From 13 to 15 November 2012, was held in Bohicon, Benin the brainstorming workshop for improving sustainability consultancy approaches to family farms in Africa, co-organized by Cirad, AFD / Program Padyp (support program of productive dynamics), the University of Parakou and Inter réseaux développement rural.

Two people of the Fert Madagascar team had participated to this international event dedicated to the agricultural advisory.

Organized 11 years after the first edition in 2001, this workshop was an opportunity to take stock of the difficulties in the exercise of the agricultural advisory and to consider the following problematic:

– How to conduct scaling and sustaining advisory? (sustainability, funding, expertise and methodology)

– The learning process (literate and illiterate)

– How to involve more decision makers, donors, etc.. ?

Because of its experience in the field of agricultural advisory developed for 30 years, including in Madagascar since 2004, two employees of Fert has participated , invested heavily on these questions:

– The Responsible of agricultural advisor training

– The Responsible of the monitoring and evaluation system of agricultural advisory proximity implemented by Fert, in partnership with Fifata in three regions of southern Madagascar.

The workshop focused on feedback. 12 countries were represented, with support organizations and NGOs, representatives of governments, leaders of farmers’ organizations, researchers, donors …

The two representatives of Fert were able to share their experience with their testimony on the formation of agricultural adviser in Madagascar but also enrich the experiences of other countries, group work, discussions and roundtables.

 See the powerpoint presentation Fert

Discover Fert posters on the Agricultural advisory in Madagascar: