Thank you to all who joined our Webinar on 6th May. If you couldn't join, you can watch the recording below and find slides attached. All questions asked on the webinar are also included further down this page.
African Forum on Green Economy_Agriculture_6 May_FINALpdf
Question from Harriet Matsaert:
Question for Lucy Muchoki. Are you developing goals and standards for resource use and sustainable practicies across agrobusiness and agroindustry?And if so, do you have a moniitoring system and dashboard so we can assess progress and contribution to the wider green economy goals?
Question from Najla Mohammad
How do you control international enterprises and hegemonic companies that use Africa’s resources? Many of their activities are aggressive and anti-sustainability whether it’s environmental or humane. They usually have long complicated supply chains to make their vicious acts untraceable along the chain which makes it difficult to tackle.
What’s the point in balancing and increasing local productivity in the name of sustainability when international companies come and abuse and use way more land than the locals do?
Question from Christophe Schmandt:
Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) is a key quality control process, in the food supply chain. Which “safety / risk minimisation type steps” are common to secure water supply / water resources, as a basis to agriculture, in the first place?.
Such as
- Community Water Sharing Agreements?
- Land set asides/ parks to protect water ways and water sources
- Pollution reduction facilities (sewage treatment plants)
Question from Pauline Kiamba
Lucy Muchoki talked about the youth and how innovative they are. Just curious about any initiatives that the consortium is supporting to make agriculture and rural areas (where most farming takes place) attractive to the youth, especially in light of the high unemployment rate of the youth especially in Kenya. Thanks
Question from Farai Chireshe
Hi all, Are then any current or future projects looking at sustainable farming for biofuels incorporating the necessary steps to make sure there is no competition with food?
Question from anonymous participant
A question for Shakespear: When involving local farmers, how was the degree of acceptance in terms of changes to regular agricultural practices? Will the projects be monitored for longerterm?
Response: "In the other projects that I have worked on, the acceptance rate is high like on conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi.
The project that we did in this case was a short-term"
Question from Christophe Schmandt:
Thanks Shakespear and Charles! What role does water availability (stress, scarcity, climate change) in famer’s decisions for crop selection and livestock production?
How well can water availability match local market demand for food products?
Water availability, stress, scarcity, and climate change play an important role in the decision-making process of farmers. Farmers have a lot of knowledge on these issues, mostly by observing trends in climatic conditions. With that knowledge, they are responding by changing their farming operations. The key challenge that I observed in some of the research that I was involved (see below) in is that while the awareness is high among most farmers, the necessary technology, for instance, in terms of drought resistant or early maturing crop varieties might not be available or when available they are not availed on time. So even if farmers want to adapt, they are limited by the lack of the necessary support.
Some of the relevant research
-Mudombi S. 2014. "Analysing the contribution of ICTs in addressing climate change amongst communal farmers from two districts of Zimbabwe", PhD Research Theses. Department of Environment Sciences, University of South Africa. http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/14668
-Mudombi S and Nhamo G. 2014. Access to Weather Forecasting and Early Warning Information by Communal Farmers in Seke and Murewa Districts, Zimbabwe. Journal of Human Ecology, 48(3): 357-366. https://doi.org/10.1080/09709274.2014.11906805.
-Mudombi S, Nhamo G and Muchie M. 2014. Socio-Economic determinants of climate change awareness among communal farmers in two districts of Zimbabwe. Africa Insight, 44(2): 1-15. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275330550_Socio-Economic_Determinants_of_Climate_Change_Awareness_among_Communal_Farmers_in_Two_Districts_of_Zimbabwe
-Nhemachena C., Mano R., Mudombi S, and Muwanigwa V. 2014. Perceptions on climate change and its impact on livelihoods in Hwange district, Zimbabwe. Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies 6(1): 1-6. https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/123
Comment from Andrew Heald
Great presentations - Charles mentioned briefly "extension services" - Can the presenters share some good examples of where extension services are working well, particularly in woodlot and agroforestry systems. Thanks.
Question from Dolly Mafa
Catherine and Sakespear - How do you collaborate with municpality or government about your programs?. How do you also identifythe small scale farmers who are in a green economy space ? Regards Dolly.
As the Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS, https://tips.org.za) we work closely with the government. TIPS is an independent, non-profit, economic research institution that established in 1996 mainly to support economic policy development with an emphasis on industrial policy. So from the beginning TIPS has been working the government particularly with policy oriented research support. In addition, TIPS has three areas of focus namely: trade and industrial policy, sustainable growth, and inequality and economic inclusion. These issues are relevant to the government hence it is easier to collaborate.
Question from Sophie Kutegeka
Most of the innovations we are seeing really go along way with technological advancement. How are we ensuring that these capacity gaps of the local farmers are addressed to be able to occupy this space?this came out both in Shakespeare and Lucy's points of emphasis
To bridge the capacity gaps for local farmers with regards to innovation and technological advancement, there are many things that can be explored. Some of factors relate to the appropriateness of the technology i.e. the technology has to be suited to the farmers’ conditions. In other words, the technological solution has to be relevant to the farmer’s needs. Farmers as users of the technology have to be part of the technology development process, so that their challenges, and capacity are considered in the process. If its imported technology, it needs to be adapted to suit local conditions. In addition, it is necessary to make the technological solutions easier to access both in terms of actual (physical) accessibility as well as affordability.
It is also important to consider farmers’ perceptions. At times, low adoption of technological solutions arises because of negative perceptions. Hence, the importance of involving farmers in technology development and also the need for capacity building so that the farmers are aware of the options that are available, their advantages as well as limitations.
Mudombi S. 2013. Adoption of agricultural innovations: the case of improved sweet potato in Wedza community of Zimbabwe. African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development 5(6): 459–467. https://doi.org/10.1080/20421338.2013.820441
Question from Charles Akol
Could Lucy highlight or share examples of profitable green businesses? This is important in providing a compelling business case for green businesses.
Question from Pierluigi Bozzi
To Charles Karangwa from the Coordinator of the International University network on Cultural and Biological Diversity (IUNCBD): partnership is key, what opportunities to establish a partnership with university departments and students in order to support/participate in the IUCN initiative since the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a pillar of our actions?