Aquaculture farmer organizations and cluster management: concepts and experiences

Technical and managerial capacity 
Stringfellow 
et al.
(1997) suggest that the levels of organizational and managerial 
capacity required by farmers’ existing investment enterprises must match those 
required by any future joint activity. The type of activity to be undertaken will have 
a major bearing on the management demands made on the group. These activities 
could, for example, be coordinating marketing activities or operating jointly owned 
assets. Their research suggests that successful FOs are more likely to be involved in 
the former, as the skills and experience required for this are often less complex than 
those required to operate a jointly owned piece of processing equipment. The level of 
technical and managerial capacity of the group is a very important factor of success. FO 
leaders (and ideally members too) should have the technical knowledge and managerial 

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Lessons for successful farmers’ organizations
capacity to run the FO effectively, deliver services to members efficiently and respond 
to challenges and opportunities as they arise.
Demand-driven and beneficial service delivery 
According to Thomson 
et al.
(2009), FOs that provide services that deliver clear, 
continuing and valued benefits to their members will be successful. As mentioned 
above, FO leaders need the capacity to deliver these services to members effectively. 
FOs should be careful not to overstretch themselves by trying to provide too many 
services or provide services that are too technically, managerially or financially 
demanding, as they will be hard to sustain and deliver cost-effectively. These services 
should also not be accessible to members from other sources on similar or better terms, 
and they should not be offered to non-members on the same terms as to members, so 
as to maintain members’ incentives to be part of the FO. The range of services offered 
should also be dynamic and able to evolve over time to reflect increasing demands 
from members and respond to the changing market environment and services offered 
by other organizations. However, increased service provision must still match existing 
capacity to deliver services. Advocacy and policy engagement, which do not usually 
provide direct benefits to members over non-members, should generally be later and 
higher-tier activities (perhaps limited to larger farmers, federations and cooperatives).