This work not only helps to identify interesting new clients, but it also provides much insight into the opportunities and challenges that cooperative Ethiopia enjoys and faces. Chances exist if the sales and marketing of agricultural products improve. Volumes should increase and the unions must also optimise the crop supply systems. The supply and purchase of the crops often occurs in an ad hoc manner and without any structure. Finally, although often a market does exist, product sales, marketing and definition of prices are deficient.

It is clear that cooperatives have to find a balance between the whims of the government and increasing their entrepreneurial capacity. The influence of the government is omnipresent, from cooperative administration to price definition. This means that Agriterra must also find another way of working in Ethiopia than in other countries.

A floury match
One of the cooperatives that made it to the next round is Raya Wakena, a union of more than 18,000 cereal producers. The chief miller and a product developer from Koopmans Meel (a Dutch flour fabric) are going to visit Raya Wakena in May. Raya Wakena is planning to process cereal to make flour. The Koopmans Meel experts provide support to the cooperative union by means of a feasibility and market study, which will make it easier to take the correct business decisions. Are you curious about the outcome of this visit? If so, you can keep yourself informed through our website.

In Peru Bas provides support to eight small producers' cooperatives in the coffee, cocoa, corn, quinoa, cotton and alpaca sectors. These cooperatives are spread throughout the entire country: in the coast, the Andes mountains and the Amazon region, in the North, in central Peru and in the South. Most collaboration alliances started in 2011. That is why in January, Bas directly hit the road to evaluate the projects from the previous year, which he did together with a qualified accountant. This evaluation shed much light on the strengths and weaknesses of the organisations, and action plans were drafted aimed at overcoming the identified weaknesses in 2012. Below he describes one of these cooperatives.

Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera y de Servicios Oro Verde
The Oro Verde Cooperative (Spanish for green gold) has 1,046 active members from the San Martín region in North-eastern Peru. These farmers mainly produce coffee and cocoa. Oro Verde was founded in 1999 by only 56 farmers in a region that at the time was suffering greatly from drug related criminality and terrorism.
 
2011 was a very active year for Oro Verde. Compared to 2010, sales increased tremendously with 73% to reach a total of 4.3 million euros, which was partly due to high coffee prices. The operating profit increased threefold. An impressive fact is that, during their general assembly, the Oro Verde farmers decided to reinvest a large portion of this in the cooperative, which led to an equity growth of an astounding 224%, to reach 850,000 euros. Steps were also taken to continue making the business activities of Oro Verde more professional, and these activities will probably be included in a new limited liability company that will be established, and in which the cooperative will keep on being majority stockholder.
Agriterra supported, amongst other things, drafting a financial plan for the 2012 to 2016 period, as well as a marketing plan for ground coffee. Oro Verde and Astrid Gutsche, famous throughout the country, together were the image behind a social marketing campaign carried out by the Banco Continental. Astrid is the wife of world-famous Peruvian chef and owner of various restaurants, Gastón Acurio. Together, they introduced in the market a Christmas chocolate bread (called panetón) made with cocoa beans from Oro Verde.
 
That same Banco Continental granted Oro Verde substantial financing for working capital that totalled approximately 750,000 euros. Oro Verde initiated negotiations with Plaza Vea, a Peruvian supermarket chain, through a marketing agency in the capital, Lima. And this proved successful. Since March 2012, Oro Verde coffee can be bought from supermarket shelves in Lima. For the time being, this is done under the "Balanze" Plaza Vea brand for its organic and healthy products line. However, plans are well under way to also sell, in the short run, Oro Verde coffee under its own label in these supermarkets.

 
This year Agriterra will also continue supporting Oro Verde to help it realise the ambitious growth it has planned. For instance, they want to set up their own factory for processing coffee beans for export, which requires financing that amounts to approximately 250,000 euros. A study will also be conducted to examine the possibilities of opening a store in the Lima airport in order to benefit the most from the current brand recognition it enjoys. The store will not only offer the Oro Verde products, but will also promote Oro Verde as a tourist destination. Agriterra is providing support so that a Peruvian student from Wageningen University can draft a business plan for the "Oro Verde Ecological Centre". Here, tourists will be able to learn more about organic coffee and cocoa production. They will also be able to sleep there and enjoy the delicious local delicacies that the restaurant offers.

The Netherlands is famous worldwide for its cheese and cows, while the cooperatives in the country also have a rich history of mergers. It seems that cooperation comes in the genes of Dutch farmers. After innumerable merger trajectories, through the years the thousands of small dairy cooperatives of 100 years ago have become fused into one single giant, FrieslandCampina. This is why during the interview with Jan Uijttewaal, Vicepresident of FrieslandCampina, the experiences he has had with the fusion between Friesland Foods and Campina will surely be a recurrent subject of discussion. This is the type of extensive knowledge the Kenyans want to be exposed to, because in their country merger trajectories between cooperatives don't occur, while on the other hand there are countless examples of failed collaboration (mostly when joint ventures are involved).

During conversations with the President and Manager of Rouveen, a dairy products factory, the experiences it has had with the 1987 fusion between 'De Vlijt' and 'De Kleine Winst' were discussed over and over again. "It is important, as partners in the merger, to formulate a shared goal and to keep the members strongly involved during the fusion process," was the advice given by the Director, Ben Wevers, to the visitors from Kenya. Egbert Koersen, the President of the Board of Directors, voiced his hope that having taken the first step of forming a merger, in the long run the cooperative will be able to exercise more influence on defining the price of milk in Kenya. According to Koersen, "the Kenyan farmers will eventually come to benefit from this".

Mbadifa introduced new products in their range of products including fertilizers, farm implements, crop protection products and vegetable seeds like beetroot, water melon, cucumber. In terms of the seeds, they recently partnered with Oriental Business Group Ltd, the importers of Dutch seeds particularly from Bakker Brothers. The water melon is largely appreciated, and the locals call it 'water melon Holland'. Many farmers come looking for those seeds.

The shop works as a 'show room', most of the products are in the store. This is because many of the products produce fumes which can be dangerous for human health, therefore only a few are kept at the display shelves. Richard: "we do not simply stock every product available with suppliers in Kampala, but we use market intelligence reports produced by the research team of the Mbarara District Farmers Association. These field officers provide us with updates and changes in farmers needs, so we can respond to their desires. This is why we introduce one or two products at a time."

Farmers and input dealers from surrounding districts come and purchase from the shop. The shop is widely known for its quality products and broad range of products, it sells generally all the products that farmers need.

There have been significant improvement in profits in the month of March as compared to February. Nevertheless, the performance was way below expectations. This has been due to the recent drought which has hit many parts of Uganda, particularly the western and central region districts.

Richard: "We continue to strive to distribute our products to farmers in remote areas. We cooperate with small input dealers in the villages and ensure they have the necessary and adequate products for farmers. Farmers  now have access to quality inputs in their vicinity. Efficiency in marketing and distribution of the products, especially in regard to transportation, is still a challenge."

For coming year, Mbadifa plans to expand their business with produce marketing,. The challenge for most farmers is to sell their surplus produce. Mbadifa plans to buy their produce (especially beans and maize) and resell it to stores in the municipality. In the dry periods, when there is less demand for the agro-inputs, the capital remains idle on the bank account. By investing it in the produce marketing business they hope to add value to their capital.

Furthermore Richard explains that Mbadifa will establish a demonstration plot to test the products before there are supplied to farmers. "Counterfeit inputs still remain a big threat to agricultural development in Uganda. We hope that by testing the inputs we can test their effect before we supply them to farmers. Many unsuspecting farmers end up losing significant amounts of time and money when they use counterfeit products."

When farmers have records, it is easy to draw totals and see a bigger picture of what happens over the period. We encourage farmers to keep each record separately i.e. record for input, production and sales so that at the end of the period they are able to summarise by adding the monthly/ seasonal sales and put the total in appropriate column, add monthly expenses for the month/ season, get the total for all expenses for the month/ season, deduct the expense from the monthly sales and get the total profit or loss for the season. When loss is realised, immediate action is taken to correct the situation by finding out what went wrong. There are various possible causes of under performance: poor production from farm, low price, wastage on the way to the market to mention but a few. Once the cause of the problem is identified, it is easy to rectify the situation.

In March 2012, AFA celebrated its 10th anniversary, during its Fifth General Assembly which was hosted in Vietnam by the Vietnam National Farmers' Union. And what could be a better present than the adhesion of two new member organisations? We quote from the AFA bulletin:

"The assembly welcomed AFA’s first two member FOs from South Asia -- KKM (Kendrio Krishok Moitre) in Bangladesh and NLRF (National Land Rights Forum) in Nepal -- whose applications for regular membership were previously approved by the AFA Execom."

With this, AFA membership now consists of 12 organisations. The other members are:

Ainoukai (Japan)

Alliansi Petani Indonesia

Farmer and Nature Net (Cambodia)

Korean Advanced Farmers' Federation

Pakisama (Philippines)

SorKorPor (Thailand)

Taiwan Dairy Farmers'Association

Taiwan Wax Apple Development Association

Viet Nam Farmers' Union

Women Advanced Farmers' Federation (South Korea)

FFA has been trying to influence these decisions by  conducting many sessions  with various stakeholders to discuss these farmers issues in different parts of Andhra Pradesh, writing about this in various news papers, talking on various TV channels and making this as an issue which finally was recognised to some extend by the government. The government has formed a committee to look into the matter. Though the committee was not forthcoming with satisfactory answers to the problems farmers have been facing, the efforts of FFA in bringing out the excess problem was a success and farmers were benefitted to that extent. 

Crop holiday
A 'crop holiday' by the farmers is when all their efforts to continue the livelihoods have got ceased. When there is abundant crop, the farmers should be happy. But instead there is a hue and cry in the state. In business parlance, a holiday to the livelihood is required when 'stopping of business will be more profitable than actually doing it'. In the business of cultivation, the farmers are in the same position. The farmers have not failed by themselves since they have been good at growing in spite of many problems. It is the policies that govern the food marketing and management that failed.

Despite a huge production of rice and wheat in 2011 (bumper crop) and full stocks of 2010's harvest, there has been no lifting, no procurement and no exports. When prices for wheat were as high as $ 300 a ton in April 2011 government hesitated on lifting the ban on export, depriving farmers of higher incomes on their produce. There was a huge demand from global wheat buyers Egypt and other countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. But no decision has been taken.

With a highly volatile global food market within a couple of months the price dropped to $ 220 a ton, well below the minimum support price for farmers. The government is saddled now with unmanageably large food grain stocks, whose accumulation has deprived farmers of a golden opportunity to export wheat. Mountains of grain stored in the open, covered under plastic sheets, will only rot if the sale is limited.

FFA brought this problem to the fore. In particular the leaders from the coastal areas were waging a relentless battle with government through various channels. One of the leaders, mr Yerneni Nagendranath, went on hunger strike in October 2011 for 4 days resenting the attitude of the government in solving the crop holiday problem.

The demands of FFA
The government should overhaul the food management system and allow private trade to procure, store and distribute food grains. If grain handling is done by the private sector, the government's role would be only to procure for maintaining the minimum buffer norm, while it transfers cash to intended beneficiaries of food subsidy. Warehouse receipts, issued by accredited warehouses to farmers and traders make it possible for the government to greatly reduce its direct role in physical handling of grain. The government can buy warehouse receipts to ensure that farmers get the minimum support price, while the warehouses would be obliged to deliver the requisite quantity and quality of grain delineated in the warehouse receipt. The farmers will suffer if the stocks are not exported / purchased from them. Government cannot be unaware of the problem of a mounting stock of grains and the danger of large-scale rotting of stocks once the monsoon arrives.

In the meantime the 'crop holiday' is gaining momentum in Andhra Pradesh. The position is no different in the other parts of the country and the government is only lucky that the farmers in the remaining parts are not yet resorting to the 'crop holiday' mode.

The conference looked for an answer to the question "What works when scaling up inclusive agri-food markets?" Jim Woodhill, Director of the Centre for Development Innovation at Wageningen UR, framed the workshop: the world's 500 million small-scale farms (some say farmers, but then the number should be 1.2 billion) are critical to feeding 9 billion people by 2050. They can only do so if they are included in agri-food markets in a commercially viable way that gives them serious prospects for raising their standard of living. How, then, to  include these millions, and to do so with speed?" Woodhill also reminded all that creating a strong agricultural sector is a powerful engine for economic growth and tackling poverty among the rapidly growing population at the base of the economic pyramid.

Woodhill is completely right that agriculture is a growth engine. Investment in this sector triggers more growth than investment in any other sector, as vice-president of IFAD Kevin Cleaver stressed during the conference. It also triggers more employment and therefore - as Jim says- tackles poverty among the growing population. However, what is not true is that this has to be done by rapidly including those 1.2 billion farmers at 500 million farms into agri-food markets. The trick is to get as many people as possible out of agriculture into other employment, and generally providing employment to the population that can work. That will be the challenge!

The key element of development is raising productivity in all economic sectors (or as Woodhill calls it, 'raising their standard of living') giving way to a structural transformation of the economy. Formerly agrarian economies become industrial and service economies with a minor percentage of farmers. Highly developed countries have hardly farmers. There is no other road to development than a reduction in the number of farmers, first as a percentage of the total working population but eventually also in absolute figures. At worldwide level, the number of farmers is nowadays decreasing as a percentage of the economically active population (it is now 40%), but not yet in absolute terms.

In the end, the 500 million farms are not so critical for feeding the world. This can be done with much less farms. Surely, the food problem is not about engaging 500 million farms into agri-food markets. It is about creating employment. This can best be done by massive investments. And because investment in agriculture has a higher impact on growth per invested Euro, Woodhill is still right even though inclusion into agri-food markets is not the issue.

Then again, as I argued in 1992 in my thesis, this higher impact on growth and employment has even more to do with the scale and the place of the investments than with the sector. The reported effects of investments in agriculture are obtained thanks to the fact that these are usually of a more modest scale (less capital intensive) and in rural areas, meaning more employment for poor people. It is even not confined to agriculture, but to the processing, and input delivering industry as well as trade, banking and insurance for primary production.

To illustrate my point I take you back to my village Sabán in Mexico. Some 30 years ago they were part of that billion poor farmers subsisting on the basis of beans and maiz grown on their 'milpa'. Thanks to heavy investment in the tourist industry, they moved out of poverty, building the hundreds of more than 1000 rooms hotels at the Riviera Maya. The farmers of Sabán moved into prosperity not by inclusion in a agri-food market, but just by getting employment in the tourist sector. But then again,  the beneficial impact of these investments could have been much more had it taken into account the development of touristic sites near Sabán spreading investment also over the peninsula of Yucatan in the kind of agro-tourism setting that Agriterra promoted in Kenya, Madagascar and Ecuador, to name a few.

The expected seas of change will come from massive investment creating employment in rural areas. It is exactly for reasons like these, that Agriterra focuses in its agribusiness programme and grass roots entrepreneurship programme on economic activity at the bottom of the pyramid. Our efforts of making farmers bankable address cooperatives and entrepreneurs on small family farms.
 

Kees Blokland, managing director Agriterra

Liberalization experienced in India, has provided multifold benefit.  The Indian industry and service sector who were benefitted by the liberalization process in 1990 are provided with best technologies. Private and foreign direct investments have built world class infrastructure. Free market has created excellent competition.

Unfortunately, the Indian farm sector remained under control and therefore, we could not develop competitiveness. It is for this reason, that Indian Farmers are lagging behind in productivity. The failure of farm sector has lead to problems of malnutrition, unemployment and social unrest. Liberalization of the sugar sector will tackle these problems. 
 

Her household has ten family members. The settlement farm she is using was left by her late uncle and as such it is being used by many families who are related to the previous owner. The settlement has about 30ha of arable land and due to large number of families sharing the farm, the land to each family is small. The Mwewa household is currently using about 7ha. This compels the Mwewa family to outsource pieces of land from neighbouring farms in order to put up the desired hectarage.

Elizabeth is a paid up member of both Cotton Association of Zambia and Zambia National Farmers' Union.  In the year 2007 the Cotton Association of Zambia organised and conducted a seed cotton production training which looked at factors that contribute to low yields. The training targeted interested cotton farmers in Nyamphondolo and Chipatila Information Centres (IC). She participated in the training which was conducted in Nyamphondolo IC. Here she got introduced to cotton based farming system.

During the early years of the CAZ, the ICs used to be visited by a trainer who would after training cotton farmers extend the training through on-farm demonstrations and finally field days. Elisabeth participated in the hosting of on-farm demonstrations and eventually field days. The extension approach has since changed to study circles and she got trained as a study circle organizer.  Both systems have helped me acquire and continue to acquire knowledge and skills in crop production and marketing.

Mrs Mwewa: "Cotton based farming system is the production of cotton in combination with other carefully selected crops that are beneficial to the crop production system. The various crops of a minimum of three are used in the system to mitigate the adverse effects of mono-cropping such as soil degradation, declining soil fertility, increased pest pressure and development of low soil pH". From 1998 to the time she adopted the system she had observed gully formation and heavy deposition of soil at the lower edge of the field a sign of soil erosion due to water run off. As a result of the adoption of good agricultural practices she has managed to contain soil erosion due to wind and water run off.

The minimum three crops she applies in the system include a cereal (maize - food crop), cotton (cash crop) and a legume (for soil fertility restoration/improvement). According to her for purposes of meaningful crop rotation and optimal benefits from the system the area under cultivation for each of the crops is also of paramount importance.

 
Mrs. Elizabeth  Mwewa:  "Due to the training and my subsequent application/adoption of the various promoted technologies, crop productivity in the cropping system has improved significantly. In the case of maize my household without necessarily increasing the areas under cultivation has moved from a recurrent deficit position to surplus.

During the last three seasons, I have produced enough for household consumption and surplus to sale. For example in 2009/10 and 2010/11, my household marketed 90x 50kg and 180 x 50kg bags of maize to Food Reserve Agency.

In the case of seed cotton, we have moved from the yields of around 400kg/ha to above 1000kg/ha.  Again the production for the last two seasons that I remember was very good such that in 2009/10 and 2010/11, marketing season my household sold 1,900kg/ha and 2,100kg/ha to our pre-financing cotton company respectively.

Furthermore, the income level for the household has significantly improved and as result of this I was able with less difficult to pay boarding fees for the orphan from 2007 to 2011 when he completed his secondary education. The income level has improved due to improved seed cotton productivity and the effective producer price negotiations by the Cotton Association of Zambia.

The beauty of cotton production is that it has a guaranteed market and early payments. I have taken advantage of this scenario by ploughing back some of the proceeds from cotton sales by buying maize at low price from maize farmers desperate of cash for reselling to Food Reserve Agency (FRA).  Out of the 180 x 50kg bags sold to FRA in 2010/11 season 50 x 50kg were bought from cotton money.

The study circles have helped me and the members in the acquisition of knowledge and skills in the area of crop production. Furthermore, the approach has helped the members to open up and effectively communicate to each other and to our family members. It has to a large extent broken the barriers between group members as well as between husband and wif

'Civil society' is used to refer to recipients of aid and development programs, and to NGOs that raise funds for aid and development. This use narrows the concept of civil society quite dramatically. This statement is made by Vern Hughes. He is director, Centre for Civil Society in Melbourne, Australia, and as the name of the centre suggests, he knows what he is talking about.

And what is more, this is exactly a point Agriterra.org, a Dutch development agri-agency with roots in organized farming in the Netherlands, has been making for a very long time. We target farmers’ organizations, rural women’s organizations and cooperatives, in our opinion these are the real civil society organizations, like also churches, sport clubs and trade unions are.

This basic identification with a point made by Hughes, convinced me to read a bit more about a recent contribution he made to the aid and development debate, a debate that at this very moment is raving in the Netherlands.

Vern Hughes points to a changing development scene. Brazil, China, Peru and India lead the economic growth stakes - for reasons –as he says- which have nothing to do with aid programs.  And then he comes up with a proposal for what he calls a revolution in aid, which he submits for debate in his LinkedIn group Civil Society Global Network. Please note: the issue at stake is not about emergency aid, but about the development for the development of economies and social services.

Shifts
The plea of Hughes boils down to three mayor shifts: a shift in accountability, that means that recipient governments and organisations are no longer accountable to donors but to their citizens and civil society. This of course has to do with the very way money is raised for development issues. In developing countries this was not done by taxation of the citizens and companies, but provided by external parties as development aid. Times are changing on this point and form part of the changing development scene. There is an African commitment to spend at least 10% of the governmental budget on investments in agriculture. The associated taxation will lead to a civil demand for control on what has happened with the money. In the current situation where development is paid with aid, this demand comes from donors. Hence, the call for a shift in accountability. This call is also made in the Dutch debate.

The way to change the lines of accountability seems linked to the two other shifts also suggested by Hughes. One to new financing mechanisms based on achievement of tangible outcomes. He mentions Cash on Delivery Aid and Social Impact Bonds also known as a Pay for Success Bonds. The latter are developed to reduce government spending on health issues, by rewarding private parties which invest in prevention and in that way cut down public costs.  The idea forwarded by Hughes is to link aid spending to tangible results and puts the finger on a very hot element in the Dutch discussion. Many NGOs (of the type mentioned at the beginning of this article) maintain erroneously that their results are not to be planned, nor measured.

And, a second shift from bilateral aid to aid to civil society groups. This one was to be expected from Hughes, yet very essential and in line with Agriterra’s thinking.

However, this being a point made by Agriterra, we have also been working on this issue! We have put into practice a development model which not only targets real civil society, being organized farmers, and especially those linked to associations and cooperatives that form part of influential federations with possibilities to impact national policies and international debates. We have also done this steered by and involving the peer organizations and cooperative companies from the Netherlands. Their directors, employees and members have been actively involved in many peer2peer and business2business missions. We have linked the different organizations in the developing and developed countries and teamed up with sister agri-agencies from Europe, Canada, and more recently Senegal and Asia. Our efforts caused a dramatic growth in membership of farmers’ organizations, especially in Africa. And, even in the situation that we provided them with budgets, they were able to diminish their financial dependency. In summary, we succeeded strengthening many farmers’ organization that together represent almost 25 million farmers.

Our practice proved to be a valuable one, at this point where economic growth in several African countries takes off and private business turned their attention to the continent. Our peer2peer and business2business approach fits very well the efforts of those companies to become active in African, Asian and Latin American markets. It allows us to make an experienced plea not to bypass civil society and prevents private business to create its own islands of progress, as the NGOs mentioned at the beginning have done. This is also an important element in the changing development scene.

The different changes mentioned so far, emerging economies with new trade and investment interest in the developing world, governments with increased public spending, economic growth and market development attracting attention from western companies and the not mentioned so far increased remittances of immigrants in developed countries, all make up for sharp diminishing importance of development aid. Now it only accounts for about 12% of the total capital flowing into developing countries, a figure coming down from 70%. This makes Hughes’ revolution more than urgent.

Kees Blokland, Agriterra

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The family owns a farm of around 4 to 5 ha. The main crops in this area are maize, beans and coffee. Mr. Amus started with dairy farming with one cow, being a  cross breed of local and frysian. He became a member of the Dairy Farmers Group of Vwawa and received several trainings related to dairy farming, record keeping etc. At present he has  3 cows and 4 calves. He explains that dairy farming is more profitable than for example coffee growing. He has calculated that growing grass and milking the cows provides him more and secure cash money compared to coffee. So he took a firm decision, and changed his coffee farm into grass lands!

From the 3 cows he sells on average 17 liter of milk per day to his cooperative, of which the collection point is 7 kilometers away and the milk is transported on the bicycle. Today his younger son delivered the afternoon milk for the first time in his young life to the cooperative, using his father's big bicycle.

Mr. Azunki is interested to expand the number of cows in the future but as he remarks: "first I need to invest in grass lands, before keeping more cows. And from the grass land he is also harvesting the grass seeds, which he sells to other farmers."
Mviwambo, being the network of 17 dairy farmers groups (DFG) in the region, intends to establish a larger scale farmer owned milk processing plant, with the capacity to process milk of all the DFGs. As a rule agreed upon by the members of the current network cooperative,  50  shilling (0,025 Euro cent) per liter milk is deducted from the milk money and put aside as share capital in the farmers name. In this way, he is building his share capital for the to be established milk processing plant of Mviwambo. So gradually the family is buying shares that may one day have a large value.  

AFIF 2012, a 3-day event from June 17-19, will be hosted at the Rabobank headquarters in Utrecht, The Netherlands, with the third day held in partnership with Food First, a Dutch organisation that aims at “putting the food and agriculture issue at the heart of the political debate". This will include visits to one of the World’s biggest Horticultural Expo - Floriade 2012 (Venlo-The Netherlands), held only every 10 years.
AFIF 2012 Programme:

• Over 250 professionals from Africa, Europe, America and Asia;
• Participation in Workshops, Plenary Sessions and a guided tour to Floriade 2012;
• The "Project Incubator Award 2012" for innovative African projects will be announced on Monday 18th June 2012;
• Business-to-Business (B2B) matching service for delegates to network in pre-arranged meetings.

The successful Business-to-Business (B2B) meetings will be held over 2 days, providing tailor-made meetings for participants to find partners and business investors. EMRC's previous forum saw over 1000 B2Bs take place.

IICD and Agriterra have already cooperated in the past, but this cooperation has now been formalized in a memorandum of understanding. Together, Agriterra and IICD want to make sure that more people in rural areas have access to information that they can use to change their lives. Especially on a local level, people are still excluded from most information and means of mass-communication.
 
The cooperation will lead to a better support of rural people's organisations in developing and emerging countries. By strengthening organisations and building capacity in the use of information and communication technnology (ICT), IICD and Agriterra want to enable local - mainly farmer - organisations to facilitate access to information for their members. IICD and Agriterra will also make sure that there will be a high rate of female participation in the projects they support.
 
IICD's managing director Caroline Figuères: "Working together with Agriterra enables us to reach even more people. We complement each other in providing information to the people who need it most. We're looking forward to a fruitful cooperation."
 

About IICD
IICD uses information and communication technology (ICT) for development in Africa and Latin America. IICD provides people with access to information that can transform their lives. IICD helps local partners from the non-profit, public and private sectors use ICT to meet their development goals in economic development, education, health and gender/women participation.
www.iicd.org