Category: Agriculture

The Farmer Field School (FFS), established by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to improve farmers’ knowledge and skills through hands-on-field-based learning, is 30 years old. Experts say the school has boosted food production, writes DANIEL ESSIET.

Established 30 years ago by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Farmers Field School (FFS) is a group-based adult learning approach, which teaches farmers how to experiment and solve problems.

Also called “schools without walls”, its groups meet regularly with a facilitator to observe, talk, ask questions and learn. The approach requires a group of about 30 farmers, who meet on  a farm where they make field  observations,  relate  them to  the  ecosystem and apply their experience and any new information to make a crop or livestock  management  decision  with  the  guidance  of  a  facilitator.

The Sustainable Tree Crop  Programme  (STCP), run by International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA),  has  pioneered  the FFS  on  cocoa  integrated crop and pest management in Cote d‘Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and  Cameroun  since  2003.

Funded by the United States  Agency  for  International  Development  (USAID), over 125,000 farmers have benefited  from the programme,  which has increased productivity.

Under FFS, cocoa yields were on the average, about 40 per cent  higher, requiring about 20 per cent less pesticides.

According to experts, the FFS has helped to promote models that ensure livelihood, food and nutritional security of farming communities  across the country. This is because it incorporates practical modules on good husbandry, various performance and adaptation, multiplication of clean planting material and hands-on practical skills on various production and disease management practices.

Globally, about 20 million men and women farmers, livestock producers and fishers participate in FFS in over 90 countries.

One of the farmers championing the sustainability of the programme is the  Federation of Agricultural Commodities of Nigeria (FACAN) President, Dr Victor Iyama. This is because of what has been achieved with FFS,  especially good practices to improve food and nutrition security, and reduce poverty.

According to Iyama, FFS  has  improved farmers’ livelihoods, empowered farmers and as such should be encouraged and supported by the Federal Government. In most  parts of the country, working with Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), the FFS has provided a platform for knowledge building and sharing where farmers meet, interact and find solutions locally. They learn through hands-on training on various topics,  such  as soil, water and nutrient management, seeds varieties, crop cultivation, pest control, pasture management and conserving biodiversity.

Harvestplus Nigeria Country Manager, Dr Paul Ilona said the FFS is a workable approach to train farmers, adding that as an agricultural production-based training and farmer education tool, it has been shown to play a vital role in poverty reduction among  targeted smallholder farmers.

He explained that the FFS, based on  participatory discussion, strengthens farmers’ independent decision-making capacity. This  has enabled them to make the right market decisions in different situations, balancing profits and risks. As a result, using their market knowledge and the intensified crop production, he said, farmers have significantly increased their economic profits.

According to him,  the FFS is an interactive and participatory learning-by-doing approach, which offers farmers, pastoralists, fishers and foresters a platform to learn from each other, share experiences and field-test new options and ideas.

He noted that participants have enhanced their knowledge of agro-ecosystems, resulting in production systems that are more resilient and optimised the use of available resources.

The FFS has seen  rapid expansion. Only two years after its introduction in 2010, it has been adapted to cotton, rice, cashew, sesame and horticultural products. Since then, every year has seen adaptations to new crops.

In January 2015, the FFS material was available for 12 production systems.

To sustain its work, the FAO has announced  plans to establish 100 FFS in the Northeastern communities of Nigeria to boost agricultural production this year.

The United Nations’ body also said it needs about $18 million to meet the needs of agro-based households in the crisis-ridden Northeast. It also revealed that 51 experts have so far been trained  in the region. Twenty-five agricultural officers have equally been trained by the government, agricultural agencies and non-governmental organisations as facilitators, just as the FFS  community groups have been established in Maiduguri, Borno State.

Also, 26 experts across the three Northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe were trained between last July and August. The three-week workshop equipped experts with the skills to set up and run at least two, FFS per facilitator.

“FAO’s work in the Northeast goes far beyond the provision of livelihood-saving agro-input like seeds and fertilisers,” said Suffyan Koroma, FAO representative in Nigeria, adding: “We work with farmers to ensure that the input they receive are being properly utilised; that they are employing the most effective techniques in management of their crops and animals; and generally, ensuring farming households have the best conditions to boost their resilience.”

Koroma said smallholder farmers face huge hurdles in managing complex agro-ecosystems, adding that the FAO has delivered seeds and fertiliser to about 100,000 households.

However, access to land has remained a key issue as communities are restricted to only small parcels of land for production, no thanks to traditional growing and grazing areas, which cannot be used due to lingering security risks.

Farmers rely on sharecropping–planting on land belonging to others in exchange for a portion of harvest or rent less than one hectare of land for subsistence agriculture.

 

The Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (I.A.R &

The appointment was approved by the Vice-Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University, IIe-Ife, Prof. Eyitayo Ogunbodede, who is the chairman, Governing Board, I.A.R & T., Ibadan.

Obatolu started working in the 50- year-old institute in March 1994 as a Research Fellow II and rose through the ranks to become Research Professor on  October 1, 2006.

She is a professor of Human Nutrition and an alumnae of Ahmadu Bello University,  Zaria and University of Ibadan, Ibadan. She has to her credit, post-doctoral award of United States National Maine Fisheries Services (2002-2003) and Phi Tau Sigma award of Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Maine, Orono United States.

 

Obatolu was a lead investigator to many research grants and awards among which are IDRC Soybean Utilisation Project, Delphic project 643 and (Delphie Project 758, OFID U.K) as a stimulus in Urban planning in Developing cities

She is a member of British Nutrition Society, U.K, Association of American Cereal Chemists, The Nutrition Society of Nigeria and Nigeria Soybean Association.

Prof Obatolu, a renown Professor of Human Nutrition has contributed significantly to alleviating food and nutrition insecurity in Nigeria and beyond.

She  has over 70 publications to her credit. She is happily married with children.

Stakeholders in the cocoa industry have questioned the rationale for the world’s two largest producers of cocoa,Ghana and Cote D’Ivoiren determining floor price for the commodity in the international cocoa market.

Acknowledging that cocoa farmers have remained poorly remunerated in the global cocoa economy, they, however, queried the unilateral decision of the two countries to fix what is termed as ‘floor prices for cocoa beans’.

Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN) President, Mr. Sayina Riman expressed concern that the decision of the two countries, without prior consultation with other producing countries could portend unintended grave distortions in the global cocoa economy.

He described the move as rather precipitate and non-sensitive to the needs of other cocoa producing countries.

Few weeks ago, the governments of Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, which account for about 67 per cent of the global bean output, announced that effective from the 2020/2021 cocoa year, the minimum or floor price set for cocoa beans shall be $2600 per metric tonne. They noted that if the terminal market price fell below $2,600, both countries were prepared to withhold beans.

According to Riman, who is also the Vice President of the World Cocoa Producers Organisation, as good as the initiative may be, it lacks the support of other producing countries.

He noted: “The decision was taken unilaterally by the governments of the two countries without even consulting with the producers and other private sector stakeholders in both countries, let alone other producing countries’ governments and private sector”.

The Nigerian cocoa community leader stated that though $2,600 per tonne looks better than some of the ridiculous and slavish prices that are often below $1500 per tonne, “it is still a far cry from should be the bench mark prices based on production cost.”

Riman added: “We have been in talks with buyers to get a reasonable price for cocoa beans, but this is not to be done without inputs from other stakeholders in the value chain.”

Riman drew attention to a previous initiative in the early 1960s championed by the governments of Nigeria and Ghana, then the two largest producers.

He noted that in contrast tothe 1962-63 move, which produced the Cocoa Producers Alliance, the first International Cocoa Agreement and the establishment of International Cocoa Organisation, this latest move did not havethe buy-in of the other critical stakeholders.

Riman asked if both countries had the capacity in terms of structures and funding to withhold stocks and not create greater problems for producers. “Do they have the money and the warehouses to pay for and store the three million tonnes that are produced yearly? Will they not create more problems for the producers that will make farmers lose more money than is intended? How do they hope to pay for the beans? Is it with the $1billion loan from the Africa Development Bank? How far can that go? Will they be able to cope with the distortions that this move may cause for economies of other producing countries?’’ Riman queried.

He added: “What, if any, palliatives do they hope to offer farmers and other stakeholders in their respective countries’cocoa value chains, let alone other countries? What support mechanisms are put in place? Have they gauged the capacity of countries like Sao Tome and Principe, for instance, that depends substantially – over 80 per cent on cocoa income to fund national budgets?”

The WCPO Vice President lamented that both countries could not see the deception in the reported buyers’ almost automatic acceptance of the floor price as a trap.

“How many of the major buyers were represented in the purported acceptance? Only a few months back in Berlin, buyers were still holding their hardline position of market forces and all. How did they suddenly become born-again to so swiftly accept the so-called floor price?” he quipped.

Riman stated that the WCPO is in consultation with critical stakeholders to make a statement on the development and would come up with a uniform position in a couple of days.

“We are consulting. We shall address the world about our position very soon. What you will hear, I can assure you, will not be in tandem with the position of the two producing countries’ governments, though?’’ he added.