Project 09ucs-5484

09ucs-5484 Family Agriculture plants School meals

budget	€ 64.884,60	status	execution
start date	01-10-2009	date end	31-12-2009
location	In 7 states: Maranhão, Tocantins, Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná	country	brazil
financer	Trias
executor	Uniao das Cooperativas da Agricultura Familiar e Economia Solidaria	intervention level	national
Programmes	\| work area 11: Market & Chain Development \| IFAP 10: Increase market power for farmers \|
description	Family Agriculture stands before a major challenge, supplying at least 30% of all school meals of the public schools in Brazil. This project supports the coops to start up the organization to access this huge market and prepare the cooperatives and their members supply food according to the current regulations. Seven out (...more...)
description	Family Agriculture stands before a major challenge, supplying at least 30% of all school meals of the public schools in Brazil. This project supports the coops to start up the organization to access this huge market and prepare the cooperatives and their members supply food according to the current regulations. Seven out of eleven State Unicafes assumed the challenge to centralize the organization and support the coops on: 1 Identification of the needs of the schools 2 Identification of the coops with products available in '10 3 Register the farmers and coops in DAP 4 Assessment on compliancy on sanitary aspects 5 Organization of the logistics to the urban centers 6 Organization of storage In resume the principal objective is to guarantee the access of a large number of farmers to the Institutional Market (with government funding) The specific objective is to promote access to the school market with products of the Coops of Family Agriculture. (...less...)
results & observations	The project “Family Agriculture plants School meals” had the main objective of preparing the cooperatives of family farmers to be able to supply food for/trough the National Program of School Meals (from the Brazilian government) and to negotiate it with the municipal governments. Unicafes managed to inform the cooperatives of the (...more...)
final results & observations	The project “Family Agriculture plants School meals” had the main objective of preparing the cooperatives of family farmers to be able to supply food for/trough the National Program of School Meals (from the Brazilian government) and to negotiate it with the municipal governments. Unicafes managed to inform the cooperatives of the demands of products of the schools and organized the cooperatives to identify the products they have to supply the schools in their cities. Unicafes also improved the knowledge with regard to the process of market access and facilitated in the negotiation of the contracts resulting in a total of 18 contracts with the value of R$ 84.609,84 on 31st of December of 2009. This amount will increase, since the school year only starts in February. The total amount expected to be contract by the end of 2010, is at least a million euro. Only in Espirito Santo the 12 contracts are estimated to account for Euro 800.000. The project was a success as we can see by the results and expected amount of contracts by the end of the year and in the following years. The people that were hired to work with the cooperatives and the municipal governments are still continuing this articulation. Unicafes Nacional and at state level will continue working with the cooperatives to attend the National Program of School Meals. For them, this is a great opportunity to improve the access to market, improving the income of the cooperatives and the family farmers. (...less...)
specialisms	\| Cooperative Development & Marketing Strategies \| Market and chain development \|

	APPLICATION
	APPLICATION

	DEFINITION
	DEFINITION

	EXECUTION
	EXECUTION

	RESULTS
	RESULTS

	PROGRESS
	PROGRESS

	RELATIONS
	RELATIONS

PROPOSAL

Agri-agency	Own contribution executor	Other parties	Total requested budget
Trias	UNICAFES NACIONAL
€ 0,00 + € 0,00	€ 0,00	€ 0,00	€ 0,00

1. Introduction
Unicafes Nacional and Agricord
The Union of Cooperatives of Family Agriculture and Solidary Economy (Unicafes Nacional), was created on June, 21st of 2005, due to the need of an organization that represents and lobbies for the interests and rights of cooperatives of family agricultures and solidary economy all over Brazil. Since its foundation Unicafes already represents 1.000 cooperatives from all Brazilian regions.

Unicafes represents a “new cooperativism”. The cooperatives are of and for the family farmers, farmers are the decision makers, the management is in hands of the farmers. The target group to benefit (especially indirectly) are the economically active family farmers. The category Family Agriculture is recognized and discribed by Brazilian Federal Law 11.718. The organizations are also characterized by a decentralized structure with a high degree of membership participation. The cooperatives that are member of Unicafes work in a wide variety of agricultural food and handicraft chains.

Currently Agricord, through its Belgium agro-agency Trias vzw, supports Unicafes within the project \\\"Political and operational strengthening of Unicafes” with two main objectives:
1) 309 commercialization cooperatives, in the rural areas of Brasil, are strengthened through identification of the demand and supply of adequate service delivery by Unicafes;
2) Unicafes Nacional works in a member demand driven way, and is able to translate the needs of the local cooperatives to strategic trajetories of lobby on the national and international level.

One of the maior achievements of Unicafes and partner movements of Family Agriculture, such as Contag, Fetraf and Via Campesino, was, in 2009, the progress made in the Plano Safra (Harvest Plan) 2009/2010. The Harvest Plan defines the public policy of the Federal Government for Family Agriculture and is elaborated in cooperation with civil society (the movements mentioned above). Existing components were amplified, but more important, 3 new programs will be implemented: School Meals provided by Family Agriculture, a new law on Rural Extension that facilitates the execution of free Technical Assistence and Rural Extension and a creation of a national label for the products produced by Family Agriculture. For more information see also: http://www.mda.gov.br/arquivos/2072421532.pdf

School Meals provided by Family Agriculture
The “Harvest Plan of Family Agriculture 2009/2010” consolidates a new market for the products of Family Agriculture: providing food to all public primary schools. With the recent aproval of the law 11.947, a minimum of 30% of the financial means available through the National Fund of Educational Development (FNDE) inserted in the National Program of School Meals (PNAE), must be applied on the acquisition of products from family agricuture or rural family entrepeneurs. Families registered in the national cadaster (DAP) may comercialize up to 3.500 Euro/Year. The families with access to this program are the formal (coops or associations) and informal organized families. The biggest part of the PNAE budget foreseen for 2010 will be applied in the urban centres.

Due to this program the families organized in the cooperatives of Unicafes gain an important oportunity to create stability in access to markets and / or increase their production. Many of the 309 production and commercialization cooperatives can benefit form the above mentioned law, but crucial issues must be attended in order to prepare the coops to access this new market opportunity like: availability products, registration of farmers and logistics.

Through this proposal Unicafes applies for support to be able to prepare the farmers to access the PNAE starting on the first of January 2010.

2. Objectives, results & indicators
General objective:
Access to the Institutional Market (with government funding)

Specific objective:
Promotion of the access to the school market with products of the Coops of Family Agriculture

Results:
- Increase of the negociated volume of products by coops member of Unicafes
- Increase of the number of coops with access to the Institutional Market

Indicatores:
Volume of products supplied by Unicafes coops
Turnover in R$ in PNAE by Unicafes coops
Number of coops delivering to PNAE

3. Main Activities
Prior to this project all individual Provincial Unicafes were asked to participate in this eventual project and select the person to execute the activities below. Seven of the 11 Unicafes of the different states reacted possitively. As a result the project will support the organization of PNAE in the following states:
North Brazil: Tocantins (TO)
North-East Brazil: Maranhão (MA)
South-East Brazil: Espirito Santo (ES) and Rio de Janeiro (RJ)
South Brazil: Paraná (PR), Santa Catarina (SC), Rio Grande do Sul (RS)

The project foresees the following activities:
3.1. Workshop about rules and necessary paperwork to access the PNAE market. The workshop will be organized in Brazil with the support of the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MDA) and the National Company of Food Supply (CONAB).
3.2. Definition of a workplan for every participating Provincial Unicafes oriented by Unicafes Nacional.
3.3. Organizing the access to the school market on 01-01-2010
- Identification of the needs of the schools;
- Identification of the coops and the families with products available in 2010;
- Register the farmers and coops in DAP;
- Assessment on compliency on sanitary aspects
- Organization of the logistics to the urban centers;
- Organization of storage;
3.4. Access to future school markets
- Identification of future needs of the PNAE
- Organization of technical assistance, investments and credit for future production
- Organization of food processing to meet the needs of the school meals;

4. Budget
Total budget projection: € € 57.881

4.1 Human Resources
Number of Articulators - 07
Cost / articulator / month - € 1.442,31
Total 4.1 - € 30.289,00

4.2 Operational costs
Operational costs / Articulator / month - € 961,54
Transport costs / month Coordenation Unicafes National - € 933,00
Back office support costs Unicafs National - € 4.600,00
Total 4.2 - € 27.592

5. Time frame
Execution in the months October, November and December 2009

6. Monitoring and Evaluation
The monitoring and evaluation will be done in joined cooperation by TRIAS Brasil and Unicafes Nacional.

GOALS

	Partner Sites
	Partner Sites