Promote the members of the farmer interest groups (FIGs) to proactively develop production in a safe and sustainable way to create value for products, especially the products from climate smart agricultural production (CSA), as well as provide the skills to link and collaborate to produce and sell agricultural products to the market to increase the product value and farmers’ income is one of SRD’s strategies to support poor communities to develop livelihoods to adapt to climate change.
In June 2020, SRD organized 02 training courses on “Business planning and market access in groups” for 71 key members of the interest groups in Bon Phang and Muoi Noi communes, Thuan Chau district, Son La province, under the guidance and facilitation of a consultant. This is an activity within the framework of the project “Agricultural biodiversity Conservation and Development for poor communities to respond to climate change in Thuan Chau district, Son La province”, funded by Bread for the World and Manos Unidas.
The training aims to help the members of the project’s FIGs be able to “1) develop annual production and selling targets; (2) make the business plan of the group based on market orientation – the core issue for implementing the operation and achieving the targets of producing and selling products; (3) initiate establishment of livelihood groups to cooperate in doing production and seeking market to sell agricultural products which are produced from CSAs by the FIGs’ members themselves.
Under facilitation of the consultant and SRD’s officers, the trainee groups discussed about plan of seeking market and selling products, online and offline selling channels; discuss about plan of production, product collection and preliminary processing, plan of storage, packaging and transportation – through this plans, the group will be able to calculate the production costs, product price so that they can give a reasonable price in the market. The trainee groups also discussed about the human resource plan that focus on importance of describe the job positions such as the sale and marketing coordinator, the production technique coordinator, the person in charge of collection, preliminary processing, storage, packaging, etc.
During the training, the participants were divided into small groups corresponding to the parts that need to be operated when establishing the groups to cooperate in producing and selling the safe agricultural products. The categorization is based on the voluntary needs and interest of the trainees. The trainee groups practiced making plan of market access, production, collection, preliminary processing and transportation of the major products which are produced by the FIGs themselves, as well as human resources, management and capital planning.
All the trainees took an active participation in the discussion and planning process based on the CSA activities that are being carried out at the project sites. The results of the groups’ discussion are the plans on seeking market inside and outside Son La province such as selling via Facebook, Zalo, or connecting with wholesale market in Long Bien – Hanoi or Hai Phong, etc.; Plan for production, storage, preliminary processing and transportation of products such as coffee, longan, plum, mango, passion fruit, indigenous sticky rice, indigenous chicken, ducks, fish, cow, etc. were also discussed enthusiastically, presented and shared during the training courses. The plan on capital and human resources was also discussed actively and the competent members were selected to initiate the production and selling cooperation groups.
All the trainees are ready to cooperate to establish the groups of clean and safe agricultural products producing and selling. At the end of the training, each commune has set up a cooperative group to produce and sell products: Muoi Noi Livelihood Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/729234304506206) and Bon Phang Livelihood Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/574284360148999). Currently, a small group cooperation to sell products via Facebook is being operated.
Following are some photos of group business training courses:
Group discussion in Bon Phang commune
Presenting results of group discussion in Bon Phang commune
Group discussion in Muoi Noi commune
Presenting results of group discussion in Muoi Noi commune