completed· Livelihoods

grassroot entrepreneurship and capacity building of cooperatives and CTCF

CTCF is a client of Agriterra since 2012. Initially supported by the team advocacy, but realising the contribution towards the results of the team grass root entrepreneurship, it was decided to make CTCF a client of the team grass root entrpreneurship from 2013 onwards. The vision of CTCF is towards economic development through tea cooperative promotion and building the capacity of the memebrs of the cooperatives. CTCF works on a central level to improve the situation of the cooperatives. At the grassroots level, CTCF conducts various trainings programmes and provided continously coaching and support through its facilitators to the primary cooperatives and its members. CTCF has currently 66 member tea cooperatives from Ilam, Panchthar, Dhankuta, Therathum, Jhapa, Udayapur, Bhojpur and Lalitpur districts including four district cooperative federations, with more than 3,972 tea farmers associated through their cooperatives. The tea farmers as members of cooperatives are gradually increasing and the number of cooperatives is expected to be more than 72, with more than 4,300 farmers as members, by the end of 2013. Update at the beginning of 2014: CTCF has currently 73 member tea cooperatives from Ilam, Panchthar, Dhankuta, Therathum, Jhapa, Udayapur, Bhojpur and Lalitpur districts including five district cooperative federations, with more than 4699 tea farmers associated through their cooperatives. The tea farmers as members of cooperatives are gradually increasing and the number of cooperatives is expected to be grow gradually. Overall goal is to contribute in sustained rural poverty reduction of smallholder tea farmers of Eastern districts of Nepal by increasing their income, and equally empower small farmer based organisations to provide better technical and management services. Objectives: Key objectives of the project: 1. Capacity building Entrepreneurship skills development and marketing support services to the tea entrepreneurs 2. Support tea cooperatives and farmers for Access to Finance and capacity building support services on financials 3. Lobby and advocacy on various tea issues (favourable tea policy, celebration of 16th National Tea Day , organic inputs, certification, collateral free loan etc.) 4. To establish effective supervision and monitoring system in tea sub sector for regular dissemination of information. Objectives for 2014 are more or less same as in 2013, but slightly more focused: 1. Capacity building of tea cooperatives and farmers in their institutional building, resource mobilization, business planning etc. 2. Enhance entrepreneurship and business skills of STPUs operated by cooperatives. 3. Lobby and advocacy works on various tea related issues faced by the tea farmers. 4. Regular monitoring and supervision support to all tea stakeholders. Expected results: 1. Minimum of ten (10) cooperatives will be able to start Mini Tea Processing (MTP) units after receiving technical inputs, entrepreneurship trainings and other business support services including marketing. 2. MTP units will produce and sell 9.000 kg quality tea in the competitive markets. 3. 3 Cooperatives and individual tea farmers will be able to avail minimum 10 million loan amount easily at minimum interest rates. 4. 12 cooperatives will prepare business plan and start to business activities like saving credit, nurseling, tea planting, green leaf tea collection etc. 5. 7 cooperatives will review their business plan and prepare further plan. 6. Organic inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides will be made available to the tea farmers with organic tea garden at subsidized rates. 7. Financial monitoring system (PEARL, Software, etc.,) will be set-up in 9 cooperatives 8. FACT concept will be widely disseminated to a larger number of cooperatives and will internalize in their regular system. 9. 6 new cooperatives will take memebrship of CTCF 10. 10 young/weak coopertiaves willreceive coop leadership and management training Period: From January 2013 until December 2013, but the project will in case of smooth implementation be extended for the year 2014, Activities and logframe are only for 2013. in the logframe, long term objectives are mentioned which can only be achieved in multiple years. Total Budget: Nrs. 6,142,100 Expected results 2014: a. 50% of cooperatives will be able to generate resources on their own and sustain in a long run. b. 30% of STPUs will be capable to produce quality tea as per the tea standard and managed to sell in the competitive market. c. There will be improvements in quality of green leaves produced by tea farmers. 5% of the tea farmers will adopt IPM or organic tea farming technology. d. Government and other stakeholders will be positive towards tea sector and there will be more investments to promote this sector. Some level changes will be visibly seen in 3 key areas. e. Updated database on key tea indicators (production, sales, exports, number of farmers/cooperatives, etc.) Coverage and target beneficiary: Program will be implemented mainly in nine districts: Ilam, Panchthar, Dhankuta, Therathum, Lalitpur, and Bojpur targeting 5 district federations, 72 tea cooperatives, and about 4,500 tea farmers. This year, services will be extended in additional two districts (Lalitpur, Bojpur, Udayapur, Sankuwasava, Jhapa). In Lalitpur district, there are 8 tea cooperatives, District Tea Cooperative Federation (DTCF), and more than 225 members. Similarly, in Bojpur, Sankuwasava, Udayapur and Jhapa districts there are 7 cooperatives and more than 325 tea farmers. Overall goal is to contribute in sustained rural poverty reduction of smallholder tea farmers of Eastern districts of Nepal by increasing their income, and equally empower small farmer based organisations to provide better technical and management services. Objectives: Key objectives of the project: 1. Entrepreneurship skills development and marketing support services to the tea entrepreneurs 2. Support tea cooperatives and farmers for Access to Finance and capacity building support services on financials 3. Lobby and advocacy on various tea issues (favourable tea policy, celebration of 16th National Tea Day , organic inputs, certification, collateral free loan etc.,) 4. Advisory services on cooperative management and administration, and seeking experts from Agripool for support in developing marketing strategies for the members 5. To establish effective supervision and monitoring system in tea sub sector for regular dissemination of information.