The 3rd AFAAS Africa-Wide Agricultural Extension Week

30th October 2017
by secretary

Paepard

30 October – 3 November 2017. Durban, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. The 3rd AFAAS Africa-Wide Agricultural Extension Week combined with the 51st Annual Conference of the South African Society for Agricultural Extension. Event Theme: “Scaling up climate smart agriculture: integrating youth, women, and the digital revolution”.

Team of the University of Free State of SA
presenting success stories in Agric. Extension

The theme was selected by the AFAAS Board and stakeholders in recognition of the negative impact of climate change on the right to and access of productive resources (finance, land, water and assets) by the most vulnerable populations, specifically the youth and women.

In this respect, there is need to actively boost an inclusive access of information, knowledge, technologies and innovations to rural farmers in order to enhance their utilisation of productive resources for improved livelihoods.

Outputs:

Knowledge on scaling up Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) in Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services (AEAS) for multiple actors to support farmers, especially youth and women to increase and add value to their agricultural productivity, production and marketing shared;
Best fit practices on CSA for reducing vulnerability profiled and a framework developed for sharing among AEAS actors
Strong linkages of IFAD Country programs and other Development Partners’ programmes/ projects within the continental AEAS knowledge and innovation networks developed;
To follow up on operational meetings held for internal reflection and lesson learning;
Reporting from “Africa-Wide Extension Week” (AEW) proceedings generated and shared with participants.

Group photos of officials @ the launch
of the 3rd Agric extension week in Durban

Scaling up ICT innovations for CSA

In 2015, during the 2nd Extension Week held in Ethiopia, the ICT working group put ICT innovations high in AFAAS agenda.

In partnership with other international development partners like CTA, GFRAS, AGGRA, the working group organized a set of activities to enhance awareness and sensitization of AFAAS stakeholders in the use of ICT for RAS in Africa.
A dozen of young innovators were invited to present their ICT solutions during the plug and play session co-organized with CTA (www.ict4ras.org) and innovation demo sessions, web 2.0 trainings, multimedia production trainings and a video competition enriched activities of the 2nd Extension Week.
The ICT working group will link ICT innovations to Climate Smart Agriculture.

Extracts of the programme

SA best practices: Reaching the plate: Success stories of South African Agriculture in a changing climate by means of Extension, Dr. J A Van Niekerk (RSA, FAO, University of Ghent)
The South African Rural Advisory experience;50 years in retrospection and embracing the radical agrarian transformation agenda, Mr. K Moodley: President of SASAE
Integrating agricultural videos in rural extension as tools to enhance climate smart agriculture in Cameroon. Labu, N.B.; Ngouambe, N.
Introduction of biogasdigester technology as a climate change mitigation measure in small-scale farming communities of Amatole District Municipality (Easter Cape)Ndzimande, N.; Dumani, A.; Moeketsi, M.; Nape, M.
Capacity development for scaling up Climate Smart Agriculture: The Sasakawa Africa Fund

15th AFAAS Board meeting ongoing in Durban

for Extension Model of experiential learning. Naibakelao, D.; Akeredolu, M.; Oladele, O.I.
A farmer-centred Innovation Systems Approach to scale up Conservation Agriculture (CA) in South AfricaSmith, H.
Assessing the potential and farmer-based dissemination of conservation as a climate-smart option for semi-arid West AfricaDjamen, P
The New Extensionist and Professionalisation of Rural Advisory Services. Ms H Ngwenya, GFRAS.
Determinants of farmers’ adoption alternate wet and dry techniques in lowland rice production in Ghana and Uganda for climate smart agricultureOladele, O.I
Developing Agripreneurship Behaviour of Innovative Youth Farmers in Ethiopia

Teklehaimanot, A.
Performance Levels of Agri-SMMEs in Entrepreneurial Leadership: A Call for Effective TQMempowered Agricultural Extension ServicesSonandi, A.; Neuland, E.; Ladzani, W.
Presentation of Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa and its implications for Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services: Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo; Executive Director; Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)
Strengthening Extension and Rural Advisory Services Systems in Africa. Ms. N Ernst, GFRAS

Related:

29 October 2017. In countries such as India and Bangladesh with high population densities and lots of potential customers, local ICT-savvy entrepreneurs have developed popular apps to help farmers monitor real-time market prices and weather forecasts on their mobile phones.

Sousa, F., Nicolay, G. and Home, R. (2016) Information technologies as a tool for agricultural extension and farmer-to-farmer exchange: Mobile-phone video use in Mali and Burkina Faso. The International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology 12(3), 19-36.

CCARDESA booth

Fernando Soussa, a Swiss researcher, and colleagues interviewed 460 farmers in Mali and Burkina Faso about their use of mobile phones. They found that many villagers, including young women who had until recently had limited access to information services, were now using 3G mobile phones with Bluetooth to watch videos.

Videos on mobile phones help to reach illiterate farmers, so new business ventures are more likely to emerge as it gets easier to watch videos and as good farmer training videos become increasingly available. Entrepreneurs typically innovate when new products like cell phones meet old demands for information, to create new market potential. Farmers increasingly want audio-visual information, and businesses will play a role to make this happen, for example selling inexpensive smart phones and charging phones for customers off the grid.

Source: PAEPARD FEED

The 3rd AFAAS Africa-Wide Agricultural Extension Week

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