The ICA-Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Government of Japan training course on “Strengthening of Marketing through Improvement of Quality of Farm Produce and Expansion of Marketing Channels-2022” was held from 22 November to 16 December. The 25 days training course was held in collaboration with the Institute for the Development of Agricultural Cooperation in Asia (IDACA-Japan). It aims to contribute to the development of agricultural cooperatives and the improvement of their members’ living standards by improving the agriproducts quality, access to markets of high value-added products and more involvement in food value chain through the strengthening of business economies in Asia and Africa, where initiatives for organizing agricultural cooperatives are making headway.
9 participants from 7 countries – India, Nepal, Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand in Asia and Cameroon and Rwanda in Africa participated in the training. They learned about the agriculture and fisheries cooperatives in Japan, their business development and marketing strategies, the concept of food value chain, safety procedures, and case studies of successful agricultural cooperatives.
Based on the lessons learnt during the training course, the participants proposed action plans ranging from increasing the income of farmers by improving the marketing of Agri products like cocoa, vegetables, chillies, branding and sales of foxnuts, coffee, and formation of farmer producer organisations. These plans, though have have small beneficiary groups but have the potential to create a big impact for the communities.
The closing ceremony, held on 16 December was attended by Mr. Toshihiko Baba (video message), Senior Executive Director, Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA Zenchu); Mr. Hirofumi Kobayashi, Executive Director, IDACA; Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer, Regional Director, ICA-AP; guests from JA Zenchu, Ms. Yuki Irisawa, Course Coordinator, IDACA; Ms. Eiko Oshita, IDACA; Mr. Ashok Taneja, Advisor, ICA-AP; Ms. Shivali Sarna, Lead – Communication & Membership Development and Education and Course Coordinator, ICA-AP, and participants of the training course.
The guests congratulated the participants on successfully completing their training and hoped to see them implementing their action plans in the coming months. E-certificates were distributed to 8 qualifying participants. The participants shared a positive feedback for the quality of lectures covered in the training, although they felt that online mode poses its own challenges. The organisers hoped that the Covid situation gets better and they are able to start in-person training courses in Japan.
