Region

The province of West Flanders has the largest number of farmers in Belgium that are organised into cooperative structures. In 2013 there were a total of 8,678 agricultural and horticultural businesses in West Flanders (34.9% of the Flemish total) using a total of 205,764 hectares (exactly one third of the Flemish total). Almost three quarters (74.1%) of the 15.1 million animals in the West-Flemish herd were poultry and 23% were pigs. The average size of horticultural units in the region increased from 21.8 hectares in 2009 to 24.6 hectares in 2013.

Study focus

One of the main hurdles to overcome when fostering innovation for sustainable agriculture is that many farmers struggle to work together. The study focused on how advisory services can help farmers address this challenge and start working together, including forming appropriate legal structures. A cooperative is an independent association of individuals united voluntarily to meet their common social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise. Agricultural cooperatives unite farmers to realise common goals such as the marketing and processing of their farm products, purchasing and producing farm inputs or machinery, or undertaking research.

Most cooperatives aim to increase members’ income or facilitate the business of the individual farmers by helping them to better link their production with finance, agricultural inputs, information, or output markets. The cooperative might specialise in production, service provision, or marketing. It also might offer support within some (or all) of these various stages. This case study examines how cooperatives function as advisory systems and how they can assist farmers in setting up new cooperatives.

The case study examines how existing cooperatives manage their governance and whether they get support from advisors to strengthen this governance. The benefit of setting up new cooperatives for stimulating innovation is also examined. Some farmers believe that if you are too small to innovate on your own, you can do it together.

The full report (in English) is here

Partner and responsible person contact

Innovation Support Centre

Stijn Bossin, stijn.bossin@innovatiesteunpunt.be

Lessons learned

1. A distinction should be made between the process of joining large traditional cooperatives and joining smaller, more recently established ones. Many farmers become aware of the traditional cooperatives when growing up on their family farms. Advisors play a minimal role in raising awareness of the traditional cooperatives and farmers’ assessment of them. Joining a cooperative is “the only logical thing to do ” for many Flemish farmers. There is rarely any active assessment of this decision. In the few cases where there is an active assessment stage, farmers take advice from farmer-based cooperatives through one-to-one advice in person or through organised workshops.
2. Advisors have a more prominent role with the smaller, more recently established cooperatives. Pioneers starting a cooperative tend to look for as much information and advice as possible from various sources. They meet up and negotiate with representatives from the private sector, farmer-based cooperatives, environmental organisations, accounting offices, peers from other countries etc. These same actors may also play a part in implementing the new cooperative.