Vol.118

2022.02.15≪Greetings from the President≫
IDACA serving as a Bridge for Farmers
Organizations in the WorldFirst of all, let me express my deepest sympathies tothe people who suffered severe damages throughout thecountries by disasters and do hope for earliest recovery
and reconstruction.
IDACA was established with the initiative of JA Zenchu
in 1963 as an organization for development ofagricultural cooperatives in the countries in Asia andother regions, which lead to improvement of income anddevelopment of regional farming communities.
Since its establishment, devoting ourselves in fosteringhuman resource committing to the cooperative
movement in the world, we have received more than
6,500 people from 130 countries for various training
courses.
President of IDACA
Toru NAKAYA（President of JA ZENCHU）

Through the activities we have learned that thecountries in Asia, Africa, South America, etc. haveshown strong interests and wishes in studying Japanesemodels for development of their farmers’ organizations.
IDACA, as a bridge between those countries and Japan,
have introduced Japanese cases of organizational
management, business activities and services ofagricultural cooperatives in Japan, JA.

Implementing the training courses, we have taken up field study as very important element indesigning the programs. However, the programs with field study have not been realized in themidst of COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 and 2020, two years in a low. The situation have given
us the opportunities of conducting on-line programs utilizing pre-recorded video materials tointroduce the outline of organization and business activities of JA.
As a new initiative in 2020 to 2021 to strengthen ties with international organizations wecould build partnership with World Farmers Organization (WFO) for those farmers
organizations in the world and International Grains Council (IGC), intergovernmentalorganizations. Thereby we, recognizing the roles as JA group member organization, will further
develop and promote our activities to contribute to the international community.
Last but not least we, officials and staff, kindly request for your understanding and cooperationon our activities.

01

Workshop held under World Farmers Organization (WFO) on
Initiatives of Asian farmers organizations on Climate Change“The Climakers Asia Digital Workshop” on the initiatives byfarmers’ organizations in the Asian region was held on October 5,2021 targeting at the people engaged in agriculture and foodindustry. The workshop, organized by World Farmers Organization(WFO), is to discover and share the cases of various activities incooperation with Climaker, a network of farmers tackling the issues
related to climate change and so far the cases from the regions ofAfrica, Europe and Latin America were collected and studied. This
time it was held with the target at the Asian region, and IDACA
was commissioned to hold the workshop.
The registration of participants prior to the workshop exceeded 100, which clearly showed sense of crisis
from the impact on agriculture by climate change. In the workshop the model cases of actions, presented
from nine countries in Asia showing various activities against the impact of climate change, were shared anddiscussed among the participants.

02

Advisor post is approved at the Board of Directors Meeting

The board of directors’ meeting held on July 27, 2021 approved newly established post of advisor, and twoadvisors were appointed. They are Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer, Regional Director of International Cooperative
Alliance - Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP) and Ms. Arianna Giuliodori, Secretary General of World Farmers’
Organisation (WFO). It is stipulated in the Articles of IDACA that advisor may express his/her views thatserve as useful reference to subjects raised by the board of directors.
In the board of directors’ meeting business year 2020’s annual reports on the business and the statement ofaccounts were approved. The annual report stated that seven training courses, seminar and workshop wereimplemented on-line with 91 participants from 27 countries.
A follow-up program which was conducted on-line by hearing and exchange of opinions with ex-participants
was also reported.
Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer,
Regional Director ofInternational Cooperative
Alliance- Aisa and Pacific(ICA-AP)

優良03

Ms. Arianna Giuliodori,
Secretary General ofWorld Farmers’ Organisation(WFO)

Counsellors of Australian Embassy show interests in IDACA’sActivities

Two counsellors in charge of agricultural affairs at Australian Embassy to Japan came to IDACA on
November 18.and showed their strong interests in IDACA’s activities. Following observation of the IDACA’sfacilities they spared their time with us, the official and the staff of IDACA, to get very meaningfulexchange of views on international cooperation activities by farmers’ organizations of Japan anddeveloping countries.

Mr. Kobayashi,
executive director ofIDACA with Mr. TomParnell, counsellor(agriculture)
The offices and the staff of the Embassywith IDACA’s official and staff.

ICA Training Course on EMPOWERMENT OF RURALWOMEN FOR IMPROVEMENT OF THEIR LEADERSHIP AND
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT IN ASIA & AFRICA-2021
The training course, as part of MAFF-founded project for ICA, was jointly conducted with ICA-AP. This
was the second one in the three-year packaged training courses which started in FY2020. Targeting at
women playing important roles in rural areas in the Asian and African regions the course was designedwith the objective of improvement of women leaders’ capacity which is expected to lead to active
participation in the management of their organizations and in entrepreneurial activities. This time thecourse started on August 20, 2021 with participation of 15 participants selected from the countries in
Asia and Africa to end on September 13, 2021. Originally 10-day third country training program withphysical study visits was planned before 25-day program in Japan. However, all the programs wereimplemented online due to COVID-19 pandemic worldwide.
The Japan program in cooperation with JA National Council of Women’s Associations the participantslearned about JA’s Women’s Associations, rural women’s agro-processing and entrepreneurial activities,
human resource development including leadership as well as the organizational management and thebusiness activities of JA. In addition secretary general of WFO was invited for a lecture on WFO’sactivities, which gave the participants the chance to exchange views on the gender issue as part of theWFO’s activities. In the end of the training course the participants made and presented their actionplans utilizing knowledge and information leaned through the course.

Closing ceremony of theICA Women's Training
conducted online

Dear sir and madam from IDACA and VANNICOM,
I would like to say thank you so much for all your support, your knowledge thatyou shared with me and other participants in the training course on "Empowermentof Rural Women for Improvement of their Leadership and Business Management in
Asia and Africa".
I was inspired a lot by strong, successful women in India, Japan, who go out of
their "comfort zone", start their own business, create their own value and makegreat benefit, quality for themselves, for their family and community. I also learnt
from distinguished lecturers a variety of useful knowledge of agriculture,
entrepreneurship, leadership etc., which contribute greatly to my work and mypersonal capacity building.
Last but not least, I would like to say my sincere thanks to VCA for bringing me a notable
opportunity. Without VCA's nomination, I could not participate in such a valuable program.
Again, thank you so much and I really appreciate the time I participated the training course. I
wish you all the best and I hope to visit India and Japan in the future to see you and explore
your amazing countries. Also, I am happy to welcome you when you visit Vietnam one day, andmy cooperative Sinh Duoc. Warm regards,

JICA Training Course on ESTABLIHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF FARMERS’ORGANIZATIONS 2021

The training course, commissioned by Tsukuba Centre of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICATsukuba), was implemented aiming at those countries with developing agricultural cooperatives in theearly stage in order to promote organizing farmers organizations and agricultural cooperatives and tostrengthen their management. Five participants were selected from Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, thePhilippines and Timor Lester respectively and were government officials and NGO staff responsible fordevelopment of farmers organizations. Last year’s program had video materials distributed on website(on you tube) for self-learning of participants who got ready for on-line questions and answers. The
participants, however, had made comments for improvement saying “I wanted to have more interaction
with those lecturers appeared on the video materials” and “exchange of views with other participants
would have been needed”. Therefore, more on-line or live programs of lectures and questions andanswers were introduced, and the discussions among the participants were arranged. Implementation ofthe programs was fully supported by people from the organizations in JA Group for lectures, production
and distribution of video materials: ex-officials of JA Tomisato city and Kumiai Disease Control Promotion
Association, leaders and staff of JA National Council of Women’s Association, National Nokyo Tourist
Association, JA Nagano Regional Development Organization, JA Zennoh Research and Development
Center, Education Center of JA Kanagawa Prefecture Union, JA Ibaraki Prefecture Union, JA Zennoh
Ibaraki, JA Namegata Shiosai, JA Ohra Tatebayashi and JA Matsumoto Highland. Beside JA Group
organizations lecturers were invited from Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF)
and Tokyo University of Agriculture. Project Cycle Management (PCM) was also introduced in a workshop
style by a development consulting company to help the participants to prepare action plans.
The end-of-the course evaluation meeting collected the voices of the participants on their learning andwishes like “even though I could not visit Japan due to COVID-19 pandemic, the training course gave mea lot of useful information on management of JA’s direct sale shop and advanced JA management” and“When COVID-19 is controlled, I want to visit Japan to acquire more useful information, knowledge andskills by exposing myself to JAs and direct sales shops”. After the training course completed, theparticipants are engaged in carrying out their action plans and are expected to make progressive reportsof the plans.

Closing Ceremony

Promotion of Green Tourism and Vitalization of Farming
Communities
First of all let me express my thanks for inviting me as a lecturer on
the subject of “Promotion of Green Tourism and Vitalization of Farming
Communities” That was really precious experience for me.
In my lecture I shared with those participants from Asia and Africa theexperience of Japan on green tourism, i.e., its history and successfulmodels, and the methods for development of organizations to receive
foreign tourists.
Responding to questions from participants like “How can I launch
green tourism in my area?”, I felt that they gave me thought-provoking
about green tourism and good classroom session.
Lastly again I am really thankful for that precious opportunity and dowish your country will have more development in the future.

JA Zenchu(*1), concluded an agreement on May 7, 2019 on cooperation with JICA(*2). The agreement is intended to contribute to solution of the issues developing
regions and Japan commonly have faced by fully employing JA Group’s knowledge andexperience in the agricultural sector and JICA’s know-how on human resource
development and established network with the developing countries.
As part of the project Mr. Yoshiki OKUDA, staff of IDACA, was listed and sent toVietnam. He reports on his activities as follows:
Assigned to Vietnam as JICA long-term expert on
October, 2021, I started the activities in November
after releasing from 2-week isolation imposed due toCOVID-19 pandemic.
The project has been designed to contribute todevelopment of the agricultural sector in Vietnam byeducation program development support for humanresource as technical intern and by establishingmatchings
betweenVietnam-basedJapanesecompanies and Vietnamese agricultural producers as
returnees from training in Japan.
In this letter I will report the Project Kick-off
Commemorative photo of Kick-off Meeting participantsMeeting held on January 18, 2022 and give theoutline of the Project.
And the party from Japan were Mr. HIJIOKA,
executive
director of JA Zenchu, Mr. SHIMIZU,
Kick-off meeting has been held several times: The
representative
director of JICA Vietnam office andone between JICA and VNUA(*3) when I just startedpeople
fromJETRO Vietnam, Vietnam-based
the activities here and much earlier than that theJapanesecompanies
and some prefectural
one among three parties, namely JICA, VNU andgovernment offices. The outline of the project wasMARD(*4). This time the meeting was arranged as
explained as follows:
WEB meeting inviting more people involved in theproject from the respective sides from Vietnam andJapan to share the information on the project withthem so that more solid cooperation network would
be established.
The party from Vietnam for the meeting included
Mr. Min, director for international cooperation, Ms.
Lan, president and professors of VNUA, officers ofConsulate-General of Vietnam in Fukuoka, people
serving at local agricultural universities, local
government officers and people from agricultural
cooperatives and private companies.

The Technical Intern Training Program has an
objective of developing human resource. And its
background has (a) those who once got trained inJapan have difficulty in utilizing skills gained inJapan, (b) the chances to do farming or get jobs
utilizing the acquired skills, etc. Mismatching
between returnees’ desired types of job and what
are expected by training institutions is considered
one of the causes.
In order to cope with the situation, the project
has aimed at building a system to contribute todevelopmentoffarmingcommunities
andagriculture with those returnees having suitableskills and getting the right jobs. VNUA, as leading
education and training institution in the agricultural
sector, is expected to play an important role inassisting development and implementation ofagriculture education programs and establishmentof the matching system to help the returnees toacquire suitable skills.
The meeting was closed with a remark by Ms.
Lan, president of VNUA to be followed by a groupcommemorative photo.

Ms. Lan, president of VNUAEditors’ Note
Winter has come. Winter of this year again is not normal and second one under COVID-19
pandemic. I had a chance to see the situation of International Terminal of Tokyo International
airport, Haneda. I was amazed to find that many of check-in counters of international airline
companies, the restaurants and the souvenir shops were closed.
I can recall the days when COVID-19 became pandemic worldwide in a few months after its first
infected person’s case had been reported in Wuhan, China in early December 2019.
In Japan I don’t think anyone can tell when overseas travelling, inbound and outbound, will beresumed. I can see, however, some signs of improvement of the situation that some leading
countries in vaccination have gradually started travelling.
According to a forecast released by International Air Trasport Association, IATA, in May 2021,
recovery of the demand for air transportation to the level before COVID-19 pandemic would beexpected in late 2023 at earliest. Since the forecast had been made in July 2020 said it be around2024, the latest forecast has been brought forward.
IDACA have managed to conduct training courses by online due to COVID-19 pandemic. Many
participants who experienced the online courses, however, voiced their hopes that they will come toJapan to undergo face-to-face training courses. I understand their feeling and that it is indeed
necessary for them to learn from experience by visiting JAs. Hoping the end of COVID-19 pandemic
I am really looking forward to the day to come when participants will be with us in Japan.
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