Course on Establishing and strengthening farmer organizations

INTRODUCTION

Farmers’ organization’s-FOs represent farmers’ own interests. They have emerged as a result of Farmers own, real expressed needs. They are effective channels of communication between the member-farmers. Without them, a situation of isolated voices would arise, that lack coordination and general power to affect the behavior of agricultural service providers. Farmer organizations therefore need to be strengthened. FO’s for instance do not have access to diverse sources of income, in some instances, there are no core cultural or economic activities that bind their members, FO’s in certain instances do not have access to capacity-building support, they sometimes operate in unfriendly institutional environment (lack of supportive legislation, no formal recognition). They tend to be weak and are unable to influence powerful actors with the needs of their members.

The Sustainable Livelihoods-SL approach to rural development recognizes the key importance of institutions and organizations to rural people for achieving positive livelihood outcomes

In many prevailing situations worldwide, formation of groups and farmer organizations is done without training them properly in theory and practice on the basic principles of community organizations. Majority of the farmers do not have many skills and experience in the process of establishing these organizations. However, many government agencies have developed national policies for rural development and designed policy framework to help rural people become organized so that delivery of services could be channeled through the various types of farmer organizations or groups. Well-meaning policies provide blueprint structures for farmer organizations (FO) in the form of cooperatives and commodity organizations in order to provide various inputs, marketing, and educational services to the farmers. However, a number of issues surround the establishment and functioning of farmer organizations remain unaddressed.

DURATION

5 days

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

This course is intended for various actors in the Agriculture Extension (Agricultural extension officers, senior agricultural officials and policy makers) working with communities, in governments, funding agencies, Research organizations and non-government organizations among others for Agriculture support activities and other Development programmes.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of the course, learners will have:

• Have gained practical knowledge on the various types of typical Farmer organizations
• Understood the key steps in establishing farmer organizations
• Be able to establish the roles of extension services in farmer organizations
• Understood the key issues influencing participation in farmer organizations
• Understood the various strategies/empowerment methods that can be applied to farmer organizations
• Gain an understanding of the factors influencing farmer organizations’ effectiveness/success
• Knowledge of the policy issues influencing establishment and strengthening of farmer organizations

Others Details

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