The project “Small-scale, low-cost, environment friendly irrigation schemes: sites selection and preparation of full work tender dossier”, launched yesterday in Sopot a series of meetings with farmers at the sites where building small irrigation systems is planned. As a part of support for farmers, final beneficiaries of future small-scale irrigation systems, the meetings will elaborate on the process of establishing a co-operative through which they will manage the irrigation system.
The establishment of a legal entity that will enable users themselves to manage the irrigation system is one of the preconditions form EU and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy to have that system built at all.
At present, an agriculture cooperative is the only legal form that can be used by farmers for management.
The project will help farmers, with training and ready-made document templates, to be ready to register an agricultural cooperative before handing over the irrigation system into service.
The farmers, with the help of the project team, will go through all the necessary steps to organize and register the cooperatives: informative meetings, working groups, business plan development, membership agreement preparation, Statute preparation, system handover agreement with JSC Water Management and other supporting documents and procedures. The project will also assist them in developing a tariff methodology and setting tariffs for the use of the irrigation system.
Despite the many issues and different experiences with agricultural cooperatives, farmers look forward to building small systems that they can manage on their own.
Meetings will continue in the next period, from 24 to 30 January 2020, in Rankovce, Konopnica, Novaci, Probistip and Hamzali.
Rankovce, 24 January 2020:
Konopnica, 27 January 2020:
Novaci, 28 January 2020:
Probistip, 29 January 2020:
Hamzali, 30 January 2020:
