Sabalu Farmers Market readies for cooperative dev’t workshop

The Saipan Sabalu Farmers Market Inc., after being named the recipient of a federal grant last month, now awaits the schedule of a workshop that would familiarize them with the do’s and dont’s of the grant.

Vice president Isidoro T. Cabrera said yesterday that the SSFM, Inc., a registered non-profit corporation organized to promote and improve the agriculture industry in the CNMI, was named the recipient of a $46,560.50 technical assistance grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Insular Affairs.

The announcement was made during the CNMI U.S. Eligible Workers Job Expo organized last month by the CNMI Department of Commerce, which administers the grant locally.

“We’re just waiting for the schedule of the workshop to familiarize ourselves with the use of the technical assistance grant, to know what’s allowed and not allowed under the grant,” Cabrera told Saipan Tribune.

He said the grant will be used to hire off-island consultants who have “the necessary and proven background in cooperative development.”

These consultants, he said, will “provide training for members on the various aspects of starting up, operating, and sustaining a marketing cooperative.”

About 60 percent of the grant—$27,850—will be used to fly in and accommodate the two trainers from the California Center for Cooperative Development.

The training on Saipan, slated for April 2012, will focus primarily on the fundamentals of the cooperative model, cooperative governance and strategic planning, cooperative operating procedures, and finances.

“Additionally, training participants will be tasked to develop a cooperative development manual as one of the tangible outcomes of these trainings for use by those interested in organizing cooperatives in the future within the region,” he said.

Cabrera, who will serve as project manager and expenditure authority, wrote in their grant application that cooperatives “have a very disappointing history” in the CNMI.

“The last known cooperative to operate in the CNMI closed down in 1996 and other recent attempts to organize one have been unsuccessful,” he said. “By providing SSFM, Inc. members with the proper understanding and knowledge of marketing cooperatives, a strong foundation is established to sustain an organization that will continue to benefit its members for the foreseeable future unmatched by its predecessors.”

Cabrera said they hope to “increase the knowledge base” of their participants, about 120 individuals.

“SSFM, Inc. will work with counterparts [on] Tinian and Rota to assist with the start-up or strengthening of new or ongoing cooperatives,” he added.