The standard is being developed by a regional public-private sector working group whose members include representatives of the national bureaus of standards, national organic movements and organic certifying bodies of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, and the East African Business Council. There have been several rounds of national multi-stakeholder consultations, and field testing has been carried out. On 14th - 15th of December, the Regional Standard Technical Working Group (RSTWG) considered comments received on the second draft of the standard following wide circulation and consultation. Innovative public-private work on the project is also taking place at regional and national levels among members of a self-proclaimed "East African Organic Team," which is open to all who are interested in the sector’s development.

A UNEP-UNCTAD Capacity Building Task Force on Trade, Environment and Development (CBTF)-IFOAM East Africa Organic Policy Workshop on the December 11th provided a platform for dialogue among those developing policies to promote Organic Agriculture. Selected experts from other African countries and international organizations shared their experiences. Inputs to the Policy Workshop include UNCTAD’s Trade and Environment Review 2006 and research carried out under the CBTF East Africa Organic Project, particularly a study on best practices for government organic policies and initial findings of integrated assessment projects in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. These assessment projects analyze the environmental, social and economic impacts of different policy options.

The Standards Forum, Policy Workshop and RSTWG are part of a series of Organic Agriculture-related events organized by CBTF and IFOAM from December 10th – 16th at the Stanley Hotel in Nairobi. Other events include meetings of the IFOAM Standards Committee, including a joint session with the RSTWG to discuss international private sector acceptance of the organic standard, and a meeting of the IFOAM Africa Advisory Group. For more information, visit the IFOAM website at http://www.ifoam.org/partners/projects/osea.html.

In order to cope with the unprecedented crisis affecting the cotton sector in the past decade, Helvetas-Mali initiated in 1998 a program to promote and market organic and fair-trade cotton. The objective is two-fold: increase the income of cotton producers and protect the environment. Now about to enter its last phase, “the program has shown encouraging results in its areas of intervention: Kolondiéba, Yanfolila and Bougouni,” reported Sidi El Moctar N’guiro, the president of Mobiom. “The number of producers increased from 174 to 1700, among which 40% were women, and production increased from 47 to 386 tons of seed cotton. In addition, we obtained the Ecocert certificate in 2002 and the Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO) certificate in 2004” he said. The program currently includes 29 producer cooperatives and a total area of 859 hectares in organic cotton, 364 hectares of organic sesame seeds and 122,000 certified organic shea butter trees.

The partners involved in this project agree on the fact that, with a price of 272 CFA Franc (west-African currency) per kilo paid to the producer for organic cotton as compared to 160 CFA Franc for conventional cotton, the organic cotton market offers huge opportunities and can represent a credible way out for the 3 million of producers in Mali. The Helvetas-Mali Program to promote agricultural sub-chains is now considering promoting the organic mango and organic banana sub-chains in Mali. According to Modibo Traoré (Helvetas-Mali), this program fits into a development strategy to find alternative activities to improve farmers’ incomes in the context of the conventional cotton crisis. For more information, please contact info@helvetas-mali.org.

Following these successful piloting experiences in Zimbabwe over the last 15 or so years, and recognizing calls from partners in the region, the SCOPE Programme now wants to share its learning points with countries in East and Southern Africa. To this end, the program is now bringing together interested stakeholders from the region in a strategic planning workshop on setting up regional links for the SCOPE Programme. The workshop is being held in Lusaka, Zambia, from the 17th to the 21st of December 2006. It will be the occasion of experience and expectations sharing between the different stakeholders interested in ILUD in the region. For more information, please contact Mugove Walter Nyika, National Coordinator of the Zimbabwe SCOPE Programme, at scope@ecoweb.co.zw.

Grolink reports a tremendous interest in the training in 2006 with 200 African applicants, out of which 25 well qualified persons were invited. The program started in July and August 2006 in Uddeholm, Värmland, Sweden. The participants prepared for the training by collecting data on the situation of Organic Agriculture in their home countries. During the three week training in July-August the program encompassed lectures, group works and study visits to organic farms and other companies of interest. In the evenings the participants kept working on their development plans. After the intensive training in Sweden, the participants went back to their home country, where they are continuing to refine and further elaborate their development plans, with an aim towards full-fledged implementation. The last phase of the training will be held from January 9th-22nd, in Kenya.

The program alters between an Asian and African focus, every second year and so the program will only be open to Asian participants next year. But in 2008 it will only be open to African participants, again. For more information, please see www.grolink.se or contact doa@grolink.se.

Well before the advent of chemical fertilizer use in agriculture, all farming was organic, and even if examples abound of successful Organic Agriculture productivity, there has always been a need for broad national programs that aim at embracing organic farming as a national strategy. Recently the Government of Rwanda adopted a household poverty reduction strategy. The strategy focuses on only one major intervention, each household in Rwanda being able to own at least one cow by the turn of 10 years! What is the significance and likely outcome of this strategy from the perspective of Organic Agriculture?

Rwanda is a small country with a large population. For a long time, farmers have been forced to over cultivate the same plots of land, resulting into declining productivity and outputs. There has been a growing tendency by the farmers and organizations that support them to promote fertilizer use as a remedy to declining soil productivity. This strategy has neither been successful nor is it sustainable. This is cited in Rwanda as a major contributing factor for the accelerated decline of soil fertility, which often results in farmer frustrations and forced migration.

In the event that the government and people in Rwanda respond to the one cow per household strategy, the following positive returns are expected:

• More effort will be invested by farmers to grow fodder crops.
• Animals will most certainly be kept at zero grazing due to limited grazing areas.
• An estimated 2 million Zero grazing cows will be owned by at least 2 million households.
• Each day tons of manure will be produced from the cow dung.
• Manure, besides other uses such as biogas will be fed back into farm gardens to boost soil fertility.
• The government hopes that once the strategy begins to work, there will be irreversible livelihood improvements over a range of other sectors as well.
• More milk will be produced and consumed.
• More self esteem will emerge, since in Rwanda, like many countries in the region, consider ownership of animals to be a status symbol.
• Other linkages, such as milk and meat processing, will become viable options.  

PELUM Association Rwanda has been one of the rapidly growing organizations to embrace this strategy. In August 2006, PELUM organized and sponsored farmers supported by five of its members to travel to Uganda for a three week organic and sustainable agriculture program. Supported by a PELUM member DUHAMIC, farmers upon return had already decided to phase out their fertilizer shop and convert to organic farming.  The farmers who collectively operated the fertilizer shop are now instead working together to ensure that they support one another to speedily purchase cows. According to Mr. Ndolimana, chairperson of the Rwandan small-scale farmers association, this will help members of his organization acquire animals and in turn will help to feed and keep the soils healthy. Contact: Joseph Ssuuna (PELUM) at jssuuna@pelum.org.zm.

There is a concern by organic farmers and exporters that this will adversely affect the exports from which the smallholders (i.e. fish, horticulture, cotton, coffee) sustain their livelihood. Even though the government says that they will use an Indoor Residue Spraying (IRS) program, this does not guarantee that there will not be any linkage to the environment, and hence into the food chain. 

The National Environmental Management Agency (NEMA) has carried out an environmental study, which resulted in an Impact Statement; it later organized a public hearing for comments from the public. At this public hearing on November 21st 2006, the National Organic Agricultural Movement (NOGAMU) and its stakeholders from coffee, cotton, horticulture and fish presented possible sustainable alternatives and facts about the implications of spraying DDT and its effects on the Organic Agriculture sub sector. In the same meeting, however, the pro-DDT lobby group - backed by officials from the Ministry of Health - seemed to say that it’s a done deal, its either DDT or death.

In the December 11th issue of the Daily Monitor (one of the 2 most important newspapers in Uganda), the health Officer of Kanungu district, Dr. Ssebude Stephen, is quoted calling upon the local leaders to mobilize the population to cooperate in implementing the DDT spraying exercise that has started. Kanungu is one of the organic spots, and looking at the way things are going in Uganda, even before NEMA announces its position regarding DDT, there is political will by government to spread it through the country. The implication is that if such a case happens, then the sector has to prepare a contingency plan, which of course means higher costs of production and exportation. For more information, please contact Jackline Kabahinda, Policy and Advocacy Officer at NOGAMU at jkabahinda@nogamu.org.ug.