Vol.

１１９2022.１０.11

Office Relocation and New Logo MarkWe are pleased to inform you that Institute for theDevelopment of Agricultural Cooperation in Asia
(IDACA) relocated its office on July 22, 2022.
IDACA logo mark has been renewed with this officerelocation.

【New Logo Mark】<Images of New Logo Mark>New logo is designed to evoke fresh start of IDACA to be“a hub of information and human network”,
and be “ a catalyzer to bring about innovation “ to ruralcommunities.

July 22, 2022
IDACA’s New Office Opened
New Address:2-30-14, Morino, Machida-shi,Tokyo 194-0022
TEL: +81-42-860-7801
FAX: +81-42-860-7802●Sanwa Supermarket

IDACA’ｓ
New office

North Exit ●● North Exit

Nearest Stations:・7minute-walk from Odakyu
Machida Station
・10minute-walk from JRMachida Station

New Office Map
Upon relocation of our office, our operation has
been renewed having no more accommodation
facilities for overseas participants.

-NEW FACESIntroduction of new staff
As a staff of JA Group Organization,
I will do my best for further
Development of IDACA, serving asa bridge between Japanese agriculture
and other countries in the world.

Assigned to Planning Group,
I will contribute to the developmentof IDACA’s business by working
with internal organizations ofJA Group, government andprivate companies.

Having experience of acoordinator of International
Relations Department, JA-ZENCHU,
I will do my best to be
new strength of IDACA.

I am Nitanai, accountant inGeneral Affairs Group.
I hope we, all the staff,
have a good cooperationfrom now on.

-IDACA News01

Partnership Agreement with International GrainsCouncil (IGC) is concluded in 2022

Institute for the Development of Agricultural Cooperation in Asia (IDACA) signed apartnership agreement with International Grains Council (IGC; headquartered inLondon) on January 26, 2022. The IGC is an international government organizationthat promotes international cooperation in grain trade and provides a forum for theexchange of information.

29 countries including Japan and European Union areaffiliated with the IGC at present. Following this partnership agreement, Mr. Arnaud
Petit, Executive Director of IGC, gave a lecture to help the participants of a IDACA’straining course gain knowledge about grain trade in the international situation.

Wewill develop our business taking advantage of executive this partnership agreement.

0２
WFO

IDACA's Executive Director Attends WFOGeneral Assembly

General Assemblywasheld in Budapest,

Hungary on June 8, 2022, and Mr. Hirofumi Kobayashi,
Executive Director of IDACA was invited.

In athematic session on “Women and Youth EntrepreneurCentric Approaches to Innovative Finance as a Tool to
Empower the overall Farming Community”, Ms. Kati
Partanen, ex-chairperson of WFO's Women Committee
from Finland, and Mr. Kobayashi, Executive Director of
IDACA together with the representatives offarmers’ organizations from the Republic of Malawi and Ghana took the platform. Its moderator,
editor of BBC Rural Affairs, asked the following questions: (a) are the gender issues exclusive towomen ? and (b) what are expected roles of Capacity Building in terms of women and young
farmers' participation ? Mr. Kobayashi replied to the question (a) that the gender issues areshared among men and women, mentioning that for the first time there was a male participant
who joined the ICA Training for Women held by IDACA last year, then the audience applauded.
As to the question (b), he commented that “it is important to share some information andexperiences.

While the issues are emerging in a global scale, farmers’ organizations andagricultural cooperatives must have competitive power in competing with other players of Food
Value Chain. Therefore, it is meaningful to have the Capacity Building.”
On the first day of the general assembly on June 8, 2022, Mr. Theo de Jager who had served as
the WFO President for five years, made a speech, and then the new members of the board ofdirectors including the WFO president were elected.

-Reports on Training CoursesICA Training Course on “Strengthening of Marketing throughImprovement of Quality Farm Produce and Expansion of Marketing
Channels in FY2021”
Thetraining

cooperation

coursewithwasimplemented

InternationalinCooperative

Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP) from Nov 23,
2021 to Dec 17, 2021, for those countries where
the cooperative movement is relatively active.
The program was designed to focus on economic
business aiming to improve the organization’s
development and also living of members of thecooperatives by enhancing quality of agricultural products, marketing with value addition and more
involvement in food value chain. The training course had a total of 14 participants: nine participantsfrom Asia (India, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal and the Philippines) and three participants from Africa(Eswatini, Ghana and Rwanda). In addition, two WFO-recommended people joined the course as
observers from Mauritius and Uganda. From this online program they learned JA Group activities onagricultural management, economic activities, agricultural product quality and efforts for safety andreliability of agricultural products. And they further studied the cases of “Baked Sweet Potatoes
Strategy” by JA Namegatashiosai and “Waiwai-ichi Direct Sales Shop” by JA Sagami. The course
was closed by confirming their will to implement their action plans in their own countries.

JAグループの研修担当の皆様へ
I felt the participants’ strong passion when they showed their interests
in various things from the system of the direct sales shops to marketing
and asked me a lot of questions about these things. I am not sure howmuch I could answer their questions about what urban agriculture
should be like, consumer needs and how to deal with COVID-19
pandemic, etc. Let me express thanks to you for letting me join the ICA
marketing training course.

Exchange views with those people fromother countries, I learned that sales systems are different from one
region to another, one country to another. I would like to make use ofthis experience for my business in the future.

-Reports on Training CoursesICA Training Course on "Strengthening Management and Development of Agricultural
Co-operatives and Farmers’ Organizations in Asia and Pacific in FY2021"
The training course, as joint project withInternational Cooperative Alliance Asia andPacific (ICA-AP), was implemented for thecountries in Asia and Pacific region fromMarch 1 to March 25, 2022. The program isdesigned for the countries where it isobserved that they have difficulties informing and developing agricultural organization and systematic business management in AsianPacific region to contribute to strengthen competitiveness of agricultural products and to improvetheir income leading to maintenance and development of agricultural production, and it aims to
support development of the leaders who fulfill main roles to organize agricultural cooperatives andto strengthen organization management.

Invited are nine people from six countries, namelyBhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Vietnam and Kirghiz in Asia, and two people from Fiji and Kiribati
in Pacific. They learned from various case studies of JA Group organizations through the online
program focusing on farm management, marketing business, purchasing business, quality
management of agricultural products by employing GAP and efforts to secure safety and reliabilityof agricultural products. In addition, further studies were done on JA Matsumoto Highland's farmguidance, roles of the commodity-wise groups and marketing business planning.

JA Fuefuki's

branding strategy of agricultural products and JA Kanagawa Group's education activities for JA
employees were also covered.

JAグループの研修担当の皆様へ

For me, the training is very necessary. We can learn a lot
from India, Japan and Thailand.

We also learn how toimprove and do action plans, how to strengthen theManagement and Development of Agricultural Cooperatives
and Farmers. I love cooperatives and farmers much more
after training course! Many thanks!

-Reports on Training CoursesICA follow-up Survey and Guidance in 2021
The follow-up survey and guidance as joint program with ICA-AP is conducted every year as partof the ICA-Japan training project to 1) give proper guidance to challenges the ex-participants ofthe projects have faced and 2) to find how action plans made by the participants in the training
courses have been implemented.

Up until 2019, the follow-up survey and guidance had been

conducted in the form of direct visits to selected countries, however, due to COCID-19 pandemic,
the programs have been conducted online since 2020.

It was planned as a four-day online

program by the following 4 methods: (a) Questionnaire survey to the ex-participants of the
training courses from FY2018-2020 to see how their action plans have been implemented, (b)Online survey to an only selected country, Malaysia, with video materials provided by theex-participants to show the situation of thecooperative movement in Malaysia and also withreports on the progress of action plans, (c)Presentation of excellent implemented cases ofaction plans selected from the questionnaires,(d) Video materials to introduce the cooperative
movement in the Fiji and Kiribati, which wasfollowed by exchange of opinions as newly
introduced method in the program.

JAグループの研修担当の皆様へ

This course program is very meaningful for me because it can
introduce the value chain and socio-economic methods of thepeople and cooperatives in Japan.

I was also exposed to thesupport of those in charge who are experienced in solving problems
and awareness of the operation of the farm run by the cooperativeand its members.

-Reports on Training CoursesRe-commissioned training program on Developing Food Value Chain
Construction for Small farmers in Africa from Nippon Biodiesel Fuel co., ltd.
Training period︓Nov 1 to 9, 2021 Participants︓two from Senegal, two from Mozambique
The program, as part of a training course, started online for the participants who stayed at ahotel in Niigata prefecture for the designated quarantine period after arriving in Japan.

Itcovered various subjects such as “Japanese agriculture and Rural Organizations”, “Historical
Aspects in Development of Japanese agricultural cooperatives”, “Overview of the presentagricultural cooperatives”, “Farm Guidance”, ”Marketing Business”, “Purchasing Business”,“Education Activities”, “Credit Business”, “6thIndustrialization of Agriculture”, “Managementof Direct Sales Shop”, “Marketing BusinessPlan”, etc.

Addressing at closing ceremony ofthe program, Mr. Rosário Alvelino Timóteo, theparticipant from Mozambique said, “I learned
that Japan surmounted many difficulties as wehad in the past. So it is really encouraging us and makes us think that we can make it. Dearfriends in Japan, you should come to my country, Mozambique, where you may find thatagricultural cooperatives are formed. Even though they would not be exactly the same as theones in Japan, they would be the ones as fruits we could produce from what we have learned inJapan”.

Report from Staff dispatched in Vietnam
Entering Vietnam in October, 2021, I have spent almost
nine months as a JICA long-term expert. Up until March,
2022, I could not do what I had initially planned for theproject under the restriction as protection measuresagainst COVID-19 pandemic. Now the restriction being
under control, I have been working on the activities at afast pace. In this situation, I got the opportunity to givea lecture in front of about 200 students at Vietnam
National University, VNUA, where I have been assigned
as an agricultural human resource development advisor on July 8 as part of FVC seminar in aASEAN-JAPAN Program held from July 4 to July 15.
While other lectures were given online, I could hold the face-to-face lecture with the university
students followed by many questions, which I believe it was really stimulating both of us, me andthe students.

Yoshiki Okuda, JICA expert●Editing & Publishing: Institute for the Development of Agricultural Cooperation in Asia
2-30-14, Morino, Machida-shi, Tokyo 194-0022
TEL: +81-42-860-7801 FAX: +81-42-860-7802