Regional Focus, Ep 33: FSPN Africa Wins The Most Impactful in Providing Advisory & Reaching Women Farmers 2024 at the 8th Agrifin Learning Event.

16th October 2024 was an exciting day for the FSPN Africa that I can term as a blessing. We were able to successfully launch the HealthyDiets4Africa Agri-Business Accelerator Program, Cohort II during midday hours, and just before the day lapsed, I received the exciting news that FSPN Africa was recognized as The Most Impactful in Providing Advisory & Reaching Women Farmers 2024 at the 8th Agrifin Learning Event that was happening concurrently.

FSPN Africa continues to transform the agricultural landscape in East Africa, reaching over 210,000 farmers, 50% of whom are women across Kenya and Tanzania. This success has been fueled by the innovative Shamba Calendar digital application, a platform that provides smallholder farmers with critical advisory services, market linkages, and tools to improve their productivity. By specifically targeting women farmers through this app, FSPN Africa has taken significant strides toward fostering inclusive growth and sustainable opportunities within the agriculture sector.

How Has FSPN Africa Reached Women Farmers?

At the heart of FSPN Africa's success is the Shamba Calendar App, which connects farmers to essential information and resources through a network of lead farmers and Shamba Connectors. These community-based agents play a crucial role in ensuring that farmers, especially women, receive timely agricultural advisory content in a simplified way they can better understand and implement.

The Most Impactful in Providing Advisory & Reaching Women Farmers 2024 at the 8th Agrifin Learning Event.

Women, who form the backbone of many rural households, often have limited access to critical resources such as agricultural training, market information, and financial services. By leveraging the Shamba Calendar App, FSPN Africa is bridging this gap. The lead farmers, who are experienced individuals within the community, serve as trusted advisors, providing customized guidance on crop management, pest control, and sustainable farming techniques. Meanwhile, Shamba Connectors enable access to essential markets, ensuring that their produce reaches markets at competitive prices and at the right time.

The app is curbing one of the major barriers for smallholder farmers, especially women, accessing profitable markets. The Shamba Calendar App empowers women, and farmers, by opening up market opportunities beyond their local communities.

This market linkage feature is critical for women, who often face the added burden of juggling household responsibilities with farming. By removing barriers to market access, you can be sure FSPN Africa is enabling women farmers to secure better incomes and uplift their families and their families as consumers, contributing to overall community well-being.

The Role of Women in Agriculture: Why They Need More Empowerment

Women play a pivotal role in African agriculture, contributing up to 50%–80% of food production in some regions. Despite their significant contributions, they often face multiple challenges, including limited access to land, credit, technology, and markets. Empowering women farmers is not only about increasing their productivity but also about promoting gender equality and enhancing food security.

FSPN Africa recognizes that women's empowerment in agriculture is crucial for sustainable development. The Shamba Calendar App offers solutions tailored to their needs, providing tools that help you as a woman make informed decisions, adopt modern farming practices, and access vital information on weather patterns, pest outbreaks, and crop cycles. These resources have proven to be game-changers, allowing women to enhance their farm productivity and contribute more effectively to household food security.

Supporting women in agriculture goes beyond improving yields; it leads to broader social and economic benefits. You can attest that women farmers who are empowered with digital tools, market access, and training have been able to increase investment of their earnings in their families' health, education, and nutrition, creating a ripple effect of development within their communities.

Moreover, women often face more constraints than their male counterparts, including limited decision-making power and a higher labor burden. I want to especially acknowledge support from Mercy Corps Agrifin and GIZ that through the Digital Agriculture Africa project, FSPN Africa’s efforts in empowering women have been vital in addressing these disparities.

By providing them with tailored advisory services and market connections, you can be sure women farmers will not only improve their agricultural practices but also gain financial independence and a stronger voice within their communities that influence development and food and nutrition security.

Nutrition knowledge has also given them an edge to indulge in farming with a purpose, understanding that health comes first and better health increases productivity level, saves money that could be injected in medical treatment, and increases the performance of children at school. The work of supporting women does not stop here; FSPN Africa also has programs working to impart business development skills to enable them to exploit value addition and other agribusiness opportunities. This is happening through HealthyDiets4Africa project.

Inception Workshop of HealthyDiets4Africa Agribusiness Accelerator Program, Cohort II:

The HealthyDiets4Africa (HD4A) Agribusiness Accelerator Program, initiated by FSPN Africa, is making waves across Kenya in promoting innovations that address malnutrition, food insecurity, and the climate crisis. The Inception Workshop for Cohort II opened with valuable insights from key stakeholders, emphasizing the urgent need to enhance the uptake of underutilized food crops to secure Africa's food systems. How will the program will equip agri-innovators with the skills necessary to drive transformative innovations, ensuring sustainable, nutritious food for Africa?

Well, The central theme was clear: Scaling Food Systems Innovations by Youth and Women for HealthyDiets4Africa,  which indicates Africa's food and nutrition security is intricately tied to agriculture. FSPN’s focus aligns strongly with Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger. In my keynote address, I captured the essence of this mission: "We cannot turn a blind eye to climate change and its direct impact on our food baskets. The innovations fostered in this program must prioritize sustainable food production to feed our growing population."

Food System Diversification Approach. Presentation by Dr.Emmanuel Donkor, HealthyDiets4Africa Project Manager.

HD4A aims to increase food system diversification across eight African countries, including Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda. This initiative recognizes that underutilized crops such as sorghum, millet, and traditional vegetables, can play a pivotal role in addressing food and nutrition security while promoting biodiversity. By focusing on these crops, the program ensures that agribusiness innovators can tap into new markets by promoting the adoption of these foods with their innovative approaches while enhancing resilience against climate change.

How Will the Training Help Agripreneurs Scale Innovations?

The HD4A Agribusiness Accelerator Program is designed to empower agri-innovators, particularly youth and women, with the knowledge, tools, and networks to scale their innovations. During the workshop, Dr. Emmanuel Donkor highlighted a crucial statistical aspect that prompted the birth of this project: “Africa continues to face persistent malnutrition, with 20% of the population undernourished and 30% of children stunted. The HD4A project will diversify food systems to tackle these alarming statistics.”

Through intensive training, as a participant, you will develop sustainable food production technologies that prioritize environmental sustainability and climate resilience. This will be critical in combating malnutrition and improving food availability. The program’s training modules are structured to provide:

  • Market Analysis and Business Development: As an Agripreneur, you will learn how to evaluate the market potential of underutilized crops and develop business models that ensure profitability while addressing food security challenges.
  • Sustainable Agribusiness Practices: Emphasizing climate-smart agriculture, you will be trained on methods to optimize production while minimizing environmental impact. Additionally, you will learn all aspects about food safety, how to manage hazards and certifications processes that are key in enhancing market expansion and consumer trust.

Dr. Juliana Kiio, Lecturer and researcher in Food Safety from Kenyatta University underscored we are responsible for food safety and must take charge at all contact points where and when we are interacting with food. This helps to tract the source of contamination and take mitigative measures on time.

  • Consumer Behavior and Product Development: Your Agribusinesses will be guided on how to develop and market products from underutilized crops, ensuring consumer acceptance through innovation, taste, and nutritional benefits.

The interesting part is that learning will be virtual and through a digital platform, The Community Virtual Hub, that will allow agri-innovators to do self-paced learning.

What Will the Youth and Women Gain in the Program?

The workshop placed a strong emphasis on youth and women as key drivers of change within Africa’s agribusiness landscape. “Youth unemployment rates in Africa are alarming, with 33% of those aged 15-35 unemployed,” Dr. Donkor noted. The program seeks to harness the potential of this demographic by providing them with opportunities to engage in sustainable agribusiness ventures that improve livelihoods and contribute to food security.

Training in the accelerator program will give these young innovators the tools to address food insecurity by scaling their businesses, improving local economies, and contributing to broader development goals. Women, in particular, are encouraged to lead in agribusiness ventures, helping to close the gender gap in agricultural production and leadership. In this cohort II, about 99 Agri-business Innovators will be trained. At the end you will become investor-ready for bigger opportunities.

What Are the Program's Long-Term Goals?

The HD4A initiative, funded by the European Union and running until 2028, is committed to leaving a lasting impact on Africa’s food systems. The project’s long-term goals are ambitious yet attainable: promoting diversified, sustainable food systems that provide social, economic, and ecological benefits.

As the workshop underscored, agribusiness innovations supported through HD4A will contribute to not only economic growth but also improved health outcomes. By training participants to develop and market nutritious food products from underutilized crops, the program aims to combat malnutrition while boosting food sovereignty across Africa.

Dr. Donkor also underscored the need to protect our food sovereignty as Africa. This can best be done through developing innovative production system for underutilized crops.

“And one beautiful thing that I always admire about African continent is about food diversity. We have a lot of traditional foods that if we are not careful, some few years to come, if we don't protect it, they are going to go extinct.”

Another objective is to enhance consumer acceptance and adoption of diversified sustainable food products that support human health. This will happen when new varieties are developed, innovative products are developed, leading to the need to test these products and explore how consumers react to this product and further develop strategies to promote their acceptability to improve health and nutrition.

includes promoting already existing sustainable innovation and technologies, as well as introducing new technologies

The Inception Workshop of the HealthyDiets4Africa Agribusiness Accelerator Program, Cohort II, marks the beginning of an exciting journey for agripreneurs dedicated to transforming Africa’s food systems. The program’s comprehensive training, which covers key aspects from business development to food safety, is critical to scaling innovations that will increase the production and consumption of underutilized crops.

I noted in my keynote address, "Let us rethink how we grow, process, and deliver food to create a sustainable system that promotes healthier diets for all Kenyans and beyond."

The future of Africa’s food and nutrition security depends on the success of initiatives like HD4A. With the right support, training, and innovative thinking, the program’s participants will play a crucial role in ensuring a sustainable, food-secure Africa for generations to come.

A Brighter Future for Women in Agriculture

Through the Shamba Calendar App and Community Virtual Hub, FSPN Africa is driving innovation in East African agriculture, ensuring that women farmers have access to the resources, knowledge and entrepreneurship skills, and markets they need to thrive. I already excited about what the future of the food systems looks like, but all these need your support, one being financial support to increase adoption and two utilizing the afore mentioned digital tools. By fostering inclusivity and empowering women, FSPN Africa is not only transforming individual livelihoods but also building a more resilient and equitable agricultural system in Kenya and Tanzania.

Lastly, I want to acknowledge my Team at FSPN Africa for their endless determination that has brought about all these success. Your input has been unanimously recognized. Keep doing the best work of serving our communities and empowering lives.

For more information, contact info@fspnafrica.org

FAQs

The Role of Women in Agriculture: Why They Need More Empowerment?

Supporting women in agriculture goes beyond improving yields; it leads to broader social and economic benefits. Women farmers who are empowered with digital tools, market access, and training are more likely to invest their earnings in their families' health, education, and nutrition, creating a ripple effect of development within their communities.

What is The Shamba Calendar?

It is an App, which connects farmers to essential information and resources through a network of Shamba Connectors. These include farming advisory, precise weather updates, market information and market access.

What does HD4A stand for?

H4DA stands for HealthyDiets4Africa Project

What Role Do Youth and Women Play in the HD4A Agribusiness Accelerator Program, Cohort II?

Training in the accelerator program will give these young innovators the tools to address food insecurity by scaling their businesses, improving local economies, and contributing to broader development goals. Women, in particular, are encouraged to lead in agribusiness ventures, helping to close the gender gap in agricultural production and leadership.

When did the HD4A Agribusiness Accelerator Program, Cohort I end?

Cohort I training of the HD4A Agribusiness Accelerator Program, Cohort I ended in July, 2024. Those who completed were awarded with a certificate.

Who are participating in the HD4A Agribusiness Accelerator Program, Cohort II?

All Agri-innovators, the youths and women who applied for the call for agri-innovators Agribusiness Accelerator Program Cohort II. This includes groups of entrepreneurs.

How will the training be done?

The training will be done through zoom live classes and self pace learning through the Community Virtual Hub, where learning modules will be hosted.

How Does the Program Address the Challenges of Climate Change?

Climate change is a pressing challenge for Africa’s food systems, and the HD4A Agribusiness Accelerator Program is tackling this head-on. As Kalvince Otieno stated, "We must adopt new strategies to achieve sustainable food systems amidst the current climate changes." With unpredictable weather patterns threatening agricultural productivity, the program’s focus on climate-smart innovations, including carbon farming, is timely.

Is the program funded? The HD4A initiative, funded by the European Union and running until 2028.