Twenty-four (24) young producers from Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Kenya and Zambia have been following a special capacity-building program initiated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. This six-week program should enable participants to be more productive and dynamic in the agricultural entrepreneurship business.
It is from the observation that in Africa agricultural yields remain low and that there are also many untapped opportunities to maximize sustainable production that FAO has decided to step up actions aimed at a “sustainable intensification of agricultural production and the development of value chains “. The training of the twenty-four people from four African countries, six (06) per country, falls within this framework. All of them, being agricultural entrepreneurs already engaged in various activities, they will acquire at Songhai Center new knowledge certainly, but especially the qualities and abilities that will make them socio-economic leaders, main vectors of development.
According to Ruhiza Boroto, Coordinator of the FAO Regional Initiative for Sustainable Intensification of Agricultural Production and Value Chain Development, “the opportunities offered by the African continent in agricultural entrepreneurship are far superior to the challenges facing Africans “. Thus, for the FAO Representative at the training ceremony, which took place on Monday 27 February 2017 at Songhai Center in Porto-Novo, “Agriculture can enrich Africa and Africans”. Ruhiza Boroto will be supported by Fr. Godfrey Nzamujo, Director of Songhai Center, who reassures him about the choice of his institution to provide the training to the producers. He will revisit, in particular, the vision of Songhai Center, which is to “have an Africa developed by a new generation of human resources capable of mobilizing domestic and external resources to create goods and services that effectively meet the current challenges”. According to the Director, the systemic approach and the moral values taught in Songhai constitute the very foundation of development in Africa.
This capacity-building program sponsored by the FAO Regional Office for Africa involves nine pilot countries: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, DRC, Rwanda, Chad and Zambia. For this first edition, four (04) are involved. Candidates are selected at the national level through the Ministries of Agriculture but in collaboration with local FAO Representations. As a required profile, applicants should be young, dynamic, hardworking and really involved in the agricultural field.
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