| |  | | February 2011 |
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- IFOAM's Organic Alternative for Africa
- Meet IFOAM at BioFach 2011!
- Push-Pull Method: an innovative and low-tech solution to control stemborers in Africa
- Farmers of the Bufumbo Organic Coffee Farmers Association (BOFA) - Uganda increase their income through direct access to high value coffee markets in Denmark
- Ecological practices such as compost use and crop diversification increased yields in Tigray, Ethiopia
- Organic Agriculture Enhances the Livelihoods of 5,000 Farmers in West Africa
- Upcoming Organic Agriculture related events
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| | 1. IFOAM's Organic Alternative for Africa
| | | IFOAM's Organic Alternative for Africa is a continental strategy to increase awareness of the multiple benefits of organic agriculture and facilitate the integration of organic agriculture solutions and opportunities at the core of African policies and agricultural development.
IFOAM wishes to engage with organizations and groups interested in working with IFOAM and the African organic movement in the framework of the Organic Alternative for Africa.
Please contact Hervé Bouagnimbeck (h.bouagnimbeck@ifoam.org) at the IFOAM Africa Office for more details.
| | | | | 2. Meet IFOAM at BioFach 2011!
| | | BioFach 2011, the largest International Organic Fair, will take place from February 16-19, 2011 in Nuremberg. During these four days, IFOAM will organize a series of events to share information and some of the latest debates in the Organic World. The detailed program of the IFOAM Congress sessions at BioFach 2011 is available HERE.
The IFOAM staff will also warmly welcome you in Hall #1, Booth #240. We will be happy to inform you about IFOAM's work, introduce you to our new publications, or process your membership fee payment for 2011. We also invite you to come and celebrate at our booth at our Korean Organic Night on February 17, where drinks and snacks will be served.
For more information about IFOAM's participation at BioFach 2011, please contact Martin Pairet at m.pairet@ifoam.org.
The main fair will be preceded by an IFOAM Summit scheduled for Tuesday, February 15. IFOAM members still have the possibility to link via internet to the Summit. The remote webinar session will take place from 15.30-17:30 hours German time. To register, please contact Thomas Cierpka at t.cierpka@ifoam.org latest by February 11, 2011. He will introduce you to the technical requirements and will test the webinar software with you.
| | | | | 3. Push-Pull Method: an innovative and low-tech solution to control stemborers in Africa
| | | The push-pull method developed by the International Research Institute ICIPE in Kenya, together with local farmers, is an effective and low-tech solution to control maize stemborer in Africa. In combination with the striga weed, the stemborer can destroy whole crops. The Push-pull strategy is scientifically well evidenced. It reduces stemborer attack and improves soil fertility, resulting to yield increases of up to 200 percent while reducing dependency on chemical pesticides and GMOs.
The technique involves planting the legume desmodium (Desmodium uncinatum, or silverleaf) between rows of maize. Desmodium produces an odor that stem borers dislike. The smell “pushes” away the stem borer moths from the maize crop. Desmodium also suppresses striga weed and being a legume, fixes nitrogen in the soil and thus improve soil fertility. Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) is planted as a trap in the border around the maize fields. Napier grass has an odor that makes it more attractive to stem borer moths than maize and it “pulls” the egg laying adult moths away from the food crop to the trap crop. Most of the eggs are killed in the sticky sap of the Napier grass. Therefore very few stem borer larvae survive and the maize is saved because of the “push-pull” strategy.
More information: www.push-pull.net/works.shtml
| | | | | 4. Farmers of the Bufumbo Organic Coffee Farmers Association (BOFA) - Uganda increase their income through direct access to high value coffee markets in Denmark
| | | The Ugandan Farmers Association BOFA exports coffee directly to Denmark, resulting in an 80 percent increase in profit. This has enabled individual organic farming households to improve their living conditions and food security.
Early 2006, NOGAMU, the National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda, embarked on a pilot project of organizing and consolidating smallholder farmers near the Ugandan city of Mbale into a model successful and strong organic coffee farming cooperative. The official organic certification was completed early 2009. Quickly after that, the group started exporting its organic coffee directly to Denmark.
Farmers of the BOFA used to sell their unprocessed coffee beans to a trader. He would grind the beans and sell them on to an exporter. After doing the final processing, the exporter would package the coffee and export it. Now the Bufumbo Organic Farmers Association (BOFA) exports directly to a Danish importer. “BOFA hires the processing and grading services. For the final product the farmers get 6,000 Ugandan shillings ($2.58) per kilo, twice as much as they would normally get from the sale of unprocessed coffee beans. Once you take the costs into account, 80 percent more profit remains,” calculates Musa Muwanga, Chief Executive Officer of NOGAMU.
Initially, 100 farmers exported their coffee via BOFA. At the end of 2010 there were over 800 farmers doing so. "This is important: the more volume, the more bargaining power," emphasizes Muwanga. Farmers benefit from the large demand for organic coffee. Another three buyers have shown interest in BOFA coffee.
NOGAMU would like to copy the success of this direct support and export to other farming cooperatives. "The potential is very big," concludes Muwanga. "But we must be sure that there are enough resources to support farmers for at least three years. In half a year you can not support them sustainably."
More information: Musa Muwanga at mkmuwanga@nogamu.org.ug.
| | | | | 5. Ecological practices such as compost use and crop diversification increased yields in Tigray, Ethiopia | | | The “Sustainable Development and Ecological Land Management with Farming Communities in Tigray (Tigray Project) was initiated by the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD), the Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development (BoARD), and Mekelle University in four villages of the Tigray Province in Northen Ethiopia in 1996.
Within the Tigray project, farmers have used numbers of innovations and organic practices such as composting, crop diversification and improved water management to reverse the developments in an area formerly severely affected by problems such as overgrazing, soil erosion and depletion of water resources, which exacerbate rural poverty.
The Tigray Project is farmer-led and builds on the local technologies and knowledge of the farming communities. The higher yields achieved through organic management practices resulted in:
- farmers having the evidence and confidence to withdraw costly synthetic fertilizers;
- a greater diversity of crops;
- improved farm resilience;
- higher ground water tables;
- better nutrition; and
- new income opportunities.
By 2008 the successes of the project led to its expansion throughout the country including 165 communities in the Tigray region. Moreover, the Tigray Project has become the government model for combating land degradation and eradicating poverty from Ethiopia.
More information: www.fao.org/docrep/012/al134e/al134e11.pdf
www.naturskyddsforeningen.se/upload/
| | | | | 6. Organic Agriculture Enhances the Livelihoods of 5,000 Farmers in West Africa | | | According to a FAO press release, FAO projects have enhanced the livelihoods of approximately 5,000 farmers in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal und Sierra Leone. The projects’ outcomes include:
- Producers gained access to higher value organic markets in the industrialized world and could provide their families with a richer and more varied diet.
- Organic agricultural practices learned through the projects were transferred to the production of subsistence crops, improving productivity and local food security.
- Income from higher value markets was used to send children to school, pay medical expenses or improve the overall productivity of the farm, thereby improving living conditions and food security.
More information: www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/40551/icode/
| | | | | 7. Upcoming Organic Agriculture related events
| | | Ugandan National Organic Day
June 2011
Kampala, Uganda
For more information, please contact Musa Muwanga: mkmuwanga@nogamu.org.ug.
The 17th IFOAM Organic World Congress
September 28 – October 1, 2011
Gyeonggi Paldang, South Korea
Register online now!
IFOAM General Assembly
October 3-5, 2011
Gyeonggi Paldang, South Korea
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Email: h.bouagnimbeck@ifoam.org
Head Office Contact Information
Charles-de-Gaulle-Str. 5
53113 Bonn, Germany
Tel: +49-228-92650-10
Fax: +49-228-92650-99
Email: headoffice@ifoam.org
http://www.ifoam.org
© 2011 IFOAM - All rights reserved. International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) e.V.
Trial Court Bonn, Association Register no. 8726
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