Perspective planning for regional development by agricultural cooperatives

The regional seminar on Member Participation which was jointly organised by ICAROAP, JA ZENCHU and IDACA at Tokyo since 1987 for 4 years to provide opportunities for the participants to study how to strengthen member participation at the grassroot level by making farm management plan of individual member farmer and how to assist them through agricultural cooperatives. Therefore, it was agreed that it would be essential to follow-up such farm management plan by making effective strategy of agricultural cooperatives. Such strategy should involve primary societies at regional/federation level.

As a second phase of the seminar, therefore, it needs to provide an opportunity to the participants to study how to formulate a Regional Agricultural Development Plan based on individual farm management plans and to establish regional strategy. These strategies must be formulated on medium and long-term basis with participation of members and primary societies in the region. It is also necessary to discuss regional collaboration with the government agencies In view of the above, the seminar in the second phase is focused on method of Perspective Regional Planning for Agricultural Development initiated by agricultural cooperatives and member farmers. The seminar trains middle class managerial persons of secondary or national federations and unions who have been engaged in such business planning of agricultural cooperatives on the regional basis. The first seminar on the above subject was conducted at IDACA, Japan, in 1991. The seminar held from 8th to 26th November 1993 at IDACA was the second event in the series.

Objectives

The Regional Seminar was organised with the following objectives:

(a) to learn how to collect relevant information and to formulate national and regional Agricultural Development Plans based on individual farm management plans and methods of perspective planning for agricultural development initiated by agricultural cooperatives and member farmers: (b) to learn how to establish marketing strategy of the farm products on medium and long-term basis with

the participation of member and primary societies in the region, (c) to discuss applicability of the Japanese experience on perspective planning to agricultural cooperatives of the participants' countries;

(d) to identify strategies and methods which would be most effective in perspective planning in

participants' countries on the basis of study of (a) to (c) above; and

(e) to formulate action proposals for the organisations/ movements of the participants, keeping in view the experience.