Videos on extension and advisory services

Langue Anglais

By Zainab Joaque

Director of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has warned that global food production must increase at least by 70 per cent or some 30 million people in the world, who need emergency food aid in the horn of Africa, would suffer.
Mr. Michael Hailu last week expressed these concerns at the International Conference on Innovations in Extension and Advisory Services, in Nairobi, Kenya and observed that such unfortunate developments have resultedin violent conflict in that part of the world.
He added: “Endemic poverty and soaring food prices makes it worse. We are expecting seven billion people by 2050 and faced with such a population growth, global food production must increase.”
Mr. Hailu noted that seventy-five percent of the world’s poor lives in rural areas and most of them depend on agriculture for their livelihood, adding that any effort to fight poverty would have to start with agriculture.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) food security means that all people at all times have physical, social, economic access to safe and nutritious food that meet their lively needs.
Meanwhile, studies, he said, have shown that agriculture growth reduces poverty by twice the rate of growth in other sectors.Small holder farmers, particularly womenproduce the bulk of food in developing countries often under difficult circumstances.
The CTA Director urged government and donors to redouble their efforts to boost production for small holder farmers if they must reverse the persistent food insecurity in the world.
“Global food prices remain high and volatile with disastrous consequences for many people.In a recent report the World Bank says food price index remains at 90% higher than that of September 2011.As you can see it is not going down,” he told the conference.
The gathering, which summoned journalists and policy makers across the continent to discuss agriculture and food security on the continent, also discussed the need of tackling issues of climate change that threaten livelihoods of productivity. The confab found out that for millions of farmers, especially in Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific, changing weather patterns are likely to reduce produce.
Mr. Hailu said: “The frequency of extreme weather events, floods, drought is increasing as a result of climate change and the consequence is already proving disastrous for many countries.The recent threat in Thailand reminds us of this challenge”.
Meanwhile another major challenge,Mr. Hailu highlighted,was rural unemployment, wherein young people desert the countryside and leave for the city in search of work. He urged government officials to see the need in finding ways of creating better jobs in agriculture and rural enterprise.
“We need to make the countryside more attractive for young people and provide better educational opportunity and infrastructure,” he suggested.
However, the session found out that extension and rural advisory services have a key role to play in tackling all these challenges but task would be to promote agricultural practices that increase productivity.
The director with vast knowledge in in contemporary agric researches called on governments and donors to recognize the fact that agricultural growth requires significant increase in investment.
According to him extension systems in many countries have moved from a centrally controlled top model to where many different organizations were providing knowledge and advise to farmers. To this, reforms of extension services have been aimed at making them pluralistic, demand driven, and cost efficient and sustainable.
He concluded by saying that:“The successes and impacts of these changes have to be documented.This conference serves as an excellent opportunity for us to reflect on the lessons learnt from a wide range of experiences in many different countries.We also will be assessing the significant role information technology plays in supporting extension and advisory services. ICTs such as mobile phones are helping farmers increase production, find a market for their produce and gainaccess to knowledge and technology.”
The conference attracted about 400 participants from 75 countries across the world, which includes extension practitioners from public, private and civil society organizations including representatives of farmers’ organizations and commodity associations, policy makers, the research and development community, academia, processors, traders, donors, financial institutions and the media. These people will be discussing over four days on how extension and advisory services can be revitalized and redesigned so that they can better serve small holder farmers to contribute to fight against poverty. The thematic issues are Policy, capacity Development, Tools and Approaches and Learning networks. The conference ended last Friday 18th November 2011.

By Brenda Zulu

Agriculture is the engine that drives economic and social development in Kenya. Indeed the functions in the Kenyan GDP are closely and positively correlated with the fortunes of the agricultural sector, through its control on production, storage, value addition distribution and marketing.

In panel discussion on how Kenya responded to the food crisis in linking knowledge to policy and action, Dr Fred Wangati, Chairman Research and Extension Thematic Working Group in Kenya said that the agricultural sector was spread over 10 government ministries, a myriad of government parastals, and even larger array of private sector enterprises to align the agricultural sector enterprises and NGOs.

Dr Wangati observed that the processes of Review and adjustment of policies to align the agricultural sector to the changing economic and social needs of the rapidly growing population, and opportunities in the regional and global trade presented by climate change have proved difficult and time consuming.

He explained that as a result it has been difficult to deal in a timely manner with challenges of inadequate and inappropriate utilization of the limited natural resources, use of available technologies at farm level, inefficient managements and utilization of raw agricultural products, alternating situations of gluts with attendant post harvest losses and shortages leading to severe malnourishment and food crisis.

He also said that it was virtually impossible and possibly inefficient to put all the components of the agricultural sector in one omnibus institution, Kenya decided to establish a national mechanism for collaborative discussions and formulation of several sectoral policies and their implementation strategies.

The Agricultural Sector Coordination Unit (ASCU) was thus created in 2005 as part of the national strategy for revitalization of agriculture.

Dr Wangati said the ASCU was charged with the responsibility of identifying the critical gaps in sectoral policies, development of appropriate policy instruments, development of implementation strategies including capacity building and development of a sector wide programme of monitoring and evaluation of the outcome and effectiveness of such policies.

Achievements of the ASCU include the development and launching of a national Agricultural sector development strategy and the Kenyan Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Compact. These policy instruments have the overall goal of creating an innovative, commercially oriented, competitive and modern agricultural sector.

“Collaboration between the private and public sector was recognized as major requirement in the achievement of this goal,” said Dr Wangati.

He said the development of a National Agricultural Sector Extension Policy (NASEP) and strategy for its implementation key objective was to promote pluralism in extension service delivery, privatization and commercialization or extension services, decentralization of services and empowering of extension clientele, stakeholder collaboration and networking, regulation of extension providers to ensure quality and accountability,institutional and human resource development, technology development, packaging and dissemination and finance of extension services.

He also added that there was also the development of a National Agricultural Research System for policy guidance and coordination of all agricultural research activities in the country. Dr Wangati explained that the main objective of that policy was to ensure coordinated approach in formulation of nationalization of research agenda, research planning and priority setting systems, human resources development and utilization development of infrastructure and facilities.

This includes the development and management of sustainability funding system, establishment of an integrated information, communication and knowledge management systems, monitoring, evaluation quality control and impact assessment, dissemination and technology deployment and partnership and collaboration.

He also added that the there was also the development of a framework for harmonization of laws, regulation and institutions responsible for the factors of agricultural production, storage, value addition and marketing.

By Brenda Zulu

In the mid-2011 a food emergency unfolded in the horn of Africa. Millions of people in East Africa faced a food crisis caused by severe drought, food prices spikes, and conflict, and exacerbated by the vulnerability of people across the region.

Dr Ephraim Mukisira Director of Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) explained that addressing the problem of hunger requires information about where and why hunger was occurring. He said this when discussing the role his organisation played in developing Kenya’s agricultural sector and more specifically, mechanisms for reducing or minimizing the negative advisory services impacts of repeated droughts and food crisis and their perspectives on the role of extension.

“This information is required by policy makers and national and international agencies in order to take steps to ensure that people have access to sufficient and nutritious food,” said Dr Mukisira.

He said the broader task was to take action to address the root causes of hunger and to reduce poor people's vulnerability to shocks such as drought and food price spikes in the short, medium term, and long term.

Contribution towards food security

Dr Mukisira said overarching issues on stabilizing households include: financial, nutritional and food securities.

“Kari has what it takes to contribute to these aspects at household levels, particularly in the rural areas where a majority of the poor are,” he said.

He explained that according to the prevailing commodity demand figures, the demand for maize, wheat, rice, millets and pulses has outstripped the supply significantly.

“There is some level of sufficiency in cassava, potatoes and sorghum. There are also adequate quantities of meat and milk since Kenya exports these commodities to other countries. It has a very competitive smallholder dairy sector that has improved greatly the livelihood of many farmers in the country,” explained Dr Mukisira.

He observed that Food shortage in Kenya was synonymous with maize shortage and that this has to change since there are a number of commodities that can be utilised such as grain legumes cereals, root and tuber crops. He called on the need to diversify food consumption habits and thereby, prompt research and production in crops and livestock.

KARI is thus making greater efforts in diversification thus making greater efforts in diversification of crop enterprises (drought tolerant crops such as sorghum, millets, cassava, sweet potato). Besides they have released upland varieties of rice (the nericas), developed new varieties of wheat to contain the wheat stem rust, and they have continued to releases new high producing varieties for many other commodities.

With other partners, KARI is pursuing an open regional cross border market policy to tap on the regional diversity in food types, supply and varying seasons. Asareca, through its mandate and coordination of research bodies in the region, has assisted greatly towards this.

Dr Mukisira said there was need to embrace market oriented production whereby products are targeted for niche markets and surplus food sold for incomes.

“There is a need to play the advocacy role on the need for government to improve the rural infrastructure such as roads, post-harvest processing capacities, rural markets and ICT. This would allow for easy of transporting commodities from one county to another and increase the shelf life of perishable commodities. Currently there is wastage of about 40% in the current food systems,” explained Dr Mukisira.

Strategies applied to address the food security situation

These include the promotion, production and consumption of high value traditional crops, and livestock produce and products.

“Kenya should borrow a lot from Nigeria and several West African countries where yams and cassava have increasingly been used in different food recipes. The institute, on its own, has started processing and parking gari on one of its centre’s,” said Dr Mukisira.

He added that several food security programmes were being implemented through several programmes such as pro-poor, urban harvest, agro-food systems, promotion of high value traditional crops, and the agricultural productivity programmes implemented in Kenya and the region.

He called on more programmes of this nature to be launched to realise a country coverage.

These include special programmes on post harvest and agro processing, promotion of partnerships with the private sector and other key partners, developing crop and livestock suitability maps, promotion of integrated crop-livestock systems in an effort to optimise productivity at farm level, enhancing capacity to address critical NRM and climate change issues and continue to participate in the formulation and advocacy of policies that could transform the rural and urban space for improved food availability at a cost the consumer can afford.

To effectively discharge their mandate, KARI is operating an annual budget of $40m US dollars as opposed to $70 m US dollars.

“Many research institutions, particularly in sub-Sahara Africa, do not receive even a quarter of their budget needs. This is appalling and their needs to be a concerted effort to reverse this trend,” said Dr Mukisira.

KARI is mandated to undertake research in almost 50 + commodities, assist in catalysing the technological transfer and therefore contribute to the increased adoption of agricultural technologies. The technologies being developed are varied from crops, livestock, NRM etc; they are quite inclusive.

The institute envisions a vibrant commercially oriented agricultural sector propelled by science, technology and innovations. To achieve this, the institute generates knowledge, information and technologies that respond to clients' demand and opportunities.

The five institutional results levels include the development demand driven technologies, development of market and market strategies, facilitating and advocating for appropriate policies for increased productivity, and capacity building along the APVC.

Over the years, Kari has contributed significantly to the agricultural sector in Kenya and the region. Its products of research have been shared with the countries in the ECA and COMESA regions.

Vous êtes lauréat de L’Afrique de l’Ouest quelles sont vos impressions ?
Je suis heureux d’être là à Nairobi. Je suis le gagnant de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, donc c’est un honneur fait à mon journal Sidwaya et à mon pays, le Burkina Faso.

Je devais sur place compétir pour les trois premiers places mais cela n’a pas marché. Je me plaint pas beaucoup vu les conditions dans lequel on a voyagé : une journée et demi de retard sur la conférence.

L’article primé est intitulé « lutte contre la désertification au Sahel : Yacouba le fou qui arrête le désert ». Je suis heureux de savoir que la valeur de ce reportage ait été reconnue par une structure internationale comme le CTA et ses multiples partenaires dans cette conférence.

Comme je l’ai toujours dit, le journaliste est investi d’un mandat social et ça fait toujours plaisir de savoir qu’on l’exécute bon an mal an. Je voudrai avec votre permission remercier mes collègues et les responsables des Editions Sidwaya qui m’ont toujours soutenu dans mes dossiers de reportage en m’orientant et en mettant les moyens à ma disposition. Un article journalistique est un produit d’équipe et je voudrais partager ce prix avec tous les agents du « Journal de tous les burkinabè ».

Permettez moi également de saluer les initiateurs du projet Science journalisme cooperation (SJCOOP) avec lequel, je suis une formation en journalisme scientifique de trois ans.

Je dédie ce pris à mes parents au sens strict et au sens africain du terme et au vieux Yacouba Sawadogo qui a devancé les scientifiques les politiques, les chercheurs en matière de préservation de l’environnement. Je souhaite que cette initiative de Yacouba Sawadogo ait une reconnaissance mondiale et qu’il ait plusieurs « Yacoubas ».

Depuis quand intéressez vous aux questions agricoles ?

J’écris sur tous les sujets. Cependant je suis beaucoup plus dans les questions de santé et de population. J’ai commencé à m’ intéressé aux questions agricoles et du monde rural de façon générale ça ne dépasse pas un an. Et cela parce que j’ai compris qu’on ne peut pas travailler dans le domaine de la santé sans écrire sur les questions environnementales, agricoles, etc. Car le premier médicament de l’homme est la nourriture. Aussi je suis un programme de formation en journalisme scientifique du projet SCOOP (science coopération) qui veut que je m’intéresse à tous les sujets dans lesquels ont peut parler de recherche scientifique.

Par Boureima SANGA

Certains vers peuvent donner de l’argent à l’homme. Les enveloppes abritant une phase immobile de la vie de ceux-ci, appelées cocons sont utilisés au Kenya pour fabriquer la soie. « African insect science for food and health (icipe) », appuie les paysans à la domestication de ces invertébrés afin de contribuer au développement local.

Une sortie de terrain de la conférence internationale « Innovation dans les services de vulgarisation et de conseil », organisé par le CTA du 15 au 18 novembre 2011 convainc plus d’un de la nécessité de vulgariser cette pratique.

Mme Jael A. Lumba est une employée à “African insect science for food and health” (icipe). Elle est fileuse de fibre de cocon dans cette structure, depuis 15 ans. Le jour de « la journée de la science icipe », Mme Lumba était assise sous une tente d’exposition. Son travail consiste d’abord à séparer la partie filable de celle de la coque. Ensuite à l’aide de sa tisseuse mécanique, elle produit des filaments sous forme de rouleau destiné à la fabrication de foulards, d’écharpes, etc. à base de la soie. Elle travaille sur les cocons domestiques.

Agée de 39 ans, ce métier lui permet d’assurer sa pitance quotidienne et payer les frais de scolarité de ses trois enfants. « On peut vivre mieux avec mon métier », indique-t-elle fièrement tout en refusant de dire combien elle gagne par mois. Comme cette mère, beaucoup d’autres personnes, surtout en milieu rural, tirent leurs revenus de l’élevage et la commercialisation des cocons construit par des vers.

Il existe deux types de cocon : sauvage et domestique. Le deuxième est mis en place par le département des Programme insectes commerciaux de l’icipe à Nairobi. Dans ce programme, tout insecte qui peut procurer de revenu à l’Homme est valorisés. Selon l’étudiant en année de doctorat (agriculture-entomologie), Kiatoko Nkoba, le cocon domestique utilisé est « Mauris monbix ».

L’icipe produit les souches de cette espèce et les livre aux fermiers pour incubation et élevage. Mais au préalable, les paysans reçoivent des formations sur la technique d’élevage, de protection et de récolte.

Ensuite, il les aide à former des associations et plusieurs groupements associés, possèdent une unité de transformation. L’équipement et les moyens sont fournis par icipe. « L’appui consiste à construire une maison d’élevage avec les kits nécessaires pour élever leurs vers jusqu’à l’obtention de cocons », précise le jeune doctorant.

Les cocons produits sont vendus à l’unité de transformation implantée par icipe. Le kilo de cocon coûte 2 dollars prix champs. A la fin de l’année chaque groupe en plus de ses ventes individuelles reçoit de l’unité de transformation une dividende. Une manière de les motiver et de les impliquer dans le processus de production et de transformation.

Cette activité, à en croire, M Nkoba, crée de la richesse en milieu rural. Car une activité de création de revenus participe en milieu rural à l’amélioration du bien-être familial.

A côté de la domestication des cocons, d’autres producteurs gagnent des subsides à partir des cocons sauvages. Là aussi, ils sont appuyés par icipe qui les conseille et les suit. Les espèces concernées par cette pratique sont Aguema, Gonemeta et anependa. Le rôle de l’institut de recherche est l’appui-conseil.

On apprend aux fermiers comment conserver les cocons sauvages des parasites nuisibles. L’une des méthodes est de couvrir la branche sur laquelle se trouve le cocon d’un filet de moustiquaire afin de les préserver contre les parasites.

Transformation et production de la soie

Le cocon domestique est séché afin de tuer le ver qui s’y trouve. Il est ensuite bouilli pendant 15 à 30 mn. Après, il passe à la machine à filer pour être transformé en filaments. Un cocon produit un filament continu dans une bobine. Contenant toujours des matières organiques, il sera dégraissé par un système de rembobinage. Enfin, des bobines passent au tissage avec des machines manuelle et électronique. Ultérieurement on l’imprime avec des colorants et en fonction des motifs.

Cette procédure est plus longue que celle utilisée pour les cocons sauvages. Ceux-ci sont utilisées après l’éclosion du ver devenu papillon. Ils sont ramollis par la cuisson pendant 15 à 30 mn et passé à l’étape de filature à l’aide d’une machine manuelle.
Dans ce cas de figure, le producteur protège les espèces et la biodiversité.

La production des cocons a pris de l’ampleur et gagne plusieurs régions du Kenya. Que ce soit des cocons domestiques ou sauvages, icipe a su mettre des idées novatrices qui créent des nouvelles opportunités pour le monde rural et beaucoup d’autres pays africains gagneraient à emboiter le pas du pays de Jomo Kenyatta.

Boureima SANGA

La présidente de l'organisation nationale pour l'enfant, la femme et la famille (Onef), Mme Rachel Gogoua, a pris part à la conférence internationale sur l’innovation dans la vulgarisation et le conseil agricole, qui s’est tenu du 15 au 18 novembre à Nairobi (Kenya). Au coté des 500 délégués venus de 75 pays, elle était là, pour défendre la cause des femmes rurales.

Convaincu que les femmes rurales sont les principales actrices du développement agricole, notamment dans son pays, la Côte d’Ivoire, depuis des dizaines d’années, Mme Gogoua se bat au coté d’elles pour le respect de leur droit et leur développement.

Depuis 2009, avec l'appui financier du Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (Cta), son ONG a crée dans 4 localités de la Côte d’ivoire des centres villageois d'information et de communication (Cvic) pour l'encadrement des femmes rurales. Ces centres visent à fournir un ensemble d'informations et techniques agricoles pour une meilleure rentabilité de leurs productions agricole. Le projet touche plus de 200 groupements de femmes qu'a mis sur pied l'organisation.

Lors d’un entretien, qu’elle a accordé au bloggeur de la conférence, elle interpelle sur la nécessité d’adapter la formation et le conseil agricole aux besoins de ses femmes rurales. « Avec des femmes rurales qui sont à plus de 71% analphabète, la vulgarisation est possible à condition que les supports utilisés pour transmettre les connaissances soient adaptés» a-t-elle plaidé.

Pour lever les contraintes, des barrières de langues qui ne permettent pas aux femmes rurales d’accéder aux multiples connaissances consigné dans les livres, Mme Gouagou propose l’utilisation de la vidéo. Selon elle, les femmes ont besoin de visualiser les possibilités et les résultats pour changer leur mode de travail. « Avec des vidéos des champs école, les femmes peuvent voir concrètement comment les choses se passent. Sinon quand t’- elles ne voient pas du concret c’est difficile. » a-t-elle renchérit.

Pour relever ce défi, a-t’-elle ajouté, il faut associer étroitement les ONG, les radios rurales, les enseignants. Pour elle, les bulletins d’informations produites pourraient être utilisés par les enseignants pour susciter le débat sur l’agriculture avec les jeunes. Toute chose qui pourrait améliorer les pratiques agricoles pense t-elle.

Mais, «pour bâtir un programme de vulgarisation et de conseil à succès, le plus importante c’est de partir des besoins des populations surtout des femmes rurales » a déclaré cette porte-parole des agricultrices.