From Left: Mr. Andreas Schriber (Founding Trustee and Board Member ), Dr. Abdou Tenkouano (The New ICIPE DG), Ms. Venancia Wambua (EOA Project Manager) and Mr. Fredrick Ochieng (FCP Coordinator)
The BvAT team of Mr. Fredrick Ochieng, FCP Coordinator and Ms. Venancia Wambua, EOA Project Manager were joined by Mr. Andreas Schriber Founding Trustee | Board member, Biovision Africa Trust for a meeting with the new icipe Director General Dr. Abdou Tenkouano. The aim of the meeting was to:
- Introduce Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT) and its activities to the icipe new Director General (DG)
- Discuss strategies to strengthen ongoing and new collaboration between BvAT and icipe
Mr. Andreas Schriber introduced BvAT to the icipe DG by giving a brief history of BvAT and its connections with icipe. He explained that BvAT was formed from the Farmer Communication Programme (FCP) that was implemented by icipe through a collaboration and funding from Biovision Foundation during a time when he was the CEO of Biovision Foundation based in Switzerland. Him and the co-founder of Biovision Foundation, Dr. Hans Herren saw the need to establish an Africa based organisation that would disseminate research information from icipe and other research institutions in a more friendly manner to farmers in Kenya.
Thus, BvAT was established in Kenya in 2009 as a not-for-profit organization by the Swiss based Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development and hosted by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Entomology (icipe). In 2011 it started being operational. It run its operations under icipe’s institutional anchorage till end of 2015 and assumed autonomy from January 2016. We have a hosting agreement involving icipe, Biovision Foundation and BvAT.
BvAT supports African farmers in mastering agro-ecological agricultural methods and environmental stewardship. This is a deliberate response to the negative effects of climate change, dwindling water sources, declining soil fertility, loss of biodiversity and harmful pesticide residues. BvAT’s approach contributes towards more sustainable farming, healthier diet for citizens, reducing the pace of climate change and minimizing its negative impact. The organisation sees itself as an agent of change that helps to alleviate poverty and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers particularly women and youth in Sub-Saharan Africa.
BvAT runs 3 main programmes namely: Farmer Communication Programme (FCP) in Kenya and Tanzania, Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOA-I) in Africa and Knowledge Centre for Organic Agriculture (KHEA) in eastern Africa.
Fredrick introduced the Farmer Communication Programme and the work it does in Kenya and Tanzania. Under FCP, BvAT implements TOF Radio, TOF Magazine, Mkulima Mbunifu in Tanzania, Farmer Communication Outreach, and Infonet projects. The projects carry communication channels that reach farmers through radio programmes, farmer magazines, knowledge databases and farmer resource centres across the country. The farmer resource centres provide farmers with services that deepen their skills for adoption of ecologically sustainable practices.
Venancia gave a brief of the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOA-I) implemented in 9 African countries in West and Eastern Africa. The EOA Initiative is implemented under the guidance and oversight of the AU chaired Continental Steering Committee (CSC) to establish an African organic farming platform based on available best practices; and to develop sustainable organic farming systems and improve seed quality. Its mission is to promote ecologically sound strategies and practices among diverse stakeholders involved in production, processing, marketing, and policy making to safeguard the environment, improve livelihoods, alleviate poverty, and guarantee food security among farmers in Africa. The goal is to contribute to mainstreaming of Ecological Organic Agriculture into national agricultural production systems by 2025 to improve agricultural productivity, food security, access to markets and sustainable development in Africa.
In addition, these efforts are hoped to reduce exploitation of the organic farmers in Africa. She mentioned the recent milestones achieved of mainstreaming three EOA indicators into the CAADP Programme namely, the share of organic land, organic fertilizer uses, and farmer managed seeds. She added that these milestones were achieved under the chairmanship of the African Union, DARBE which chairs the EOA Continental Steering Committee (CSC). She appreciated the current CSC chair Dr. Edeme from AUC who has also recently joined the BvAT Board and is doing a tremendous job. Previously the CSC was chaired by Dr. Simplice Nouala who managed to tremendously grow EOA-I policy sector taking it to the global arena. She mentioned the support and role of Mr. Ernest Aubee the ECOWAS EOA representative who has supported the growth of EOA in west Africa and the recent developments of a planned EAC workshop (Feb 2024) that will catalyze the integration of EOA into EAC structures. EOA has also established regional clusters in other regions of Southern Africa, Central Africa and Northern Africa.
She gave a brief o the third program of BvAT, the KCOA project. GIZ has funded Biovision Africa Trust to establish Knowledge Hub for Organic Agriculture in Eastern Africa (KHEA). This initiative, supported by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), promotes organic agriculture through regional knowledge hubs in West, East, Central, North, and Southern Africa. Biovision Africa Trust is in the forefront of coordinating the KHEA project in Eastern Africa, with successful implementation in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Madagascar.
The DG acknowledged and congratulated BvAT for the good work that they are doing and welcomed strengthened collaborations with BvAT in information and knowledge dissemination at the continental level. He also reiterated the need for other organisations hosted by Icipe to collaborate and take advantage of being hosted in the centre. He added that the two organisations should continue writing joint proposals to leverage on each other’s strengths.
In his closing remarks, he welcomed BvAT to continue idealizing and discussing with icipe on their collaborations.
Prepared by Ms. Venancia Wambua, EOA Senior Project Manager
