Agriculture extension and regional council staff are receiving training in the Kavango East Region on the Caisse de Résilience approach, which revolves around farming and pastoralist communities connecting and integrating productive, financial and social activities.
The training is taking place from 13 until 26 November and benefits 24 agriculture extension staff and staff from six regional councils and is aimed at strengthening the delivery of extension services.
Extension services promote the adoption of improved agricultural technologies and practices in order to increase agricultural production, empower farmers and facilitate sustainable improvement in living conditions of rural communities.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) are supporting the Namibian government in hosting the event, UNDP Communications Associate, Frieda Lukas said in a media statement on Monday.
Lukas explained that FAO and UNDP are joining forces to complement the government’s efforts in adopting strategic interventions to strengthen food security within peri-urban and rural communities.
“Part of the support will be focused on sustainable livelihoods and production diversification through scaling out of the Caisses de Résilience approach and the associated farmer field school concept in targeted communities,” she said.
The participating regions for the training are Kavango East and West, Zambezi, Khomas, Erongo and ||Kharas.
Lukas said this opportunity will also be utilised to educate the participants on organised agriculture such as registration of cooperatives.
“By the end of the training participants will be able to describe and use participatory experiential learning for delivery of extension services to smallholder farming communities,” she stated.
Lukas said despite government subsidies, prices of cereals have continued to increase since January 2022, which calls for initiatives to enhance productivity and innovative development finance to effectively support the transformation of agriculture and food security.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
