Building upon the success of the first implementation of the Learning Route on Farmers Organization implemented on February 2013 under the KARIANET-PROCASUR Learning Route programme, and in view of the global meeting of the Farmer’s Forum (FAFO) to be organized by IFAD in February 2014, PROCASUR, IFAD and D&D have come together to promote a Learning Route aimed at generating knowledge and a better understanding of the successful development model supporting family farming businesses.

The proposed Learning Route would enable participants to learn more about successful cooperatives capable of providing sustainable economic services to smallholder farmers. Throughout this Learning route two in-depth case studies will be elaborated based on the analysis of the models developed by the visited cooperatives. The in-depth case studies would contribute to the 2014 policy dialogue initiatives around the International Year on Family Farming (IYFF) in 2014 and would also serve as valuable inputs for the global meeting of the Farmer’s Forum (FAFO) to be organized by IFAD in February 2014.

The main objective of this Learning Route is to improve understanding about farmers organizations supporting family farming in Morocco; it will improve understanding about their business models and development trajectory to turn into profitable organizations providing relevant services to their members, with a focus on the smallholders farmers.

Moreover, its specific objectives are the following:

1. Understand the development history and trajectory of the FOs and identify key elements of the governance in FOs, mainly as referred to: management, decision-making processes, legal and institutional framework, internal structure, sustainability, leadership and capacity building;
2. Understand how the smallholders (and especially vulnerable farmers) are taken into account in the FOs’ development strategies and what are the services developed to support them more specifically;
3. Understand the key elements of the business models developed by the FOs, meaning the combining of institutional structuring, economic services and financial flows that are managed to make the FOs profitable and useful to their members.