Jos Bijman, associate professor of cooperative organisations at Wageningen University, has been advising different farmer cooperatives in Burundi. These cooperatives have been established in the framework of a development project, partly funded by the government of The Netherlands. The purpose of the development project is to improve the diet of smallholder farmers giving theim low-cost access to fish. The project runs from 2022 to the end of 2026 and is setting up fish ponds and the cooperatives are involved in co-management of the ponds. In addition, the cooperatives develop joint marketing of farm products and joint purchasing of farm inputs. Jos Bijman has been visiting several cooperatives that are part of development project and has given each farmer cooperative advise on how to strengthen the internal governance, how to prevent free-riding, and how to increase member commitment. Wageningen University is one of the core partners of this project. Burundian partners are Agape and ELAGA.
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