Improving Institutional Capacity:
Strengthening Farmer Organizations in the OIC Member Countries
102
3. Has the Government announced any recent policy initiatives explicitly designed to
encourage farmer organizations?
Group Country Y/N Source Comments
Arab Countries (cont’d)
Egypt 
Yes. The new, 2014 constitution prohibits the dissolution of
cooperatives or their boards, except by virtue of a court
judgment. It also sets the representation of small farmers
among the board of directors at a minumum of 80% for
agricultural cooperatives. The Higher Institute for
Agricultural Cooperation was created to train professionals
in the agri-food sector. Prior to this, in 2011 when the
regime changed, the government issued a decree officially
recognizing a national organization that had long been
banned by the previous regime: The Union of Egyptian
Peasants.
Oman 
Yes, although co-operatives don't yet have legal standing in
Oman. However, there are other forms of farmer
organizations that are encouraged and empowered by the
country's ministry of agriculture and fisheries. Such
structures include the "Jamyat Tacharoukiyya" and
"Jamyyat Ahlyya" which translate to participatory
associations and family associations respectively. The
government has been committed to helping these
organizations prosper through several initiatives that
targeted these main points: (1) Sustainable access to water
(2) Access to capital and machinery (3) Protection against
natural disasters, as Oman has witnessed a number of
violent hurricanes in the past decade that caused a lot of
damage to farmers.
Palestine 
Yes. Because the cooperative model has always been seen in
Palestine as a means of survival in all sectors including
agricultural production, any form of authority that was
ever established in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip has
strived to empower cooperatives in general and FOs in
particular. One of these policies was actually the new
cooperatives law that was adopted and promoted in 2009
by the PNA, which emphasized making regulations as loose
as possible for cooperatives to be easily created.
Qatar 
Yes. The ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture is the
body that supervises the sector of agriculture in Qatar. This
body has been involved in many initiatives that aimed at the
promotion of agriculture as an important driver of the
Qatari economy. Some of these initiatives target FOs,
although these organizations are somewhat different in
Qatar given the fact that many of them don't have more
than 2 or 3 farmers and cannot really be called co-
operatives from a legal point of view. The government's
main efforts have been geared towards offering local
farmers the assistance needed in terms of technology and
capital to overcome Qatar's natural and environmental
limitations that form natural obstacles to the development
of agricultural activities in the country. Furthermore,
another interesting things about Qatar is that the
government's excess of capital has enabled it to invest not
only in local FOs but in other agricultural co-operatives all
over the MENA Region especially in countries where capital
is needed the most such as Tunisia and Morocco.
Saudi Arabia 
Yes. The government of Saudi Arabi has announced several
policies aimed at the empowerment of FOs in the kingdom.
The biggest of these policies remains the "Future Plan for
Agriculture" initiative that was drafted in 2004 with the
help of the FAO. This initiative aims to encourage a new
dynamic in the work of agricultural associations and co-
operatives in order to maximize the benefits local farmers