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On March 17, 2016, JA Zenchu President Okuno took some time out of his busy schedule to visit IDACA. Addressing partici-pants of the ICA/Japan Training Course on “Fostering Core Leaders of Agricultural Cooperatives,” which was underway at the time, President Okuno delivered a special lecture on such matters as his own personal history and his involvement with agricultural cooperatives, sharing his experiences in the cooperative movement, including the transi-tion of the JA Group that has developed into a huge organization from agricultural coop-eratives in small villages.

Collective work is the origin of cooperatives

“In Japan, agriculture has centered on family farming, and individual farmers were very weak entities. Around the initial state of agricultural cooperatives, they jointly pur-chased and shared fertilizers, and this led to the formation

4771, Aihara-machi, Machida-shi, Tokyo 194-0211 Japan URL : http//www.idaca.or.jpTel: +81-42-782-4331 Fax: +81-42-782-4384 E-mail: idaca-idaca@j.email.ne.jp

No. 106Jun. 20, 2016

JA Zenchu President Okuno (IDACA President) Delivers a Special Lecture

JA Zenchu President Okuno (IDACA President) Delivers a Special Lecture ------------------------------- 1MYANMAR PROJECTLooking Back at the First Year of the IDACA Myanmar Project ------------------------------------------ 2REPORTS ON TRAINING COURSES(1) FY2015 JICA Training Course on Planning of Agricultural Polcy------------------------------------------- 4(2) FY2015 ICA/Japan Training Course on Improving Capacity of Rural Women ---------------- 5

Contents(3) FY2015 JICA Agribusiness Promotion and Rural Development in African Coutries-------------- 5(4) FY2015 JICA Training Course on “Value Chains in the Marketing of EPP* Agricultural Cooperative Product” ------------------------------------ 7OVERSEAS BUISINESS TRIP REPORTFY2015 ICA/IDACA Follow-Up Program (in the Philippines)------------------------------------------- 8

The participants with President Okuno (6th person from the right)

Participants listening to the lecture

A church in the village

facilities have been built even in small villages left an impression on us.

It appeared that these religious ties and the traditional Bayanihan spirit (which means “mutual aid” in Tagalog) served as the driving force of the cooperative movement in the Philippines. In particu-lar, the aforementioned NATCCO, which we visited this time, is a cooperative established by devout Christians.

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of a system to jointly ship their crops. Since funds were required in doing anything, they began to deposit money in savings in agricultural coopera-tives whenever they made even a little amount of profit. At the time, these cooperatives were called ‘credit (cooperatives)’ rather than ‘agricultural cooperatives.’ These cooperatives built up funds little by little and used the funds to help their members do business or to construct facilities. Working collectively in this ways is the origin of cooperatives.” Participants from Bhutan, Cambo-dia, and Laos where efforts are now being made to start agricultural cooperatives listened attentively to these comments, receiving lots of inspiration.

Experiences of the Great East Japan Earthquake

“A major earthquake and a subsequent huge tsu-nami that hit and left unprecedented damage cen-tering on the Tohoku region 5 years ago. At that time, the entire JA Group immediately engaged in support activities, raising funds and participating in reconstruction assistance. Taking advantage of this experience, we quickly started fundraising activi-

ties during the major earthquake that occurred in Nepal last year, and had the funds used to assist those associated with agricultural cooperatives in Nepal.” In response to these comments, a partici-pant who serves as a director of the National Coop-erative Federation (NCF) of Nepal expressed grati-tude, saying, “The NCF received a donation of 30 million yen from the JA Group. We really felt grateful to the Japanese people for their support.”

Looking Back at the First Year of the IDACA Myanmar Project

MYANMAR PROJECT

Nepali participants expressing gratitude(Participant who climbed Mount Everest carrying an ICA flag – on left side of photo)

1 Initiatives during the first year of the project

Tadafumi Kigasawa, IDACA Myanmar Office

Flow of activities during the first year of the IDACA project:1) Organizing farmers’ groups for the purpose of

joint purchasing of cultivators, etc.2) Learning the need of savings activities and

starting joint savings3) Attempting to increase harvesting of rice in

order to acquire funds for saving4) The leader farmers who learned the basics of

the Japanese agricultural cooperative move-ment in Myanmar participate in the training course in Japan

5) Understanding the actual cooperative activities of agricultural cooperatives and farmers in Japan through actual experience

The objective was to promote savings activities

through the above activities so that it would lead to the purchase of cultivators, etc.

Together with the members of the savings group (Mr. Kigasawa, photo far left)

2 Formation of savings groups and leaders’ active effortsAs a result of giving precedence to rice harvest

boosting measures, we formed savings groups in each village a little later in July. Farmers who are actively involved in the IDACA project became the

leaders of those groups. They were selected as par-ticipants for training in Japan, and even after returning to their home country, they have contin-ued their savings activities voluntarily. In the Myanmar society where people are not accustomed to saving money, they are engaged in these activi-

ties with the thought that “savings will open up the future” (the words of Thapyay Thar village woman leader Khim Myo Thit). However, they were not able to accumulate enough savings to purchase agricultural machinery during the first year.

3 Current situation of the savings groupsThe situation of savings activities in the three

villages under the IDACA project are as follows:1) Shinmacaw Village, Yangon Region Name of group: Kinjiro (10 members)2) Yangonpa Village, Yangon Region Name of group: IDACA (consisting mainly of

women) (8 members) Name of group: IDACA (consisting mainly of

male farmers) (17 members)3) Thaypyay Thar Village, Mandalay Region Name of group: Lan Pya Kyel (Guiding Star)

(consisting mainly of women) (7 members) Name of group: Toe Tat Aung (Development)

(consisting mainly of male farmers) (19 mem-bers)

With the farmers of villages under the project (Mr. Kigasawa in the center of the photo)

4 Challenges in the second year

5 Aiming at establishing cooperatives in a democratic manner

Initiatives to develop a more independent oper-ating structure for the savings groups will be required during the second year of the IDACA project. Also, what the local farmers desired turned out to be large agricultural machinery such as tractors and combines rather than cultivators. In addition, they preferred high quality Japanese agricultural machinery over Chinese or South Korean equipment. How to respond to these requests has become an important issue.

Myanmar celebrates its New Year from April 12 to April 20. It is a long vacation lasting 20 days. People will be returning to their hometowns, and temples in surrounding areas will be crowded with people aspiring to become monks or those coming to pray.

On April 1 of this year, the National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi will come into power in Myanmar. The new government advocates democratic establishment of farmers’ organizations as its political agenda. I recall com-ments made by participants of the workshop on cooperatives conducted in early August last year who said that they “wanted to learn about real cooperatives.” Truly democratic cooperatives did not exist in this country.

The final goal of the IDACA project will be achieved if the savings groups previously described grow into democratically managed organizations

like the agricultural cooperatives that Myanmar desires. Although I feel that a tough road lies ahead, I sincerely hope that IDACA will be able to conduct activities in Myanmar until then.

This year was a year of trial and error, but I sin-cerely thank everyone for their support and cooper-ation.

Scene of farmers receiving farming guidance

Children who will shoulder the future of Myanmar

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The purpose of this training is to introduce mechanisms and systems that will contribute to agricultural policies of developing countries, for-mulate action plans aimed at improvement, etc. of existing agricultural policies, and contribute to sus-tainable agricultural development by studying the mechanisms and laws of the Japanese-type agricul-ture, in which various administrative assistance and legal systems that support agriculture are encompassed, and Japanese agricultural coopera-

tives that are organized initiatives of farmers.In the lectures, participants learned about such

matters as the current Japanese agricultural poli-cies, development of agricultural infrastructure, the roles of agricultural cooperatives, agricultural product distribution policies, rural finance, exercis-es for policy planning, and the sixth industrializa-tion of agriculture. In field study visits, the partici-pants visited Aomori Prefecture and deepened their understanding of prefectural-level agricultural pro-

motion measures and the actual activ-ities of agricultural cooperatives. As a case study of policies at the municipal level, the participants visited the Atsugi City Urban Agriculture Sup-port Center (JA Atsugi’s main office building).

Many of the action plans created by the participants were based on the theme of “Development of Agricul-ture and Rural Areas Through Promo-tion of Agricultural Cooperatives.” Concrete progress toward implemen-tation of the action plans could be seen in progress reports that partici-pants sent after they returned to their home countries.

(1) FY2015 JICA Training Course on Planning of Agricultural Policy

REPORTS ON TRAINING COURSES

Kawahigashi Apple Facility (Grading Center) run by JA Tsugaru Hirosaki

After undergoing this training, I am confident enough to improve the areas that are experiencing shortfalls in the policy development process in the Ministry and other projects as well within the Ministry.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to management in the Ministry of Agriculture, Irri-

gation and Water Development for nominating me and for giving me this opportunity to partici-pate in this very important training course. Sec-ondly, I would also like to thank JICA Japan and JICA Malawi Office for according me this oppor-tunity to undergo this important training, which was an eye opener to me personally, and the Malawi Nation, since the knowledge gained will be used for benefitting the nation. Lastly, let me thank IDACA for a very good course structure and organization that made me easily understand the course concepts. I have personally learnt a lot about Japan and the Japanese people, and in the way business is conducted, i.e., timely and sys-tematically.

Message from MalawiMr. MZUMARA Nelson Khukuya Economist, Planning Department, Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Malawi

(2) FY2015 ICA/Japan Training Course on Improving Capacity of Rural Women

(3) FY2015 JICA Agribusiness Promotion and Rural Development in African Countries

A training course in which eight partici-pants were selected from seven countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia center-ing on the Mekong River basin was held for 22 days from September 23 to October 14, 2015 for the purpose of supporting organized initiatives by rural women who play an important role in the revitalization of local communities.

The program consisted of holding a week-long third-country training in Thai-land prior to the training in Japan, and preparing action plans based on the knowledge and experience gained through lectures, observations etc. in Thailand and Japan.

In field study visits in Japan, the participants went to Mie Prefecture and visited the Mie Prefec-tural Union of Agricultural Cooperatives and a welfare facility for the elderly in the area served by JA Takigun. They also held an exchange meeting with the JA Igahokubu Women’s Association, and visited such places as JA Miekita’s direct sales shop “Inabekko” and a women entrepreneur group’s sushi workshop “Nabana.” In this way,

they learned about the activities of JAs in Mie Pre-fecture that are rooted in the local communities and how much the activities of the women’s group are contributing to the local communities.

The participants also visited a fruit production farm in Yamanashi Prefecture and made observa-tions including fruit production and marketing, as well as farm product processing activities that give added value to the products.

Field study visits in the agribusiness course were conducted during the previous fiscal year in Tochigi Prefecture and Gunma Prefecture, as well as in Oita Prefecture based on the “One Village One Product Movement.” With regard to field

study visits for the current fiscal year, the part of the program for Oita Prefecture was conducted in Kumamoto Prefecture. With cooperation from JA Group Kumamoto, the participants had the oppor-tunity to study a wide range of matters including

the JA Group’s initiatives (fruit, dairy, livestock-related processing, direct sales shops, tomato processing group, etc.), as well as the initiatives of administrative agencies and private companies for sup-porting agribusiness promotion. While feeling a large gap in terms of technolo-gy and scale, participants from African countries were apparently stimulated frequently in terms of soft aspects such as quality, sanitation, and safety. It turned out to be a valuable training course in which they were able to once again confirm the building of a mecha-nism for rural financing for starting and supporting a business, in addition to the aspects of production technology and facilities.

Participants in a lively mood after experiencing making of oshizushi, a local cuisine, with the energetic women entrepreneurs’ group

At Aso Shrine during a tour of the Aso region

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Konnichwa!Hope you’re doing great in Japan. Pass my

greetings to our family members at IDACA, par-

ticularly the lady who gave me a very humble cake during my birthday.

We are doing great here in Busia, Kenya. Our project is going on well. We are trying at our best level to implement what we had written in the proposals.

I saw some sad news of an earthquake in Kumamoto. Hope the situation was not so bad. It got me concerned here.

Have a great day!Arigato

Dear Friends,It’s my hope that you are doing fine. I am

doing fine, too. Though I am busy with the issues of academics, I thank God we, my family, are fine. After all, how is IDACA? I hope all mem-bers are fine and you are doing great.

I am sorry that yesterday I received a terri-ble news that the city we went for tour, Kuma-moto, and the other city to the south, have been hit with earthquakes, and 20 people have died!!!. We are sorry for that. May the Almighty God give you courage to stand up at this difficult time as you are trying to recover your nation from these calamities.

Please, pass my greetings to all members of IDACA. I always see Mr. Suzuki on his post and activities going on there at IDACA through his account on Facebook. He reminds me a lot! I wish you the best.

Thanks

Messages from Agribusiness Course Participants

Mr. Frank Onguso Moturi(Kenya)Deputy County Director in charge of Crops,Directorate of Agriculture, Department of Agricultureand Animal Resources, Busia County

Mr. Elias Lugane Maijo (Tanzania)Training Institute (MATI), Department of Training,Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Fisherie

Dear Friends in Africa,This is Hidenori Aso, a coordinator who met

you at Food Valley Agribusiness Center in Kuma-moto.

Thank you for your e-mail forwarded to me by Nakashima-san. We, the staff, are fine.

The earthquake caused extensive damage to Kumamoto.

One week since the earthquake, the situation is getting better, because lifelines are beginning to be restored.

But many people who lost their homes are still suffering from the earthquake.

We appreciate you concerns about Kumamoto.

With my best regards,Hidenori Aso

Message from Kumamoto, which Accepted the Participants

(4) EPP Value Chain Businesses in Marketing of Cooperatives Agricultural Products

Commissioned by JICA, we conduct-ed a training course on the theme of “Value Chains in Cooperatives” from November 29 to December 19, 2015, targeting various related ministries and agencies in the position to guide and supervise cooperatives in Malaysia, as well as executives of the Cooperative College of Malaysia.

Although the Government of Malay-sia has been promoting agricultural activities and agriculture-related busi-nesses, cooperatives have been unable to comprehensively engage in agricultural product marketing activities, and this has been an obstacle for the coopera-tives to contribute to increasing profits in the agricultural sector. This training course is intended to have the persons in charge at these related organizations to learn about case examples related to the marketing sector of Japanese agricultural coopera-tives and thereby improve the level of their advice and guidance.

Through tours of the ZEN-NOH Fresh Produce Marketing Corporation and the Tokyo Metropoli-tan Central Wholesale Market, the participants observed the Japanese distribution system, while during field study visits, they visited Hiroshima Prefecture and had the opportunity for training on

such matters as the JA Group’s marketing system, processing and marketing of value-added agricul-tural products, and green tourism. In addition, through such occasions as visits to fruit production farms in Yamanashi Prefecture and a tour of agri-cultural complex facility under the collaboration between the government and JAs, the participants learned the mechanism of the value chains in Japan from various angles.

Tour of fields of the community farming corporation “Clean Culture”

EPP = Economic Partnership Program

Participants’ hands-on experience in Japanese tea ceremony (man in the center wearing a kimono is Mr. Aso)

The training program, namely “Value Chain Business in Marketing of Cooperatives’ Agricul-tural Products,” was successfully conducted by JICA with IDACA as the coordinating and imple-menting agency. We attended this course together with 16 other participants, representatives from three government agencies, namely Co-Operative

College of Malaysia (CCM), Malaysia Co-Opera-tive Societies Commission (MCSC), and Federa-tion Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA).

We believe that the objective of this program, which is “to develop versatile training officers equipped with the most modern knowledge, tech-nology and field experience,” was successfully achieved. We have been exposed to the coopera-tive movement in Japan, especially in all aspects of agricultural system and management.

As a whole, the training course has really exposed and given us very meaningful experienc-es and equipped us with the most modern knowl-edge, technology and field experience in order to develop and train the cooperative movement in Malaysia to the next level.

Meaningful Experiences in Japan

Ms. Nur Faeza YahyaTraining Officer, Center of Policy & International,Co-Operative College of Malaysia

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Today it is recognized as one of the leading blue-chip cooperatives in the Philippines, receiving awards for that many times.

On the first day of our stay on Cebu Island, we observed such places as the branch office and water buffalo breeding facility managed by LMPC, and paid a visit to a woman entrepreneur who start-ed producing bags by receiving a loan from the

cooperative. Moreover, we attended a ceremony to commemorate a new housing construction project. In addition, we stayed at the Hidden Valley Resort, which is operated by LMPC, and exchanged opin-ions with the cooperative’s board directors and young staff members.

On the second day, after listening to a briefing by Ma. Limocon on the overview of LMPC, we observed the activities of a farmers group living in a village in the mountainous area. Emulating the system of farm advisors of Japan’s agricultural cooperatives, guidance on production was being provided to farmers by dispatching LMPC staff with a doctor’s degree in agriculture.

Finally, we returned to the downtown area of Cebu and visited a restaurant simultaneously serv-ing as a store and hideaway owned by the so-called “Chocolate Queen of Cebu Island,” who makes unique chocolate using cacao beans grown by LMPC. According to the lady who owns and pro-duces creative chocolate, it was the hand-made chocolate that her grandmother made using 100% cacao that gave her a moment of peace during her girlhood days when there was no electricity and

she lived in extreme poverty. Today, her self-taught chocolate making, which she started with the intention of delivering the taste of her grandmoth-er’s chocolate to many people, is reportedly attracting the attention of tourists visiting Cebu Island.

Unlike the farming villages in Japan that are suffering from the problem of aging and dec-lining population, the farming villages in the Philippines were full of young people and ener-getic women and bustling with activi-ty. In the Philippines, where about 90% of the population are devout Christians (83% of whom are Catho-lic), the fact that religious ties are strong and nice church and chapel

Former participant Ma. Limocon giving a briefing at a bag factory of a woman entrepreneur (Mrs. Myrna Ignario, who appears on the left)

At the store of the “Chocolate Queen of Cebu Island”

Tour of a buffalo breeding farm

The main purposes of this program consist of selecting two countries from among various coun-tries that participated in training courses in the past and conducting surveys (interviews and question-naires) on the status of progress in action plans, targeting those who formerly participated over the past three years (FY2013 to FY2015), as well as surveys on the actual situation of local agriculture and agricultural cooperatives. During the current fiscal year, the program was conducted in the Phil-ippines and Cambodia from February 7 through February 13, and from February 13 through Febru-ary 19, respectively.

The program in the Philippines was conducted in cooperation with the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO). On the occasion of start-ing the program, a senior official of the Coopera-tive Development Authority (CDA), representing the Philippine Government, gave a briefing on the

“Overview of Cooperatives in the Philippines.” After that, we interviewed six former participants. The status of action plan implementation efforts is generally good. (Two of the six former participants indicated their action plans have “already been implemented,” while the remaining four former participants indicated that their actions plans are “currently in the preparatory stage.”) Lively dis-cussions were conducted on issues related to implementing the action plans and the needs regarding training courses in the future.

In the second half of the follow-up, we moved to Cebu Island to observe the actual situation of a pri-mary cooperative there. We visited a Cebu-based cooperative called Lamac Multi-Purpose Coopera-tive (hereinafter referred to as LMPC), where for-mer participant Ma. Elena Limocon serves as a general manager.

The LMPC was established in the mountainous part of the island in 1973 by 70 farmers with a capital of 3,500 pesos ( 70 US dollars). At the time, there existed no roads con-necting the village with main roads. There were also no elec-tricity or water supply services, but the founders of the said cooperative reportedly threw in all the assets they possessed to pave roads, install electricity, and lay water pipes, thereby lay-ing the foundation for the vil-lage’s development without relying on the government.

FY2015 ICA/IDACA Follow-Up Program (in the Philippines)

OVERSEAS BUISINESS TRIP REPORT

Group photo with former participants and NATCCO officials

Members of LMPC (farmers’ group)

Basic information on the Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative (LMPC)• Membership: 62,488• Employees: 308 (170 men / 138 women)• Directors: 9 (6 men / 3 women)• Number of offices: 23• Capital: 327,400,000 pesos ( 7 million US dollars)• Major businesses: Credit business, mutual insurance business, marketing business, delivery

business, various livestock businesses (pig, chicken eggs, chicken, goat, duck, turkey, and water buffalo), ornamental floriculture, organic vegetable cultivation, cacao production, cassava production, housing business, green tourism, etc.

• Major facilities: COOP MART, soap manufacturing facilities, candle manufacturing facilities, water purification facilities, resort hotels, and youth-oriented boarding facilities

(As of December 2015)