Strategizing and enhancing the union’s organizational development <p>Ras Gayint union is situated in Nefas Mewucha twon  south Gonder Zone  Amhara regional state  Ethiopia. The union was founded in the year 2005 with 32  080 small holder farmers  21 primary cooperatives  1.3 million ETB capital and 7 employees. Although the union has an abounded potential for the production of different crops that could be exportable. However  for long years the union was mainly doing agricultural input supply and distribution activity. In the former years the union has undergone leadership crisis situations causing profit loses in 2010 and 2011. However  the situation improved after 2011 when a new board members and manager assigned. On top of that the relation between the Primary cooperatives and the union was so week  and if it only exists  it’s just due to the fact that PC needs inputs and consumable products. Before 2013 almost 99% of the union activities are input marketing. The idea for bulk Malt Barley and White Haricot bean output marketing business case comes in 2010 from the member itself with little inspiration given to them from the regional cooperative promotion agency. For Malt Barley  Gonder Malt Factory is main buyer for long years  and for white haricot bean ECX intermediaries and direct export to international importer is the target set forth. The union was in need of high supports from the government and from capacity builders in walking the union through export procedures since the union doesn’t have any previous experiences and organizational capacities to do so. Fortunately in 2013 the union has been enrolled under Agriterra capacity building program.</p>
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<p>Cooperatives in Ethiopia and also in another countries operate in a very dynamic and competitive environment which requires continuous enhancement of operating and managerial skill and knowledge. Therefore  one of the basic problems of cooperatives in Ethiopa is both the members and employees have subdued knowledge and skill problems to use improved technologies and operation systems and enhanced management. To fill this gap Agriterra has been providing a holistic capacity support to Ras Gayint union on the following areas: strengthening the union and its PCs relationship  professionalizing the management practice of the union and its affiliated PCs  interanl capital mobilzation  digitalizing its financial management practice  enhancing the productivity of different crops and increasing the union access to market etc. Hence  in response to the 2013  214 and 2015 action plans of Agriterra project a remarkable accomplishments has been stated to be seen both at the union and at PCs level;&nbsp; the member PCs become 36 with the total members of more than 59 601  the capital of the union drastically increased and reached to 16.8 million &nbsp;birr( in 2013 the capital was 1.8&nbsp; birr)  the output marketing performances&nbsp; of the union and its PCs has been improved( the union white pea bean collection capacity has increased from 660 quintal in 2013 to more than 50 000 quintal&nbsp; 2016). In addition the number of employees increased from 7 to 30 permanent staffs. The financial health the union is showing good results. Currently the unions engaged in supply  grain Marketing service  consumer goods provision  supply of Business credit  freight Transport  and capacity building activities. 
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<p>Ar Ras Gayint union the individual farmers are well known for their barley production. For the last decade the farmers are progressively producing malt barley. The product is directly supplied for Gondar Malt Factory  a sister company of Dashen Brewery. The union directly collects the malt barley from the farmers through its affiliated PCs. It also arranges business loans for the same purpose. Over the last 5 years  the volume of malt barley purchased by the union has been growing at an average rate of more than 124%  which is too high to imagine. The second crop well performed by the union is white pea bean(WPB). WPB collected by the union has been growing rate of 34.5% per annum. Another crop collected by the union is Teff and one of its weredas namely  “Simada” is historically well known for best quality Teff production. The past five years average percentage purchase share of Ras Gayint union from the marketed output of selected crops has been 39% for malt barley  0.4% for teff  and 20% for WPB.
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<p>&nbsp;For the first time in its history through the support of Agriterra and SNV-(Agriterra was working with SNV under Cooperative for change project from 2012-2016) the union has started to export white pea beans to export market  to countries like France  UK  Italy  India and Yemen. In addition the internal management as well as relationship with the PCs has been enhanced drastically.</p>
<p>To mention an example the Agriterra has been facilitating for the past 5 years the union manager to visit the yearly EPOSPEA (Ethiopian Pulses Oilseed and Spices Processes Export Association) conference  where buyers meet suppliers and market information and new developments are shared. The objective to send unions to such for event is to create access to markets and market information. As an example in 2016 the union identified five potential new buyers of which some already led to a contract. During the conference  Ras Gayint union manager has gained five international buyers and promoted the union products. The manager has negotiated to sell 40 000 quintal white pea bean in total  which 7400 quintal is sold to ACOS Italy. The union has been coaching on improving their negotiation skills. With the improved negotiation skills  the union manager negotiated a better price; from 601 dollar per MT to 775 per MT. In order to clean the white pea beans  Ras Gayint  employs 200 women in 2015 year. By doing this  the union has been creating a job opportunity to the community.</p>
<p>To add on the top of the above achievements in 2016 at Ras Gayint Union a training was delivered to 198 (174 M & 24 F) participants on white pea bean production and post -harvest management. As a result quality improved and PC purchasing committee practiced the inspection of WPB quality by sorting of impurities from the product during purchasing of from members and non-members of the cooperative.</p>
<p>Today  Ras Gayint Union has become one of the best performing cooperative Unions in the region by solving its deep rooted chronic problems. In general  the&nbsp; volume of agricultural product marketing drastically increasing specially on white pea bean and malt barely with supporting Agriterra.&nbsp;<span></span></p>
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</p> <p>•&nbsp;Creating shared vision on the five-year strategic plan and cascading down to different &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;departments for implementation</p>
<p>• Developing a business plan to establish white pea bean cleaning machine</p>
<p>• Hiring key staffs and filling the vacant positions&nbsp;<br>• Crating better enabling marketing environing between the PCs and the union<br>• Marketing and branding the union products&nbsp;<br>• Capacitating 5 selected PCs mainly on bookkeeping  governance and marketing areas</p>