Strengthening entrepreneurship of Farmers Professional Organisations (FPOs) in Yunnan Province, Menghai County During the period 2009 and 2010, Agriterra supported the Agricultural Economic Management Station (AEMS) of the Yunnan Agricultural Department to introduce the People Participation Program (PPP) approach in three pilot counties. Staff of AEMS at County was trained as PPP-facilitator, while staff at Township level as well staff of FPOs was trained as Group Promoter (25 GP and 53 GP-FPO) during the 1st phase. 

In December 2010 an Agriterra mission (Van Weperen / Arkesteijn) visited Yunnan and recommended a 2nd phase aiming at supporting pilot FPOs and/or a product sector. Agriterra accepted this recommendation, because the experience on cooperative development in Yunnan could offer an interesting example for FPO development in other Countries. The present project aims at further developing five pilot FPO's in Menghai county into self-reliant cooperatives.

In 2009, Agriterra supported a proposal of the Agricultural Economic Management Station (AEMS) of the Yunnan Agricultural Department to introduce the People Participation Program (PPP) approach in three pilot counties. Staff of AEMS at County was trained as PPP-facilitator, while staff at Township level as well staff of FPOs was trained as Group Promoter (25 GP and 53 GP-FPO) during the 1st phase. 

The Chinese National and the Yunnan Provincial Government supported the development of FPOs after the promulgation of the ‘Law on Farmers Professional Cooperatives’ on July 1st, 2007. With the preparation and the formulation of the ‘12th 5-year Plan (2011-2015)’ even more attention will be paid to the development of FPOs with as important consequence that the workload of AEMS increased considerably. AEMS informed Agriterra in November 2010, that it would not be possible for AEMS at provincial level to host a second phase of the project. However, project Counties can continue to collaborate with Agriterra in an eventual 2nd phase.

From November 20th – December 1st, 2010 an Agriterra mission (Van Weperen / Arkesteijn) visited Yunnan and recommended a 2nd phase aiming at supporting pilot FPOs and/or a product sector. Agriterra accepted this recommendation, because the Yunnan experience could offer an interesting example for FPO development in other Countries. Agriterra informed AEMS accordingly. The AEMS of Menghai County informed Agriterra of their interest for collaboration in a 2nd phase identifying 5 pilot FPOs. 

Stimulans Kunming Partnership Ltd. supported the operational communication between Agriterra, AEMS and the project Counties facilitating the administrative finalization of the 1st phase and the preparation of the 2nd phase.  The AEMS of Menghai County informed Agriterra of their interest for collaboration in a 2nd phase identifying 5 pilot FPOs. They invited Stimulans Kunming Partnership Ltd to assist with the preparation of a project proposal acceptable to the Chinese (administrative) authorities and Agriterra aiming at a start of the project in November 2011.

AEMS Menghai (County Agricultural Department) and Agriterra collaborate on the basis of the same development objective adopted for the 1st phase: ‘Socio-economic position of farmers and their families enhanced through the improvement of their role in the value chain of agricultural and forestry products’. 

Development objective:
Also the general project objective for the 2nd phase is the same as for the 1st phase, but the area of intervention has been restricted to Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture: ‘Transformation of FPOs in Menghai County into self-reliant, entrepreneurial and independent farmers organizations accelerated’

Operational objectives:
-	Organization of minimal 5 FPOs in Menghai County strengthened with the active participation of at least 25% of its members 
-	Participation of and support to women in FPOs assured
-	Position of FPOs in the value chain improved
-	Access of FPOs to financial services (incl. savings) enhanced.

Implementation strategy:
The development of the participating FPOs is a process in stages under the final responsibility of the members of each FPO and its leadership. Agriterra and AEMS support the process providing a framework enabling the participating FPOs to reach their own objectives. 
Based on their internal management structure (and the stage of development), FPOs are invited to explain their ideas for future development making proposals for project support. In this way, reaching the objective(s) of the project becomes the primary responsibility of the members and the leadership of the participating FPOs. 

1.	Agriterra will provide and mobilize advisory services through technical exchanges with Dutch farmers,  cooperative experts and the Liaison Officer of Agriterra. 
2.	AEMS will give the necessary priority to the project implementation and provide Agriterra and expert missions with all the necessary information in order to obtain the maximum results of their visits. 
FPO development gets high attention at different government levels. Within the context of the national, provincial and prefecture guidelines to promote the development of FPOs, Menghai AEMS will assure that related (new) favorable policies towards FPOs will be submitted to local government for timely application.   
3.	Each FPO will prepare implementation plans to be approved by AEMS and Agriterra, the first plan covers the period 2011 – 2012. Besides technical expertise, the project will make an average amount available of RMB 150,000 (€ 18,000) for each FPO. The final amount will depend on the quality of the proposals, the (financial) commitment of the members and eventual other criteria to be set by AEMS Menghai and Agriterra. During the visits (2 x per year) of the Liaison Officer, the implementation will be monitored and evaluated and necessary changes can be agreed upon.

During the whole project implementation AEMS Menghai and Agriterra can add or remove pilot FPOs in order to create better condition reaching the project objectives. Special attention will be given to (new) agricultural and forestry products for which Menghai County has a comparative advantage. 

Outreach:
All in all, a total of 5.177 members of FPO’s will be reached of which 2.805 men and 2.372 women.

Objectif global: les conditions socio économiques des  agris-éleveurs membres sont améliorées grâce  aux services  fournis par le  syndicat INGABO. 

Objectifs  spécifiques:
1 : Les filières agricoles porteuses sont renforcées
2 : Les  marchés de la production agricoles sont développés. 
3 : Les services des structures organisationnelles de base et institutionnels sont performantes