CoopWorks V4.0 - Computer System for Farmer Associations
CoopWorks, a member MIS for has been integrated with digital weighing scales and an electronic member cards to boost trasparency and accountability in farmer producer coops. It is an open source with no license fee requirements with integrated digital scales and electronic member cards.
Business indicators give the management of the financial picture in the society in terms of their income and expenditure. Basic accounting skills is essential and know expertise in computer skills needed. A light version is being developed for the farmer groups that are small and can not afford heavy investment in ICT but can access the system in a cyber and make printouts of the reports.
Computerization in farmer producer groups boosts confidence in members, improves the cash flow management and will lead to increased pay to members as a result of savings on overheads. Computerization has three costs namely hardware costs, software license costs and training. With CoopWorks, being an open source system, the costs are reduced to two thirds - hardware support and training.
