Next level of extension services: BAMSCOS Kenya

21-10-2019 11:32:49
After conducting the Sustainable services workshop in June 2017, BAMSCOS was effective in collecting an increasing amount of milk and having a rather financially sustainable extension services system.

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Baringo Marketing Support Cooperative Societies (BAMSCOS) is a Union of dairy cooperatives. After conducting the Sustainable services workshop in June 2017, BAMSCOS was effective in collecting an increasing amount of milk and having a rather financially sustainable extension services system. The union keeps on investing in extension as they believe it is the key to more and better business in the future. The clear focus and vision of BAMSCOS with concrete results motivates Agriterra to keep investing in strengthening the services of our clients. 

With additional funding from NUFFIC - Tailor-Made Training- Orange Knowledge Programme (TMK OKP) - BAMSCOS, Agriterra and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) work on further improving the extension services system of BAMSCOS so more farmers can benefit and improve their productivity. The collaboration will last for 8 months and the findings, learnings and best practices will be captured and serve as input for a possibly standardised-follow up trajectory on extension services. 

More about BAMSCOS
BAMSCOS is a county-level Dairy Marketing Cooperative Union, representing 19 farmer cooperatives with more than 12,000 active members. The BHAG of BAMSCOS is to increase productivity and supply of milk to the union (aim: 100.000 litres/day in 2022). 
In 2016, BAMSCOS employed its first 2 extension officers at the union level and at that time, there were 2 extension officers at Primary cooperative level. Agriterra supported BAMSCOS with the workshop in Sustainable services. The outcome of this workshop was an extension strategy in which different levels of cooperatives (cooperative with or without extension officer; cooperative with a shared extension officer) were formed. In more detail, lead farmers were embedded as part of the extension structure, an extension plan was elaborated on 3 need-based priority extension topics and a business model was agreed upon; for every litre of milk supplied to the processor, the processor pays 0,5 KES (= 0,0045 Euro) of which 60% is earmarked for extension activities and the remaining 40% for core costs of BAMSCOS. 
Two years later, we see a steady increase of the milk deliveries to the union, resulting in an increasing income to cover the cost of extension and core costs of BAMSCOS: 
 

* the difference in projected income and realised income: in 2017 and 2018 only NKCCU paid the 50 cents, but in 2019 all processors pay 50 cents; About 30% of milk is side sold by the PC, hence not deliver to processor

** 60% of the 50 cents is for extension and 40% for core costs

In the last 2 years, BAMSCOS invested in additional 5 Extension officers and as per first of October under the JobsJobsJobs programme, another 7 extension officers (EO) have been recruited. This means one EO shall serve on average 750 members.

 

Agribusiness Based Advisory Services research (ABAS), KIT and NUFFIC
In 2018, Agriterra participated actively in the Agribusiness Based Advisory Services (ABAS) research, resulting in an overview of the strength and challenges of ABAS worldwide. Agriterra used the ABAS research to develop an Advisory Services health check, being used among clients that have a keen interest and need for advisory (or extension) services.
 
As a follow-up on the partnership between Agriterra and KIT, we applied for financial support from NUFFIC under the TMT OKP programme to bring the learning from ABAS into practice with BAMSCOS. The project was approved in June 2019 and includes the following activities that will be implemented with experts from KIT, including an Agripool expert, hired by KIT, Agriterra and a local consultant: 
 
  • Cooperative extension services check
  • Extension learning and strategy workshop for the Board of directors and management: 11-12 October 
  • Extension communication for Extension Officers (EO) and lead farmers: 14-18 October 
  • Field coaching to EO and lead farmers: November 2019-March 2020
  • Technical training EO and lead farmers: November 2019
  • Refresher training extension communication for extension officers and lead farmers: April 2019
  • Consolidation and learning workshop: April 2019
 
Services health check
We conducted the ‘Cooperative Advisory Services Check’ in August 2019, showing that the main challenges for BAMSCOS are in the quality and improvement of services.

 

Hence, we designed the learning and strategy workshop based on the outcomes of the services check, focusing on adoption and adaptation;
  • how to improve the effectiveness of services
  • which approach and methods work best
  • how to work with lead farmers
  • the financial/business aspects and
  • the organisational structure as BAMSCOS is expanding fast in numbers

 

Deepen strategy
The outcome was a dynamic 2-day workshop, in which the current strategy was revised and fine-tuned, while a doable action plan will create an enabling environment for the extension team to do their work in the best possible way.

 

 
Good services are crucial for the growth of a cooperative or a union, and with this workshop the management and leaders of BAMSCOS:
  1. have a better grip on extension,
  2. know what they can do to enable the extension team to perform better in the future and come with a SMART extension strategy.
The week 14-18 October a group of 25 extension officers and lead farmers are being trained by the KIT (Agripool) advisor and a Kenyan dairy trainer on extension communication!

 

 

Bertken de Leede

Bertken de Leede works for Agriterra since June 2005. First as a projects officer and then as liaison officer for Asia and East Europe. Since April 2015 Bertken is a business advisor for Nepal (till 2017), Kenya and Zambia. She undertakes the role of programme manager for Agriterra Female leadership training and Sustainable services workshop.

 

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