The goal of the project is to contribute to the reduction of rural poverty in Armenia through strengthened capacity of FAA member small farmers and their farmer organizations to engage in the market and other institutions having impact on rural development. The proposed activities through this project mainly focus on exploring linking FAA member FOs to markets through a variety of instruments. The activities and the support to FAA member FOs in Armenia, will be to strengthen their access to markets, empower their members and build networks This project is complementary to project 5625 "Enhancing the Policy and Business Development Capacity of the FAA and its Member FOs", the Agriterra/Agricord funded part.

FAA-ULE was established in 2001. Till now, surprisingly the farmers are mistakenly mixing the agricultural coops with kolkhoz and sovkhoz system, which applies that there is a mentality issue and lack of understanding of the general cooperative principles. Following to the early stage cooperative movement, a group of newly established agricultural associations decided to create their umbrella organization which later would assist them to solve their common legal, managerial, technical, financial and social problems: the Federation of Agricultural Associations (FAA) was established in 2001 and currently is functioning as an umbrella organization of 18 Farmers’ Organisations (FOs) covering more than 1,000 farmers. The farmers’ organisation represents the Federation at local or regional level. The main activities of FAA are: 1) to represent the interests of its members and to protect their rights when dealing with other organizations including judicial bodies and government organisations, 2) to provide training and consulting sessions for its member organisations and their farmers, 3) to establish centralized systems of data collection and analyses, consulting, and provision of legal services, 4) financing and investment services, supply of inputs and equipment for agricultural production, and product marketing, 5) to contribute to the development and utilisation of new technologies and innovations in agriculture. FAA-ULE is a member of IFAP since 2006. Collaboration with Agriterra started in 2008, after FFA-ULE had applied for support to IFAP-DCC and a prospection mission had been carried out by a LTO-consultant.

The idea of proposed project is to enhance capacity of FAA member farmers’ organizations in terms of 1) business management of cooperatives and other revenue-generating activities, 2) use of information and communication technology and 3) strenghthening FO’s representation capacity and analysis of organizational strengths and weaknesses.