First ever cooperative federation...
A workshop was held in Gelephu, Bhutan from 3-5 June, 2013 with the main objective...
Bhutan being a mountainous country with a very scattered rural population, it is important that farmers create cooperatives to market their products. This helps to reduce transport and transaction costs and allows farmers to offer huge quantities of agricultural products which interest traders - an important step towards market access and income opportunities. This also helps service providers to reach out to farmers in more effective ways.
The Cooperatives Rules and Regulations of Bhutan, 2010, covers all aspects of cooperative development such as registration, monitoring, mediation and conciliation as well as the provision of legal advice and services related to research, education and information. It also covers the registration of informal Farmers Groups.
SNV supported the Department of Agricultural Marketing and Cooperatives (DAMC) to develop a master plan for capacity building of farmer groups and cooperatives targeting all levels (central, Dzongkhags, Geogs and farmers). 200 registered FGs and 50 registered Primary Cooperatives were initially targeted within the 10th FYP, and later doubled under the Accelerated Bhutan’s Socio-Economic Development (ABSD) programme. By March 2012, the number of registered cooperatives and groups included 13 cooperatives and 60 fully registered farmer groups and 210 groups with provisional certificates.
SNV Solutions
Since 2009, SNV has supported DAMC in taking a structured approach to the promotion of groups and cooperatives, and supported the set-up of systems for promotion and registration, as well as development of a well-thought through capacity building approach.
SNV Services
Impact
Up to 500 farmer groups, cooperatives, NTFP groups are to be strengthened through the capacity building master plan, and thereby livelihood opportunities are increased for more than 10.000 households.