The following conversation that QTCA had with a female farmer is exemplary: 

One of the households we visited is Mrs. Nguyen Thi Loan's family. When we came, she was busy solving consequences of the flood which had damaged a lot of farming products. She invited us to drink water and talked with us. She said: "we  mainly live from agricultural production, but the climate here makes it difficult for us. Luckily we learned how to grow crops in the modern way, before we used the traditional way, which was less efficient and productive."

From our view and her saying, we saw that loss after harvesting is a big deal for farmers in Quang Tri. When she was asked about the supporting activities from the project, she said "we are a farming family, our main income depends on agricultural production, so the technical support in farming is very meaningful to us" and she continued "it has changed our awareness,  improved rice production and intensification capacity for households like us. Before, with the traditional way of farming, we ploughed the soil with buffalo's power, planting rice by hand and working hard to make enough food for our family; since the project, many positive changes has come to my family and other farmers”. Some examples she mentions: "I had the chance to take part in training courses on planting and husbandry techniques organised by QTCA. We now cultivate the soil by machine which is provided by the cooperative, we plant rice seeds using a row seeder, etc. These tools released farmers, especially women from hardworking, therefore the rice productivity and quality has been increased and the income for my family now is higher and more sustainable than before, we even have some small money to save."

We continued our conversation and asked her where they sell the rice, after they stored the rice for their own consumption. She said "before, traders came to each family to buy or we brought it directly to market to sell. But now, the cooperative has established a service group that buys the rice for a good price. Besides, the cooperative has invested in milling machines, polishing machines, rice drying machines and started to make business on farming products. Thank to these services, farmers just focus on the production of agricultural products, the cooperative is responsible for linking with market and selling the products."

She hopes that farmers and the cooperative continue  to upgrade and upscale in terms of capacity, making farming products business plan and taking part in market chain to create the added value for agricultural products.

L'investissement pour un hectare coute autour de 200.000 FRw pour la plantation, ceci est sans entretien. Un hectare de terre s'achète à environ 1M FRw. Après 1 an on peut commencer à récolter l'ananas. Le prix de l'ananas est de 100-110 FRw le kg au marché local. Des commerçants des villes environnantes viennent également acheter. Par saison (3 mois), il peut récolter 3 tonnes d'ananas, ce qui fait 300.000 FRw, mais la récolte est variable par saison.

Il existe d'autres producteurs d'ananas à coté mais ils ne disposent pas de grandes superficies. Une fois ils ont essayé de se mettre ensemble mais ça n'a pas tenu.

Une fois il a demandé de l'aide à l'Agence d'Horticulture, mais ils ne l'ont pas aidé. Aussi l'agronome du district ne connait pas son champ, selon François. Mais il reçoit des services de conseil du centre des services aux coopératives.

Dans son champ il a planté une seule variété qu'il reproduit lui-même, appelé MD2. Il a une maladie dans son ananas qui fait jaunir les plantes et les tue à la longue. On lui a dit d'arracher les plantes malades, qu'il s'agirait d'un virus. Lui-même il croit plutôt que ça vient du sol : à une autre parcelle il a également planté et la maladie n'y est pas. Il n'a pas de contact avec la recherche agricole.

Avant de planter les ananas il a planté le manioc, pour lequel il a reçu des boutures à travers Ingabo. Il est memb

re d'Ingabo, il sait qu'Ingabo fournit des formations, mais il n'en a pas encore profité. Dernièrement il est venu demander conseil au niveau d'Ingabo.

Il voit qu'il peut avoir une valeur ajoutée au ananas brute s'il peut le transformer en jus, vin ou confiture. Lui-même il a une petite unité de transformation et mène actuellement un premier essai d'en faire du vin, le jus est très compliqué et demande la pasteurisation.

Généralement il récolte le jeudi et amène sa production au marché de vendredi. François sait que le prix à Kigali est meilleur, mais ce marché est trop loin et les ananas risquent de s'abimer en route. Les deux sujets sur lequel il voudrait bien recevoir de l'appui d'Ingabo sont la maladie et la mise en marché de sorte de gagner un meilleur prix.

Mrs Kommala Ramana is member of the executive committee of CKO.  She is also president of the Adarsha Mahila Rythu Club, Kalwala which is affiliated to the CKO. She wants to share her new knowledge with other rural woman farmers in her country. About the exchange visit she writes:

Though the trip lasted only for seven days, it gave a lot of enlightment in the fields of the Dutch dairy system, silage system, IRIS, I&R, dairy management, milking robots etc. I acquired sufficient knowledge with regard to the management of dairy farms and how to run them profitably. 

It is too early to say that the purpose of the visit has been fully served. But I am confident that the very purpose of the visit with the sole aim of getting acquainted with the various scientific methods that are widely in use across the country, has been primarily served. Now I am determined to put all these practices into action at my native village with active financial support as well as moral boosting from the both CKO and Agriterra.

Mr Theo van den Berg (CRV, enterprise in cattle improvement) was our host during the visit. When visiting the CRV headquarters in Arnhem the big statue of Sunny Boy caught my attention. I tried to know the history of this big bull. I was astonished to learn that this bull produced 23 lakh (a lakh is a unit in the South Asian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand) doses of semen and that he gave birth to 10 lakh baby cows by using it's semen through artificial insemination system.

We visited several farms, like the one of the Willemse family. The farmer told that he had 8 cows in the year 1956.  He had increased this number up to 28 just in a span of a decade and he now has over 120 cows for milk production. This shows his dedication and commitment to the dairy farm. He explained to us many things pertaining to the separation of cattle from cows, tag system and feeding system. In the milking parlour 16 cows could be milked at a time.

The next farm was a joint one of two farms, combined by marriage. All cattle are now in one farm. The farmer looks after the land and the cow farm. He started with 12 cows and his two robots are now milking 120 cows. The sight of milking robots was marvellous. The lady farmer takes care of the young calves and runs the other farm where no animals are housed. This farm has been rebuilt for conferences and leisure. She showed us the feeding with milk bottles and told us how to prepare warm milk replacers for the calves. Also she told us about her very busy life with 3 children to look after and all the labour required for the calves care and the conference / leisure premises care, but she enjoys it.

The next day we visited another dairy farmer, with as many as 120 cows.  We had elaborate discussions with him. He shared his views regarding the quality of a cow, which gives high quantity of milk a day. He stressed the need for construction of high sheds. This keeps the cows cool and with fresh air and light . It also contributes to the good health of a cow. 

The people of the Netherlands are famous for their cow breeding. There is low interest in buffalo breeding as it does not generate high income levels. The net financial return is low in comparison with cows. However, there are now 8 buffalo farms in the Netherlands.

We further visited  the museum of cattle breeding  and Qlip, a private company with for dairy quality improvement, where we learnt that  33% of the milk produced is consumed by the people of Netherlands and the rest is exported to other countries.
In short, we learnt a lot during our study trip to the Netherlands and will surely implement and exchange these lessons learned.

Merlita is the eldest of six children and is the only one with a college degree. Like most Filipinos who face limited employment opportunities, she decided to emigrate to Manila to look for work. Later, she worked as household help in Laguna and Bulacan for almost 7 years. During these years, she earned about USD 45 a month. 

After saving some money, she decided to return home. She started a small sari-sari/ convenience store beside her house. In 2004, Merlita joined PASAKA, a local organisation of coconut farmers advocating agrarian reform and livelihood development. Now, seven years later, she is part of the PASAKA board of directors, and the overall-in-charge of PASAKA's multi-purpose cooperative's copra trading business. In this capacity, she handles finance, marketing, and even oversees delivery and logistics.

As a young member of the organisation, Merlita was chosen to be part of an international exchange program. Probably one of her most exciting adventures, she was sent to Netherlands for a week to learn more about farming technologies.
Before she joined PASAKA, Merlita has to depend on her own savings, and sometimes loans from her parents. Fortunately, she received a cow and four chickens, as part of PASAKA's livelihood programs for its members. As beneficiary, she is required to take care of these livestock and pay back by returning some of the animal's future offspring.

July 2011 Merlita was able to sell at least 10 chickens. A kilo of chicken costs P130/kilo. This translates to P2,650 (about 61,84 USD)  in sales, and at least P 2,100 (49 USD) net income. She sells her chicken to her neighbours who are mostly Muslims, the reason why the sales peak during Ramadan months. The eggs she sells at her sari-sari store or she uses them for breakfast.

This steady stream of additional income, including the various trainings she has received makes Merlita very grateful for PASAKA. Since she joined PASAKA, she built her own house, expanded her sari-sari store business, and sent her nephew to a vocational school. She also provides support to some of her relatives who have bigger families. She now pays for her parent's utility bills.

Merlita's story proves that with enough training and support, and an entrepreneurial attitude, one can achieve a better life. Opportunities need not be too far from home. As for her future plans, she is very ambitious: "I want to grow my poultry business and become rich."

Mr Tes Sarorn lives in Knol Kangthbong village, Svay Ang commune, Svay Chrum district, Svay Rieng province in Cambodia. He has seven sons and daughters including his son in law. Five of them are garment workers in Phnom Penh and the other two are staying at home to help him run business. Mr Sarorn used to work partly as farmer and partly as business man in the village. Here he worked as machine repairer and he has a paddy thresh rental. He has 40,000 square meters land for rice field.

He used to grow rice only in the rainy season and was not used to grow vegetables or other crops in the dry season even if there was enough water and land for vegetable growing. Previously, he grew only a few types of vegetable such as kang kongs, and ridge gourds by using traditional techniques because he did not have the knowledge and skills. The vegetables were often destroyed by insects. He spent a lot of money buying vegetables for family consumption.

As there is now an increasing number of machine repairers and paddy thresher renters in the village his income decreased from day to day. In order to increase his income, he considered growing vegetable as an option to get more money. Being a member of the Cambodian Farmers Association Federation of Agricultural Producers (CFAP) he was one of the selected farmers to join CFAP-trainings for small farmers groups aimed at improving their market access through rural economic activities in vegetable and rice production and marketing. Mr Tes Sarorn was very excited and he hoped that he would get more knowledge and skills to grow vegetables.

In the training he studied on bitter gourd growing techniques and at his house he did eggplant trials by using mulching film techniques on a 150 square meters trial plot compared with a 50 square meters normal plot. From the trial results, he learnt that the eggplant with the mulching film produced a lot more than the normal plot. The normal plot did not grow very well and faced insects.

Based on the trial results, he has decided to expand his vegetable growing area in the dry season by changing his rice field to a vegetable field. He plans to grow many types of vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, wax gourds, bitter gourds, pumpkins and long beans on 2,600 square meters of land. Until now, at least 8 villagers around his house are trying to copy the techniques from him. They also asked the knowledge support from him.

Mr Tes Sarorn is a model farmer, showing that the CFAP trainings sort effect and that it is possible for smallholder households to increase their incomes substantially from improved vegetables production and marketing. However, the true success lies not in the model farmers, but in other villagers seeing this and starting to learn and applying these new techniques. Early signs are that this is starting to happen and the coming growing seasons will tell whether this will truly happen.
 
The first farmer field school has trained 31 farmers in 8 communes. As a result, the large majority was very interested and expanded their growing area. A lot of people in the village approached and visited the trial plots of model farmers in order to check to see the facts and learn.    

During the farmer field day in the village with around 50 participants, all the participants were very interested in the new techniques and had a lot of inquiries related the growing techniques and market. Most of them were willing to follow and join the training.

Moreover, with the whole value chain system, the expectation is that there will be an increase in number of vegetable producers and a gradual build-up of contacts with middlemen and traders to meet the demand in the market.

The model farmers like Mr Tes Sarorn are the key person to disseminate the new knowledge and experiences to other farmers for the group members and non-group members in the village. So it is very important to select the right farmer to do the experiment. It is easy to convince other farmers to follow if they see the result because most of them do not dare to do first and very often wait to see result.
 
Hard skills are more popular than soft skills. Farmers want to see quick result. Long term investment is hardly convincing to farmers who need quick income for their urgent household needs.

Innovation is a new area for Agriterra, one in which farmers' organisations work on entrepreneurship according to the three p's: people, planet, profit. Maintaining the countryside in a liveable form for future generations is one of the main aims. The youth has an important role here. Agriterra wants to stay as close to the ground as possible while making a concrete contribution. One way for it to do this is to encourage enterprising farmers' groups that want to produce and sell food in sustainable ways. Agriterra has a special innovation fund to stimulate enterprising and innovative organisations of young and female farmers.

The team focuses on customers who have renewing courses in mind and customers who need our support for result-oriented advocacy. Because we cannot manage this on our own, Agriterra consciously chooses for cooperating with other organisation like Agri-ProFocus and IFAD.

Contact: belangenbehartiging&innovatie@agriterra.org
Composition of the team: advocacy and innovation
For more information, please check the pdf-document below.

At Agriterra, the term 'agribusiness' means a company where the involved farmers have control either directly or indirectly. This control comes either because it is a membership organisation with farmers as members or because agricultural organisations hold the shares and participations.

Agribusinesses - usually cooperatives - lend their services to primary agriculture. They become clients of our team because they need knowledge, means or capacity to realize their ambitions and plans for growth. A strong, competitive market position is therefore the aim to which team agribusiness makes its contribution.

This contribution mainly consists of advice and technical aid in the field of entrepreneurship, business planning, financial management and day-to-day management. This way, companies become bankable: ripe for investment. A further step is that agribusiness advisers with Agriterra, working in the region, approach investors and banks in order to ensure the success of the investment plans.

Contact: bedrijven@agriterra.org
Composition of the team: agribusiness

For more information, please check the pdf-document below.

Agriterra helps setting up local groups that will establish good relationships with one another and with their surroundings. We focus on enterprising farmers who produce a surplus and want to take it to the market. Those farmers often have to find answers to a number of questions, like how do I react to the demand, how do I ensure better quality, how can I increase my production, how do I get access to different sales channels and how do I obtain necessary financing?
Challenges the grass-roots entrepreneurship team faces in providing advice to farmers are as numerous as the questions. Because good leadership and a healthy organisation are needed for local economic activity, the team also invests in leadership and organisation development. In all activities, the team pays particular attention to female entrepreneurs.

The linking to and knowledge of the Dutch agricultural sector plays an important rule herein. Advice from (female) farmer to (female) farmer is therefore characteristic to this team.

Contact: ondernemerschap@agriterra.org
Composition of the team: grass-roots entrepreneurship
For more information, please check the pdf-document below.

Agriterra aide à organiser des groupes locales qui auront de bonnes relations mutuelles et de bonnes relations avec leur milieu. Nous nous adressons aux paysans entreprenants qui produisent un surplus qu'ils désirent vendre sur le marché. Il faut que ces paysans trouvent des réponses à des questions comme: comment répondre à la demande, comment améliorer la qualité, comment augmenter la production, comment accéder des voies de vente divers, comment financer tout cela?

Ce sont beaucoup de défis, près desquels conseille l'équipe entreprenariat rural.
Parce que l'activité locale faut une bonne direction et une organisation saine, l'équipe investit aussi en le développement de direction et d'organisation.  En plus il y a toujours d'attention spéciale pour les entrepreneurs féminins.

La liaison et la connaissance du secteur agricole néerlandais joue un rôle important dans tout cela. Les conseils de paysan à paysan et de paysanne à paysanne caractérisent alors cette équipe.

Contact: ondernemerschap@agriterra.org
Composition du équipe: entreprenariat rural
Pour plus d'information voici la pdf-brochure.

Pour Agriterra l'innovation près de laquelle les organisations paysannes se mettent à la fonction d'entrepreneur autour des trois p (peuple, planète, profit) est un terrain nouveau. Tenir le milieu rural vivable pour aujourd'hui et pour les générations futures y est en premier lieu. Les jeunes en ont une tâche importante. Agriterra veut être à la base et veut fournir une contribution concrète. On veut par exemple contribuer à des groupes de paysans entreprenants qui veulent produire et vendre des aliments de façon durable. Agriterra a un fonds spécial d'innovation pour stimuler des organisations entreprenantes et innovatrices de (jeunes) paysans et paysannes.

L'équipe se concentre sur les clients qui ont pour but des trajets innovateurs et sur ceux qui ont besoin de notre appui pour la défense d'intérêts visé aux résultats. Ici Agriterra choisit consciemment de collaborer avec d'autres organisations comme Agri-ProFocus et IFAD, parce qu'on n'y arrive pas tout seul.

Contact: belangenbehartiging&innovatie@agriterra.org
Composition du équipe: défense des intérêts et innovation
Pour plus d'information voici la pdf-brochure.

Les agri-entreprises - en général des coopérations - offrent leurs services à l'agriculture primaire.  Elles accordent leur clientèle à l'équipe agri-entreprises parce qu'elles ont besoin de connaissance, de moyens ou de capacité afin de réaliser leurs ambitions et leurs plans d'expansion. L'équipe agri-entreprises contribue alors aux efforts de réaliser une position sur le marché forte et compétitive pour ces entreprises.

Cette contribution existe surtout du conseil et de l'aide technique sur le plan de la fonction de l'entrepreneur, du business planning, de la gestion financière et de l'organisation. Par là on rend les entreprises bancables: mûr pour les investissements. Ensuite des conseillers agri-entreprises d'Agriterra, qui travaillent dans la région, négocient avec des banques et des investisseurs afin d'effectuer les plans d'investissement.

Contact: bedrijven@agriterra.org
Composition du équipe: agri-entreprises
Pour plus d'information voici la pdf-brochure.

Ms. Sao Savoeun lives in Tachey village, Kampong Chamlang commune, Svay Chrum district, Svay Rieng province. She and her husband have two children; both of them are studying in grade 5 in the commune. Her mother is living with her family. They own 20 000 square meters of land where they grow vegetables, rice and fruit crops.

Her mother is a broom maker and her husband worked as construction worker in Svay Rieng province in the past two years. Before Sao Savoeun joined CFAP, her family income depended on her husband and her mother. Her husband worked in Svay Rieng and earned 10 000 riel (USD 2.45) per day with his construction work. "My family often had to spend money on food, medicines and so on which the family income did not cover. At home, we grew only a few traditional types of vegetables such as kang kong and bottled gourds. Because we did not have experiences nor knowledge we did not expect to get more income from vegetables" she said.    

Ms. Savoeun is now a model farmer. She joined CFAP in March 2010. Shortly after her registration, she participated in a farm field school and training in entrepreneurship, marketing and business planning. In the school she studied on Chinese kale growing techniques and at her house she experimented with long bean trial by applying new growing techniques on 200 square meters.

From the trial results and the trainings, she gained a lot of skills in both theory and practices. Also her mother and especially her husband learned a lot, because she usually taught and showed her husband what she has learned at school. "Previously my husband did not know how to grow vegetables technically. He always applied only traditional knowledge but now he can grow very well",  she said. He quit his job and now is the main person in the family for vegetable growing.

They are confident that they can make more money from vegetable growing so they decided to expand their vegetable growing area to 7,000 square meters. They grow a lot of types of vegetable such as cucumbers, spinaches, wax gourds, long beans, tomatoes and bitter gourds. During the harvesting period of bitter gourds and spinaches she can earn at least 20 000 riel (USD 5) per day and she really hopes that she will get more and more income when she harvests other vegetables.

Her mother, who often stayed away from home a few weeks per month to buy broom materials in other provinces, now decided to stay at home to help Sao and her husband to grow vegetables because this will generate more income for the family than working as broom maker.

Ms Chakriya lives in Svay village, Sankat Chek, Svay Rieng province. She has four children, three sons and 1 daughter, two of whom are studying in grade 7 and 11 in Svay Rieng province. Her other two sons are working in Phnom Penh and Kratie province. Her husband, a three-wheeled vehicle driver (cyclo driver), is working in Phnom Penh. Only her two children who live with her help her on the field. Sometimes her husband also helps her when he visits her.

Ms Chakriya became CFAP member in July 2010. Before that, she always grew Sambar cucumber (Trasak Srov) and produced rice using traditional techniques resulting in very low yield. During the three months training, she learned about the technical steps needed for cucumber production as well as how to calculate her cost benefit from this through record keeping. 

During the course, she did a cucumber experiment at her farm using plastic mulch techniques on 150 square meters trial plot compared with 150 square meters normal plot. The inputs cost of the trial plot was 104 900 riel (USD 26) and normal plot was 70 000 riel (USD 17). After the experiment the net profit on the trial plot was 19 5000 riel (USD 47) while the normal plot was -50 500 riel (USD -12).

After the experiment she decided to expand her vegetable growing area to 1400 square meters. She took a chance to invest her own money, which was 326 800 riel (USD 80) in improved seeds and mulching film. Now she grows different types of vegetables such as bitter gourds, cucumbers, ridge gourds, eggplants and tomatoes by using mulching film and techniques that she learnt from the course and experience of the previous experimentation. During the period of harvesting cucumbers and bitter gourds she earns 41 000 riel (USD 10) per day.

Her husband decided to return back home from Phnom Penh to help her expand the vegetable business because they can make more income from this than with him working as a cyclo-taxi driver.

Now at least 30 villagers who have seen the results of Ms Chakriya's business want to learn from her and ask her questions such as why you decide to expand your vegetable growing? What did you learn? Why are you not afraid of losing your money? and so on.

According to Kiwanuka Richard Ntambi the business is moving on well. "We have had tremendous developments since December 2011 in terms of more purchases (stock), more customers and publicity - on radio and local newspapers -  and the impact is now being noticed. Actually, we have now gone into wholesale dealership since we can now buy with cash from leading importers or manufacturers of agro-inputs in the country. I have held several meetings with some executives of these companies to get their products at discounted prices since we are purchasing in bulk. Our aim is to supply to small input dealers who are close to farmers in the villages. We believe this will reduce the rampant prevalence of counterfeit products on the market because most of these small dealers are unable to travel to Kampala and purchase these products and hence resort to either buy fake product or tamper with them by dilution or change of content", so Richard Ntambi says.
 
Now the preparations for the next planting season (late February to April) are in full swing. In this period demand for inputs normally is high, so Mbadifa expects business will be vibrant then.

Richard: "The local news papers wrote a lot about Mbadifa winning the award. I have also been interviewed on radio and in talk shows where I could promote our business. The impact is positive and promising. Winning the business plan contest and the prize money has given us good business leverage, and I believe Mbadifa shall reach to greater heights."
 
Want to find out how Richard Ntambi won the challenge? Check this youtube video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEt70b6RBv0&feature=plcp&context=C3b96d37UDOEgsToPDskLHKyZvDKVW_UUKbF0h98sL. During the Finance Market Place in Rwenzori region (Uganda), Richard explains how he won the 'Farmers in Business Challenge 2011' and why it is important for farmer entrepreneurs to formulate professional business plans.

A group female farmers explains that a lot has changed since they have received services from QTCA. One of the most important changes was that 5 - 10 years ago they used to sell all their rice when it was still growing in the field, resulting in permanent shortages of cash. Now they learned through courses by the QTCA to get a higher yield from the land by using better seeds and fertiliser. They now only sell after harvest and drying, this way they receive a higher price for their rice. This has increased their income, so they can better provide for their families.

With the income out of the harvest they first pay QTCA for the seed and fertilisers, then they repay their other debts and buy goods for the household. If any money remains they buy gold jewellery to save something for a rainy day. Only few farmers have a bank account and they have no experience in saving money.

It seemed that farmers who run a more specialised farm, e.g. in products like blue bean (bean sprout) and rice noodles, earn more and have a higher standard of living. A farmer of a blue bean farm said she learned in trainings of the cooperative how to improve her produce and about what is essential to run a good blue bean farm.