Strenghtening the entrepreneurship of Walnut FPOs in Yunnan In 2009 and 2010, 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 level was trained as PPP-facilitator, while staff at Township level as well as staff of coopertives (FPOs) was trained as Group Promoter (25 GP and 53 GP-FPO) during the 1st phase. 

In 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 experience with cooperative development in Yunnan could offer an interesting example for cooperative development in other Countries. The present project aims at further developing three FPOs into self-reliant cooperatives in the walnut sector and possibly bamboo sector in Yunnan.

The project will be implemented through the Yunnan Association of Forestry Industry (YAFI) but the activities are implemented at the level of the three 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 level was trained as PPP-facilitator, while staff at Township level as well as 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 walnut sector has been suggested as one of the potential sectors for the Agriterra program ‘Farmers Fighting Poverty’ because Yunnan Provincial Government and local governments strongly promoted walnut growing as an alternative income source for poor communities in the mountainous areas. Walnut FPOs in Jingdong County participated in the first phase of the project.  The AEMS of Jingdong  County was not able to host a 2nd phase.

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.  . In the past contacts were already made with the Yunnan Association of Forestry Industry (YAFI) as well as the Yanbi Walnut Research Institute (YWRI) of the Yunnan Academy of Forestry Sciences to support the development of Walnut FPOs in Yunnan Province (incl. Jingdong County). Through these contacts a research project was developed by YWRI to test walnut species from Europe on their adaptability to higher mountainous areas in collaboration with a Dutch walnut grower. The State Forest Administration approved the financing of this research project.    

Yunnan Association of Forest Industry expressed their interest for collaboration in a 2nd phase identifying 3 pilot FPOs (incl. Zhihe Walnut FPO in Jingdong County). They invited Mr. Bram Busstra of 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. Agriterra agreed with this arrangement and Mr. Busstra and Mrs. Zhang Qun visited Jingdong on October 3rd and 4th , 2011. Together with Mr. Ling He, the Director of YAFI, FPOs were visited in October 2011 for the preparation of this draft proposal. Based on the collaborative experience of the first year consideration can be given to extend the collaboration to the bamboo sector.

Development objective:
Yunnan Association of Forest Industry 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’. 

Operational objectives:
1) Organization of minimal 3  FPOs in the walnut / bamboo sector  strengthened with the active participation of at least 25% of its members 
2) Participation of and support to women in FPOs assured
3) Position of FPOs in the value chain improved
4) 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 YAFI 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. The costs for this advisory services (including translation, communication and facilitation to support project implementation of Kunming Stimulans Partnership Ltd.) will be additional to the project budget.
With respect to financial support, Agriterra made a reservation for Wanut (eventually Bamboo) FPOs  for the whole project period of Euro 100,000 which will be made available to the FPOs through the administration of YAFI. YAFI  may use 10% of the transferred amount as a contribution to the extra management costs (transport costs, field visit of staff, meetings, reception, etc…) guaranteeing the monitoring of the project implementation as well as the financial control on the income / expenditure of project funding by the FPOs. 
2 - YAFI 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, YFIA  will assure that related (new) favorable policies towards Walnut / Bamboo FPOs will be submitted to local government for timely application.   
3 - Each FPO will prepare implementation plans to be approved by YAFI  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 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 YAFI 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.

The implementation plans will involve improvement of seedling qualities, production technology, marketing, and business development advisory support to certain investments that the walnut FPOs wish to take, such as  establishment of seedling base, processing unit, storage.

During the whole project implementation YAFI and Agriterra can add or remove pilot FPOs in order to create better condition reaching the project objectives. 
Agriterra and YAFI can also decide to use eventual remaining funding for the co-financing of exchange visits enabling other FPOs to learn from the pilot-FPOs. 

Outreach:
Estimated 6,000 walnut farmers. Specific information will follow, also gender information.

To transform Walnut FPOs in Yunnan into self-reliant, enterpreneurial and independent farmers organisations.