NGOs Operating at Farmer Level

This resource is a request for proposals to carry out an external audit for CCARDESA secretariat for the period of three years starting from 2017.

This is a story of Patricia Dzimbiri a Malawian who was groomed by the Agricultural Productivity Program for Southern Africa (APPSA) project through participating in farmer field trials for conservation agriculture and maize/legume intercropping systems. She has grown into a lead farmer supporting conservation farming in her district.

This article is a success story in the production of groundnut seed in Zambia. When groundnut seed production was introduced in Minga area in Petauke district, it relieved farmers of the pressure of having to rely on cotton as the only valuable cash crop.
Unit Seed Company in partnership with small-scale farmers in Minga area engaged in seed production of groundnut. The farmers were provided with groundnut basic seed by Unit Seed Company and produced certified seed, which the company buys and then sells to prospective markets

This resource is an APPSA success story of introducing high yielding rice varieties in Malawi.  As part of efforts to improve rice production and increase export volumes, the Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) introduced
three high yielding rice varieties with a yield potential of up to 6.5 T ha-1. These are Kayanjamalo (6.5 T ha-1), Katete (6.0 T ha-1) and Mpatsa (5.8 T ha-1). These varieties were released in 2014 under the Department of Agricultural Research Services (DARS) in the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development. Since the release of the varieties, APPSA has been promoting these three varieties in Nkhotakota, Salima and Zomba districts targeting smallholder rice farmers. With desirable traits such as high yields and short height, the varieties gained popularity among the farming communities and within three years the number of adopters increased by more than 80%.

This is a success story produced by the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) under APPSA. Through partnerships with the Department of Agriculture and other players, the World Bank funded Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) supported smallholder farmers with necessary information and technologies to transform
the way they grow their soybean in order to increase farm yields and income. In collaboration with the Department of Agriculture under Extension Services the project mobilised lead farmers to host demonstration plots showcasing improved soybean production technologies.

This resource is one of the APPSA success stories for Mozambique. It narrates the story of Mrs Isaltina Aly Trigo. Mrs Trigo is a smallholder farmer from Malema district in Nampula province. She has been growing soybeans for the past several years. Like many other farmers in the area, she views soybean as a crop with cash potential. The crop produces high yields, and is relatively unaffected by pests commonly found among other staple crops. Although technologies for increased soybean production and productivity, local processing and utilization options have been developed for use by farmers, Mrs Trigo and many other smallholder farmers are not aware of these technological options. This is attributed to among other reasons, inadequate popularization of these technologies. In 2013 the Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) began working with Mrs Trigo and other farmers in Nampula province in up-scaling improved soybean processing and utilization technologies so as to improve food and nutrition security as well income generation for the smallholder famers. Since working with the project, Mrs Trigo has been processing her soybeans into milk and bagias. Initially, the soybean milk was just for home consumption while the bagias were for home consumption and for sale. With time, she increased the quantities of her processed products, and started selling both products.

This presentation contains information on the institution CCARDESA and its famework. It covers:

• realities of climate change in SADC
• CCARDESA mandate and ICKM actions
• the ACCRA project and the ICKM component
• the SAAIKS platform (conception and development)
• Lessons learnt
• Way forward

The present study on the “Use of ICT for Agriculture in GIZ projects – Status quo, opportunities and challenges” is meant to be a practical guideline for projects and planning officers alike. It is based on an analysis of past, current and planned ICT4Ag experiences in GIZ, with special focus on extension, training and agricultural value chain development, and enriched with experiences and lessons learned by other developing organizations.

The objective of the study was to provide a general overview on the development, risks and potentials of ICT4Ag, to do a stock taking and compile a list of ongoing GIZ projects with ICT4Ag experience, to gain more insight in the current application and use of ICT solutions in GIZ agriculture programs and projects, to collect the available results and learnings ‘from the field’, and to match these with global lessons on ICT4D and ICT4Ag.

Agricultural biodiversity (or agrobiodiversity) includes all components of biological diversity of relevance to food and agriculture, and all components of biological diversity that constitute the agricultural ecosystems. The main challenge for the agricultural sector is to simultaneously secure enough high-quality agricultural production for global food and nutrition security, conserve biodiversity and manage natural resources, as well as improve human health and wellbeing, especially for poor people in developing countries.

This sample of factsheets covers the following topics:

Factsheet 1: Understanding agrobiodiversity

Factsheet 2: Agrobiodiversity - plant genetic resources

Factsheet 3: Agrobiodiversity – animal genetic resources

Factsheet 4: International agreements on agrobiodiversity

Factsheet 5: Incentives for agrobiodiversity conservation

Factsheet 6: Adding value to agrobiodiversity

Factsheet 7: Agrobiodiversity for survival

Le manuel cible les acteurs de l’IP, notamment les services techniques, projets et programmes, qui peuvent s’inspirer éventuellement des pratiques utilisées par d’autres intervenants. Il sert d’orientation aux nouveaux acteurs leur permettant d’identifier les pratiques utilisées avec succès. Ce manuel devra aussi orienter les services de l’État et les PTF dans la conception de nouveaux projets et programmes. Finalement, le manuel des bonnes pratiques permettra aux acteurs du Mali de partager leur savoir-faire avec les autres pays à l’intérieur et au-delà de la sous-région.