Deep Roots

[

] 52

flowers and herbs, and create a line of value-added products

including hand-crafted beauty products. Growing Power is

even selling their products at 10 Walgreen’s Pharmacy and

store chains in Chicago.

In addition, Growing Power started the Rainbow Farmers’

Cooperative to support family farmers across the Midwestern

and Southern United States. The organization works with

more than 300 family farmers providing training, helping

them access markets and transportation as well as storage and

cooling centres – infrastructure that many small-scale family

farmers are unable to afford on their own.

Professional training in the agricultural sciences, research

and development is also helping more youth stay involved in

agriculture. Universities and colleges from Ghana to Costa

Rica are increasing efforts to educate the next generation of

farmers, scientists and entrepreneurs.

At the Department of Agricultural Economics and

Extension at Cape Coast University in Southern Ghana, learn-

ing takes place not only in classrooms, but also literally in

fields and farms all over the country. As part of a programme

to improve agricultural extension services, extension offic-

ers are working with professors to find ways to improve food

production in their communities. The extensionists, who are

already working with farmers, are selected by the Ministry of

Agriculture and the university from all over the country to

train at the university to help them better share their skills

and knowledge with farmers.

The programme was started in the early 1990s after the

Ministry of Agriculture found that its extension workers were

not communicating well with farmers, says Dr Okorley, a

Cape Coast professor. The goal of the programme, according

to Okorley, is “to improve the knowledge of frontline exten-

sion staff.” Because the educational background of many

extension workers is “limited” (many don’t have the means

to attend college), they “couldn’t look at agriculture holisti-

cally,” says Okorley.

But the university is helping change that problem. Students

learn how to engage with farmers and communities by learning

better communication skills. And they are trained to properly

diagnose problems, as well as come up with solutions.

After attending a year of classes on campus, the students go

back to their communities to implement what they’ve learned

in Supervised Enterprise Projects (SEPs). The SEPs give the

student-professionals the opportunity to learn that particular

technologies, no matter how innovative they might seem in

the classroom, don’t always fit the needs of communities, says

Dr Okorley. The SEPs also help them implement some of the

communication skills they’ve learned in their classes, allowing

them to engage more effectively in the communities where

they work. Instead of simply telling family farmers to use a

particular type of seed or a certain brand of pesticide or ferti-

lizer, the extension workers are now learning how to listen

to farmers and help them find innovations that best serve

their particular needs. “One beauty of the programme is the

on-the-ground research and experimentation,” says Okorley,

“It allows the environment to teach what should be done.”

Many programmes have focused on production and yields

and have neglected the managerial, business and innovation

skills that are also necessary to run successful agriculture and

food businesses. At EARTH University in Costa Rica, though,

farmers are learning how to be more entrepreneurial and

students are learning to improve yields through more sustain-

able, agroecological practices. EARTH University believes

that in order to eradicate poverty and alleviate hunger, family

farmers need to build the business of farming.

In addition, two exciting competitions around building a

better food system have been launched in just the last few

years. One, is the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition’s

A school visit with Project DISC in Uganda. Students learn how to grow, process and preserve food and to recognize the diversity

and uniqueness of their local food cultures

Image: Bernard Pollack

eep

oots