Aquaculture farmer organizations and cluster management: concepts and experiences

4.2
LESSONS LEARNED FOR SUCCESSFUL FARMERS’ ORGANIZATIONS
Stringfellow 
et al. 
(1997) identify three key factors that can determine the success 
of an FO. They argue there must be:
(i) a match between the existing capacity, skills and experience of members and 
what is required to undertake joint activities; 
(ii) internal cohesion and a membership-driven agenda; and 
(iii) successful, commercially oriented integration of the FO into the wider economy. 
Factors (i) and (ii) are both internal factors for success and factor (iii) is an external 
factor for success. The following sections will thus explore both internal and external 
factors for successful FOs, informed by both the literature and the case studies of 
aquaculture FOs undertaken for this review. 
4.2.1 Internal factors for success 
Common and clearly defined objectives
The objectives of FO members are unlikely to be exactly the same. Members may 
have different priorities with regard to the sorts of services and activities they think 
the organization should be involved with and how they should be undertaken. 
Members may also have different needs or interests owing to economic, social or 
cultural differences. However, common objectives are the most basic prerequisite for 
an FO to function properly. Ensuring that members have shared interests and that the 
organization is addressing a common objective will help to maintain members’ unity, 
focus and commitment, which are vital to the success of FOs. Common objectives 
were found to be one of the main reasons for the success of both the NaCSA’s farmer 
societies and the Samroiyod Cooperative (see Appendix 1). As with all organizations, 
there can be problems when FOs have multiple or conflicting goals, for example, 
welfare goals versus economic goals. Where farmers seek to cooperate as a business 
enterprise in an FO, success may depend on a separation of the welfare functions 
from the marketing functions. It is also important that these goals and objectives are 
defined clearly and unambiguously by FO members themselves. Giving members the 
opportunity to analyse their own problems and identify for themselves the needs they 
wish to address implies a power over their destiny, which can be empowering in itself 
(Crowley 
et al
., 2005).