Tag Archives: agricultural cooperatives

A New Cooperative Helps Qinghua’s Family Prosper

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It started becoming chilly when we made our latest visit to Wang Qinghua’s house. Wearing red a shirt, dark blue pants and cloth shoes, she was busy serving guests at her small restaurant.

She is standing in front of her restaurant.

Qinghua stands in front of her restaurant.

The life of her family is changing with the help of Heifer International.

Her calves, which were born in April to three cows, are well cared for, and her restaurant is also running well. By Sept. 15, her restaurant had earned 30,000 yuan (about  US $4,800), half of which has been spent on daily expenses and her son’s tuition, and the other half will be spent on investments and her son’s college savings. Since Qinghua’s family income has increased, their nutrient intake has also been improved: they can now have some meat once or twice a week instead of only once a week as they did before. Because they have a garden, they also have enough fruits and vegetables.

When the training of cow raising and bean planting is done, Ms. Wang’s family registered a marketing course and learned how to find market information. Now with the help of the computer they bought, they can learn the value of their farm products in order to bargain, and even look for buyers directly.

Her cattle

Qinghua's family's cattle.

In terms of community work, the workshop Qinghua has joined always holds discussions and communications on bean plantation skills and sale information. In order to sell more vegetables, she and others founded Deli Vegetables Plantation Cooperative, which has solved the problem of finding buyers by centralizing their purchasing and selling. With the dogged efforts of this group, a 220 square meter office building and a 600 square meter facility for their cooperative have both been constructed. In addition, the harvest of beans has brought 2 million yuan (about US $321,000).

“By joining the Heifer program, my family and I had the opportunity to go out. We have seen more and we have learned more. We are passionate to do something,” Qinghua says.

Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that follows the progress of specific families, starting at the beginning of their work with Heifer. Our colleagues in the field have chosen one family in each region in the countries where we work and will bring us quarterly updates. You can read past posts about Wang Qinghua and her family here.

CSA Model Helps Feed the World

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Editor’s note: Today is World Food Day. This year’s theme is “Agricultural cooperatives – key to feeding the world.” The following post is from Ryan Neal, who runs the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) garden at Heifer’s Learning Center at Heifer Ranch.

CSA volunteers on harvest day

Heifer Ranch CSA helpers with a bountiful harvest. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

There are probably as many types of agricultural cooperatives as varieties of tomatoes.  Whether consumer- or producer-run, cooperatives are a major player in feeding the globe.  Locally run examples include your local agriculture co-op where farmers purchase supplies, or even farmers markets where those same farmers get together to sell their products. Cooperatives have proven to be successful models in development when small farmers can get together in order to fill large orders needed by grocery stores.

Our model here at Heifer Ranch is commonly referred to as Community Supported Agriculture or CSA. The basic premise of this type of cooperative is participants, or “shareholders,” buy a share of our garden for the spring and summer growing seasons.  They do this in advance of the harvest in order to cover some of our upfront costs such as seeds, organic fertilizer, etc. In exchange we deliver to these shareholders a variety (typically seven to nine types) of vegetables each week, which changes as the weather warms. This type of cooperation allows the consumers a real connection to a farm and gives the farmer a chance to focus on production rather than marketing during the busy season.

Harvesting day on a CSA is a group effort.

Harvesting day at the Heifer Ranch CSA is a group effort. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

Feeding the world’s expected 9 billion people in 2050 will take more than a one-size-fits-all approach, and local cooperatives such as the one supported at Heifer Ranch might prove critical in supplying the sufficient quality and quantity of food we have come to expect. CSAs are present in many communities around the United States as well as the world. In fact, this model originated in Europe and Japan more than 50 years ago. CSAs can be found that support multiple farmers as well as multiple types of farmers.  A recent winter CSA started in the Little Rock, Arkansas, area, for example, includes meat, vegetables and eggs from three different farms.

CSA helpers at Heifer Ranch

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

Check out localharvest.org/csa/ for examples in your area.

Are you a CSA member? Tell us about your CSA in the comments section below.

Read more of Heifer’s coverage of World Food Day 2012 here.

World Food Day 2012: Heifer International’s Cooperatives Will Help Feed the World

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Our fragile and beautiful Earth is home to seven billion people. Right now, the global food system is struggling, one in eight people goes to sleep hungry, and according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which declares October 16 World Food Day, “food prices still remain generally higher than last year and very volatile.”

So now what? Do we wring our hands and hope someone else will provide the solution?

Absolutely not! We take action and become a part of the answer to ending hunger and poverty.

World Food Day: Jibu Guoguo, collects cabbage from her garden.

Heifer project participant, Jibu Guoguo, collects cabbage at her garden near her home in Gudu village in China. Photograph by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International.

Today Heifer International joins the FAO and others in observance of World Food Day. This year, the theme “Agricultural Cooperatives – key to feeding the world” highlights the efforts of smallholder farmers who have united to end hunger.

But it isn’t just today that Heifer supports the world’s farmers, cooperatives and rural organizations – it is every day. We have always understood the critical importance of agriculture, and we have recognized that smallholder farmers are the best tools we have to help feed this hungry world.

There are 650 million smallholder farmers in the world, and according to the ETC Group, they produce 70% of the food eaten every day. By simply doubling their productivity, they can feed the world’s vastly growing population.

So how do we support the efforts of the smallholder farmers to improve their own lives, advance their communities and begin to feed to the world?

Earlier this year, on the United Nations International Day of Cooperatives, we highlighted Heifer’s work with cooperatives in Peru, Africa, Nepal and the Ukraine.  Heifer is continually working to reach a rapidly growing group of smallholder farmers – mostly women – to inspire agroecological productivity, biodiversity, financial security and health to create the surplus needed to feed the world.

You also have a key role to play in feeding the world. Spread the message to family and friends, and join us in observance of World Food Day. But remember: hunger does not end when the day does. You can continue to play a role by getting involved in Heifer’s work.

Read more of Heifer’s coverage of World Food Day 2012 here.