September 11, 2017

ForFarmers, Agriterra cooperate to professionalise farmer organisations

Agriterra and ForFarmers will begin cooperation in order to help professionalise farmer organisations and cooperatives in emerging markets.

The development comes after Jan Potijk, director of ForFarmers Nederland, and Kees Blokland, director of Agriterra, signed a memorandum this month.

ForFarmers will offer its employees the option to make their knowledge and expertise available for Agriterra advisory assignments and training programmes in emerging markets like Africa, Asia and South America. In other words, ForFarmers employees can register to help with advisory issues at agricultural cooperatives, which Agriterra supports with knowledge.

After approval from both ForFarmers and Agriterra, a ForFarmers employee will be deployed for relevant assignments and must use some of their leave time while ForFarmers will compensate for the remaining days. Travel and accommodation expenses will be paid by Agriterra.

An assignment typically lasts one to two weeks and is performed by a team. In addition to the ForFarmers employee, the team will consist of an Agriterra personnel, a local employee and another "Agripooler" - an expert with a different area of expertise who has also been deployed by Agriterra.

Agriterra, founded in 1997 by a number of Dutch agricultural and horticultural organisations, supports farmer organisations and cooperatives in emerging markets with knowledge and organisational advice.

Agriterra contributes to an industrialisation of farmer organisations and cooperatives in the country and to quick economic growth. At the same time, balance needs to be achieved or maintained between demand for food and food supply as well as between population growth and the growth of employment opportunities.

ForFarmers is committed "For the Future of Farming". The company works side-by-side with its customers towards healthier livestock and greater efficiency on the farm, leading to better returns for farmers.

Agriterra places the focus on sharing its knowledge and experiences in the realisation of its goal of enabling farmers' organisations in emerging markets to contribute to the production of meat, eggs, and dairy in a sustainable way. ForFarmers supports this objective as well as its approach, which is closely aligned with the three key values of ForFarmers: sustainability, partnership and ambition.

- ForFarmers