Farmer organisations to benefit from €4.8million project
Farmer organisations play a key role in the agriculture sector as they can help increase agricultural production across various sectors. This was highlighted by the Minister for Agriculture Mahendra Reddy while officiating the information session on farmer’s organisation for Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific (FO4ACP) Project at the Holiday Inn, Suva.
Mr Reddy said: “farmer organisations can also help leverage external financial support to upskill farmers and assist in accessing mechanisation support. “Marketing-orientated farmer organisations can assist their members to purchase inputs, equipment, meet quality standards and manage the drying, storage, grading, cleaning, processing, packing.
“Organised farmers have greater bargaining power than individuals and are better able to negotiate with other more powerful market players to ultimately increase the profits that accrue to farmers rather than intermediaries and buyers,” he said.
With a value of $4.8 million Euro across five years, the FO4ACP project will also help raise the capacity of farmer organisations in the Pacific.
About FO4ACP project
The FO4ACP project is part of a broader partnership between the EU and the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) to increase income and improve the livelihoods of the farmers and their families.
Mr Reddy said through the FO4ACP project, farmer organisations can better serve its members as 90 per cent of funding is allocated to boots on the ground activities with farmers at national level.
“The Pacific Islands Farmers Organisation Network (PIFON) will also organise activities at the regional level such as farmer-to-farmer learning exchanges between countries, representation at regional and international meetings and forums and the development of regional policy positions that represents the farmer’s interests.
Implementation
The FO4ACP project will be implemented though PIFON whose secretariat is based here Fiji.