Building the next generation of farmers

Supporting capacity-development of African Farmer’s Organisations through improved Policies, Technologies and Capabilities

Workshop organised by Panafrican Farmers’ Organisations (PAFO), Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and AgriCord

6-7 November 2018
Marivaux Hôtel, Boulevard Adolphe Max 98, 1000 Bruxelles

 

Context

Feeding more than 9 billion people by 2050 will require doubling food production on a sustainable basis and Africa is well placed to contribute to this. Agriculture should be resilient – able to withstand or recover from stresses and shocks. The challenge is to generate sustainable agricultural growth that produces enough food, ensures it is accessible to all, is inclusive of the most vulnerable and is resilient, and hence able to withstand the increasing multiple stresses and shocks.

In Africa, agriculture is the only sector seen as having the size and economic linkages needed to generate broadly based, poverty-reducing growth—at least over a reasonable time horizon. Moreover, because agriculture generates between 20 and 50 % of gross domestic product (GDP) in low-income African countries, faster agricultural growth will foster additional growth at the national level, including in the non-agricultural sector. Thus, assigning a more active role to agriculture in Africa’s development process is justified from a growth perspective.

Recognizing the role played by organized smallholders in the agricultural transformation of the continent is key as well as supporting farmers’ organizations initiatives to get to the next farming generation. Farmers’ organizations can contribute to employment, higher incomes and more inclusive growth. They play a crucial role for integration of smallholders in markets and value chains and to access innovation and information. To do so, they need access to information about their own members and governance and to external information (on markets, production conditions, innovations).

Empowered rural women and women entrepreneurs can be and are powerful agents of change. Greater empowerment of rural women through access to financial resources, land, inputs, equipment and new technologies, would enable the continent to deal with more force to the food and nutrition security, sustainable management of natural resources, preservation of the ecosystems and the environment. Rural women could further contribute to the success of SDGs, the eradication of hunger and poverty reduction and economic growth in Africa.

Background Note

Programme

Post-Workshop Report

PROGRAMME

Tuesday 6 November 2018

 

9h30-10h00 Introduction of participants

Overview of the PAFO/CTA/Agricord partnership : PAFO, AgriCord, CTA [presentation]

10h00-12h45 Round table : Policies, Technologies and markets: Experiences from Farmer’s Organisations

– Overview of successes on policies, markets and technologies by FOs and partnership arrangements [presentation]

11h00-11h15 Coffee break

– Development partners support to FOs in these areas
Leonard Mizzi, Head of Unit, Rural Development, Europaid, European Commission; Ank Willems, DGIS, Belgian Development Cooperation (tbc); CTA and AgriCord members

– Discussion on Way Forward

12h45-14h15 Lunch

14h15-17h15 Session 1 : Digitalisation in agriculture: Benefits for smallholders

Approaches to data use benefiting farmers

  • Overview of digitalisation tools benefiting farmers [presentation]
    Chris Addison, CTA
  • Protecting data rights for farmers [presentation]
    Valeria Pesce
  • Best approaches to farmer’s inclusion on digitalisation [presentation]
    Hannelore Beerland, AgriCord

Cases from the field

Southern Africa (SACAU)

  • Improved membership management: the cases of Lesotho & Swaziland [presentation]
    Ishmael Sunga, CEO, SACAU
    – Contribution from Niek Thijssen, Agriterra and CTA

East Africa: Selected cases on digitalisation, agribusiness and e-extension

  • Igara Tea: Digital farmer profiling and mapping [presentation]
    Hamlus Owoyesiga
  • Nucafe : Certification and traceability [presentation]
    David Muwonge
  • E-Granary: promoting e-extension services [presentation]
    Elisabeth Nsimadala
    -Contribution from Niek Thijssen, Agriterra and CTA

West Africa: Data management

  • FEPAB Mapping, Burkina Faso [presentation]
    – Contribution from Jasmien Bronckaers, Trias and CTA

Wednesday 7 November 2018

9h00-12h45 Session 2: Promoting agribusiness development and entrepreneurial skills for improved market access

Entrepreneurship is a key factor to strengthen small-scale farming in an ever-changing and increasingly complex environment. Entrepreneurship development is critical to generate more innovation in product development and product quality, increase employment and bring a new image of agriculture as a modern, dynamic and profitable sector driven by small-scale producers and MSMEs.

Central Africa: Linking cooperatives to selected markets

  • SOCOOPMAPTA: providing added-value cassava products to hotels & restaurants [presentation]
    Célestin Nga
  • CAPAD: strengthening business skills of cooperatives, Burundi [presentation]
    Annick Sezibera
    -Contribution from Ousmane Ndiaye, Asprodeb and CTA

West Africa: Agrifood sector: In addition to FEPAB and NUCAFE:

  • Tanacu (Tanzania cashew value chain), Alex Ndijike [presentation]
  • Nucofri (Niger rice value chain)

Northern Africa:

12h45-14h15 Lunch

14h15-17h00 Session 3: The way forward: learning from successes and building coalitions

– Building a coalition of partners supporting the next generation of farmers (exchanges Africa-EU)
– Developing collective learning spaces (knowledge management and exchange of information)