USDA co-op development efforts support commercial farming in Ghana

Rural Cooperatives, May-June, 2004 by John R. Dunn

Since 2000, the Cooperatives Program of USDA Rural Development has been working in Ghana to build western-style cooperatives that help Ghanaian farmers successfully market their farm products. The vital work in this poor, West African nation is carried out under the banner of the Consultative Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (CCARD). CCARD is a formal, government-to-government relationship between USDA and the Ghana Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA).

The purpose of the Ghana Cooperative project is to extend western cooperative models into a Ghanaian setting to help farmers there transition to a more commercial level of food production. The project operates with a two-pronged strategy of direct advisory assistance and training which targets existing cooperatives and intervenes with Ghanaian institutions that can help sustain the adoption of western cooperative models over the long haul.

CCARD conducts a series of joint activities that serve the agricultural and trade interests of both nations. USDA agencies with active involvement in CCARD include: Rural Development; Cooperative Research, Education and Extension Service, Foreign Agricultural Service; Natural Resources Conservation Service; and the Agricultural Marketing Service. Activities conducted by CCARD are funded primarily by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The Ghana Cooperative Assistance project, managed by the Cooperatives Program of USDA Rural Development, was initially funded under USAID's African Trade and Investment Program (ATRIP), but has since been adopted by USAID's mission in Ghana. The ATRIP-funded project covered work both in Senegal (in partnership with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives) and in Ghana (in partnership with OIC International). Current efforts focus exclusively in Ghana and parallel Rural Development's Nigeria cooperative development project (see Rural Cooperatives, Jan./Feb. 2004 issue).

Capacity building at Ghana Cooperative College

The Ghana Cooperative College is a small institution in Kumasi, the Ashanti region capital. It is charged with training managers and directors of Ghana's cooperative system in basic cooperative principles and business skills. This college is extremely lacking in resources and was sliding into decline, a result of diminishing public funding and, more significantly, of reliance on the teaching of outdated and ineffective top-down models of cooperative enterprise. Reform and rejuvenation of the Cooperative College became one of the centerpiece projects under CCARD.

As a first step, former USDA Cooperatives Program staff member Rosemary Mahoney was contracted to conduct a curriculum review and assessment for the college. This resulted in a series of recommendations and strategies for improving the overall conditions of the college.

In February, one of the centerpiece recommendations was implemented with the opening of a new computer-training facility at the college. The new computer lab will provide students with basic training in business software and IT methods essential to contemporary business operations. The opening of the center represents a true public-private partnership. Partially funded by USAID, with computer donations from the National Cooperative Bank, National Rural Telecommunications Association and the Cooperative Development Foundation, the center is managed by volunteers of the U.S Peace Corps.

Future activity will include staff development, planning, and cooperative course designs, to be done in partnership with the Cooperative Center at the University of Wisconsin.

Cooperatives provide technical assistance

Rural Development's Cooperatives Program contracted with OIC International, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization, to provide the in-country presence for the project, which worked directly with a set of selected cooperative associations. Project coordinator Ferdinand Nyantakyi-Dapaah worked with cooperative organizations identified as "high potential" organizations. He provided training and advisory assistance. The focus was on structural or operating issues that were constraining the organizations from taking the next necessary step toward business success.

Farmapine Ghana Limited at Nsawam, eastern region is a 'farmer-owned' limited liability company owned by five pineapple cooperative societies (with an 80 percent share) and two limited liability companies (with a 20 percent share) that received its original capitalization through a World Bank loan. The cooperative's goal was to build an export- based marketing program for Ghanaian pineapples. Farmapine's major challenges included restructuring its finances to replace the expiring World Bank loan, improving product handling practices, and resolving significant schisms within the membership base.

The Cooperative Development project coordinator provided formal training to 320 members of the five pineapple cooperatives to help in the development and implementation of workable business plans, cooperative basic principles and governance, and pineapple crown reduction to meet export requirements. In addition, there is ongoing mediation to help the cooperative work through these issues and move to a more sustainable footing. Within two years of operation, Farmapine Ghana Ltd. became the second largest exporter of fresh pineapples in Ghana.