New Delhi – Heifer International Asia, in partnership with the International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP), has launched a regional awareness initiative titled “Seeding Strength: Empowering Farmer Cooperatives”. The campaign aims to strengthen smallholder farmer cooperatives across India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Nepal, driving their capacity to address rural poverty and food insecurity through inclusive and sustainable agricultural practices.

The launch event, held in New Delhi, brought together over 170 participants including development sector leaders, farmer organizations, academics, and policy advocates. It focused on advancing the role of agricultural cooperatives as critical agents of change aligned with the United Nations’ upcoming observance of the International Year of Cooperatives in 2025.

Dr. Neena Joshi, Senior Vice President of Heifer Asia, highlighted the transformative power of cooperative models in building local resilience. She emphasized that cooperative-driven systems offer smallholder farmers enhanced market access, collective bargaining power, and stronger negotiation capacity in agricultural value chains.

Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer, Executive Director of ICA-AP, stressed the importance of viewing cooperatives through a “triple bottom line” lens—delivering social, environmental, and economic value. He also pointed out the significant contributions cooperatives can make toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Mr. Aziz Arya, representing the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), called for greater investments in cooperative models, noting their role in achieving zero hunger and ending poverty through community-led systems that prioritize equity and sustainability.

During the launch, participants also heard from regional cooperative leaders such as Tulsi Thapa of SEWA Nepal, who shared on-the-ground insights from women-led farming cooperatives that are transforming rural economies through shared ownership, knowledge exchange, and enterprise development.

The “Seeding Strength” campaign will run through September 2025, using storytelling, field-based success cases, expert webinars, and cross-country dialogue sessions to build momentum. It will also feature the hashtag #SeedingStrength as a unifying platform to amplify the voices of farmers and cooperative champions across South Asia.

Source: PrNewswire