Increasing the economic activities and services for its members.

Katerera Area Cooperative Enterprise is a society is a registered cooperative and is established in 2008. The cooperative started with 2.000 members and has grown to 5.239 members to date. The commodities are maize, cotton and bean and the ACE has started with coffee. The first harvest is expected in 2015. The ACE has a block of farm land (including land titles) of 650 acres where the farmers grow their commodities. Since 2013, Agriterra actively supports Katerera ACE with realizing its growth ambitions. Katerera would like to provide more services to its members, among others by starting with the milling of maize, which generates more income for farmers. In addition, they actively would like to channel most of the produce of its members through the cooperative instead of through middlemen. The latter always generates less income for the members. But in order to succeed, Katerera ACE needs working capital, as without cash, members will not provide their produce to the cooperative. In order to realize both ambitions, Katerera ACE was in need of a detailed business plan to give direction and specific actions for Katerera to take. This support of Agriterra has resulted in a first tranche of working capital for the procurement of maize and beans from a French NGO. This is very positive news, as getting access to working capital for non export commodity has always been very difficult. In addition, it means that Katerera can now focus on building sales capacity within the organisation. The first steps has been taken, but 2014 will be year to consolidate the work of 2013 and further professionalize the cooperative. This means a professionalization in terms of financial management, business planning and sales capacity. But also there will be focus on raising internal capital, sentization of members to contribute more and the usage of ICT within the organization.