The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) recently launched its project to develop a field manual to help small-scale African farmers adopt appropriate organic farming practices. The project is funded by a $302,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; its first grant to support the development of organic farming in Africa.
Working in partnership with the International Federation of International Agricultural Movements (IFOAM) and national African organic agricultural movements, FiBL aims to devise practical farmer training methods.
The manual is tailored to the on-the-ground realities and learning constraints of the variable African rural environments. As such it will be an easy-to-use, extensively illustrated organic growing and crop management guide that can be used by illiterate or low-education farmers and can easily be used in farmer-to-farmer extension.
Broad dissemination of the manual will be enabled by an Africa-wide organic farming knowledge network. Rural developers and extension officers will especially be enlisted to distribute the manual to small farmers they work with on a daily basis.
FIBL
May 09, 2010
Organic farming manual for African farmers launched
Categories organic agriculture