Strengthening the capacity of farmer organizations in climate smart agriculture approaches

Sponsor:  NORAD

Duration:  2013-2014

EAFF Contact person:  Mainza Mugoya and Stephen Muchiri

Project scope

The project will be undertaken in four (4) countries in Eastern Africa –Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, through EAFF member organizations in these countries. In total, eight (8) EAFF member organizations will be involved in the project (see Table 3). The membership of these organizations is predominantly small-scale farmers. The membership of these organizations are different forms of farmer groups including co-operative societies, district farmer associations, women organizations, commodity associations or community based organizations. Through the relevant structures, EAFF intends to reach over 7,000 individual small-scale farmers directly through the project activities. This target will be reviewed during the pre-visits by the CSA experts to each of the selected sites for out-scaling. Table 3 below presents a profile of the EAFF members who will be involved in the project. The table also shows the cluster of CSA practice in which these organizations will be engaged.

The justification for the selection of these countries is as follows:

DRC was selected because the farmer organizations in the country have been implementing various agricultural approaches, with significant success with respect to increases in crop yields. However, these approaches need to be incorporated with climate smart techniques. In addition, DRC is the only country where EAFF has a women farmer organization as one of its members.

Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania have been selected because the farmer organizations in these three countries have expressed interest in conservation agriculture. In addition, COMESA has started implementing CA activities in these three countries, with signs of success. Preliminary consultations with the organizations that are leading this effort have revealed that the costs of scaling out into other districts are quite low.

Project objectives

Overall project goal: To contribute to strengthening the capacity of farmer organizations in Eastern Africa to address food insecurity.

  1. To develop and disseminate protocols for selected CSA practices in Eastern Africa;
  2. To increase the adoption of CSA practices in the target areas;
  3. To build capacity of farmer organizations to adopt the appropriate climate smart agriculture options for their respective agro-ecological conditions. The intention is for this capacity to be retained within the organizations by the end of the project;

Project cost

USD 221,138 (Two Hundred Twenty One Thousand, One Hundred Thirty Eight US Dollars only)

Project amount for 3 years (USD)

USD 1,502,540 (One Million, Five Hundred Two Thousand, Five Hundred Forty US Dollars only