Development of Agribusiness Enterprises - Asian Productivity ...

implementation of the project, the Provincial Agricultural Extension Office has been
arranging a meeting before the start of each planting season for the signing of a production
agreement between the private companies and the farmers.
To alleviate the problem concerning the quality of raw materials, the Department of
Agricultural Extension and the private companies have provided a training course and field
demonstrations in cultural practices for targeted farmers. Because of the intensive care
required in cultivating the high-value crop, the companies provided collection houses that are
located around the project area. The harvested asparagus is weighed and checked for quality
at the collection houses by company inspectors and transaction documents are issued to the
farmers.
CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS
The encouragement of cooperation among all the parties concerned is an important part
of the approach to rural and agribusiness enterprise development, as it allows farmers and the
private sector to share the role of implementator/manager, with the Department of
Agricultural Extension acting as facilitator.
A farmers’ production group has been established with a mutual interest in production
management. The main activities of the group are:
(a) participating in annual marketing and production planning, including the proposing of
selling prices for the coming season;
(b) regulating the adherence of production group members to the signed production
agreement; and
(c) acting as coordinator in negotiations with the factories in terms of quality inspections,
delivery schedules and payments.
Since the export trend of asparagus is promising, there are a number of proposed
company requirements for sharing raw material supplies in the same region. The asparagus
production and marketing agreement developed for the western region project has been
developed and applied as the standard regulation agreement for all parties concerned. The
agreement can be summarized as follows:
1. Asparagus Production Groups (APGs) must adhere to the obligations referred to in the
contract and they supervise the supply of raw materials by group members to the
collection houses.
2. The details of the contract are subject to change with the approval of all parties, private
companies, APGs and the government agencies concerned.
3. Each of the private companies has been provided with specific boundaries and an APG
to supply the raw materials. New companies wanting to share the produce must first
contact the provincial agricultural extension officer as well as the relevant APG
committee to arrange a suitable area and identify interested farmers.
4. The companies are advised to purchase the asparagus on a quality basis in order to
ensure that the long-term quality improvement plan is maintained.
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