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“When knowledge empowers you, challenges are not problems.”
The Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education (SAFE) is a sister organisation of SAA, with a focus on providing academic qualifications to mid-career extension agents. So far, SAFE has graduated nearly 6,000 students across a network of 24 universities and colleges in nine African countries. The first SAFE program in Nigeria was launched in 2002 at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria. The purpose of the SAFE program in Nigeria is to contribute towards the agricultural development efforts o...
TONNY OYER: A story of success with the Sasakawa Africa Association
Tonny Oyer is a 39 year old resident of Awila Parish, Akokoro Sub County in Apac district, Uganda. He is married and has four children. His father passed away early in his life, and his mother some years later, leaving him with the responsibility to take care of his six siblings.
In 2005, he dropped out of secondary school to obtain a certificate in woodwork and carpentry. After completing the course he opened a workshop, but was unable to make enough money to support his family. He decided t...
From ‘hopeless widow’ to a household full of joy: the story of Hellen Epuruge
Nyarakoti Farmer Field School 1 is situated in Asinge C, Nyarakoti parish, in the Usukuru sub county of Tororo District. It consists of 30 members, 18 of whom are women. Its enterprises include 6 acres of rice production, 4 acres of groundnuts and 8 acres of maize. Formed in 2012 and fully registered, it initially received Ugandan Shilling (USh.) 10,000,000 from SAA in Uganda under the Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs) project, which was invested in ‘farming as a business’ and paid back in one y...
“We are productive!” – The Loudjouraton Group of Molodo
Molodo is a village and seat of the commune of Kala Siguida in the Ségou Region of southern-central Mali. The Loudjouraton group of Molodo is a Farmer Organization (FO) of persons with special needs. The organization was established in 2015 by 11 members, and had grown to 32 in 2017; including four women and six children. The group produces rice, onions and shallots. The members work under the supervision of SAFE, the Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education, with whom the FO has been able t...
“Let your motto ‘Take it to the Farmer’ reach all Tudun Wada”, says Abdullahi Kau
Abdullahi Kau is a farmer and maize grower living in the Tudun Wada Local Government Area of Kano State, Nigeria. He is very happy with how SG-2000 Nigeria trained him, which has resulted in him being happy to conduct agriculture as a business. Abdullahi owns a one hectare farm. He farms both for demonstration, as his is a Model Adoption Plot (MAP), and commercial purposes. “Sasakawa first trained me on how to plant, and how to apply fertilizer. Next, they taught me how to tell when my produce i...
“We realized crop failure is farmers’ failure”
This is the Maize Multi Actor Value-chain Platform and Disability Intervention in Tudun Wada, Kano state, Nigeria. The project is supported by SAA Nigeria’s Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs) program. Muhammmad Yaro is a maize Commodity Association Trainer (C.A.T.). He explained: “We have been organized in this maize commodity value-chain organization since January 27, 2014. I am training farmer groups specializing in the maize value chain, which is functioning well. Last year’s harvest produced ...
“Today we are able to produce high quality rice” Fatoumata Sangarés
The Rice Platform of Women Group of Niéna is situated in the rural commune of Niéna, cercle of Sikasso, in Sikasso region. The platform was formed in 2014 and currently comprises 11 villages and 556 members. The main activities of the Platform are upland and lowland rice production, parboiling, storage and marketing of rice.
Fatoumata Sangaré is the Platform’s Secretary of Finance. According to Fatoumata, “Our platform is composed of 14 women groups and Sasakawa is involved in various ways i...
“Development is a chain” Seydou Sidibé
Seydou Sidibé is a community based facilitator (CBF) at a Farmer Learning Platform (FLP) and inputs shop in Boidié, a rural commune in the Cercle of Barouéli in the Ségou Region of southern-central Mali. Sidibé said:
“I am the intermediary and facilitator between the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) in Mali and the village community. SAA is very important in Boidié because of the volume of work they do here. When SAA came in, they showed us the benefits of micro dosing fertilizer technology...
Student-led SAFE programme helps communities focus on value-chain oriented agriculture
Robert Koomson is a farmer from the Krofu Agro Processors Association, located in Krofu, Mfantsiman Municipal District, Central Region of Ghana. Elisabeth Utuka is also from the central region and from the Theomark Enterprise, situated in Assin Edubiase. The two farmers were in attendance at the West Africa Regional Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education (SAFE) Stakeholder Workshop, held in Accra, Ghana. Dr Festus Annor-Frempong, Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extensi...
“Acquiring business skills has transformed my life, my families”, Kawumba Carol
30 years old Kawumba Carol lives in Bukomolo village, Nandere parish, Kadama Sub County in the Kibuku District of Eastern Uganda. Her success started when she was sponsored by SG-2000 Uganda to go for a farm study tour in Masaka, a town in the Central Region of Uganda, west of Lake Victoria, under the Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs) project.
That trip to Masaka changed Kawumba’s life, as narrated in her story: “We were taken to a model farmer, a woman whom many admired. She had banana farm...
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