FARMERS’ ORGANIZATIONS
Farmers’ Organizations (FOs) are an important part of civil society in FFD’s project countries. They promote and enable dialogue and consultations, overcome social dilemmas, stimulate joint bargaining or contracting and joint policy development. They have a responsibility to address inequalities between and discrimination against smallholder producers, particularly the structural barriers that women and minority farmers face in society and in their organisations. It is paramount that a Farmers’ Organization responds to its members’ interests and that the decision-making follows democratic processes and good governance principles.
FFD:s local partner FOs in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Nepal, Vietnam and Kenya are presented below.
Ethiopia
ZENBABA UNION – ZENBABA BEES' PRODUCTS DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING COOPERATIVE UNION
Zenbaba Bees' Products Development and Marketing Cooperative Union is the first commodity specific and specialized union in the Amhara region that is engaged in honey production and bee products. Since 2018 Zenbaba Union’s activities expanded to also include development and marketing of forest and natural resource products. The aim of Zenbaba union is to strengthen member cooperatives, to render business services to them and to protect their legal benefits and rights.
Kenya
Farm Forestry Smallholder Producers Association of Kenya (FF-SPAK)
FF-SPAK is a Kenyan umbrella organization for development of smallholder forestry. It was registered in 2013 to work with grassroots organizations in Kenya to promote and champion the interests of farm forestry smallholders as lobby and advocacy, capacity building, promotion of rights and interests, etc. FF-SPAK has a functional secretariat (through support from We Effect) based in Nairobi. Currently, FF-SPAK has 9 affiliate associations covering much of the Kenyan territory and more than 20 000 farmers.
Tanzania
NADO - NJOMBE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION
Njombe Agricultural Development Organization (NADO) is a member-based organization registered in 2008 with operations in the Njombe Region in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. NADO’s main focus is on ware and seed potato production. The organization works in 23 wards with around 7 500 farmers in six districts of the Njombe Region. Training and advisory support is provided at grassroot level by 65 young Training of Trainers Officers (ToTs). With the support of FFD, NADO has improved the production of ware and seed potatoes as well as its quality system.
TTGAU - TANZANIA TREE GROWERS ASSOCIATIONS UNION
Tanzania Tree Growers Associations Union (TTGAU) is a member-based organization established in 2017 to promote the interests of tree growers who are organized in tree growers associations. TTGAU vision is to be the principal organization that unites private commercial tree growers for lobbying and advocacy for improved income and development of forest sector in the country, to represent tree growers in policy development, economic and social forums. Its mission is to promote an inclusive, environmentally and socially accepted private commercial forestry industry in Tanzania for sustainable improvement of peoples’ livelihood. TTGAU has 136 member TGAs with more than 9,000 tree growers. TTGAU is a member of the National Forest Committee, defending the interests of small producers.
UWAMIMA - UMOJA WA WAKULIMA WA MITI MATEMBWE
Matembwe Tree Growers Association or in Kiswahili known as Umoja wa Wakulima wa Miti Matembwe commonly called by its acronym UWAMIMA. UWAMIMA has the purpose of promoting the use of improved planting material and good forestry practices to improve productivity and quality of members’ woodlots and undertaking alternative sources of income like beekeeping, potatoes and avocado farming as ways of ensuring sustainable income and extended rotation age of their woodlots to allow for good income at harvest. Additional objective of UWAMIMA is to improve networking with other tree growers’ associations within the region. It was founded in 2009 in Matembe, Njombe Region.
TAHA - TANZANIAN HORTICULTURAL ASSOCIATION
Tanzanian Horticultural Association, established in 2004, is the national member-based organization of horticultural value chain actors (producers, exporters, processors and service providers) in Tanzania with its headquarters located in Arusha. TAHA's core objective is to ensure industry reformation by positioning horticulture to participate effectively in addressing national food security and nutrition security, enhancing farmers’ income, and opening access to markets. TAHA has about 705 members representing 17,850 farmers and other actors across the country. The association has about 80 members.
Mozambique
AKA COMMERCIAL – ANIWANANA KANVANHIANA
AKA is a producers’ cooperative founded in 2012 based in Mocuba in Zambezia province. AKA brings together 11 unions, comprising a total of about 110 associations and around 3000 members with an average of 2 ha per family farm. AKA envisions to become a cooperative recognized internationally by its quality of service delivery and its transparency. A cooperative owned and governed by its producers, managing successful businesses with sustainable revenues. AKA is working to improve the lives of its members acting as a business platform for its producers, facilitating the access to machinery, inputs, storage, processing technologies, irrigation and marketing of products at competitive prices.
Nepal
AMRITPUR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR COOPERaTIVE LTD (ASEC)
Amritpur Social Entrepreneurs Cooperative (ASEC) is based in Tulsipur, Dang District, Nepal. It was jointly established by nine Community Forest User Groups (CFUG) in 2013 to act as their umbrella organization. ASEC has core expertise in the agroforestry sector, especially sustainable forest management, governance, entrepreneurship and enterprise development, and today 10 CFUGs are ASEC members with more than 3000 households involved. ASEC’s 166 shareholder members have representatives from ethnic groups Chaudhary, Mangol and Dalit. The aim is to develop improved forest management and forestry as livelihood in the community-owned forests.
SUNDARDEEP WOMEN FISH FARMERS COOPERATIVE
Sundardeep women fish farmers cooperative is an active, united and female only organization working for the indigenous Tharu community in Chitwan. The cooperative registered in 2012, and the core expertise include agriculture and fish farming. Seven other mainly female fish farming cooperatives / groups are collaborating within the project, forming an important network for Sundardeep. Sundardeep and the seven cooperatives/groups have collaborated with FFD since 2012.
THE FEDERATION OF COMMUNITY FORESTRY USERS NEPAL (FECOFUN)
FECOFUN is a formal network of Forest User Groups (FUGs) from all over Nepal, and is the largest civil society of Nepal which has strong presence in every level of government (central, federal and local). FECOFUN emerged from the idea that forest users from all parts of the country should be linked in order to strengthen the role of Users in policy making processes. Since its inception in 1995, FECOFUN has grown into a social movement organization with about 8.5 million forest users. It is a national federation of forest users across Nepal dedicated to promoting and protecting users’ rights. Of more than 22 266 CFUGs and other Community Based Forest Management Groups in Nepal approximately 16 186 are affiliated with FECOFUN.
Vietnam
TTHCA - THUA THIEN HUE COOPERATIVE ALLIANCE
The cooperative has 5 functions: (1) Represent and protect legal rights of the organization’s members; (2) Propagandize and mobilize the development of cooperative economy and cooperative; (3) Offer professional advice, service and assistance to members; (4) Participate in making relevant policies and laws; (5) Be legal representative of members in internal and foreign relations. At present, there are 257 cooperatives in Thua Thien Hue province of which 162 are agricultural cooperatives. There are more than 250 000 members. HCA orients the cooperatives to help them expand their business / production and enhance the capacity of the cooperatives' staff through the State's budget. Many individuals and households need HCA's assistance to establish cooperatives.
QNCA - QUANG Ngai COOPERATIVE ALLIANCE
Quang Ngai Cooperative Alliance, founded in 1997, represents 272 Cooperatives (of which 209 are agricultural cooperatives) in the province of Quang Nam in Vietnam. Quang Ngai Cooperative Alliance is part of the Vietnamese Cooperative Alliance and support cooperatives in the province of Quang Ngai. This province has a considerable amount of forest coverage and thus, forestry is one of the key income generating activities for several cooperatives. The cooperative has invested in setting up and supporting forest cooperatives.
PHU YEN COOPERATIVE ALLIANCE (PYCA)
Phu Yen Provincial Cooperative Alliance represents 81 cooperatives in Phu Yen district. PYCA is part of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance, and PYCA’s members have forest in 61 cooperatives. Phu Yen is far from big cities and forest income provides a good opportunity for the cooperative to strengthen the income of its members.
VCA- VIETNAM COOPERATIVE ALLIANCE
Vietnam Cooperative Alliance is the national apex organization representing and associating all cooperatives in Vietnam. It renders professional support services to the cooperatives as well as implements viable and effective economic activities to steer and uplift the movement. By doing so, it hopes to develop a strong and sustainable socio-economic structure of cooperation, solidarity and community without poverty for the nation. The alliance has offices in 68 provinces, includes 12 000 cooperatives and it reaches 2 400 000 households.
