Introduction
Producer organisations are crucial both on the demand and the supply side of RAS. On the demand side, they identify and synthesise needs, demands, and solutions for farmers. They contribute to monitoring and evaluation of RAS, and participate in policy formulation. On the supply side, producer organisations provide and co-finance RAS activities.
Producer organisations’ strengths in RAS derive from their knowledge about farmers’ contexts and needs. Together with their capacity to provide unbiased advice, often linked to other services such as marketing, this leads to a high level of trust from their clients.
Due to their role on the demand- and supply side of RAS, producer organisations are crucial in GFRAS. In order to strengthen participation and collaboration, GFRAS implements activities to strengthen producer organisations’ role in RAS.
Presentation for public use to discuss widely the role of producers organisations in RAS (pptx 1.7MB)
Activities
Activities
4th GFRAS Annual Meeting on the role of producer organisations in RAS
On 24-26 September 2013, more than 150 RAS stakeholders, including representatives from producer organisations, met in in Berlin, Germany, to discuss, understand, and agree on the role of producer organisations in RAS. Find more information and outputs here.
E-collaboration on the role of producer organisations in RAS, December 2013 and January 2014
An e-collaboration was held to discuss and enhance the conclusions and recommendations from the 4th GFRAS Annual Meeting. 76 GFRAS affiliates from producer organisations in different regions were subscribed to the mailing list, on which the e-collaboration was based. The e-collaboration was held in two rounds. From 6-17 December 2013, participants discussed and enhanced conclusions and recommendations from the 4th GFRAS Annual Meeting. On 13-22 January 2014, the group further discussed divergent ideas and interesting aspects from the first round.
Concept note e-collaboration (pdf 79KB)
Report from the first round of the e-collaboration (pdf 173KB)
Enhanced recommendations and conclusions of the GFRAS Annual Meeting (pdf 275KB)
Questions for the 2nd round of the e-collaboration (pdf 172KB)
Side event at the 5th global meeting of the Farmers' Forum, February 2014 in Rome, Italy
Conclusions of the 4th GFRAS Annual Meeting and follow-up e-collaboration were collated in the discussion paper “Demanding and Supplying Effective Rural Advisory Services: Farmer Organisations’ Role”. During a side event at the Farmers’ Forum 2014, taking place on 20 February, the paper was be presented and discussed.
Demanding and Supplying Effective RAS. Discussion paper on farmer organisations’ role in RAS (pdf 540KB)
Invitation to the side event at the Farmers’ Forum (pdf 221KB)
Report of the RAS Side-Event (pdf 608KB)
Opening and introduction
Introduction to GFRAS (Kristin Davis, GFRAS secretariat) (pdf 780KB)
Farmer Organisations in Agricultural Innovation Systems and RAS (Vadakkel Rasheed Sulaiman, AESA, Magdalena Blum, FAO) (pdf 3.4MB)
The role of farmer organisations in rural advisory services
Demanding and Supplying Effective Rural Advisory Services: Farmer Organisations’ Role (Lani Eugenia, Puantani, Luján Mongelós, FECOPROD Ltda., Raul Montemayor, Free Farmers Federation) (pdf 1.2MB)
Follow-up activities
- Regional discussions: To discuss and raise the awareness on the role of producer organisations in RAS in your region, feel free to use presentation below.
- Contribution to discussions related to the International Year of Family Farming 2014 (more information will follow)
Presentation for public use to discuss widely the role of producers organisations in RAS (pptx 1.7MB)
