Tag Archives: farmer 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.

Self-Help Group Leaders Learn from Successful Farmer Cooperatives in Cambodia

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Editor’s note: story by Chheang Sokmao | Program Officer – Northwest Region | Cambodia

Mr. Oun Sophal shares experiences from Rattanak Pol Rort Samai Cooperative

From August 13-15, 2012, Heifer Cambodia and two project partner organizations from the northwest region conducted an exchange visit to two successful farmer cooperatives. The exchange facilitated by Heifer Cambodia staff and executive directors from Cambodian Human Resource Development Organization (CHRD) in Banteay Meanchey province and Farmer Organic for Development Association (FODA) in Siem Reap province entailed visits to two successful farmer cooperatives in Kampot province: Rattanak Pol Rort Samaki and Samaki Sang Kroh. In attendance were 11 key community leaders and project management committee representatives, two community facilitators, one project coordinator and one commune council member.

Exchange Visitors at Kraing Snai Commune Cooperative

During the visit, participants learned about cooperative businesses, including credit, rice bank and rice business cooperatives, and the provision of other services for self-financing. The visitors enjoyed a firsthand look at the cooperation among community members on activities such as mobilizing social capital for local infrastructure, education, food security, sanitation and healthy hygiene, as well as strategies to reduce poverty for sustainable community development. The day-long sharing allowed the exchange of experiences and best practices between key community leaders and host cooperatives in Dong Tung and Chhouk district, Kampot province.

“Their cooperatives have been established for a long time, and they have good experience in leading the communities and their business development,” said Ms. Krouch Suk, a community facilitator from CHRD. “My team and I will bring experiences and best practices on business credit cooperatives, rice cooperatives, development themes and their leadership to improve my community.” Suk’s community group was organized two years ago, and she is proud of its achievements and looks forward to a future of close cooperation and continuing progress. She hopes that over the next few years it will grow even stronger.

Exchange Visitors at Damnak Dokrom Commune Cooperative

“At my community, the rice interest rate set by private lenders is very high, 50 percent per season, and this is a challenge for us,” said Ms. Rean Sokhom, a commune council member from FODA. “I want to have a community rice bank in my village where it will help the community during rice shortages.” The topic of business credit cooperatives was also a point of interest for Sokhom. She wants each self-help group to work together to have a larger savings fund at the commune level, as demonstrated by their hosts. She will propose these ideas at the next commune council meeting.

After the exchange visit, project partner representatives made a stop at Bokor Mountain Resort, where they took many photos. On the way back to their respective provinces, they shared experiences, built relationships and showed a strong commitment to use everything they learned to propel their communities toward prosperous business communities in the coming year.