News Archive - 2008

Should we launch a cattle drive in Katine?

Should farmers in Katine, a rural sub-county of north-east Uganda, be given cattle?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/katineblog/2008/dec/08/farmers-and-cattle

Katine's future - cattle or crops?

In Uganda, a villager's status is rated by the number of cows he owns. The Observer's unique project aims to make farming a real workable alternative

http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2008/dec/07/katine-future-cattle-farming-livelihoods

FARM-Africa Supporters Receive a Letter of thanks from The Secretary of State for International Development

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Dear FARM-Africa supporters,

I’d like to send this short note of sincere thanks for the hard work you have done over the past year. I have huge admiration for people who have turned compassion for the billions of children, women and men who live abject poverty in developing countries, into practical support for changing those lives. There has been immense progress over recent years – more children getting good educations, better health care, growing democracy. But as I have seen first hand during my travels, so much remains to be done.

We’ll all feel the impact of the global economic downturn during 2009, but nobody more acutely than those already living on the edge. Those, for whom $1 a day must feed their family, pay school fees, buy essential medicines. I’m proud of the UK’s leadership on international development and our continued determination to fight poverty at home and abroad.

I’m also proud to be in partnership with FARM-Africa in the fight against world poverty.

Seasonal greetings and best wishes for 2009,

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER

In a land of plenty, why do they still go hungry?

The Observer's unique project in Katine, Uganda is entering its second year. Over the next month we will report on how education and technology are changing the village. Here we show how your support can help farmers to learn skills that will protect their families from the ravages of famine

http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2008/nov/30/christmas-appeal-2008-livelihoods-katine

Live online: Your questions on Katine answered

Put your questions on the Katine project to Amref and FARM-Africa now and get the answers on Tuesday December 9

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/katineblog/2008/nov/29/christmas-appeal-online-chat

Katine farmers finally plant new varieties of cassava

Following a two-day training course earlier this month, Katine farmers are now planting new types of cassava which they hope will lead to bumper crops and increased income

http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2008/aug/29/livelihoods.projectgoals

UK farming industry unites to launch new Africa 100 appeal to improve food production in the developing world

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Friday 18 July 2008

The UK farming industry has today united to launch the ‘Africa 100’ appeal, to help improve food production for farmers in East Africa. The majority of African farmers struggle to produce sufficient crops for their own communities, and as world prices continue to soar, their plight is set to get even worse.

The ‘Africa 100’ appeal will help increase food production for farming communities in East Africa and their families’ future. This industry-wide appeal is the inspiration of the National Farmers’ Union and FARM-Africa, a specialist agricultural charity with over twenty years of experience of working in East Africa. The appeal brings together farmers’ groups and associated industries. The UK farming industry will be encouraged to donate to the appeal, which will be used to fund projects in East Africa using innovative, but proven, on-farm technologies.

NFU President Peter Kendall said: “While many farmers quite rightly have reservations about the ‘good time for farmers’ headlines we sometimes see in the media, I think most of us recognise that times of increased food prices are both a turning point in farm profitability for many farmers but also a cause of real problems for the world’s poor. This is an opportune moment for farmers to be seen to acknowledge there is an urgent need to help develop third world agriculture, so it might better feed third world populations. I would urge the farming industry to give generously to the Africa 100 Appeal.”

All monies raised by Africa 100 will help improve the production of staple foods for farming communities in countries including Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. It will help provide them with long-term solutions to a vicious cycle of low productivity, rural hunger and poverty. Previous FARM-Africa projects have demonstrated how, by improving their methods, African farmers are able to produce enough food for their communities, as well as some surplus to sell within Africa. This small profit can be used for many things - reinvestment in their farm or to fund their children’s schooling.

Chairman of FARM-Africa Lord De Ramsey said: “The British Agricultural Industry is well aware of the enormous technical advances that have helped us to produce plentiful food in Europe. Africa 100 gives us the chance to share that good fortune by helping to spread innovative technologies to African farmers struggling to produce enough food to feed their children.”

Further details about the appeal, and how you can donate, can be found at www.africa100appeal.com.

Open Letter to Ban Ki Moon

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6 June 2008

Dear Secretary General,

FARM-Africa is calling on you, the Secretary General of the United Nations, to work with and invest in existing small expert agricultural NGOs to deliver a long term and integrated solution to the current global food crisis.

The $30 billion dollars a year that has been requested by the FAO to improve global agriculture could be very effectively used to support those organisations that are already delivering agricultural development and have a track record of success. Setting up some new organisations might prove important for implementing some aspects of the new rural development agenda and for achieving scale but not to make use of existing successful organisations would just result in delay, inefficiency and duplication.

For example, FARM-Africa has been working at the grass roots with rural communities in eastern and South Africa for over twenty years providing long term science based solutions to poverty by improving agricultural production and natural resource management.

Our approach of listening to the needs of local farmers and finding practical solutions has been highly effective. Through the use of improved varieties and innovative farming techniques significant improvements can be made rapidly. Many successful project approaches that have already been tried and tested are available for scaling up.

A FARM-Africa project in Tanzania introducing high-yielding maize varieties with better farming and marketing techniques showed an increase in yield of 120% and an increase in income from less than 50p per day to an average of £2.50 a day - an effective and inexpensive improvement in livelihoods and a sustainable and local solution.

Working at the grass roots we strongly support your comments about the need for other resources and rural infrastructure to make interventions effective. There is a pressing need for small-scale irrigation, better drainage, improved storage facilities and decent roads giving access to markets. Combining this with modern inputs like fertilizer and seeds will ensure a lasting impact on the lives of the most vulnerable people.

FARM-Africa has been advocating increased investment in Africa’s smallholder farmers for many years. It is encouraging that world leaders are waking up to the potential of these farmers to be part of the long term solution to the world’s food security. FARM-Africa with its unique expertise is ready to play its part in this important and urgent endeavour.

Yours sincerely,

Lord De Ramsey DL FRAgS DSc – Chairman of Trustees, FARM-Africa
Professor Peter Hazell, Trustee of FARM-Africa and Member of FARM-Africa Programmes Advisory Committee
Dr Christie Peacock, Chief Executive Officer, FARM-Africa

Global food crisis forces the examination of long term solutions to hunger

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“The only way out of the crisis is to increase food production, in particular in poor countries” Jacques Diouf, Director General United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation

After years of neglect and massive underfunding by governments and donors the role of agriculture in resolving global hunger is finally to be discussed at the highest levels at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation summit in Rome this week.

“Agriculture is the key to reducing this poverty as 80% of Africa’s people depend on the food they grow and the livestock they keep for survival. At a time when access to affordable food is becoming an increasingly pressing global issue it is critical that agriculture in Africa is given the necessary political and financial support to provide a long term solution to hunger.” says Dr Christie Peacock, CEO of the international NGO FARM-Africa.

She continues, “Finding solutions to hunger in rural Africa is an urgent political issue that demands both short and long term solutions and sustained political will. Real agricultural solutions must be sought which include poor farmers as part of a global solution – this summit must not be used as a short term discussion which only offers Africa’s farmers the role of passive recipients of food aid.”

“With some of the world’s most influential leaders meeting in Rome to discuss the global food crisis I urge these individuals to grasp this opportunity to find ways in which governments, the private sector and civil society can work together in partnership to overcome the chronic underinvestment in agriculture in developing countries and to end the shameful hunger affecting one third of sub-Saharan Africa.”

For over twenty years FARM-Africa has been working to help provide African farmers with the technology and practical interventions to help to lift themselves out of poverty while engaging in partnership with the private sector.

FARM-Africa’s approach has been successful – one such initiative is through our Maendeleo Agricultural Technology Fund. FARM-Africa provided farmers in Tanzania with new high- yielding maize varieties and trained them in techniques to increase yields and how to market their produce. The result? Farmers saw immediate increases in yield of over 120% and an increase in their income from less than 50p a day to an average of £2.50.

FARM-Africa works with smallholders and herders to find local solutions to increase the productivity of fragmented and degraded land through technological advances and lesson learning. FARM-Africa has developed models of best practice to share the collective knowledge gained from working with hundreds of thousands of farmers for over two decades to reduce rural poverty and allow communities the dignity to feed themselves.

FARM-Africa calls on donors to invest in agricultural development to end the unacceptable hunger in sub-Saharan Africa

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80% of Africa’s people are farmers and depend on the food they grow and the livestock they keep for survival and yet for the past two decades investment in agricultural development for Africa has declined by a massive 66%, from $3billion in 1985 to $600,000 in 2004.

FARM-Africa, an NGO that has been working with rural African farmers to find agricultural solutions to their poverty for over 20 years, is calling for donors to prioritise their investment in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa to end the shameful hunger that blights a third of the population in this area.

Only now, when countries across the globe are struggling to quell growing disquiet about the increasing cost of food among poor populations, are the international community waking up to the short term nature of food aid in hunger reduction. Given the alarm that the global community are witnessing from those who are hungry it is essential that food aid is not provided as a short term “sticking plaster” to quieten those voices rather than looking the role that investment in agriculture must play to end hunger in the long term.

In 2003, FARM-Africa launched a campaign to raise the profile of agriculture as a development priority for the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID). The NGO published Reaching the Poor - A Call to Action: Investing in Smallholder Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa which called for boosting smallholder production to kick start self supporting, self-sustaining growth. FARM-Africa was part of the NGO consultation group that contributed to the publication of the World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development. As the first World Development Report that focused on the role of agriculture in poverty reduction in 25 years it was long overdue.

A socio-economic impact study of four of FARM-Africa’s Maendeleo Agricultural Technology Fund projects showed the NGO’s work with small-scale farmers is having a significant impact, for each dollar invested farmers were receiving returns of between $2.80 and $24.30 – real proof of the positive impact of this approach to new technologies to increase agricultural productivity.

Dr Christie Peacock, CEO of FARM-Africa, said, “I can only welcome the attention that is finally being given to agriculture and its role to reduce the unjustified hunger that encumbers much of rural Africa. After a generation of underinvestment in agriculture I must urge donors to heed the voices of the global hungry and look to permanent solutions to this intractable need through major investment.”

How to improve livelihoods in Katine

At a recent roundtable discussion on microfinance and livelihoods, the Guardian, Farm-Africa and other groups discussed plans to improve income generation across Katine sub-county. Discuss the roundtable on our blog

http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2008/apr/18/background.livelihoods1

FARM-Africa's plans for Katine

FARM-Africa is delivering the livelihoods component in Katine, with help on financial inclusion from Barclays. Elizabeth Ford picks out the highlights from FARM-Africa's initial assessment of the region and its needs

http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2008/mar/20/livelihoods.katinepartners

FARM-Africa Celebrates International Women’s Day with Arsema

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Arsema has much to celebrate on March 8, International Women’s Day. Thanks to the advice of a Community Legal Worker, in her rural Ethiopian village, Arsema and her mother were able to escape illegal and traditional practices around widow inheritance that threatened their human rights.

On the death of Arsema’s father, her mother was compelled by traditional pressure, faced by many widows, to marry her brother-in-law to ensure that land remained within the brother’s family.

Thanks to the support of Ayelech, a Community Based Legal Advisor (CBLA), trained by FARM-Africa through its Women’s Enterprise Development Project, Arsema and her mother challenged the marriage and the inheritance of land on legal grounds. Based on Ethiopian law, it is illegal to marry a person who already has a marital relationship with the family.

A year on Arsema has her father’s land and she is married to a partner of her choice and her mother is divorced and lives peacefully with her daughter. Arsema and her mother are a generation of women turning their backs on illegal traditional practices thanks to women’s growing access to legal advice in rural Ethiopia.

FARM-Africa’s Women’s Enterprise Development Project aims to improve the status and welfare of women in Ethiopia. Last year the project marked International Women’s Day with a panel discussion in the town of Durame which was attended by over 200 women’s group leaders and was followed by play showing women’s rights in action.

The Women’s Enterprise Development Project equips women with the skills to play a greater role in economic, social and cultural life, increasing their access to resources, rights, opportunities, services and knowledge.

Market traders keen on Katine

Richard M Kavuma accompanies Amref's livelihoods officers as they meet with market traders in Mbale and Kampala to discuss how to improve links between farmers in Katine sub-county and the major markets.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2008/feb/26/livelihoods.projectgoals

News Archive - 2008

Farming Africa