KOFLEC CONDUCTS 4TH SUCCESSFUL INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE LEARNING FOR 23 ORGANIC FFLG FACILITATORS
By Mbusa Mwirima James, KOFLEC
After weeks of preparations, on 14th October 2024, nineteen selected staff and master facilitators from the Kilimo Organic Farmers Learning Centre (KOFLEC) member organizations from Uganda and Tanzania gathered in Dar es Salaam to join their counterparts of UWAMWIMA in Zanzibar for the 4th International Exchange Learning Visit. They were organized in 3 teams – the Ugandan team which was composed of 15 members drawn from Caritas Kampala (CK) had 4 members; the Uganda Rural Development and Training (URDT) team – 4 members; the Great Lakes Organic Farmers Association (GLOFA) team – 4 members; and KOFLEC team - 3 members. The Tanzanian team composed of 4 members drawn from the Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement (TOAM); and the host UWAMWIMA team from Zanzibar of 4 members.
Learning from peers
This visit proved to be very exciting especially for some master facilitators and the newly recruited staff for whom it was their first time to participate in the exchange learning visit, and to cross international borders and visit the capitals of Kampala, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, as well as the historic Zanzibar City. For this author, there was much to learn from the historically important Zanzibar islands about which he had studied a lot from history lessons. He had so many illusions about Zanzibar which the learning visit was to put to rest. Such included the history of Zanzibar including the footprints of the slave trade, the ethnic and socio-economic identity of the population, and the relationship between the semi-autonomous government of Zanzibar and the United Republic of Tanzania.
Besides these personal illusions, the author and other participants had been asked and they had listed their expectations of the learning visit. These centered on learning about how FFLGs and Cooperatives as well as the marketing of organic horticultural products spices in Zanzibar is organized; how individual farmers, FFLGs and Cooperatives in Zanzibar mobilize resources for the horticultural value chains; and how UWAMWIMA and the FFLGs have leveraged and benefited from the tourism industry. Other expectations included how the certification of organic horticultural products is organized; and how UWAMWIMA is engaged in advocacy and has organized a Community of Practice for organic agriculture. For the host organization, UWAMWIMA, it expected to learn from the visiting teams how to address the challenges faced by the FFLGs in Zanzibar.
The international learning exchange is one of the centrally organized activities by KOFLEC for the ESFROMA Implementing Organizations (IOs). During these visits the FFLG facilitators learn about different climate resilient organic farming methods. KOFLEC has organized four international exchange learning visits. Each year a member organization of KOFLEC hosts the international exchange learning visit. The first learning visit was hosted by Caritas Kampala (CK), URDT, and GLOFA in Uganda in 2022; the second one by TOAM in Tanzania in 2022; and in 2023 the third one was organized as a national organic farmers’ conference in Kampala and was co-hosted by CK, URDT, and GLOFA. The fourth international exchange learning visit was hosted by UWAMWIMA in Zanzibar in 2024. These international exchange learning visits have proven to be among the best ways to learn new organic resilient farming practices, motivate action (for example in value addition), foster the spirit of working together as a Community of Practice (CoP) in the ESFROMA program, encourage farmer families to continue active participation in the FFLG activities, and inspire new actions/leadership in both the visited and visiting FFLGs/facilitators and encourage introduction of new enterprises in the FFLGs. These among the several benefits of international exchange learning visits motivated the learning visit for 2024 to go to the place where a learning visit has not been conducted before among the FFLGs.
UWAMWIMA
The choice of UWAMWIMA hosting the 2024 international exchange learning visit was hinged on the fact that Zanzibar offers unique learning experiences for the FFLGs in combining the production of horticultural crops and spices and tourism (agro-tourism) and for export. Whereas other FFLGs in Uganda and Tanzania are also engaged in the production of horticultural crops, albeit on a small scale, they are burdened by pest & disease challenges. In Zanzibar, the FFLGs under UWAMWIMA have accumulated a lot of experience in producing high quality organic horticultural crops and spices amidst challenges of water scarcity and high pest burden. In addition UWAMWIMA is actively involved in the Zanzibar Organic Initiative, ‘nanenane’, and in the marketing and export of organic horticultural products. This presented a big opportunity for the Ugandan and Tanzanian FFLG Facilitators to explore new experiences that, when contextualized in their FFLGs, can result into improving the FFLGs’ social, economic and ecological Therefore, the purpose of the 2024 International Exchange Learning visit was to enable the FFLG master facilitators to explore the unique experiences on organic production of horticultural products, the vital collaborations for enhancing organic agriculture, the Zanzibar Organic Initiative (ZOI), advocacy, and collective marketing particularly tapping into the less explored opportunity presented by the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS).
Based on the above expectations, the organizers, therefore, developed a four-fold objective of the international learning visit, namely: to share knowledge about the FFLG approach among the facilitators based on the practical experience in UWAMWIMA; to exchange knowledge and experience on the organic resilient practices for horticultural products; to exchange knowledge on strategies for collective marketing of organic products; and to enhance the Implementing Organization (IO)’s ownership of joint activities conducted by
The international exchange learning visit, which was by road, started in the Ugandan capital of Kampala and the Tanzania capital of Dodoma on 12th and 13th October 2024 respectively. The two teams converged in Dar es Salaam started on 14th October 2024 to board the 3:00pm boat to Zanzibar. Arriving in Zanzibar at about 5:30pm the teams were received by the UWAMWIMA team led by Mr. Khamis Issa Ibrahim. The field visits took place on the 15th and 16th October 2024. Four FFLGs were visited. These included the Vanilla Spices Farmers FFLG in Donge Mbiji Village, North B District; Nia Safi FFLG in Dunga Kiembeni village, central district; Twendeni Pamoja FFLG in Bungi Village, central district; and Tufahamiane FFLG in Kazimkazi village in the South District. In addition the teams also visited some individual farms belonging to members of these FFLGs. Such included Mr. Sharji’s organic farm in Bungi village , Mr. Mrisho’s organic farm in Bungi village in central district. Lastly the teams visited Mr.Shija’s farm in Ukongoroni village in the central district. A member of Twendeni Pamoja FFLG.