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Mon, 2 Apr 2018 19:57:08 +0000
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Dear all,

Here is the aggregated input for Topic #4 - Small farms and future challenges — Peter

Q4.1/6 - Question "4.1.  Within your region, what are the three main challenges that small farms face in the future? Why? Are these different from past challenges? If so, why?"

From: Viviane CdV <[log in to unmask]> (Italy)
This is a reply on a query from Teresa Pinto Correia (Q4.1/4) related to this topic: How do small farmers get access to knowledge and skills?

Vivian replies:
You must consider that a group is rich in ideas, knowledge and have their own spirit of initiative .
Even in a group, people are independent: they consider working together on a topic during one season, while the rest of the year they work on other things (for which they might be competing)

Yes, they need knowledge to improve their experience/knowledge. In Italy, the skill and knowledge they need, one can find in agriculture centers either in their immediate neighbourhood, or close-by.

E.g. how we work with local farms collaboratively to connect them with consumers:
-  we develop a product logo (creating an identity, and having them work together on the logo)
-  the farmers have to choose on which items they want included in the marketing
-  they have to choose to agree on the same price by item
-  they have to agree to keep the same price even if one farmer has more land/produce than the other
-  we work together to improve the promotion of the items of your group
- We often link the group with tourism, as a market

(Moderator: which illustrates the simple principle: You want a group to work together: well, bond them through a common project in which they have common interests)

_______________

Q4.2/7 - Question "4.2.  To cope with these future challenges, do small farms require new innovations and adaptation techniques?  And if so, which?"

1/ From: Max Olupot <[log in to unmask]> (Uganda)
(Max replies to an issue brought up several times: the need for developing soft skills to work with farmers, and for a collaboration amongst farmers:)

My name is Max Olalatau Olupot. I work for African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services – AFAAS.

The issue of soft skills is very important not only for farmers but also for professionals who facilitate  farmer institutional development with focus to empowerment, cohesion and sustainability grounded in good governance and management.

Extension agents and other social works/ change agents should have soft skills to assist farmers and farmer groups in building their capacity.  Of recent, agricultural extension and advisory services has bounced back to the development agenda with essentially added roles of facilitating change and ensuring transformation. This led to the development of a key document / concept on new Extensionist.  Emphasis in the new Extensionist is soft skills nelk.g-fras.org. Smallholder farmers need technical support to address emerging challenges, despite their resilience and indigenous adaptation strategies employed.
AFAAS and GFRAS are currently working with other partners to build capacity of extension  to be technical sound and responsive.  AFAAS is also hosting  and nurturing Field Schools Knowledge Hub .

The role of the hub is to facilitate knowledge generation and sharing across actors and provide catalytic support to countries and actors for enhanced quality implementation of FS interventions. Lessons here shall  be applicable to other approaches  hence empowering farmers and other value chain actors.


2/ From: Viviane CdV <[log in to unmask]> (Italy)
This is a reply on a query from Winnona (Q4.2/5): ""How can farmers address issues of human relationships that impede cooperation? - the need for trust-building and trustworthiness, care for the common good, justice, transparency, open and fair consultation, etc etc ?
Does lack of addressing these issues stymie the best intentions and progressive initiatives? Are some places finding ways to address this? Is there a success story?”

To which Viviane replies:
I definitely believe in cooperation between small farmers. The quality of their crop beats the corporate one .
You are asking about the difficulties of being bound together/working together:
Yes it is difficult.
- In meetings, in just a few minutes conflicts can flare up.
- We might be working together, but in the end, we are still competing with each other.
- Misunderstanding happen, and happen easily
In our cooperative we went through all of this...

It takes thinking things through, and working on practical matters:
- to discuss the best way to sell;
- the best way to present your merchandise in a market;
- studying strategies

Concentrating on things which have clear benefits for all, are much more convenient/useful to discuss in a collaboration.

While at the beginning you believe in a product, success does not arrive right away. You have to work at it. You have to look for consumers outside the usual market....





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