Agricultural Cooperative in Ethiopia (ACE) is designed to empower the small farmers of Ethiopia to successfully achieve and profit from improved agricultural production through competitive, profit oriented and professionally managed cooperatives.  Assistance from the project in the establishment of secondary level unions and a national federation is expected to increase the economic position of the cooperatives in the marketplace in both the purchasing of farm supplies and the marketing of members products.  By conducting training activities at all levels in the cooperative system, the program will also increase the efficiency of cooperatives through human resource development.

Some of the expected outputs of ACE include: the formation of 27 unions over 5 years; the formation of 27 saving and credit cooperatives; a total of 285 primaries will receive training and technical assistance to strengthen their operations; nearly 2000 cooperative board members and staff will receive management training and overall, AEC will train nearly 400,000 farmers on the benefits of and methods for organizing market-oriented cooperatives.

To implement these activities, a total of 176 volunteers and 20 consultants will be employed, two long-term expatriate advisors have been placed in the field and the staff of the Regional Cooperative Promotion Bureaus (RCPBs) in each ACE target region (4 initially with a possible expansion) are receiving extensive training on a broad spectrum of topics from cooperative organization to teaching on-farm natural resources management.

ACE Objectives:

To strengthen primary cooperatives and form cooperative unions enabling them to operate at full capacity and increasing efficiency and to contribute to broad-based rural development.

To increase the bargaining power of cooperatives in order for farmer-members to enjoy easier access to agricultural input and farm output markets, rural financial services and business information, thus maximizing farmer-income.

To upgrade the skills of cooperative members and management, the staff of Regional Cooperative Promotion Bureaus, educators and support professionals enabling them effectively to develop, manage and support sustainable organizations.

To increase the membership and participation of women in cooperatives.

To increase environmental awareness and improved natural resources management at the farm level.

By focusing on cooperative development, ACE has the potential to not only increase the capacity and incomes of individual farmer members but also to contribute to the growth of stable rural institutions that will ensure that benefits to individual farmers are built upon their own increasing abilities and are therefore sustainable.

Copyright © 2001 VOCA/Ethiopia, Last modified: August 20, 2002

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