Agriculture Development

Programs: Agriculture Development

In countries throughout the world, small farmers often face many constraints. ADF assistance in agriculture development is designed to help farmers improve their agricultural production, sales and income. To systematically alleviate problems in agricultural production and productivity, ADF emphasizes collective action by farmers in order to address mutual problems and accelerate income growth. Its assistance has focused on the development and strengthening of voluntary, sustainable, profit-oriented farmer associations and cooperatives.

In addition to organizing and supporting the development of hundreds of cooperatives, ADF has provided assistance to cooperatives in organizing marketing federations to have a common approach to marketing, product branding and standardization. These specialized marketing federations serve as vehicles to standardize processing for retail and wholesale markets and develop improved standards in product quality while reducing overall production costs. ADF assistance also includes providing education and on-farm training for individual farmers, associations, cooperatives, and federations.

ADF training and technical assistance in many agricultural sectors includes such subject areas as the following: farm management; establishment of farmers' organizations; cooperative and financial management; product pricing and marketing; market information systems; modern production techniques; protection and sanitation; export regulations; certifications such as EuroGap and HACCP; product branding and accessing available credit, new investment and markets.

Programs in Agriculture Development  have been conducted in Serbia.