Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture

Agricultural chains Agriculture Competitiveness Family farming Inclusion

Producer groups to strengthen their governance and management

Tiempo de lectura: 3 mins.

The objective is to improve communication, efficiency and effectiveness.

Antigua and Barbuda, Friday 18 May 2018. The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) collaborated with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to strengthen the governance and management of four local producer groups through their participation in workshop sessions.

The training activity helped to familiarize participants with key principles of management, pinpoint weaknesses in their present management structures, and highlight areas for improvement of management within their respective organizations.

The overall objective of the Workshops was to strengthen the Governance arrangements within each of the organizations to improve communication, efficiency and

23 producers benefitted from the capacity building activities aimed at improving the internal structures and management of their organizations.

effectiveness among their members. Based on participants feedback from previous workshops conducted by IICA and FAO and assessments conducted by IICA using an Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT), specific areas of capacity building interventions were identified for each of the groups. This information was used to guide the training sessions on how much governance was needed for each of the groups.

A series of four training sessions were conducted on 8th, 9th, 15th & 16th May, 2018 with focus on the Developing Standard Operational Procedures and Strategic Planning with the objectives to improvement of management practices and procedures of the organizations as well as to provide direction for the successful operation of the organization. These workshops are aligned with the action plan developed for the capacity of producer groups a follow- up from a Governance session conducted in 2017 targeting the same groups addressing the Human Resource and Group Dynamics. The target producer groups are Team Fresh Producer Group (TFPC), the Southern Farmers Association, the Antigua and Barbuda Bee Keepers Cooperative and The Antigua and Barbuda Agriculture Forum for Youth (ABAFY).

Craig Thomas, National Specialist at IICA, challenged the groups “to share the information with all group members and immediately start to implement the strategies provided to the benefit the groups”. The training program is an initiative of IICA’s Flagship Project on Competitiveness and Sustainability of Agricultural Chain.

 Effective producer groups can contribute to food and nutrition security, a key area identified during the stakeholders’ consultation on IICA is 2018-2022 Medium Term Plan.

More information:

Craig Thomas, National Specialist, IICA Delegation in Antigua and Barbuda

craig.thomas@iica.int

Share

Related news​

Asunción, Paraguay

September 16, 2025

Nidia González, who champions the empowerment of women farmers in Paraguay and strives to raise living standards in her community, has now been recognized as an IICA Leader of Rurality of the Americas 

Nidia is President of the Comité de Santo Domingo, a group that seeks to improve the income and standard of living of the entire community.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

Madrid, España

September 16, 2025

The IICA Director General, during a working visit to Spain, met with the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas; visited the Spanish Congress and was honored by Universidad de Córdoba

In his meeting with Planas, Otero reflected on the close collaboration with Spain and characterized the Institute’s technical cooperation as systemic, efficient and collaborative, providing benefits to more than ten million farmers and actively undertaking 358 projects to enhance food security and rural development.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

San José, Costa Rica

September 10, 2025

Erick Geovany Ac Tot, a cocoa entrepreneur who promotes high-quality cocoa and the preservation of ancestral trees in Guatemala, is named an IICA Leader of Rurality 

Erick Geovany Ac Tot—a prominent Guatemalan cocoa entrepreneur who has been assisting small farmer organizations, promoting high-quality cocoa production and preserving heirloom trees for years, in addition to being a cocoa taster—has been named a Leader of Rurality of the Americas by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). 

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins