Asociatividad como estrategia para el crecimiento de las empresas productoras de leche en Colombia

The Colombian dairy sector suffers the consequences of State neglect; more than 400,000 rural families and small family units deriving their livelihood from the milk are threatened by free trade agreements and the smuggling of the product and its derivatives. This forces to design public policies to promote associativity and household entrepreneurship as a protection mechanism, with impact on issues such as the formation and management of existing institutions, the promotion of new partnerships, technology promotion and preferential credit quotas that guarantee competition and sustainability over time. For this reason, this article brings the results of the research that led to the book: “Associativity: strategy for national development - policy proposal for the dairy sector in Colombia”. It involved visits, semi-structured interviews, and analysis from secondary sources in two areas of the country, as well as the implementation of social mapping in order to formulate actions in short and medium term for the sector.