Stichting Agriterra

<p>Goal for 2016: </p><p>- improve financial management of LDMPCU <br>- SMART strategic business plan for coming 2 years available in September 2016 and approved by BoD in October 2016</p><p>- Strengthen LDMPCUL&nbsp;and primary cooperatives capacity in managing agricultural cooperatives<br>- Sustainable services system aiming at improved production in place to be made operational in 2017</p>

<p>Kamdhenu Dairy Development Cooperative is a farmer led organization in the eastern part of Nepal with a dual membership model. Membership is open for primary cooperatives (45) and also for individuals (230). Members come from the entire supply chain of dairy products: dairy farmers & cooperatives for milk supply staff members of the cooperative for processing & distribution and retailers for the sale to consumers. About 10.000 (small) dairy farmers are indirect members of the cooperative and deliver milk to the cooperative. <br>The cooperative provides two main services to the members: dairy processing and financial services. Since April 2016 a new Board of Directors and Audit Committee was elected. The daily operation is managed by a management team with both experienced and junior managers. Since April 2016 the previous Finance and administrative officer is taken up the position as interim general manager.<br>The current product portfolio includes milk yoghurt ghee paneer khoa and butter selling around average 14.000 litres per day with some seasonal fluctuations. Production of milk is around 14.000 liters per day in line with the sales. Market opportunities are good . <br>The capacity of the current factory is 25.000 litres large enough for the coming 2 years to handle the current production. Aim is to grow in two years time towards 22.000 liters a day. This will require cleaning up and rearranging of the current factory requiring limited investments only. A clear strategy and focus on the implementation of the strategy will help KDDC to make a gradual grow and get ready for the possible next step: moving and expanding the processing factory after 2 years time.</p>

<p>Strengthening JCCU in providing sustainable services to its members.</p>

<p>CTCF has two main objectives; sustainable services for members and effective lobby and advocacy for better representation and access to funds. This is clearly formulated in the stategic plan 2015-2018 of CTCF. It is expected that in the coming 2-3 years CTCF will be able to fully cover its own overhead costs; provide quality services as a service provider to third parties (and generate an income from this) able to attract government support (either fianncially or services) for its members and provide facilitating services to member cooperatives in the field of marketing of tea.</p>

Tinjure Tea Farmers Cooperative Society Ltd. is a tea farmers primary cooperative (PC) with 245 members (33% women) located in Tinjure village, Ilam district. The organization is specialized in the collection, processing, and marketing of the fresh tea produced by their small-scale member farmers. Tinjure was founded in 1994 and is the oldest tea cooperative in the country. It has a small processing factory with a maximum capacity of 800 kg per day. In September 2016 Tinjure and the Dutch tea buyer Maas International expressed their interest to start an export program where Tinjure under the support of Agriterra and CTCF would export packaged 2-gram tea bags to the Netherlands. In 2016 and 2017 major progress was booked in realizing the ambition, such as Rainforest certification, construction of tea packaging room, import of all machinery and packaging materials, packaging staff (all women) trained, test packaging and shipment of 138 kg tea, and further professionalization of the organization in terms of financial management and business planning. Early 2018 the product will be officially launched and be for sale in the Netherlands. It is expected that the total demand in 2018 will increase to 220 kg packaged tea. Therefore, the 2018 Action Plan will further focus on facilitating this growth in terms of organizational capacity, and export handling. In 2017 Tinjure also for the first time in several years made a profit on the overall business of 1.5 Million NPR. The goals for 2018 is to see a further increase to at least 1 million NPR. Therefore, the total capacity of the factory need to be utilized to a larger extend (from current average of 107 kg per day to a minimum of 200 kg per day) and that requires the buying of more fresh tea leaves from the members. In the financial year 2016-2017 the total fresh tea leave intake was 27.868 kg and this is expected to rise to 48.000 kg in 2017-2018. To increase tea leave intake, the cooperative needs a working capital loan of 1 million NPR in order to pay the farmers on time. The projects contract period will be from January 1 to 31 December,2018. The activities in the project will contribute on increasing tea export. Firstly, the financial budget will be prepared for 2018 to know the tentative expenditure in the yearly activities. There will be continuous support in paying salary to account and field supervisor which will contribute on making financial data and services to the members up to date. Moreover the activities will focus on RFA standardization training and finding local resources for packaging of tea. The goals of this project are as below Export of 220 kgs. of packaged tea to the NetherlandsIncrease in profit of cooperative by 1 million Maximize the average production of product from its current average of 107 kgs to 200 kgs. Increase in leave intake from its current intake of 27.868 kg to 48.000 kgRealization of 1 million NPR working capital for making payment to its members.

Nepal vegetable production in 2016 was about 4 million MT produced on 280.807 hectares where the average production per hectare was about 14 tons. This is significantly lower than in developed countries. In Nepal there is an increasing number of people living in urban areas that depend on fruit and vegetables being produced in the rural areas. At the same time, the available land to produce vegetables is limited and the productivity on this available land is very low as farmers do not use proper techniques. This has for instance compelled the infinite use of hazardous chemical pesticides for increasing productivity, especially in producing vegetables. The farmers are furthermore not aware of using the right quantity and quality of fertilizer. The use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides develop resistance power of many insects/weeds against those pesticides. For instance, white grubs are among the difficult insect pest in Nepalese agriculture to control. The major reason to arise this insect pest is due to applying of immature manure from livestock to the field. The consumer’s awareness for quality vegetable production is increasing so the vegetable growers now need to find new and alternative methods to earn more with less investment, safe and hygienic vegetable production at the same time. The commercial vegetables farmers are converting into greenhouse for tackling these challenges. With large population of working age population going abroad for work, Nepal faces an acute shortage of labour as well. With more use of modern equipment and mechanisations, the high cost of production can be lowered along with the quality of the produces. With the use of modern inputs from greenhouses to high quality seeds already available in the local market, the efficient use of fertilisers is imperative for good crops. The use of drip based fertigation system is unheard of in the farmers circle. They have start using it to enhance their product quality. Agriterra believes that those commercial farmers who grow for the market only have future and sustain in the long run. Through this proposal Agriterra in Nepal wants to express its interest to support leading conventional and larger commercial vegetables farmers in increasing quality productions and productivity through capacitating them in production and application of compost fertilizer and fertigation techniques. Result 1 (R1): 20 Commercial vegetable farmers identified in Makwanpur district ActivitiesA.1.1 Identify 20 best commercial vegetable farmers within the network of District Agricultural Cooperative Union (DACU) MakwanpurA.1.2 Develop profiles of the farmers according to their skills, good practices, knowledge, production and other characteristics Result 2 (R2): Strengthened capacities of the selected farmers in producing and application of bio-compost fertilizers Activities:A.2.1 Recruit Agricultural Junior Technical Assistance (JTA) for providing coaching on producing and application of bio-compost fertilizers according to soil conditions and nutrition requirement of the productsA.2.2 Conduct training for the farmers on producing and application of bio-compost fertilizers Result 3 (R3): Selected farmers become resource person for providing training/coaching on producing bio-compost fertilizers Activities:A.3.1 Develop cases of the selected farmers A.3.2 Disseminate information of the selected farmers in the network. Result 4 (R4): Strengthened capacity of green house vegetables growers in fertigation techniques Activities:A 4.1 Identify 20 big green house vegetables growers outside the network of DACU Makwanpur who have greenhouse and drip irrigation systemsA4.2 Conduct training for the green house farmers on fertigation techniques A4.3 Organize exchange visit program of the greenhouse farmers to India. Result 5 (R5): Network developed between selected commercial vegetable farmers and greenhouse farmers. Activities:A5.1 Conduct exchange visit program of commercial vegetable farmers and greenhouse farmers.A5.2 Conduct interaction program between commercial vegetable farmers and greenhouse farmers. Strengthened capacities of the selected farmers in producing and application of bio-compost fertilizers Selected farmers become resource person for providing training/coaching on producing bio-compost fertilizers Strengthened capacity of green house vegetables growers in fertigation techniquesNetwork developed between selected commercial vegetable farmers and greenhouse farmers