Food and Agricultural Research Management in Africa (FARM-Africa)
From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations
FARM-Africa Country Office
FARM-Africa Kenya
PO Box 49502 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254 20 273 2044
Fax: +254 20 273 2086
Email: info@farm-africa.org
Website: http://www.farmafrica.org.uk
Nelima Patience, Office Manager, nelima@farm-africa.org
Description
Headquartered in London and with country offices in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Southern Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, FARM-Africa is an international non-governmental organization that seeks to reduce poverty in Eastern and Southern Africa. It works in partnership with marginalized farmers and herders, whom it helps to manage their natural resources more effectively and build sustainable livelihoods. FARM-Africa’s vision is an Africa that is prosperous, with a strong agricultural sector driving the economy and reducing poverty for millions of rural communities.
It seeks to realize this vision through being innovative and practical thereby catalyzing processes, rather than merely providing services. It also seeks to work with local people and their institutions in Africa rather than building parallel structures to enable rural communities lead their own process of development. Further, it seeks to bridge the gap between researchers and farmers to ensure that research addresses practical problems facing communities.
In pursuance of its objectives, FARM-Africa focuses on four key areas:
- Pastoral Development;
- Community Forest Management;
- Smallholder Development; and
- Land Reform that demonstrably reduces poverty in diverse situations and with wide applicability.
FARM–Africa believes in working with those most in need, that is, rural communities with a degrading resource base and poor access to markets and services to improve their lives. They also believe that investing in small-scale agriculture, the main livelihood option for the vast majority of Africans, is the best way to tackle rural poverty and that working in partnership with communities and their institutions, academic and research organizations, governments and the private sector can help find solutions to rural poverty. Another of its driving forces is that Africa has knowledge and resources. The organization therefore aims at developing the skills of communities, particularly women, governments and the private sector. FARM–Africa also believes in farmer-led solutions to agricultural problems and encourages farmer participatory research and planning involving communities in resolving their own problems.
Track Record
Since inception, FARM-Africa has championed effective management of farmers’ renewable natural resources and advocated for the inclusion of pastoralists' voices in agricultural policy, including lobbying governments to increase investment in small-scale agriculture. This has linked marginalized rural communities to decision-makers.
In recognizing the importance of policy issues, FARM-Africa is engaged in improving relevant government policies that currently inhibit the uptake of good practice and prioritization of agriculture in public sector expenditure and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. FARM-Africa uses the evidence from its success at grass roots level to influence the development of policy and its translation into agricultural practice.
Further, FARM-Africa’s models have widespread applicability in a variety of settings across Africa. Those groups or ‘clients’ with interest to implement these models have accessed FARM-Africa’s training, adoption/adaptation advice and post-adoption support. In response to such requests, FARM-Africa offers quality field-based training, targeting staff who then train others in the implementation of these models. This training and subsequent advice and support is offered to a range of clients through FARM-Africa’s Training and Advisory Units (TAUs).
For the two decades that FARM-Africa has operated in East and Southern Africa, it has assisted thousands of farmers and herders to improve their lives through its grassroots projects. Its successful projects and especially the models of good practice have generated substantial interest among stakeholders.
These models include the production and dissemination of successful, cost-effective and relevant grassroots models to key ‘clients’ who either implement or influence the adoption of these models over a wider area. The organization’s expertise is put towards providing training and advice to ensure wide adoption of the models to build partnerships with others to improve those policies and practices inhibiting the scaling-up of innovative agricultural development and contribute to increased understanding of agriculture globally.
Eastern Africa’s biggest challenge is the inadequate supply of water in its semi-arid lands. Resource related conflicts especially over pasture and water are common. FARM-Africa has made some considerable strides by enhancing food output among pastoralists to reduce resource related conflicts.
FARM-Africa has jointly implemented with an Ethiopian NGO SOS Sahel the Participatory Forest Management Program to support long-term conservation of forest ecosystems by developing and establishing new forest management systems. It also hopes to help farmers earn income through a diverse range of non-timber forest products and non-forest resources. Although Community Forest Management is a relatively new concept in Ethiopia, it is gaining increased support from the government and in the communities where it is being implemented. This concept has also been successfully applied in Tanzania’s village forest reserves. In both countries, the program aims at safeguarding forests through development of forest management plans; documentation of new models of community planning and forest management; encouraging the development of favourable policy environments; and, ensuring that regional authorities accept the principle of community forest management so that the model can be deployed in many places.
FARM-Africa has also initiated innovative agricultural projects such as the Dairy Goat projects in Kenya and Uganda, farmer to farmer research project and Community Animal Health Network (CAHNET). The dairy goat projects aims at reducing poverty among small scale farmers in drought prone areas by increasing the productivity of dairy goats and providing access to animal health care. CAHNET is a forum to share animal health-related information with livestock keepers, community-based animal health workers and other individuals and organizations working in this field to improve animal health services across the greater Horn of Africa. This uses a range of information channels including a website, newsletter and workshops.
FARM-Africa, through its pastoral development program, has enabled many communities in Ethiopia and Kenya to plan and drive their own development through sustainable management of their natural resources and strengthening of local institutions. The organization also focuses on small-holder development and land reform in order to improve the livelihoods of small holder farmers by intensifying production, improving access to markets and better services (including credit) and advocating for government and private sector support to marginalized and newly emerging farmers. This program has been implemented in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and South Africa.
It has helped improve incomes and address long term vulnerability of poor rural communities. Working closely with community organizations has ensured that advocacy work to influence policy and practice is well-rooted. Its work has proved that rural people can effectively articulate their own priorities and manage the outcomes of progressive policy change.
Challenges
In an attempt to help farming and pastoralist communities in Ethiopia and Kenya plan and drive their own development through sustainable management of their natural resources, FARM-Africa faces the challenge of building their capacity to critical levels that can sustain the process. There are obvious needs that require funding to enable FARM-Africa continue with its programs. On its own, FARM-Africa has taken steps to increase its annual income from voluntary supporters through greater investment in public fundraising. Access to unrestricted funding will enable it strengthen its programs in the long term. This calls for establishing strong alliances with like-minded institutions not subject to the political constraints of government and multilateral donors. Secondly, building up voluntary income from a wider base of individuals, trusts and the corporate sector requires good strategies and strategists it does not currently have.
Opportunities
FARM-Africa sees opportunity for poverty eradication of poverty through better environmental management within the framework of its involvement with communities.
In order to reverse the negative trends among the poor in East and Southern Africa, opportunities exist to develop innovative approaches to natural resource management (including forests), improve the productivity of smallholdings and enable its marginal farmers and herders make sustainable improvements to their well being. FARM-Africa’s programs seem to be well placed to make a real and lasting difference to rural communities in Africa. Their experiences can be shared with other organizations working in the same areas for greater and integrated impact. Opportunities exist to partner with Farm Africa in the drive to replicate some of their very successful models. In this way Farm-Africa could help build capacities of communities to enhance farm benefits.
