24 July 2017 - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development (MoAIWD), through the Pesticide Control Board will conduct a three-week Training of Facilitators Course on the Farmer Field School (FFS) Methodology for extension workers from 7-25 August 2017 at Zomba Residential Training Centre. The course will target participants from Balaka, Chikwawa, Machinga, Mangochi, Nsanje, Salima and Zomba districts.  The course aims at equipping participants with the concepts on the FFS Methodology and how the approach can be adapted to the mainstream extension service delivery mechanism. It also aims at empowering farmers with the necessary analytical tools to enable them analyse their production practices within their own context and identify possible sustainable location and situation-specific solutions. 

It is part of the interim joint efforts between FAO and the Department of Agricultural Extension Services within the MoAIWD to streamline and enhance capacity development and quality assurance of FFS programming in the country. 

The training is being conducted within the framework of the project “Pesticide Risk Reduction in Malawi” supported by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and implemented by FAO in collaboration with the Government of Malawi.

The aim of the three-year project is to dispose of 380 metric tonnes of obsolete pesticides including persistent organic pollutants (POPs), remediate one of the 4 contaminated sites and strengthen the legislative and institutional capacity for sound life cycle management of pesticide in order to safeguard against future accumulation.

The project also has a community outreach through FFS to promote safe alternatives to chemical pesticides by training both the extension staff and farmers on various integrated production and pest management practices. This will contribute towards reduction of the use of chemical pesticides in the agriculture intensification drive for food, nutrition and income security at household and national level.

Contacts:

For more information, please contact:

• Precious Chizonda |Project Coordinator | [email protected]
• Mike Chipalasa| |FAO-Malawi Communications|[email protected]