriCord ideal of reciprocal and long-lasting farmers’ exchange.

Partnerships between farmers’ organisations

Introduction

Besides the individual exchanges between farmers (farmer-to-famer missions), farmers’ organisations that form the constituency of the agri-agencies also maintain partnerships with farmers’ organisations in developing countries. The surplus value of these partnerships acts on different levels.

The constituency is a very important channel to inform the general public about global conditions, development issues and the activities of the agri-agencies. On the basis of this information the agri-agencies hope to be able to involve and enthuse the members of their constituency. This is important, because the knowledge that exists within the farmers’ organisations is unequalled and valuable in providing the best advice. In some occasions the organisations also develop fundraising activities for their colleague organisations. But the cooperation works in two ways. Mutual relations between farmers’ organisations in the North and South are also very important and instructive to organisations in the North. The approach and working methods of the organisations in developing countries often are creative and therefore shedding a useful light on the working methods of the farmers in the North.

These important values all come together in the partnerships between farmers’ organisations. The role of the agri-agencies in these partnerships generally is to bring organisations together and facilitate their subsequent partnership.

Successful examples are the joint venture between a farmer from Kenya and a farmer from The Netherlands in starting a chicken farm together. In another case the ZLTO farmers (Stichting Kuungana) agreed to participate financially in the development of a dairy processing plant in Tanzania. The signing of a memorandum of understanding and the appointment of a manager were important concrete steps in this regard.

Most partnerships are with farmers’ groups or associations at local level or sub-national level with some exceptions (e.g. Kenya, Burkina Faso and Benin). Their activities mostly focus on concrete activities with direct effect on the farmers’ communities. Some of the partnerships are very focused on technical assistance in crop husbandry and marketing (e.g. potatoes in DR Congo, animal traction in Guinea, irrigation pumps for rice production in Niger), while others are oriented towards local income generating activities and farmer-led business initiatives (grain storage in Benin, micro credit in Senegal and Burkina Faso, guarantee fund in Costa Rica, dairy cooperative in Tanzania) or a broader livelihood programme (Philippines). However some exchange mission activities are more geared towards strategic organisational aspects (e.g. setting up a women’s wing in India, developing a joint commercialisation strategy for dairy cooperatives in Brazil and Argentina, building a federative structure in Costa Rica, new strategic directions in Romania and Thailand). Training is often an important component of the exchange mission (e.g. rate of return training in Benin, women entrepreneurship in Kenya, South-North training in The Netherlands with participants from DR Congo and Kenya).

As we will demonstrate below with examples, the cooperation from farmer to farmer works. Not always, but when it works, the results are concrete, sustainable, and inspiring to others.

South-North Cooperation

Dutch farmers’ organisations continued their direct Farmer to Farmer partnerships with 25 farmers’ organisations spread over the world in 2009 (see annex 13). Only a few changes occurred: the rural women organisation KVO phased out its partnership with Lakambini in The Philippines due to organisational issues within Lakambini. Additionally, the Dutch beekeeping association (Bijenvereniging Nederland) initiated a new partnership with a farmers’ organisation in Congo D.R. (ASALI). Although the relation between the organisations needs to be tightened, the Dutch beekeepers did already provide their feedback on the business plan that ASALI developed together with a Rwandese consultant. Besides the fact that ASALI has started to market their honey (see box), they are now also member of the regional network of beekeepers.

The partnerships do not end when the visits end. During the rest of the year contact is maintained through phone and email. The Northern counterparts collect funds among farmers in the North to support concrete activities of their partners in the South. And even during periods where progress is not as eminent, the solidarity and a willingness to give support remain. A typical example is the support given by LLTB to UPP/UF in Senegal. Despite complicated organisational problems, LLTB sticks besides the female farmer groups of UPP/UF.

Long term partnerships with a clear focus, provide real tangible results after some time. An interesting example is the collaboration of LTO-Noord with potato growers in DR Congo. Production has not only increased but quality of the harvested potatoes has improved tremendously. As a result the living conditions for the farmer families improved. LTO-Noord is now looking into the possibility to also advise on the aspect of marketing potatoes.

Another remarkable spin-off of the exchanges in the partnerships is the multiplying effect that is starting to take place between DR Congo and adjacent countries. The advice given by the advisors of LTO to their partners in Congo DR is now also used to solve similar issues in Rwanda and Burundi. Over time this may lead to a South-South collaboration between these countries.

A similar development is about to take place in Brazil where the exchange between UNICAFES-PR (Parana) and dairy groups in Argentina Milkaut SA (a cooperative controlled dairy company), Sancor (cooperative dairy centre of 61 dairy cooperatives), INTA (Institute of agricultural science) and INTI (Institute of Industrial Technology) gave a better understanding of the possibilities of milk processing. The possibility of developing a central unit for milk processing for the different dairy coops (members of the MilkForum FLP) on village level is to be explored further in 2010. The added value of such a unit as part of a joint commercialisation strategy would bring about a scaling-up effect. The cooperatives would all need to adhere to the same quality criteria, labelling, etc. It will also allow the members of the MilkForum to take advantage of the possibility to cooperate on local and supra-local level. On top of that, cooperation may expand to neighbouring regions in Argentina and other Brazilian federated states.

South-South Cooperation

The Brazilian example already touched upon the South-South cooperation: between farmers’ organisations from developing countries. Besides the long term partnership between Southern and Northern farmers’ organisations, there is a large demand for exchange between Southern producer organisations.

Exchange visits
The larger part of the missions are exchange visits at grassroots level. The farmers and staff members of farmers’ organisations from one country meet farmers from other countries to learn or advise. Topics often concern the market value chain of crop or animal husbandry, processing of products and accessing markets. In 2009 the Uganda pineapple growers learned about pineapple production in Ghana, Ethiopian coffee growers visited Tanzania to learn about fair trade coffee production, and Congolese fishermen visited their Rwandan neighbours to learn about processing and marketing of fish. In Latin America, Ecuadorian farmers went to an Argentine farm to learn about improving the genetic quality of bees and Peruvian and Bolivian milk producers exchanged on processing and marketing. Exchanges can also take place closer to home, for instance the farmers’ groups from Mai Ndombe (West-Congo) who visited their colleagues in Lower Congo to learn about the system of health insurance within the farmers’ groups. In order to improve wheat quality in Morocco, expert missions were to support the technical staff of Settat when sowing in the fall of 2009. The effect of this exchange was mainly that the members of the new cooperatives in the Settat region could learn directly and discuss with each other about the best ways of sowing and setting up the seed beds. They also participated in the setting up the test fields together with INRA in Settat.

The exchange visits between the partnering organisations are highly appreciated because the context in which the farmers operate are often very similar. As a result the approach used can be easier adapted to and adopted by the farmers involved. In 2009 a total of 21 missions took place with the aim to ‘link and learn’.

Training and events
A number of representatives from farmers’ organisations were able to attend international workshops, fairs or trainings on a specific topic. Staff from Eastern African Farmers’ organisations attended a HIV/AIDS workshop in order to mainstream the issue of HIV/AIDS both within their organisation as well as in their programme activities. A visit to an agri-business forum in South Africa by Ugandan oilseed producers helped establishing business networks. But also the seminar “Comparing Market Access and Chain Development methodologies” organised by Agricord (Arusha, Tanzania) offered a place for exchange. Participants were the agri-agencies active in the East African region (Agriterra, Trias, SCC) and their partner organisations. The objective of the seminar was to allow participants to share experiences in approaches on trade, capacity building and chain development.

Lobby events in South or North
A number of farmer leaders attended international events to ensure that the farmers’ voice is heard (e.g participation in the UN/FAO food summit, IFAP’s Gender seminar in the Mediterranean).

UNICAFES (Brazil) is an example of an organisation using both North-South and South-South exchanges to improve its performance. The cooperation with Boerenbond Belgium started in 2006 as well as with several dairy groups in Argentina. The focus lies on providing institutional and technical support for the dairy chain. In January 2009 a visit from UNICAFES to Boerenbond was organised on the issue of dairy cooperatives, industrialisation and membership. There is regular contact between the dairy workgroup of Boerenbond and UNICAFES, for instance about the statutes of dairy cooperatives as compared to that of industrialised milk companies.

Through its cooperation with the Boerenbond, UNICAFES really professionalised as organisation. The leaders from the Milkforum Paranà and the advisors of UNICAFES came to realise the need to further professionalise the staff and leaders to better organise and manage their cooperatives. Besides that, the organisation needed to make a step forwards in a the central registration of data. This aspect was already acted on by integrating three dairy centres and is to be realised by 2010. The largest challenge will be to harmonise the three systems on financial and administrative level.

In general we observe that these South-South learning events and North-South partnerships are more effective if embedded in a larger programme. A good example is the programme in the Great Lakes Region in Central Africa where eleven producer organisations from Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern part of DR Congo cooperate to strengthen the agro-economic position of producer organisations. Linkage to Agri-ProFocus’ programme in Rwanda and the IFDC regional programme may further enhance the impact of this programme in the future.

Building bridges

Introduction

In order to further improve their services, agri-agencies are continuously in of search of building partnerships with other organisations. The relations often go beyond the scope of the programme, but have an important impact on the way of working of the agri-agencies. By combining experiences and expertise, these partnerships give added value to the services either organisation can offer. This synergy in shared interests increases effectiveness and impact of the shared actions.

The partnerships of the agri-agencies operate on different topics and levels. Agriterra’s partnerships improve services because of the added value they bring through specific local presence (SNV), expertise (IICD), capacity building (PSO) or learning (Agri-ProFocus). Trias on the other hand mainly entered in partnerships that add to their impact in lobby activities in order to put agricultural development on top of the political agenda. Trias can offer their clients opportunities in increasing their entrepreneurship, because of their partnerships large multi-nationals (Tullow Oil, Puratos Group). UPA DI again offers an entirely different approach in their partnership with CIFA (Senegal). This relation started by UPA DI training CIFA staff and developed into a partnership where both organisations benefit.

Local presence

Agriterra, SNV and Agri-ProFocus signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2007 for a period of four years in which they committed themselves to join forces in strengthening producer organisations in those countries where all parties were present. The main goal is that farmers become better entrepreneurs and gain better market access. The commitment entailed an investment by Agriterra of € 800.000 and SNV would invest the equal of 8 fte. The realised input for 2009 has been € 1,173,600 from Agriterra involving 15 producer organisations, while SNV invested in 7 fte in 10 of these producer organisations.

Major attention has been given to involve new producer organisations where both Agriterra and SNV could play a role. This has resulted in the identification of eight to ten potential clients in the Balkans (Albania and Macedonia), Africa (Mali, Ethiopia and Zambia) and Eastern Asia (Vietnam and Cambodia).

A few examples of results achieved through joint collaboration efforts in 2009:

Teasec Nepal is a cooperative federation of small tea gardeners that receives support from Agriterra since 2008. The financial support from Agriterra and advisory support from both Agriterra and SNV resulted local tea grower groups organised themselves in 48 cooperatives. The lobby of these cooperatives led to the members getting a better price for green leaf tea and some factories are now paying the transportation costs from the tea garden to the factory.

The combination of the local presence of SNV offering advisory services and Agriterra’s financial and advisory support to the producer organisations can be a successful pact. However, both parties need to be strongly involved and dedicated to working together in order to ensure its success. In a number of cases both SNV and Agriterra work parallel and are insufficiently aware of each other’s programmes. The above results in 2009 illustrate however that it is worth investing in this partnership which combines local presence and specific advice and funding.

Capacity building

Agriterra became a member of PSO in 2007. Since then a number of advisers could be contracted with support from PSO. Agriterra was able to contract four senior advisers to support producer organisations in Laos, Nepal, DR-Congo and Peru in the field of cooperative development, financial services, economic development in fragile states and agro-tourism. By having advisers present locally, Agriterra can contribute to major institutional capacity building within those organisations. This support is crucial in further developing the activities of these producer organisations.

In NEFSCUN (Nepal) the technical adviser trained SACCO-staff on the topic of micro insurance services provided to 93 SACCO’s. In the meantime 23 SACCO’s have started selling their micro insurance policies to rural clients.

The adviser in Laos started September 2009 and has since then trained project staff in four provinces to monitor and train the Savings and Credit Unions at primary level. In the Great Lakes area the technical adviser focused on initiating a programme on market-led agricultural development in fragile states with twelve producer organisations from DR-Congo, Burundi and Rwanda. This programme intends to boost the capacity of involved producer organisations in the field of small and medium scale agri-business development. As such the programme contributes to sustained economic rural development.

In Peru the adviser is in the process of transferring the producer organisation from a project approach towards a more business-oriented approach of agro-tourism.

Apart from the technical advisory support to producer organisations in the South, PSO has contributed to learning within Agriterra and between member organisations of PSO. Specific attention has been paid to the position of producer organisations in fragile states. PSO has been instrumental in the learning trajectories in that field. As a result the awareness within Agriterra has increased on the effect of the context of a fragile state. In 2010 this awareness will be applied in developing tailor-made capacity strengthening trajectories.

Delivery of potatoes - Rwanda

Learning & Networking

Agriterra is one of the co-founding agencies in the network Agri-ProFocus. This network has been established in 2005 to pooling together financial and human resources of Dutch development agencies in order to strengthen the support to producer organisations in the South. Learning trajectories among the members and the clients are expected to boost better understanding of market value chain, farmer entrepreneurship or general rural development. Agriterra’s partnership with the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) also revolves around sharing knowledge. This partnership is geared to combining expertise in order to both be able to deliver better services. In 2009 the partnership included six projects in which on the one hand the use of ICT’s in the context of rural livelihoods was optimised and on the other hand we worked on the integration of ICT’s as part of the farmers’ organisation. In order to maintain the continuity of some projects, IICD agreed to take over Agriterra’s contribution for 2010. This still being a relatively new partnership, the exact working relations need to be developed. However, both Agriterra and IICD are very enthusiastic about the possibilities of their cooperation and will look at the possibility to develop a programme together.

The country focus trajectories that have been initiated since 2008 in Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Niger, Zambia and Ethiopia show a lot of learning and networking among participants. However it is not yet clear what the actual effect of this learning and networking is on the original goal of the Agri-ProFocus network. Agriterra feels that the present direction drifts away from the original goals set by the founding members. And although Agriterra recognises the importance of common learning and networking, they intent to diminish their contribution in the learning trajectories until tangible results can be demonstrated.

Afdi is also involved in a network that aims at the exchange of knowledge. They have a long-standing cooperation with Inter-réseaux Développement Rural, a platform for debate and exchange of experiences regarding rural development, with a high degree of participation from the South.

In 2009, the collaboration took the form of a joint promotion of an Advisory Node for Family Farming (‘Pôle CEF’), which had been launched in 2005. The Node is accessible on internet and offers a wealth of material on how to manage and improve family farming. The diversity of the information that is displayed ensures a lively debate. The CIRAD and the CNEARC (agricultural research institutes) are partners of the Node.

Afdi also made an appeal to Inter-réseaux Développement Rural to contribute to reflections in Madagascar on the marketing of agricultural products. Taking as point of departure that marketing services managed by farmers’ organisations often fail to be effective and profitable, a workshop was held in April of 2009 in order to explore how to improve these economic services. Inter-réseaux has contributed to a “Guide d’amélioration de la commercialisation” written by Afdi and others, with pertinent recommendations and advice on this issue.

Lobby

At the level of the NGO sector in Belgium, Trias plays a very active role in both the Federation of the Flemish NGO’s – Coprogram and the North-South Movement 11.11.11. For example, Trias assumes a leading role in the ‘Coalition against hunger’ that is lobbying towards the Belgium Government for more attention and means for development efforts in favour of food security and agricultural development. One of the indirect spin-offs of this effort has been the first financial support that the Belgian ministry for Development Cooperation (DGDC) has contributed in 2009 to AgriCord. Several relations with other NGO’s in Belgium involved in rural development (such as WWF, Vredeseilanden, Oxfam Wereldwinkels, SOS Faim, etc) were intensified in 2009. One of the most challenging commitments in this sense is the constitution of the coalition AgriCongo 2020. This coalition aims to streamline the approaches and efforts of five Belgian NGO’s. Together they want to support the family agricultural sector in Congo RDC the next 10 years.

SCC (Sweden) also lobbies nationally. They are member of CONCORD-Sweden, which is part of a European network that campaigns on EU development aid policy, and in Rättvisemärkt, Fair Trade.

The lobby for improved agricultural policies also proves to be successful locally. In 2009 for instance, a lobby conducted by the national producer organisations in Benin with their government regarding the Agriculture Sector Strategic Plan was very successful. The Beninese farmers’ organisation FUPRO, with the support of SNV and Agriterra, played an important role in the agricultural sector reform (in favour of family farming). This was the result of effective lobbying with a well considered strategy in which technicians of the farmers’ organisations met in a number of workshops with their peers of the Ministry of Agriculture. This brought the producer organisations in the centre of agricultural power in Benin.

The long-standing partnership FERT has with the Institut Agronomique de Settat in Morocco enabled the preparation and realisation of a seminar to evaluate the programme aimed at wheat improvement (project 4951). The seminar coincided with the kick-off of the Maroc Vert (Green Morocco) plan.

Onion field - Niger

Entrepreneurship

Trias also paid much attention to their relations with larger multinational companies. A rural development program in Uganda has been started in collaboration with Tullow Oil, one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in Europe. Related to Trias’ program in Congo RDC, a strategic alliance has been defined in 2009 with the Puratos group that provides ingredients to the bakery, patisserie & chocolate sectors worldwide, to develop the local cacao sector.

Another important aspect of the networking effort of Trias aims at the entrepreneurial world and individual private companies. Trias is a founding and very active member of the Corporate Funding Program. The CFP brings together NGO’s and private companies into a structural relationship that encompasses both financial support and permanent dialogue on specific development issues.

In total, Trias maintains active relations with several hundred external stakeholders, others than its own constituency and direct development partners. The fact that the organisation has developed a network of nine regional offices in the South contributes largely to this extensive network of relations. In Belgium, 104 relations are maintained varying from municipalities (43), provinces (5), private companies and related foundations (28), research institutes (3) to other NGO’s and development actors (25).

Research & Training

Over the years, UPA DI has developed collaborative relations with many partners, in most cases nongovernmental organisations that are also involved in international development. This collaboration makes it possible to make the most of each partner’s expertise in order to carry out interventions that are better suited to farmers’ organisations’ needs. UPA DI also works jointly with a number of civil society networks whose advocating work reinforces its mission.

A different approach, but at least as effective is UPA DI’s partnership with the Centre interprofessionnel pour la formation aux métiers de l’agriculture (CIFA), in Senegal. This partnership stands out among the many that were established by UPA DI. CIFA is a training institution that has been trained by UPA DI for the implementation of The Farmers Knowledge Program (TFKP). This program relies on farmers’ organisations and their members to foster a profound improvement of rural communities and their environment. Through their implication in the delivery of training sessions, the revision of training materials and the continuous evaluation of the program, the CIFA trainers have contributed to making the program more relevant and effective, and they have made it easier for Senegalese farmers to adopt it. Moreover, CIFA mobilised its wide local network and even travelled to Canada in order to promote TFKP and UPA DI, thereby helping with fundraising. UPA DI could also count on CIFA’s expertise to assist in the start up of TFKP in Benin. Thus, the new team of trainers that was set up in Benin was able to find inspiration in the lessons learned from their Senegalese counterparts. Furthermore, CIFA’s testimony about TFKP’s results in Senegal convinced even the most sceptical Beninese farmer and made them eager to participate in this program of training and agricultural development.