ACORD's Agricultural Training Modules

Africa can feed itself, yet hunger and general food insecurity continue to run rampant with 240 million people, nearly a quarter of the continent's population, affected by the problem. 30 million children are malnourished. For several decades, many efforts have been made to remedy the situation but it is now clear that solutions must be designed to give people the means to produce quality food for their own consumption as well as for income generation , rather than interventions aimed at "feeding" the hungry; the first is sustainable, the other is not.

The need to empower African farmers and pastoralists and achieve food sovereignty for the 51 countries in sub-Saharan Africa is even more crucial, now that projections indicate that the total population of these countries will increase by half a billion within the next 20 years! . Left - Burundi small scale farmers watering their crops.  

More than 65% of the working population derives their income (either directly or indirectly) from agriculture, but studies through fieldwork, contextual analysis and governmental strategic plans on agriculture in these countries confirm the low level of productivity of smallholdings and their exposure to climate change as well as the multiple crises that farmers and pastoralists face such as food price inflation, energy crisis, climate crisis, financial crisis, to name but a few.

ACORD has been working on the overall objective of poverty reduction and eradication of hunger for many years and in particular the objective of food sovereignty, i.e. the right of people to define their own agricultural and food policies; to protect and regulate their production and domestic agricultural trade in order to achieve the objectives of sustainable development; to determine their degree of self-sufficiency and to eliminate trade dumping in their markets.

The aim of our work with small-scale farmers and pastoralists at local, national and pan-African level is threefold:

1. Improving agricultural and livestock production as well as family nutrition at the household and community level aiming at sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture
2. Changing the centres of power and allowing farmers and pastoralists to better negotiate prices; and the sharing of knowledge and locally owned solutions to crisis management through a better organization of farmers and pastoralists' groups for national and intra-regional trade
3. Creating space and facilitating the effective participation of small-scale farmers and pastoralists in decision-making bodies that affect their work and life

                
                         Cabbages growing in Ethiopia                                         Livestock grazing in Ethiopia

ACORD, as part of its efforts towards sustainable agriculture, has launched 3 agricultural and livestock training modules, based on its work, research and study as well as its collaboration with several research institutions on the continent and beyond.

The content of these modules focused on: i) increasing production and improving the management and control of agricultural produce; ii) increasing livestock production and animals' global and reproductive health; iii) increasing knowledge on marketing techniques, access to markets and a deeper understanding of agricultural policies and national budgets

For more interaction and training assistance, electronic versions as well as video versions of the modules are available. Available in English and French.
This training tool is for your personal use as well as that of networks of small farmers and pastoralists you may know or with whom you work with: feel free to widely distribute and share your feedback with us.

Our field teams are already using these modules successfully and we are now approaching the ministries of agriculture and media houses in the 18 sub-Saharan countries where we work, in order to disseminate the knowledge and make it available to as many people as possible. We hope you will find the modules useful! Left - women engaged in urban agriculture on the outskirts of Addis Ababa

  • agriculture
  • pastoralism
  • training and capacity building
  • CAADP

    Africa can feed itself so what’s going wrong? Watch the video and learn more about CAADP, the continental roadmap to sustainable agriculture
    Read more on ACORD's work in Agriculture and food security.