FIPS-Africa innovated and supports a network of self-employed village-based advisors (VBAs) who offer on-going training and advice, and access to good and services. Because this is all offered on farm, traditional barriers to women’s involvement in training or farmer groups is overcome. Around 60 % of the farmers FIP-Africa support are women. The training approach is inclusive, aiding all farmers in the villages – including women farmers and marginalized low-income farming families.
Farmers select the VBAs, ensuring they are trusted and knowledgeable about local farming conditions and practices. FIPS-Africa then trains the VBAs on a range of agricultural technologies and management practices suited to their specific villages.
The technologies that VBAs offered to smallholder farmers through the VBAs provide options to meet their food security and income objectives. The technologies also build on opportunities from the agroecological zone conditions and the local prevailing market opportunities.
VBAs provide inputs (such as improved seed), services (such as livestock vaccination) and advice on good farming practices to smallholder farmers. These microbusinesses offer the double benefit of creating income generating opportunities for VBAs and building a sustainable system for delivering agricultural extension services and technologies.
The VBAs offer farmers options such as improving livestock breeds, improved seed for cereals, legumes, and vegetative propagated crops; advice on, and access to crop nutrition products; and innovations such as deep tillage methods; and crop/grain protection. The village-based advisors earn commission from the sale of goods and services – which helps to make this delivery model sustainable. This model is most successful when farmers are involved in some higher value crops or livestock production. These tend to require inputs and services from the VBAs, from farmers who are seeing a significant increase in their on-farm incomes – making a win-win situation.
Farmers themselves
The self-employed village-based advisors collectively are a network with wide access to farmers – this make FIPS-Africa a significant partner for agri-input companies looking for cost effective ways to move their products to scale. Similarly, FIPS-Africa works with KALRO and international research agencies to get their research into use.
Village-based advisors have a strong driver to support other farmers in their communities. Despite being self-employed they adopt inclusive and pro-poor working practices. They recognize that women, young people, and resource-poor farming families cannot initially adopt expensive technologies. While a farmer may not initially be able to afford expensive seed and fertilizer to grow maize, she may be able to vaccinate her chickens. After selling her chickens, she may be able purchase inputs. Initially these are likely to address food security but overtime she will be introduced to technologies that increase her resilience.
All technologies selected by FIPS are a result of a farmer needs assessment.
VBAs disseminate agricultural technologies to all farmers in a village through the trail pack method. A trial pack typically contains 25 -100 g seed of an improved crop variety. The trial pack gives all farmers in a village, whether they are male or female, young or old, or wealthy or poor, the opportunity to “learn-by-doing” on their own farm with a new variety on their own farms with little risk.
Engaging VBAs in the distribution of trial packs ensures widespread and inclusive access to agricultural technologies. This method enables marginalized farmers—including women, the poor, and the elderly – to trial and adopt transformative agricultural practices directly on their land. Such inclusivity is achieved by the model’s unique approach of demonstrating technologies through both ‘Mother Demos’ and ‘Baby Demos.’ These demos are complemented by the distribution of trial packs, allowing individual farmers to learn by doing in their own farms.
The Small-Pack is effective in creating demand for improved varieties, and farmers invariably return to the VBA to purchase larger quantities of seed or livestock breed.
For self-pollinated and vegetatively propagated crops, farmers often engage in seed multiplication to increase the quantity of planting material and expand cultivation over larger areas to improve their food security.