December 2009

Dear friends,

The end of 2009 is approaching and we would like to present to you a brief overview of last year’s activities. It has not been a year of an increase in activities, but rather a year of strengthening the foundation of our work by handing it over to the local leaders who have grown in responsibility and capacity needed to continue the work on their own.

If one takes the effort to listen, one hears rumours of the vulnerability of our western nations regarding food security. Also more and more we hear of large agricultural areas that are literally being bought in Africa and e.g. the Ukraine for the production of staple foods by China, India and South Korea. Still we in the affluent West seem to live with the illusion that agriculture is a somewhat outdated activity for the less developed nations. As Agrinas we are of the opinion that in the not too distant future we could be rudely awakened from this dream…

In Bosnia the wedding of our Bosnian director Velibor with Anne from Holland was the highlight of the year. We are also grateful that Hein has been declared fully healed after his serious illness in 2007. Together with four Bosnian staff, Hein (as advisor) now makes up the team of Agrinas Bosnia. With a small budget (partly as a result of the economic crisis) they managed to offer effective services to the farmers in the district. The co-operative Agrisan did well and purchased a piece of land to expand its activities. This past summer Benjamin, a graduate from a Dutch agricultural college, joined the team for six months. He supported the team with research to locate a potential new district where Agrinas wants to expand its activities. Next year Benjamin will prepare himself for long-term service with Agrinas in Bosnia.

In Kazakhstan - like in Bosnia - more steps have been taken towards further autonomy. A consultant has undertaken an assessment study of the Micro Credit Organisation (MCO). The conclusion was that the MCO should be able to sustain itself with the present invested capital and that the running costs can be paid from the interest. This proved indeed to be the case at the end of 2009, even with a surplus of funds! Partly based on this it was decided not to increase the scale of the MCO, which will safeguard the quality of the work.
In two villages the drinking water systems were rehabilitated and training of the water users’ associations were rounded off. No funding has been secured yet to implement the proposed activities in five new villages.
In April Sholpan, the director of Agrinas Kazakhstan, gave birth to a healthy son: Eugene.

In Albania we maintained contact with the farmers’ group in Mokra (district of Pogradec), with whom we have been working for years. We advised them to do the necessary research and to look for finances for themselves, but that is not simple. In spite of this they seem to persevere and we sincerely hope that they will be able to come up with innovative ideas. We are willing to help implement these, but whatever the outcome, it is encouraging to see how determined they are.

In Morocco Marc and Claudine Ténnevin joined the El Hajeb team in November. The programme (agricultural support and extension and literacy) is currently active in two villages.
Recently we were offered a 4?4 project vehicle, but we are still waiting for a favourable decision by the Moroccan government for the exemption of import duty.
In the district of Khenifra programme activities focus on the introduction of drip (trickle) irrigation of potatoes in four different villages. This results in a much lower water requirement while yields are higher than with traditional irrigation methods. This project, which builds on earlier experience in the same area, has proved to be very successful during the first year

After the Melamine crisis during 2008, the financial crisis of 2009 now affected the cheese project in China. In spite of this the month of October saw a break-even and in November the first profit was recorded.

In Indonesia the fibreglass boat-building programme was rounded off. A total of 19 boats were built of three different types. Because we did not succeed in finding the right staff who could lead the fishing programme and because a number of the initial staff withdrew from the programme, we were forced to put the activities on hold. The registration of Agrinas in Indonesia offers us unique possibilities on a national level to get involved in different types of rural development, which is an extra stimulus for us to resume our activities at a later stage.

From our head office in The Netherlands projects of partner organisations were visited in Albania, Ghana and Iraq. We also invested a lot of time in promoting our work in the Netherlands. Next year we intend to strengthen the basis of our work in the Dutch agricultural sector, which will hopefully result in more Dutch farmers who want to get involved in our work.

We want to use this opportunity to wish each one of you a meaningful Christmas and a blessed 2010!

The Agrinas team

P.s. Through our website you can make online donations to specific projects or staff workers.