IFAD and rural institutions

©IFAD/Nana Kofi Acquah

The United Nations declared 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives, highlighting the contribution of cooperatives to socio-economic development, particularly their impact on poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration. The International Fund for Agricultural Development works closely with its sister agencies Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and World Food Programme (WFP) to support rural and agricultural development to improve food security. We partner with smallholder farmers, pastoralists, fisher folk, farmers’ organizations and cooperatives, involving them in the design and implementation of the programmes we support. Our collaboration enables  rural peoples’ organizations to bring together individuals to work more effectively, as well as connecting their groups to larger, more powerful associations and fostering integration into unions and federations at village, municipality, district or even national levels. Larger and stronger producer associations can both deliver services to members and attract private or state agro-technology service providers in their areas of operation, such as extension and rural finance services, input suppliers and produce buyers.

Our experience over more than three decades shows that when smallholder farmers are organized, their influence and opportunities grow. This is why, as an international financial institution and United Nations agency, IFAD has been helping to foster and strengthen rural people’s  organizations and cooperatives, and has supported them to increase their capacity.

 

In this episode of Hungry Planet: Three reports on agricultural cooperatives, a key to food security.
In Guatemala, farmers making a living from small plots of land struggle to produce bigger crops, become better connected to markets and earn more money.In Afghanistan, as foreign troops prepare to leave, an unexpected kind of peace building is taking place thanks to the rise in dairy cooperatives. In Southern Niger, agricultural cooperatives gain access to better seeds and better farming techniques to fight the region's severe droughts.