Eventos

Part 1: Exhibition by champion farmers at the ASK show in Kisumu: 28 July -2 August 2014

Working with the Kisumu ASK show to push forward the goal of a food secure Kenya through modern innovations, Nyando champion farmers will display new advancements, improving perceptions and creating positive dialogue about agriculture in western Kenya. These are the farmers have been involved in a learning event in their villages; and will now exchange ideas with people outside their community. Their exposure will also help them exchange ideas that will catalyse establishment of Nyando climate-smart villages. A total of six champion farmers will make the exhibitions, with two farmers from each community based organization participating.

Part 2: Training for women leaders, entrepreneurs and farmers: 28 July -2 August 2014

As part of the 2014 work plan on  participatory action research  in Nyando climate- smart villages, CCAFS East Africa intends to train 500 women, leaders and entrepreneurs and farmers in climate-smart innovations  focusing on three thematic areas;  new climate-smart practices and agro-advisories, appropriate  on farm tools and technologies; and accessing microfinance and micro- insurance using the opportunities at the Agricultural Society of Kenya (ASK) Kisumu Fair from 28^th July to  2^nd August, 2014. Farmers will be trained on agricultural practices and how agro-advisory services can improve their knowledge in making choices about farm enterprises under climate-smart agriculture. The Kisumu ASK training will involve women only because of their strong involvement in crop and livestock activities in Nyando. The participation of women in the farmer learning event earlier held was 62% compared to the men. The categories of women to be trained are entrepreneurs, leaders, and farmers. The specific objectives of the training are:

1. To expose women farmers to options to improve adaptive capacity and support knowledge transfer
2. To improve farmers understanding of appropriate agricultural practices and tools
3. To link women entrepreneurs and farmers to finance and insurance schemes in rural Kisumu and Kericho counties

The specific topics that farmers will be trained on are:

1. Appropriate technologies to increase on-farm productivity: e.g. agronomic methods, livestock technologies, farm equipment, post-harvest processing technologies
2. Climate related risk management through index insurance and microfinance
3.  Agro-advisories and how to integrate them with new and improved agriculture practices

Expected outputs & outcomes:  The expected outcomes of the farmer training are:

• Participating farmers directly gain from greater awareness of risks related to climate change, and lessons from exchanging with researchers, extension officers and other farmers to strengthen their adaptive capacity
• Other farmers from the villages will gain skills and knowledge from those who participate in the events
• The facilitators and trainers will use the training opportunity to develop indicators for assessing change in farmers’ adaptive capacity.