The Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA Zenchu) decided at its board meeting on Thursday, July 4, that it will fund five development projects by Asian agricultural groups, using donations collected among the group during fiscal 2012.
In order to extend the range of direct support, the board members also amended the organization’s rules to allow unused donations to be carried over to the next year’s account instead of sending them to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.
The JA group started collecting donations among the group in fiscal 2005 to be used for supporting Asian agricultural organizations’ projects to increase farmers’ income. The donations collected during fiscal 2012 will be used to finance five agricultural groups in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. The projects include the Advocacy Center for Indonesian Farmers’ effort to foster manpower to spread composting and biogas production technology and the Independent Farmers Network of Sri Lanka’s plan to build a coconut oil processing plant aimed at increasing farmers’ profits.
JA Zenchu has been donating 10,000 dollars each to around five agricultural organizations every year, based on proposals submitted by members of the Asian Farmers’ Group for Cooperation which represents agricultural groups of nine countries in the Asian monsoon region. It has sent the remaining funds to FAO’s TeleFood Special Fund which finances grassroots-level projects to assist poor families in developing countries improve their means of production.
From fiscal 2013, JA Zenchu plans to extend its support to projects by other organizations, such as members of the International Co-operative Alliance. Out of 7.93 million yen collected in fiscal 2012, 4.95 million yen will be used to fund the five projects. For the remaining 2.98 million yen, JA Zenchu will invite requests from other Asian agricultural groups and decide on the projects to finance within fiscal 2013.
(July 5, 2013)