Assessment of Cooperatives in the Poultry Industry - 2013.pdf - Seda

Research Report: Addressing the Needs, Opportunities and Challenges of Cooperatives
and Collectively Owned Enterprises in the Poultry and Related Industries
One way to address a lack of initiative amongst cooperative members is to improve
agency for business development. This will decrease dependency on governments as
cooperative members will be held accountable. The recommendation concerning
mentorship and conditional support will assist in increasing agency and ownership.
This can be further bolstered through community mentorship. It was found in the
survey that many of the successful cooperatives had a friend or relative who acted
as a mentor. This person often assisted with both technical and business advice.
Cooperatives are less likely to become dependent on a community mentor than they
are of becoming dependent on government support. The identification and
facilitation or relationship building of community mentors is thus recommended to
improve cooperative agency and development. These mentors can be successful
cooperative members previously supported by SEDA, who are then asked to mentor
new cooperatives.
5.2.2.
Improving Equipment Provision
Throughout the findings of the cooperatives survey it was highlighted that cooperatives are
struggling with a lack of equipment. This has three major effects; the first is a high mortality rate
amongst birds due to improper heating/cooling and badly kept chicken housing. The second is an
inability to grow their business, and the third is the limitation that this places on market access.
Cooperatives also illustrated a lack of long-term financial planning. Cooperatives that are
unable/unwilling to undertake long-term investments will not be able to save enough capital to
purchase equipment. To address the issues surrounding availability of equipment, the following
recommendations are made:
Improve equipment provision to cooperatives that are feasible for success:
Improved provision of equipment to farmers is recommended through the following means:
o
Stringent criteria for cooperatives to be considered for support: At present
cooperatives are evaluated on a number of criteria set out by SEDA. Cooperatives
are rated according to certain criteria and if they obtain a score over 60% they are
recommended for CPPP adoption. While this set of criteria is relatively
comprehensive, a number of the outcomes are vague and do not reflect a
qualitative interpretation of the situation. The percentages given may be subjective;
for example: ‘markets secured’ may be scored low or high depending on how the
assessor views the potential market for the cooperative. Additionally, the presence
of certain business documents is assessed rather than the use or understanding of
that documentation. Revision of the site evaluation form is recommended in order
to ensure that cooperatives who exhibit entrepreneurial qualities and ability to drive
their business are considered. The identification of entrepreneurial inclination is
discussed in section 5.2.5 below. While many cooperatives may have the necessary
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