NOTE 19: Service Provision by Agri-Cooperatives Engaged in High Value Markets

Article Index

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Impact and scalability

Various factors are critical for cooperatives and partners to achieve impact and sustainability at scale through advisory services: careful design of services; taking into account the needs of cooperatives to strengthen their service delivery capacity and the service needs of members; complementarity between cooperative and externally-sourced services; efficient delivery mechanisms with a constant eye on impact and cost recovery or securing sustainable funding; and having the right partners on board for critical programme design, service capacity development, and periodic reflection for programme improvement.

Tabel 1: Possible service and delivery arrangements for three generic types of members

Member grouping	Types of service that may be needed	Potential service providers
Most vulnerable: Highly constrained asset endowments, where main focus is food security	Support to meet basic needs Emergency credit Assistance with major bottlenecks for production Facilitation of services to address basic health needs	Government agencies, NGOs and projects for assessing livelihood and health related needs Cooperative services for securing basic assets (for on-farm production
Vulnerable: Members with moderate constraints in asset endowments for production, diversified livelihood strategies, but limited capacity to invest in inputs and services	Building human capital for improved crop management Facilitating access to productivity enhancing assets Direct provision or facilitation of credit services Training programs for supporting livelihood diversification Facilitation of services to address basic health needs	Cooperative services for enhancing on-farm issues Government agencies, NGOs and projects for basic livelihood and health needs
Least vulnerable: Members with few or no constraints in asset endowments for on-farm production, able to invest in inputs and services	Short term credit for production of cash crops Access to inputs for value chain crop Technical assistance for value chain crop Assistance to access higher end organic and other niche markets	Buyers/processors (e.g. technical assistance on specific issues in production/processing)