1 min
Over the last years, knowledge gap has been a recurrent issue within the agriculture sector, where farmers lack the requisite knowledge to achieve productivity.
Therefore, different development partners had consistently introduced the component of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) in most interventions, sensitizing millions of farmers to gaining knowledge of best practices before, during and after production of food. Sadly, this knowledge has largely not translated into increased productivity at the farm level, which is very concerning.
Building the capacity of smallholder farmers is beyond disseminating just GAPs information to increase their head knowledge. There is a need to take them by the hand to show them how it can be done, providing solutions to the barriers faced in order for the farmers to achieve increased productivity. For instance, one of the good agricultural practices is the adoption of improved seeds during production. However, farmers are constantly faced with high costs of improved seeds, access (where to buy these seeds) and prevalence of misleading seed labeling. For farmers who have been trained and are willing to practice it, these bottlenecks become a barrier that could either discourage or frustrate them to continuously use improved seeds. Even with the right knowledge of GAPs and a positive attitude towards the information received, these bottlenecks are strong enough to prevent the adoption of these practices.
Therefore, we need to put measures and systems in place to help farmers translate what knowledge they have received into practical skills that reflects in increased productivity and food security. The systems and measures must be able to address these barriers; removing the bottlenecks and providing feedback to the farmers. This could be in the form of extension services to the farmers where monitoring is assured, and the flows of feedforward and feedback are effective.
It is important to incentivize the system to ensure that training on GAPs have actual impact on the farmers beyond just head knowledge. We cannot continue to have millions of farmers with the head knowledge of increasing productivity and still have millions of hungry people who cannot access enough food. Therefore, stakeholders supporting the farmers must go beyond transferring knowledge to bridging the gaps between knowledge and practical skills that translate to high productivity. We need the knowledge, we need the skills and we need to use them to achieve food security.
Yours -in-Service
Babatunde
Building the capacity of smallholder farmers is beyond disseminating just GAPs information to increase their head knowledge. There is a need to take them by the hand to show them how it can be done, providing solutions to the barriers faced in order for the farmers to achieve increased productivity. For instance, one of the good agricultural practices is the adoption of improved seeds during production. However, farmers are constantly faced with high costs of improved seeds, access (where to buy these seeds) and prevalence of misleading seed labeling. For farmers who have been trained and are willing to practice it, these bottlenecks become a barrier that could either discourage or frustrate them to continuously use improved seeds. Even with the right knowledge of GAPs and a positive attitude towards the information received, these bottlenecks are strong enough to prevent the adoption of these practices.
Therefore, we need to put measures and systems in place to help farmers translate what knowledge they have received into practical skills that reflects in increased productivity and food security. The systems and measures must be able to address these barriers; removing the bottlenecks and providing feedback to the farmers. This could be in the form of extension services to the farmers where monitoring is assured, and the flows of feedforward and feedback are effective.
It is important to incentivize the system to ensure that training on GAPs have actual impact on the farmers beyond just head knowledge. We cannot continue to have millions of farmers with the head knowledge of increasing productivity and still have millions of hungry people who cannot access enough food. Therefore, stakeholders supporting the farmers must go beyond transferring knowledge to bridging the gaps between knowledge and practical skills that translate to high productivity. We need the knowledge, we need the skills and we need to use them to achieve food security.
Yours -in-Service
Babatunde
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Frans de Jong You can identify the genuine agripreneurs by assessing their track records or social media records. Also, verifying them through local partners. For instance, if you need to verify any agricultural organizations, you can always reach out. For designing and implementation, you need to work with those who are constantly in touch with the farmers (You can track their records. Also, I realize that projects that succeed more (or that create more impacts in the lives of the farmers) are more flexible and have the ability to adjust based on new realities. But most projects funded by donors are very rigid.
Absolutely true Babatunde, public and ngo funded initiatives also come with significant disadvantages; in many cases programs are not directed by the needs of local agri entrepreneurs but by the purpose and the ideas of the program initiator. The mechanisms that appear to be involved often trigger undesired continued dependence on international public and ngo funding and the interest to really create better operational and financial performance performance in the business of local farmers looks often subordinated to the interest of the fund receivers to continue the international fund flow. We are very much in favor of working with real entrepreneurs with initiating and execution power, who see knowledge transfer as an helpful addition to their own entrepreneurial skills. My real issue is how to identify the ones locally responsible for designing and implementing the required changes that you so rightfully describe in your contribution.
Frans de Jong Thank you for your comment. I still have reservations about donor funds being managed by NGOs or charity organizations. Most times, their interests are more important than the sustainability of their projects. This is because the more the problems persist, the better the opportunity for additional funding. This is just my personal opinion based on my experience involving in some of these projects.
Thank you Babatunde, off course you are right saying: “Therefore, we need to put measures and systems in place to help farmers translate what knowledge they have received into practical skills that reflects in increased productivity and food security.”
But in every country and system one should look at how it is designed, who is responsible for what and the funding allocation mechanisms to execute those responsibilities. There are a lot of uncoordinated initiatives of well meaning institutions and NGO’s funded with public money or charity funding but they often lack long term ownership and a sustainable business case for the period after project completion