The regional cooperative experts meeting on computerization to promote agricultural cooperative enterprise development (ACED) was organized by the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific jointly with the Network for the Development of Agricultural Cooperatives in Asia and the Pacific (NEDAC). Sixteen participants from Bangladesh, China, India, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand including representatives of FAO and NEDAC attended the meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand from 19 to 23 April 2004. (See Annex 1 for list of participants.) The meeting was a follow-up to the technical seminar on Information Technology (IT) and Computerization of Agriculture Cooperatives held during the October/November 2003 NEDAC General Assembly in Kathmandu, Nepal.
a) To share experiences, information and views on the development of national programmes for computerization to promote ACED; to review national policies, legislation and capacity-building for computerization in support of ACED.
b) To assess steps by government and/or the cooperative movement to promote small and medium enterprise (SME) development and business planning by agricultural cooperatives; to highlight key problems faced and lessons learned.
c) To identify training needs for better management and business planning through computerization of agricultural cooperatives in order to improve their competitiveness in local and regional markets.
d) To formulate strategies/policy recommendations and develop national/regional action plans for computerization of agricultural cooperatives; to identify necessary legal, policy and institutional reforms.
e) To formulate a standard questionnaire for data collection with special reference to ACED and marketing/trade issues; to facilitate information exchange among cooperatives at all levels; to promote cooperative-private sector alliances.
f) To formulate recommendations for FAO-NEDAC to promote ACED and alliance-building. To recommend technical and funding support from FAO and other interested agencies for capacity-building of agricultural cooperatives.
Welcome statement
Wim Polman, Rural Development Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific welcomed the participants. Computerization of agricultural cooperatives is a precondition for strengthening their business capacities and becoming strong rural enterprises, and is a high priority for FAO and NEDAC. The participation from the region shows the importance given to the adoption of modern information systems forACED in order to ensure food and rural livelihood security. He posed the following questions: "how does computerization for ACED work towards this goal, what are the main obstacles and what are the things we need to study further?"
The meeting was important for sharing documentation on the state of development towards computerization of agricultural cooperatives in the region. FAO will use such information to assist its partner agencies in member countries in the development of support programmes for computerization in agricultural cooperatives.
Mr Polman further stated that the intra-regional trade forum APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) was the first multilateral trade grouping to focus on rural small and medium enterprises, including agricultural cooperatives.
Opening remarks
In his opening remarks, NEDAC Chairperson Dinesh Rai referred to the 2003 NEDAC meeting in Kathmandu on development of a regional data collection method. He highlighted the main problems faced by agricultural cooperatives in developing countries within the region:
Weak management, poor training and motivation
Lack of participation by members
Lack of savings, capital formation and business diversification
Lack of professionalism and indifferent decision-making
Lack of appropriate policies and legislation in support of agriculture cooperative development
Limited information of market trends and price movements
Mr Rai pointed out that the purpose of computerization for ACED was not to obtain one-time data or information, but to provide a framework for live, interactive collection and dissemination of data such as the provision of market and price information. NEDAC members must work together to improve data collection and excxhange in support of ACED.
The NEDAC Chairperson informed the participants about the Cooperative Ministers' Conference organized by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) in New Delhi in February 2004 where he reported on major NEDAC activities. Mr Rai mentioned a NEDAC proposal for a joint ICA-FAO-NEDAC collaborative Action Plan in selected countries of the region. This was appreciated by all participants in the ICA meeting. The joint programme would include the design of training curricula/materials as well as training in selected institutes in the region. Both ICA and NEDAC members would gain by sharing views on recent trends in cooperative development, policy and legislative changes, and linkages/networking between cooperatives. Mr Rai invited FAO to provide leadership and assistance in coordinating and formulating a joint action plan for ICA-FAO-NEDAC.
Mr Rai expressed his thanks and appreciation for the three experts on computerization in cooperatives - Stephen DeMeulenaere working on innovative economic projects in Indonesia, Thanit Chanprateep working on IT in the development of cooperatives in Thailand and K.L. Nalwaya for his excellent resource paper and development of a joint format for data compilation. He thanked the NEDAC Secretariat for its hard work in bringing all participants together to the meeting and wished all of them an enjoyable stay in Chiang Mai.
