LIVES-SNNPR-Monthly Update-June-2014

LIVES MonthlyField Activities Update
Month: / June 2014
Region: / SNNPR
Activities on Capacity Development / Observations/action required
Output 1130- TOT and specialist trainings/coaching/mentoring completed
  • Coaching of frontline extension staffs and farm households have been undertaken on proper forage legumes (Alfalfa and Desmodium) production in Sidama zone. Accordingly, 8 subject matter specialists (3 from Arbegona, 2 from Bensa and 3 from Bona zuria; all male) and 2 development agents (from Bensa; all male) have been coached on proper production of forage legumes encompassing site selection, land preparation and sowing. The planting of forage legumes on degraded lands, as backyard fodder and intercropping/under sowing with coffee were properly demonstrated (See annex).
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  • Continue coaching of the extension staff and pilot households.

  • A TOR has been developed and submitted to HQ to conduct Training of trainers (TOT) on establishment and production techniques of improved forage as feed and farmer based seed/cuttings supply for frontline extension staffs drawn from the three districts and the Sidama zone office of Agriculture. The TOT will have two levels of training: level-1 establishment and production techniques of improved forage species; level-2 harvesting, conservation, seed production, marketing and utilization of fodder.
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  • Proper selection of the trainees and conducting the TOT.
  • Coaching and mentoring of the trainees for proper implementation of their knowledge and skills to assist farmers for improved forage production.

  • Another TOR has been developed for Gamogofa zone to conduct TOT on establishment and production techniques of improved forage as feed and farmer based seed/cuttings supply for frontline extension staff drawn from the three districts and the Gamogofa zone office of Agriculture. Unlike the two-level training that has been planned for Sidama zone, the TOT training for Gamogogfa zone will be conducted in one go. Hence, establishments as backyard, under-sowing/intercropping, over-sowing on enclosures, harvesting, and conservation and utilization techniques will be including in the TOT (See annex)
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  • Proper selection of the trainees and conducting the TOT.
  • Coaching and mentoring of the trainees for proper implementation of their knowledge and skills to assist farmers for improved forage production.

  • Coaching and mentoring of extension staffs and farm households have been undertaken for proper production of a high yielding potato variety (Belete) using both irrigated and rain fed systems at Sidama zone of SNNPR. Accordingly, 3 extension staffs (1 F and 2 M) and three households (1 F and 2 M) have been coached by the LIVES staff and a potato expert from Hawassa University.
(See annex) /
  • Continue coaching of the households and extension staffs until they have become capable of disseminating their knowledge and skills to the wider community.
  • Undertaking field days to promote the knowledge and skills on improved production techniques of potato and disseminate the new variety to the wider community.

  • Coaching of a fruit producing household was undertaken for proper spacing, arrangement and applying basin irrigation techniques at Shelemela PA of A/minch Zuria district in Gamogofa zone. (See annex)
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  • Continue coaching of the household and the extension staff.
  • Organizing a field day for possible knowledge sharing

Output 1140 Enrollment of MSc/BSc education of (♀♂)public sector staff completed
  • It is to be recalled that 8 staff (4 male and 4 female) were identified for postgraduate program and enrolled in the regular program from SNNPR. In this reporting month, discussionswere held with partners (regional, zonal and district) to select the remaining candidates for summer program. Consequently, 8 staff (5 female and 3 male) have been selected from Sidama zone (3 female, 1 male) and regional BoA (2 female and 2 male). However, due to lack of female candidate with BSc background, Arbegona district selected 1 female candidate (diploma holder) for BSc program. Given the fact that the cost of training for 1 MSc student is assumed to be comparable with 2 BSc training, Arbegona is working on identifying 1 additional female candidate for BSc training.Among the list of candidates recommended for summer program in 2013 only one has got support from Gamogofa zone while the case of the others is pending.
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  • Compile and communicate the list to HQ and facilitate their enrolment with the respective Universities

Output1180 Training/mentoring of (♀♂) farmers in production of environmentally sustainable irrigation crops and livestock production completed
  • Four dairy producers (3MHH and 1FHH) at Riqame, Chucho and Yaye 01 PAs of Arbegona District, 2 Dairy producers (1M, 1F) at Worancha and Bashiro Gute Kebeles of Bona Zuria District, and 3 dairy producers (3F and 1M) at Shentegolba and Horotibiro PAs of Bensa District [Sidama] have been coached on selection of suitable sites for introduction and demonstration of improved forages under different systems [intercropping with coffee, backyard forage, use of fertigation], and land preparation and sowing/planting of improved forages.
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  • Continue with coaching extension staff on proper household and site selection, and establishment and management of improved forage

  • Facilitated field visit to Dr. Hooper Peters and Kahsay Berhe from HQ for 2-days in Sidama and 3 days in Gamogofa [SNNPR]. The visit was accompanied with briefings about the livestock and irrigation commodity value chain engagement in the region. The team visited the interventions in piloted households and shared experience with contact farmers, extension workers and LIVES focal persons. The team also forwarded comments and suggestions which serve as inputs for value chain development in the region.
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  • Consider the comments to refine the approach and upgrade VC in both zones and at the region.

  • A youth group (composed of 4 men) has been coached on rain fed alfalfa production for seed at Daye 03 kebele of Bensa District [Sidama zone].
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  • Continue coaching the youth group on management and seed production of alfalfa

  • One MHH has been couched on private grazing land improvement at Riqame kebele of Arbegona District [Sidama zone]
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  • Continue coaching the farmer and extension worker on grazing land improvement

  • Seven AKC managers drawn from Gamogofa [n=4] and Sidama [n=3] zones participated in a two day training organized by the HQ at Mojo. The training workshop aims at creating a learning platform among knowledge center managers to share ideas, experiences and approaches on the use, management and institutionalization of agricultural knowledge centers to get outcomes such as common understanding of what knowledge centers are, to whom they are meant for and the types of services provided and others.
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  • Coach AKC managers and focal persons on how to effectively use the center

Activities on Knowledge management / Observations/action required
Output 1230 Knowledge centers and extension system provided with IT and audio equipment, materials (video, radio programs, documents, posters)
  • Seven different types of relevant literatures have been collected from different sources and provided to the Agricultural Knowledge Centers (AKCs). The distributed materials are prepared in Amharic and English versions.
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  • Collection of more relevant hard and soft copy materials for referencing.

  • LIVES regional team introduced to the newly appointed V/Manager (Livestock production and feed development process owner) of regional livestock agency and briefed about LIVES project (objective, approach, strategy, implementation strategy), progress made and major planned activities.The V/manager appreciated the contributions of LIVES made todevelop the capacity of staff for oestrus synchronization and mass AI program in Sidama in 2003/14. He also emphasized that the region reviewed the performance of the previous OSMAI work conducted in the region and decided to establish district level team to lead the program instead of zonal team. It is to be recalled that LIVES has been working on innovating OSMAI delivery (from organizational and institutional perspectives) in Sidama whereby establishment and capacitating district level team is one of the major components.
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  • Continue with capacitating district level team for effective OSMAI delivery

Activities on Promotion / Observations/action required
  • LIVES-SNNPR team in collaboration with AGP-LMD, EDGET and regional BoA organized and celebrated the 14th World Milk Day at Hawassacity on June 30, 2014. The event was celebrated at Hawassa [SNNPR] for the first time. The objectives of the event were to increase the demand for dairy products, increase awareness of the nutritional benefits for consuming milk and dairy products, increase awareness of the need to boil or pasteurize milk for health reason, inspire the government and dairy industry to organize such events in the future in order to increase milk consumption. The opening session of the event was attended by dairy value chain actors and service providers, graduate students and other participants. The event was broad casted by DEBUB FM radio and DEBUB ETV(separate report will be produced).

  • Discussions were held with SNNPR Radio and Television Agency during the reporting month. The objective of the visit was to understand the coverage,the different services they are providing and the associated service charge. During the discussion it was learnt that the FM radio has wide coverage including LIVES operating districts of Sidama and Gamogofa zone. The agency has also been working on broadcasting market price information of selected crops weekly. The regional Bureau of Marketing and Cooperative is responsible for availing market price information to the agency. Although there are different categories, the agency is working on broadcasting promotional activities as well. The possibilities of broadcasting market price information of other commodities which has been targeted by LIVESprojectand strategies for using media to promote LIVES approach and best practices were also discussed.

  • LIVES regional coordinator and livestock expert participated in the MSc thesis open defense examination and served as external examiner at Hawassa University.

  • A blog story entitled “Tomatoes and onions improving livelihoods in Gamo GofaZone” has been prepared and posted on the LIVES website. The story has been prepared based on the previous value chain interventions to enhance irrigated vegetables production. The blog story tries to show the importance of engaging in irrigated vegetables production to transform smallholder farmers to a semi-commercial system provided that the vegetable products have good market demand in local areas.

Activities on Value Chain Development / Observations/action required
Output 2110-Value chains, target areas, actors and service providers identified
  • Communal grazing area has been identified for introduction and demonstration of various interventions at Kanchama PA in A/minch zuria district of Gamogofa zone. Prior to this, discussion was made with the PA chairman on the challenges of livestock development in the area, strategies to overcome the problem, objective of the current plan, key steps to be followed, and the rationale behind the participation of the community. Although Kanchama and the surrounding PAs have large cattle population, much of the available land has been converted to crop production, which resulted in scarcity of feed. Consequently, cattle are taken to communal grazing area which is dominated with bushes and does not support the livestock.
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  • Organize discussion with the community, collect baseline information and introduce the intervention through the involvement of the community

  • Site selection for fertigated grass production has been completed for 7 MHHs at Riqame, Gute and Yaye 01 kebeles of Arbegona, 2FHH & 2MHH at Shente Golba, Horotibiro and Shenteweyne Kebeles of Bensa District [Sidama].
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  • Selection of additional HHs for forage demonstration and provide with the seeds and technical support.

  • The newly included PAs for 2014/15 interventions have been visited, and discussion was made with livestock and crop extension workers (4 male and 2 female) of the respective PAs. Thus, in this month Chenochelba and Chenomile PAs of A/minch zuria districts [Gamogofa] were visited. During the meeting, LIVEs zonal coordinator and focal person from the office of agriculture briefed about LIVES focus areas, strategies and planned interventions for both livestock and irrigation commodities in the zone in general and in the respective PAs in particular. Discussion was also made on how to quickly start implementation of the interventions as the rainy season begins soon.
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  • Discussion with the identified households in the new PAs and start implementation of the planned interventions

  • There has not been any vegetable input supplier at Arbegona, Bona zuria and Bensa districts of Sidama zone. Demonstration of vegetable and fruit inputs supply outlets at district levels being initiated. One veterinary drug shop has started supplying vegetable seeds (Cabbage, carrot and beet roots) at Arbegona district. Discussions have been held with the owner if he can also supply the most important fungicides, pesticides and herbicides. As he has shelved the vegetable seeds together with the vet drugs, the possibility of getting a separate room for vegetable seeds and agro-chemicals has been discussed. Possibility of creating linkages with potential whole-sellers at Hawassa was also discussed.
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  • Continue coaching of the private vegetable input supplier and creating market linkages with other whole sellers.

  • Demonstration of a small-scale traditional river diversion for surface irrigation has been planned from Ererti River in Bona Zuria district. Accordingly, the LIVES staffs, the district Irrigation scheme administration and crop development extension process owners have made field visit to the Ererti River catchment and discussed with the farmers who have cultivated lands in the command area. Further discussions will be held with the district administrators and zonal office of agriculture for implementation plans. The plan is to divert the river and enable surface irrigation for 10 ha command area. The command area is suitable for tomato production including seed extraction due to its easy access to road.
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  • Conducting further discussions with the zonal office of agriculture and the district administrator for activity plan.

  • It is to be recalled that LIVES project imported biogas generators and requested the respective regions to identify potential areas for demonstration. Consequently, LIVES-SNNPR team collected list of PAs and households with biogas plant and communicated the list to HQ. In this month the regional team selected Fetele PA from Mirab Abaya district of Gamogofa zone for demonstration based on the number of functional biogas plants, commitment and strong interest shown by the PA administration and the community. Although there is access for road the village has no electricity. It is also worth to note that the slurry from biogas plant in this village is used for making compost with other organic materials and used as fertilizer for cereal crops.
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  • Communicate with HQ, workout strategy and demonstrate the generator and biogas collection bags

  • Although the number is limited compared to Gamogofa, 5 biogas plantshave been identified in Bensa district of Sidama zone. One of these plants is big in size whereby the household uses the gas for cooking as well as light. Similar to Gamogofa, the household uses slurry for compost and fertilizing inset and coffee
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  • Communicate with HQ, workout strategy and demonstrate the generator and biogas collection bags

Output 2120- Value Chain interventions identified
  • Discussions were held with the national grape research coordination office at Debrezeit Agricultural Research Center for possible introduction of appropriate grape varieties to the lowlands of Gamogofa zone. Accordingly, agreements were reached with the coordination office to get 150 plantlets of the varieties that are registered as table grapes. These grape varieties are Tomson seedless, Black Corniph and Muscat of Alexandria. Accordingly, preparations are being made to introduce these varieties with five households at Arbaminch zuria district.
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  • Introduction and demonstration of the selected grape varieties with five households at Arbaminch zuria district of Gamogofa zone.

  • Two famous fruit juice houses (Kibiye View and Zebib Café) were contacted for demonstration of improved fruit storage and possible linkages with fruit producers group who are using improved harvesting system. The major challenges associated with fruit harvesting, transporting, marketing and storage systems were thoroughly discussed. According to the owners of the fruit juice houses, the quality of Mango and Avocado fruits is very low in association with poor harvesting techniques. Moreover, the existing fruit handling and storage system could not allow the juice houses to elongate the storage life and create loss of fruits. They showed interest to get linked with Mango producers group who are being established by the LIVES project and with whom demonstration of improved harvesting is being initiated. The possibility of demonstrating improved fruit storage and transporting system was also discussed with the owners of the juice houses.
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  • Undertake demonstration of improved fruit transporting and storage systems with fruit juice houses.
  • Linking the juice houses with Mango producers group with whom improved harvesting technique is being initiated.