Help organize the beneficiaries into a farmers' co-operative
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Now that the project has begun; the most substantial risk to its’ goal and purpose is that the capacity at community level is insufficient to adequately manage the project tasks.
This risk will be addressed through substantial investment of project resources in capacity building and strengthening and volunteer training, as well as training the beneficiaries in group dynamics.
We hope to encourage and facilitate the beneficiaries of the project to form groups and constitute themselves into a Community Association and farmers’ co-operative to manage and sustain the activities initiated under the project and take advantage of the economies of scale in purchase of farm inputs; processing, transportation and marketing of agricultural produce; increase their market share and facilitate better access to credit and other financial services.
The co-operative will make important contributions to providing incomes to beneficiaries as a poverty alleviation strategy and provide for an important opportunity for the beneficiaries to gainfully participate in community and national development.
If you have any experience in co-operatives/ community organisations your advice is greatly appreciated.
I have attached the Scottish farm co-ops' management guidebook (givne to me by William). It has everything we need to know about setting up and running a co-op in a relatively understandable format for such things and is easy to refer to; it was written for the farmer members of boards and management committees as there is a big difference between running a farm and helping to run a co-op, whatever country you are in.
Both Paddy and I are in the middle of the reading it and here it is for you to read and to feedback to the village.
Attached files:
Hi Sinead
Have you had any contact with Kyomya or Wakitaka villages?
Both are near Jinja. From what I have read on Nabuur, Kyomya already have a small cooperative, and Wakitaka are hoping to visit them and learn from them. See http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/wakitaka/project/task/find-various-exam... and scroll down a bit.
If they are close enough, maybe Nabitende can learn from them too?
Mary
Of course I have about a thousand questions but not much useful advise. But anyway. The whole thing would have to be scaled down of course, so a lot of it is irrelevant. Hierarchy, backstabbing and whatnot.
First. Stakeholders and shareholders, members and owners? Are the farmers stakeholders? Do the farms become part of the business? If so they would be at risk to creditors, even in a limited business? Can the farms be used as the main part of the business but not be owned by the business. Should they be rented by the business (in case profits become taxable)(is this a business or a charity?). What responsibility would they have in case of bankruptcy? Would they be reinvesting their money as shareholders or would they be paid as employees and the profits reinvested by the co-op (since they are owners, they would therefore become stakeholders)? This may all be common knowledge to accountants but I can only find vague outlines on how co-ops work. It mentions pensions. What happens when the stake or share is passed on to the next generation? I'm not sure if the aged are looked after by the family in Africa. In Canada they're mostly put out on ice floes and forgotten.
The Board. Would there be members on the board? Would the board be employees or would they become members of the co-op? Does a majority vote refer to a majority of the board or a majority of members....
Actually, I don't expect answers to these questions but I think any accounting or corporate law student could translate the information into a short version that would relate only to the immediate needs. Is there one out there?
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Rick Ellis
Hi,
Mary, I like your idea. After a quick look at Google Maps I see that Jinja and Iganga district are situated not far from each other. But I don't know how long it actually takes to get there from Nabitende village.
I found the following organization in Uganda called Uganda Cooperative Alliance. We might contact them an see if they can provide some assistance in forming a farmer's cooperative?
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/ent/coop/africa/countries/e...
Co-operative Centre Building
47/49 Nkrumah Road
P.O. Box 2215 Kampala
Tel: (256) (0) 41 258 898
Fax : (256) (0) 41 258 556
Email: smusinguzi@uca.co.ug (Project manager: Mr Steven Musinguzi)
Jenny
hi Mary, Jenny, Rick and everybody,
Nabitende is 35km from Jinja and last night I sent messages to Virginia, facilitator of Kyomya about NAWOU. Hopefully their information will be useful to us.
Fatima also found NOGAMU - national Organic agricultural movement of Uganda (in project room about a month ago). Some research has been done on this group and we are hoping to join.
This new website, you reccommend, Jenny, looks great too and we will definitely contact them,
and Rick still getting my head around your questions,,,
thank you all, keep contributing,
Sinéad
Hi
That link that Jenny gave looks promising. It seems to cover everything, including watching out for Management Professionals and Elites. As usual it seems to boil down to costs. It sounds like a lot of expensive work even with them paying half. Are we far enough ahead yet to offer prospects that would beat out what looks like a lot of competition? Maybe that much organization won't be necessary until we go into later stages of the project and can show guaranteed success. And have more to lose as well.
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Rick Ellis
Hi everybody,
It should not be too expensive or difficult to form a co-op; the co-op world is a big friendly family and it's usually just a case of hunting around for a friendly benefactor, although things might be a bit more difficult in the present climate - The Northern Rock Bank rarely said no to fledgling co-ops in northern England before it collapsed.
The International Co-operative Alliance is the global body which serves co-ops worldwide; they have an African office in Kenya.http://www.ica.coop/africa/index.html
The Canadian Co-operative Association website has a lot of the philosophy http://www.coopscanada.coop/aboutcoop/ , but I will try to answer some of Rick's worries.
Co-ops consist of individual members joining together for their own benefit to do something they can not do on their own, or can do better together.
Each member must buy a share, which need only be for a nominal amount, which is all they will loose if the co-op folds if they have not invested or loaned any more in the co-op.
Each member has one vote.
Profits are shared out in proportion to each member's sales and purchases through the co-op; the more you use it the more you benefit from the profits.
The big problem I meet with farmer co-ops is teaching the board members, who have to make the decisions, that when they are making decisions for the co-op they must think of the co-op first and their own business second. In the long term this will be the right thing for their farm as well, but it does take a different way of thinking.
I hope this helps,
From a very snowy Scotland,
William
Hello William
Thank you for the information. It looks like this will be one of the easier parts of the project. I hope. Marsha has already calculated what the farmers will pay to the co-op to continue as owners.
Come to Canada and see some real snow sometime.
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Rick Ellis
I realise I haven't answered all of Rick's questions and I think it best if I try to get the knowledge out there, so...
Stakeholders are everyone involved in any way; anyone with an interest in the project, I find it a bad word, used by backstabbers and civil servants and such people to make them seem involved.
Shareholders, members and owners are all the same thing.
The farms do not become part of the business. The new business should have limited liability, removing further liability from members in cse of bankruptcy, and be owned by the farmers for the benefit of their farm busunesses.
It is a business and will have to pay tax, but the board can decide how much profit the co-op will make by deciding what percentage of sales to retain for reinvestment and how much to pay to members, so it need not pay tax.
Any member doing physical or 9-5 management work for the co-op should be paid for this, board memebrs are usually only paid expenses, which should not be much in this case.
Depending on the constitution, or articles of association, shares can be passed from one generation to the next, but can not be sold other than to the co-op to be resold by them.
The board is usually members, possibly with 1 or 2 co-opted others such as a bank manager or other expert as a way of getting free advice.
What the board can decide and what has to go to a memebrs' vote is laid out in the articles of association, it's best if big decisions go to the members.
In reality it can all be pretty simple so long as the structure is there to make it work for everybody's good and stop the board making decisions they might come to regret.
I have just discovered this which should have some useful information about co-ops in africa
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/ent/coop/africa/download/co...
Off to have a read!
Best wishes to you all,
William
Hi William
There are interesting things in that link. The Uganda government has a 'No interference, No support' policy on co-ops. This is probably good except deregulation seems to make co-ops less attractive to donors.A lot of the larger Co-op have collapsed, which should make it easier for smaller ones.
New co-ops are using Knowledge Aquisition rather than Knowledge Transfer. I suppose that means picking and choosing what will work best for them, rather than relying on preset formulas. Then using vigilance and possibly change to keep a power balance, the lack of which seems to be a major cause of disruption. That includes directors, board members, donor organizations...
The Scottish Co-op guide said that policies should be in place for all eventualities, likely or not. That would be ideal but I don't think we're quite up to that yet. Thanks again.
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Rick Ellis
Hi every one, long time i have been off line because if my studies and work ocupying me fully. thank you for all the advice to naditende. I have worked with Uganda Cooperative Alliance ltd about 6 years ago and i agree with all the ideas you have given, if nabitende can contact me on phone 0772985474 then i can direct them to meet my friend called DHivuge Thomas in Luwuka Iganga distric who can sit down with group leaders and teach them or else i need Nabitende contact postal address then i can post them some literature on cooperatives. alternatively they can visit JIDECO office and ask my former classmet Ms Monica whom we traine with in the UCA with the support of Canadian Cooperative Association.
Hi Joseph,
Thanks very much for your advices, I appreciate them all. JIDECO works in Iganga and it may be hard to get help from them if we are not their members. Otherwise our postal address is P.O.Box 71 Iganga, Uganda. Paddy.
Its ok Paddy,
i am out of office for 10 days sterting 14/August 2011 but as soon as i come back from my agriculture research training at the Uganda national crop science labalatory makerere, i will post the documents to you.
Jingo
hi,
Paddy was online and has sent me a lot of information, which I'm reading through and sorting out.
He applied to NOGAMU yesterday as EFORDE and got this apply:
"Thank you for your interest in joining the National Organic Aagricutlural
Movement of Uganda. Someone from our office will get in touch with you in a very
short while. We look forward to working with you."
I guess we have to wait to see wht happens, he has also been in touch with Co-operative Africa in Kampala and there is one volunteer/member of EFORDE looking at advising the women on co-operatives. The first "Co-operative society" training on Friday and Saturday,
thanks everybody for such great work,
Sinéad
hi all,
Some good news about the training for the cooperative:
On the 20th of March, Paddy travelled to Kampala and Ebenezer Foundation joined the organisation NOGAMU. NOGAMU have agreed to give Nabitende a visit after being put on the list of farmers for 2009. I have attached Paddy's receipt here.
This is great news, as this organisation provides training to farmers and helps with finding markets for produce. It can also be an organisation to bounce ideas of for the newly formed cooperative Butabala Cooperative Society in Nabitende.
The villagers attended the weekend training on co-operatives and decided on this name at the end. The local volunteer, who trained them has also agreed to do group dynamics training in phases,
so we will let you know when the next weekend of training will be,
thank you all so much,
Sinéad
Hi Paddy and Sinead,
that is great news! This brings Nabitende one step further. I see Nogamu also provides training on soil and water management, one of the issues for this project at the moment. It is also great to hear that a local cooperative has been formed!
Best regards,
Jenny