Agriterra and ForFarmers will begin cooperating in order to professionalize farmers’ organizations and cooperatives in emerging markets. Jan Potijk, director of ForFarmers Nederland and Kees Blokland, director of Agriterra, signed the memorandum September 8.
ForFarmers will offer its employees the option to make their knowledge and expertise available for Agriterra advisory assignments and training programs in emerging markets in, for instance, Africa, Asia and South America. In more concrete terms, this means that ForFarmers employees can register to help with advisory issues at agricultural cooperatives that Agriterra supports with knowledge. After approval from ForFarmers and Agriterra, a ForFarmers employee can be deployed. The employee must use some of their own holiday leave time for part of this and ForFarmers will compensate for the remaining days. Travel and accommodation expenses will be paid by Agriterra. An assignment typically lasts 1 to 2 weeks and is performed by a team. In addition to the ForFarmers employee, the team will consist of an Agriterra employee, a local employee, and another “Agripooler,” an expert with a different area of expertise who has also been deployed by Agriterra.
Agriterra, founded in 1997 by a group of Dutch agricultural and horticultural organizations, supports farmers’ organisations and cooperatives in emerging markets with knowledge and organizational advice. Agriterra contributes to an industrialization of farmer organizations and cooperatives in the country and to quick economic growth. At the same time, balance needs to be achieved (or retained) between demand for food and food supply as well as between population growth and the growth of employment opportunities.
ForFarmers is committed “For the Future of Farming.” The company works side by side with its customers toward healthier livestock and greater efficiency on the farm, leading to better returns for farmers. Agriterra places the focus on sharing its knowledge and experiences in the realization of its goal of enabling farmers’ organizations in emerging markets to contribute to the production of meat, eggs, and dairy in a sustainable way. ForFarmers supports this objective as well as the approach, which is closely in keeping with the three key values of ForFarmers: sustainability, partnership and ambition.
