Organisational solutions for pre-processing and processing (Deliverable 6.4)

Many farmers, especially organic, would like to pre-process harvested crops before delivering it to their customer or to the cooperative. If they deliver raw grains, possibly polluted by weeds, the price is low and the cooperative can charge them cleaning fees. But pre-processing equipment, such as sorter or dehuller, can be expensive and difficult to amortise especially for small businesses. Furthermore, some skills are needed for the design and the installation of such machineries.These issues may lead farmers to expose themselves to significant financial investments and increased working time that need to be mitigated. Two collective organisation examples are given from the Cerr-Occ living lab (Occitania, France) 1) a mobile grain cleaning unit, for which some farmers have organised themselves to collectively buy and use a mobile grain sorting unit.2) a processing unit, including cleaning/sorting and dehulling unit and stone mill, entirely owned by a cooperative. A number of farmers have come together to form a cooperative called SCIC Graines Equitables, which focuses on the production of certified organic cereals, pulses and processing products such flour, pasta and aperitive seeds. No matter what is the collective organisation considered, it is important to be supported by specialists. The pro-ject must technically meet the expectations of the community, while remaining within investment levels that will generate added value in the medium term.The collective aspect is also very important, often requiring external leadership and the establishment of clear, shared collective rules.