@FAO_Yemen FAO country representative Salah ElHajjHassan and Yemeni officials at the FFS launch

November 3, 2016
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), in the presence of the FAO Regional Manager of the Small Scale Family farming and Farmer Field Schools (FFS) Regional Coordinator for the Near East and North Africa, Dr Alfredo Impiglia, FAO Country Representative, Dr Salah El Hajj Hassan, Ministry Agriculture and Irrigation Representative, Dr Mohamed Alhimiari, and Mr Hachem Alzazai representing the Governor of Hodeida, has officially launched the Farmer Field Schools (FFSs) programme, which represents an important component in the Enhanced Rural Resilience in Yemeni (ERRY) project in order to improve the agricultural crop and livestock value chains. It should be noted that FFS programmes have trained more than 12 million farmers – mainly small farm holders – in more than 90 countries around the world including the Republic of Yemen.
FFS is increasingly being recognized as an important participatory extension tool in providing small scale producers - including pastoralists and fishers - with innovative and locally adaptive solutions to their problems for poverty reduction, building social and economic resilience for sustainable livelihoods and food security. FFS are tailored for farmers to better understand the local agro-ecology in order to improve sustainable farming through field experimental, monitoring, innovative agricultural practices and environmentally friendly decision-making.
The Country Representative of FAO, Dr. Salah ElHajjHassan, indicated that the ERRY project is a joint program funded by the European Union as an important step towards improving the capacity of communities on the management of local risks and shocks in order to increase economic self-reliance and the promotion of community cohesion. All institutions concerned by this support also will be responsive and responsible and effective in delivering services and building community cohesion and to meet the specific needs of the community.
Dr. Salah also explained that the FAO will provide full support to strengthen the capacity for local authorities towards adopting systematic farmer field schools in targeted areas in order to improve productivity and increase agricultural and livestock production and to support families affected by war and on-going conflict to achieve food security and to ensure sustainability in empowerment and exchange of experiences and the formation of good practices that can be transferred and circulated to other parts of Yemen.
The launching of FFS programme in Hodeida and Hajjah was hold on the 3rd of November in Hodeidah and was attended by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Dr Mohamed Alhemiary, the Deputy Governor of Hodaida, the DG of Tehama Development Authority, the DG of Planning and International Cooperation in Hodeida, the DG of Agriculture and Irrigation in Hajjah, and a number of agriculture extension specialists from the targeted districts in Hajjah and Hodeida.
Dr Impiglia declared that FFS is a proven participatory extension method which could boost agriculture in the above mentioned governorates and at the same time improve food security in the rural areas which could then be reflected in an economic local growth. The goal of the FFS programme is to improve extension capacity of the Miinistry of Agriculture as well as farmer skills in order to boost the quality and quantity of the products which will consequently improve food security and nutritional value. FAO has fielded experts for training extension officers on technical and FFS methodological subjects; the FFS training is on-going in Hodeidah for over 30 extension officers; it has been planned to establish, in its first year of the ERRY Project, 40 FFS on livestock and crops for approximately 800 small farm holders in Hodeida and Hajjah. The FFS programme will scale up progressively in the second and third year of the ERRY project.