Aquaculture farmer organizations and cluster management: concepts and experiences

3.5.4 NGOs and other non-commercial service providers
Development NGOs and international donor agencies can provide market services 
to FOs and grants to help FOs establish their business and invest in capital assets. 
However, as mentioned above, NGOs and development agencies must be careful not to 
crowd out private-sector provision of market services by supplying them at such a low 
cost that the private sector cannot compete. Direct provision of services by these types 
of organizations is not usually financially sustainable, and FOs and farmers must be able 
to access these services in the long run and cannot be dependent on external grants. 
3.5.5 Farmers’ organizations service provision
As outlined in Section 3.3, FOs often provide their own market services for members. 
For example, farmer societies established by NaCSA in India employ a society 

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Structure, operation and management of farmers’ organizations
coordinator to provide extension and training to shrimp farmers. The Samroiyod 
Cooperative also employs an extension officer to do the same for its members. CBOs 
in Bangladesh (Case Study 4) buy inputs and distribute them to members, earning 
profits by selling on commission through arrangements with suppliers or by selling at 
a marked-up price. FOs can also join together to form a larger group or network to 
more easily provide certain services, such as collective output marketing, to members. 
For example, as mentioned above, FOSCOT is made up of five cooperatives and 
negotiates large contracts on their behalf with processors and buyers. In Aceh, FOs at 
the subdistrict level have come together to form four ALSCs and the Aceh Aquaculture 
Communication Centre (AACC) (see Case Study 5) at the district level, with the 
support of ADB and NACA. The ALSCs and the AACC were established purely 
to provide farmers with technical, business and communication services owing to 
the lack of service provision from the government and private sector. It is hoped that 
the ALSC-AACC model will be self-sustaining through payment of service fees by 
members, independent of government and other external agencies.