Reviving Daga Shindre Tshogpa

26 September 2009

After operating in loss for few years, Daga Shingdre Tshogpa (DST), a farmer’s group in Dagana, is expected to spring back to life with renewed help from its stakeholders and SNV Bhutan. SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) is working to help DST become a functional farmers’ group and a viable business entity. It is supporting the tshogpa compile and assess its accounts of the last two years, develop a financial system, teach proper bookkeeping, update its by-laws and improve stakeholder coordination.

DST was in grim state. Its by-laws, which were developed without involving most of the DST members, were not followed. Office bearers did not have capacity to run such a group nor did they have experience and skills to manage a group business which had a huge sales turnover. Most of the operational systems were conducted on trial and error and there was no coordinated support.

Chheki Wangchuk from SNV said SNV in collaboration with Agriculture Marketing Services (AMS) of Agriculture Ministry undertook an analysis of the financial books of DST of the last two business seasons and found there was no proper bookkeeping in place and no clear responsibilities and accountability.

Studies found that DST had relatively good by-laws. However, more than 80 percent of the members were unaware of its contents. There was no proper and common understanding of benefits and liabilities. The general meetings were conducted in an unstructured manner in terms of agenda setting, attendance, and meaningful participation of members.

Except for the board and committee members, most of the other members were not aware of how decisions were made. The trust among the members was low. It was found that the executive committee members were genuinely interested in the DST but lacked capacity in management.

The chairman of the tshogpa, Jurmi Dorji, said the tshogpa had no business plan and farmers were not experienced in doing business. This year, they have a business plan. Everything is carried out according to the plan. He said farmers are hopeful that the tshogpa will benefit them.

Chheki Wangchuk said a simple and realistic group business plan was essential. The absence of such a guide was also one of the reasons why the tshogpa conducted business on trial and error. Business plan is also required in determining business viability and accessing credit needs, he said.

The new business plan for the coming season (2009-10) is projected to make a net profit of over Nu 2.6 million. The tshogpa has the capacity to produce mandarin worth Nu 5 million. The business plan for the next season will include other activities like mango curing, passion fruit pulping, pickling using dolo (round) chili for which Dagapela has potential.

DST was formed in 2005 with an aim to increase household income through engagement in food processing industry and collective bargaining and marketing. It has 100 members representing around 90 households from six gewogs.

DST was formed under the rural Enterprise Development Programme (REDP), a tripartite collaboration programme where SNV was party to it.

This month, SNV in collaboration with Dagana Dzongkhag conducted basic leadership training for the newly elected office-bearers of Daga Shingdre Tshogpa (DST).

The week-long programme was conducted to enhance the understanding of their roles and responsibilities according to their by-laws and financial manual, and on the importance of carrying out their responsibilities professionally.

The training was aimed at equiping them with the necessary skills for nurturing and developing good working relationships, and to increase awareness on the importance of individual leadership and taking individual responsibilities.

The training on leadership was followed by a refresher course on bookkeeping. About 60 tshogpa members attended the course.

A local consultant, Tika Ram Sharma, who conducted the training, said it was encouraging to see positive energy in the DST. He said there was increasing participation to develop by-laws and business plan. DST now has a financial management system in place, and the members are capable of proper record keeping.

Chheki Wangchuk said DST members are now aware of their rights and responsibilities, obligations and the value of working in groups. The revised by-laws and a newly developed business plan now endorsed and approved by DST General Assembly, has been developed with all the information inputs, strategies and plans coming from the group members, Chheki Wangchuk said various stakeholders now recognize their differing but complimentary roles for the success of the tshogpa.

There is a clearer understanding of the importance of the role of the local government for similar farmers’ groups.

The DST experience can be an example in operationalising the Cooperative Act. These experiences, including the by-laws and business plan, may be used by other similar community organisations. SNV has been supporting in the development of orchard valuation and pricing guidelines to help the purchase committee of DST correctly price mandarin orchards.

In the absence of such a guideline, DST in the past ended up paying high price which was one of the causes of high costs and loss, said the consultant.

Dagapela is favorable for mandarin, mango, pear, passion fruit, guava and chillies (round/dolo). DST will be assessing the feasibility of growing these products and take up value-adding activities in curing and pickling and make optimum use of IFPP facility.

By Rabi C Dahal

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