Issue 14 – April 2010

Message from the Director
In Africa, 95 per cent of the agriculture sector is represented by smallholder farmers living in remote rural areas with limited infrastructure. They need the support of farmers' organizations to help them connect better to markets, increase agricultural productivity and develop their business further to permanently improve their livelihood. Farmers and their organizations are an integral part of IFAD's work, and to this end they need to be systematically involved in all stages of projects and programmes, from conception and design to the daily running of operations and the evaluation of results.
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Special feature on the Farmers' Forum: a promising future
Since the Farmers' Forum last convened two years ago, the world has experienced multiple crises, exacerbated by the global recession and climate change. These crises not only revealed decades of neglect of the agricultural sector, but also alerted the world to the importance of developing agriculture as a source of economic growth and political stability.
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Outcome of the regional workshop on Eastern and Southern Africa
The workshop on Eastern and Southern Africa, which took place as part of a series of regional workshops organized by the Forum, focused mainly on smallholders' access to markets. It was chaired by Ides de Willebois and moderated by Benoit Thierry, Country Programme Manager for Madagascar and the Seychelles.
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Improving women farmers' livelihoods through a farmers' organization: interview with Alice Kachere
Alice Kachere came to the Farmers' Forum as a woman leader to represent the national Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi (NASFAM). Since she joined the organization in 2001, she quickly rose through the ranks to become the second-ever female chairperson of the board (in 2008).
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Promoting better market access for smallholders: interview with Philippe Kiriro
Philippe Kiriro has been a farmers' leader since 1997, first as chairman of the Kenyan National Farmers' Union, and later of the Kenyan National Federation of Agricultural Producers. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa
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Rice crops improved through farmers' field schools in Zanzibar
Yusuf Faki Yusuf is a 43-year-old farmer in the Unguja North A district in Zanzibar. For years, he was struggling to make a living farming rice because of recurrent bad crops and declining yields. In 2007, his life changed when he started attending a farmers' field school (FFS) introduced in his area under IFAD...
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Rural women entrepreneurs' network born out of an IFAD south-south exchange visit
In June 2009, a group of 16 women farmers, including representatives of farmers' organizations working as part of the IFAD-supported Rural Income Promotion Programme (PPRR) and Support Programme for Rural Microenterprise Poles and Regional Economies (PROSPERER) in Madagascar, were taken to Mauritius as part of a south-south exchange visit.
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