Step 4. Helping Local Leaders to Call Community Meetings.
VEWs can help enthusiastic local leaders to call for community meetings. Sometimes more than one meeting may be needed to discuss the need for and the role of FOs in agricultural development. FO leaders from neighboring villages can be invited to speak at these meetings. Farmer-to-farmer information exchange helps them. Sometimes smaller meetings can be held for low-resource (small and marginal) farmers and minority groups. They may prefer having a separate FO to serve their specific needs. There is no harm in having more than one FO in a village.
It is important that producers from all sectors in the village participate in these meetings because the success of an enterprise-based FO depends on the volume of raw material procured from member producers. Every small or big producer contributes to this volume. The volume itself is more important than the socioeconomic status of the supplier.
Prospective members need to be convinced that everyone benefits in proportion to his or her contributions, not just the big farmers, as is widely perceived.