Successful completion of a long-range fund raising campaign named “Fundraising for Coexistence with Asia” was highly appreciated by representatives of farmers’ organizations in seven Asian countries, including the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, at a meeting held in Tokyo on March 9-10.
The nation-wide campaign has been promoted by JA ZENCHU, an apex body of agricultural cooperative (JA) organizations in Japan since 2005. Donations made mostly by farmers and JAs’ staff members in the country have been invested into a number of micro-projects launched by Asian farmers’ organizations to raise incomes of their member farmers.
An amount of the fund donated to those micr0-projects in Asian villages during the past eleven years totaled 59.35 million yen, which provided capitals to various projects initiated by small farmers in Asian villages such as production of new cash-crops, raising piglets, and establishments of agricultural cooperatives.
“Asian farmers’ organizations have expanded capacity building of farmers in the micro-project. Significant achievements have been made in each country,” an official of Agricultural Policy Department of JA ZENCHU said.
JA ZENCHU raised a fund of 91.95 million yen in total during the period from 2005 to March 2015, 65 percent of which was provided to micro-projects implemented by farmers’ organizations in seven Asian countries forming a regional network of “Asian Farmers’ Group for Cooperation (AFGC)” with JA ZENCHU. The rest of the fund was donated to “TeleFood” worldwide fundraising campaign, sponsored by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), for assisting small farmers in developing countries.
Farmers’ organizations in the Asian countries have carried out micro-projects respectively with an initial fund of 10,000 US dollars provided by JA ZENCHU. For instance, Independent Farmers Network of Sri Lanka established a facility for manufacturing coconut oil in 2014 which now produces the oil of 100 liter per day. They sell the coconut oil at a price equivalent to some 100 yen per 100 milliliter bottle. The small farmers in Sri Lanka have built up their own system of cash earnings through marketing their products.
(March 16, 2016)