`Forming Sustainable Small Farmer Group Associations (SFGAs): more difficult then first thought' was the title of the last issue paper featured on the ACC Network website in the July update. Within the Secretariat we have been glad to receive many positive reactions on the paper and also some interesting comments, like the ones provided by the Ministry of Agriculture in the Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. We would like to share these comments with our readers and at the same time encourage further contributions to our website, which we will make sure, reach our readers.
The paper reviews and assesses the experiences of various countries in the use of small informal group approaches to mobilize the self-help potential of small rural producers and the poor. It also highlights the issues of forming secondary-level associations of such groups, i.e., Small Farmer Group Associations (SFGAs) to further increase economies of scale and the negotiating and marketing power of the rural poor.
The findings in this context reveal that various Small Farmer Groups (SFGs) have been initiated voluntarily to serve common interests and tackle common social and economic problems facing them in both developed and developing countries. These Small Farmer Groups are similar to those groups initiated in Ethiopia in the recent 5-8 years. Examples of such Small Farmer Groups initiated in Ethiopia in the agricultural sector are briefly highlighted as follows.
The recent extension package program introduced in Ethiopia uses small farmer groups (each group consisting of 10-20 members) that informally organized themselves to deliver inputs and credits to participants of the program. The group approach in this context has been found effective and successful in loan recovery repayment.
In irrigation development areas, many irrigation farmer groups have been informally formed to tackle the problems of input supply and output marketing.
In the area of dairying, small farmer groups have also been formed to collect, process and market milk jointly. Such groups have shown promising results in some regions.
There are also small farmer and women groups formed in saving and credit activities in some areas, which are assisted by NGOs and self-help organizations.
On the other hand, the paper discusses that small farmer groups initiated informally were lacking economic power and leadership capacity, which necessitated the formation of Small Farmer Group Associations (SFGAs) to increase their economic base and confronting a common external threat. In this context, it has been stated in the paper that some Small Farmer Group Associations (SFGAs) have been formed by joining small farmer groups in some countries. The experiences of these countries in forming such associations have also been exhibited in the paper. The issues that may confront the process of organizing small farmer group associations, i.e., human resource development issues, governance issues, and funding issues have also been rightly pointed out in the review and analysis.
In summary, the experiences of countries, the issues to be addressed and the assistance to be provided in forming small farmer group associations that have been raised in the paper are of paramount importance and could serve as an input for sustainability. Formation of such small farmer group associations would enable small poor farmers to negotiate more favourable terms in purchasing farm inputs in bulk on the one hand and to negotiate a better sales price and attain better bargaining power in marketing their outputs in larger amounts on the other hand. In the long-run, time may come when such SFGAs change into formal cooperatives, which can be an alternative way of empowering small poor farmers thereby improving their economic status and living conditions.
Finally, we believe that the views and points highlighted in the paper would be important and vital for addressing the issues in this context and may enable policy makers all over the world to take concern and give emphasis to the sector.