Ambitious cooperatives (part 1)
24-01-2020Agriterra’s goal is to turn cooperatives into fully-fledged professional businesses. These professional cooperatives and farmers’ organisations are crucial for sustainable economic development and job opportunities in the countryside. They are the catalyst for progress and contribute to a stable and prosperous agricultural sector and the economy as a whole. We work with around 300 cooperatives in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Below are a few examples of cooperatives of which we are proud.
Kamdhenu’s Growth in Nepal
Kamdhenu Dairy Development Cooperative (KDDC) is a cooperative that is established for and by the small farmers in eastern Nepal. They produce a wide range of high-quality milk products like pasteurised milk (3%, 4% and 5% fat), cheese, yoghurt and paneer, a kind of soft cheese used for making Indian type dishes.
KDDC gives the famers a sustainable earning after their delivery. They work together with 6 primary dairy cooperatives in the East of Nepal.
The former chairman, Tika Ojha, who was influenced by the cooperative business during his visit in Demark, initiated to establish a cooperative by bringing the farmers together, who used to supply milk to him. He was at that time a milk trader.
KDDC is building a factory, with the capacity of 50.000 litres/day
Now after the 20 years of establishment of KDDC, the cooperative became one of the biggest dairy players in eastern Nepal owned by the farmer members. With the support of government grant (20%), bank loan (40%) and members capital (40%) of the total 2 million euros investment, they are building a factory capacity of 50.000 litres/day, more than three times the current capacity of 15.000 litres/day.
Agriterra is helping KDDC with strategic and financial planning, layout design of the new factory, trainings and also by giving advice on sales and marketing. Because of this, KDDC becomes more professional in the dairy sector and has an ambition to grow into a nation-wide dairy cooperative.
Micro credit for Andean women in Peru
La Chuspa is a credit cooperative in Cusco, Peru. La Chuspa was founded as an NGO in 2000 to provide microcredit to Andean women. But the NGO decided to become a cooperative in 2015, initially with 38 female members from the Cusco region. This change was implemented to be able to offer more financial services to members, such as savings or higher credit lending.
80% of La Chuspa members are women
Meanwhile, membership has grown and now consists of 80 per cent women. The savings and credit cooperative also offers savings options for members’ children because they want to focus on the whole family. La Chuspa hopes the cooperative will support development of the whole family.
