The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Their goal is to achieve food security for all and ensure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. The FAO hosts multiple 'platforms' or 'hubs', some of which also feature Communities of Practice (CoP). These aim to educate and provide useful resources related to specific themes, like family farming and agroecology, and creating partnerships and collaborations.
FiBL is a member of the Family Farming Knowledge Platform Network, which helps connect key players and encourages them to explore common interest that may serve to establish partnerships and collaborations among its members. Additionally, FiBL is a contributor to the Agroecology Knowledge Hub. This participatory initiative welcomes contributions and allows users to submit information about themselves, their work, and relevant content on agroecology. The African Organic Agriculture Training Manual and Organic Farm Knowledge Platform are featured in the resource database on previously mentioned FAO platforms.
African Organic Agriculture Training Manual
The African Organic Agriculture Training Manual's overall objective is to increase the options for farmers through knowledge and empowerment. Until now, no comprehensive and farmer-oriented training resource materials have been developed on organic agriculture in Africa. This circumstance prompted FiBL to establish a set of organic farming and training resource materials for African conditions together with African partner organisations.
The training materials were elaborated by FiBL and partner organisations in Africa and overseas in different projects. The website is a key source for training resources on organic farming in Africa. It contains farmer-oriented and easy-to-understand training resource materials that were specially developed for African conditions. FiBL, its partners and projects continue to produce new materials and, therefore, the range of materials and themes will continue to expand. FiBL aims to offer as far as possible regional, user and needs-specific materials and aims for further collaboration with new partners to continue supporting organic agriculture in Africa. This collaboration with the FAO is doing just that. The African Organic Agriculture Training Manual is available in the two databases mentioned above and was also featured in the December newsletter of the Agroecology Knowledge Platform as seen in the photo and linked below.
Organic Farm Knowledge platform
The Organic Farm Knowledge (OFK) online platform intends to promote productivity and quality in organic farming across Europe by providing access to a diverse range of tools. It encourages knowledge exchange among farmers, farm advisors and scientists. FiBL maintains the platform in collaboration with partners from the OK-Net EcoFeed project.
The Organic Farm Knowledge platform is now featured in the database of both the Agroecology Hub and the Family Farming Knowledge Platform. Additionally, OFK is currently involved in the Global Family Farming & Agroecology Community of Practice (CoP). This e-mail group brings together people committed to working on family farming and agroecology related issues allowing them to share and co-create information, knowledge and advice to achieve sustainable agriculture and food systems. Currently, there are more than 1000 members subscribed from 110 different countries.
In addition to the Global CoP, the FAO also hosts two sub-communities for Africa, and Latin America and Caribbean Regions (LAC). All are linked below. The OFK platform shared its monthly newsletter, which featured the latest news, tools, videos and more, with the CoP to further its outreach. The OFK team has received some positive replies and feedback from members of the community already.
The Organic Farm Knowledge platform was also highlighted in the Agroecology Knowledge Platform December 2020 Newsletter under the 'Latest from partners' section! This newsletter is available in English, French and Spanish, and the subscription is linked below.
The synergistic partnership between the FAO and FiBL projects will further the outreach, and hopefully allow project results to reach more farmers and practitioners worldwide.
Further information
Contact
Links
fao.org
- Agroecology Knowledge Hub
- Family Farming Knowledge Platform
- Agroecology Knowledge Hub Newsletter subscription
- Family Farming Knowledge Platform Newsletter
- Agroecology Knowledge Platform December 2020 Newsletter
Dgroups.org
- Family Farming & Agroecology Community of Practice
- Family Farming & Agroecology Community of Practice AFRICA
- Family Farming and Agroecology Community of Practice LAC