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NGP Support for Producer Alliances
2007-11-04
A significant activity that has emerged within the Region in recent years is the formation of producer alliances. Farm cooperatives and producer alliances are generally aligned with value-added agriculture and with the development of new markets. Producer alliances contrast from cooperatives in that they are more strongly focused on the development of new markets that bring higher return to the producer. This is not to say that producer alliances would not own processing facilities. They do and will. However, their primary focus is on the market.
Development of a system to position small and medium-sized agricultural producers to supply new and changing markets is a tremendous mind shift that needs to occur from the current commodity-production mindset. In addition, because several producer alliances have already begun to develop in many states and because long-term success of the individual alliances is dependent upon their ability to work together, it is vitally important to have a multi-state approach to the project. It is also essential that the Region’s universities be a part of these efforts because producer response to new and changing markets will be tied to their ability to make changes in production practices, work with new crops, and access a broad base of information.
The Northern Great Plains Inc. is providing leadership to several of these efforts. In Minnesota, NGP has provided support for the now independent FarmConnect alliance. NGP has also participated in informational meetings in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Iowa. It has also established targeted sector task forces that are providing critical support to various producer alliances in the Region.
