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The current and potential relevance of producer organizations : a case of Nyeri Branch Dairy Goat Association of Kenya

Rechten: Wageningen University & Research

The current and potential relevance of producer organizations : a case of Nyeri Branch Dairy Goat Association of Kenya

Rechten: Wageningen University & Research

Samenvatting

Small scale producers face many opportunities and also huge challenges in today’s markets. Market liberalization since the 1980s has cut back the support services provided by the state and forced producer to face the risks of often weak and volatile markets. Further more those who are able to access markets often find themselves at the mercy of buyers who take advantage of small –scale producers bargaining position. The small scale producers have to adopt a strategy in order to access, compete in and influence markets. This strategy is collective action among the producers in the form of producer organizations (POs). The National Agriculture and Livestock Extension Programme within the Ministry of Agriculture promote formation of common interest groups based on a specific commodity or technology. These common interest groups later form producer groups. Member participation is strong at group level where members meet monthly and make decisions. Members are participation in contributing membership fee and paying for services. At the association level the members are not represented as they do not elect the representative for branch meetings. The groups are informed of decisions reached at the branch meeting and they passively participate. Members showed a low capacity of initiating of new activities like creation of functional branches and searching for new markets for the dairy goat milk. The service delivery is demand driven and members pay when they request for services. Some of the services are affected by the availability of the DGAK assistant who are fewer than the number of groups while at the same time the quality of service may be poor depending on the competency of the staff. The financing arrangements of these services also do not motivate the staff to attend to groups. There is no mechanism for members to report to the association on the evaluation of the services they get from the assistant and the association as a whole. The agricultural extension workers form groups within a one year time limit with specified targets on number of groups to be formed. This period limits the identification of existing social networks and identification of needs and priorities of the groups. Nevertheless the DGAK is contributing to the empowerment of farmers in aspects of collective marketing and access to training. However there is need to have appropriate structures of governance that realizes members participation and improves on service provision. These structures of governance should improve on representation of the members at the decisions making levels in the branch meetings and make the branch autonomous. There is need to enhance the role of member groups in the association decision making by fostering of social capital at all levels. The service delivery to members should be strengthened at grass root level. The trained farmers who are DGAK assistants should be constantly updated on technical as well as social issues. The Agricultural extension workers need further capacity building to be able to recognize existing social structures and then strengthen the producer organisations and create linkages with other actors. The programmes targeting group formation should take more than a year for supporting process to groups to be functional.

Toon meer
OrganisatieVan Hall Larenstein
AfdelingTraining Rural Extension and Transformation
Jaar2008
TypeAndersoortig materiaal
TaalEngels

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