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Farm Africa staff featured on BBC's Countryfile

06 July 2015

Farm Africa staff featured on BBC's Countryfile

Eight staff members and partner staff working for Farm Africa in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were featured on Countryfile on BBC1 on Sunday 5 July.

The broadcast will be available on BBC iPlayer until 8pm on 4 August 2015, the segment runs from 34.42 to 42.27 in the hour-long show.   

Farmer and presenter Adam Henson interviewed the Farm Africa team about how they have benefited from an agricultural course at Shuttleworth College in Bedfordshire made possible by the Marshal Papworth Trust.

Over the last two months the Farm Africa team, along with five staff from Self Help Africa, has been immersed in learning about a wide range of agricultural practices that will help them to improve the delivery of Farm Africa programmes across eastern Africa after they return home this weekend. 

Tumaini Elibariki Mkenge, Farm Africa’s Monitoring & Evaluation Officer and Agricultural Adviser in Tanzania, who has played a leading role in delivering our sesame project, has really valued the mixture of theoretical and practical modules on the course:

“On the course we have had classroom sessions and practical sessions to go and see how things are done on farms. For example if we learnt about soil efficiency then we would do a practical session on soil testing, and we learnt how to monitor crops by visiting farms where they grow wheat, barley etc. We have been doing things practically ourselves, planting crops etc."

Farm Africa's Tumaini Mkenge counting pods on a sesame plant in Tanzania to estimate its yield.

Farm Africa's Tumaini Mkenge counting pods on a sesame plant in Tanzania to estimate its yield.

Edgar Kadenge, Senior Project Officer for Farm Africa in Kenya, has enjoyed meeting British farmers and commented on similarities on issues facing farmers in the UK and eastern Africa:

“Agriculture is agriculture, wherever you go. Having just spent nine weeks in the UK it’s very encouraging to hear how farmers in the UK and in eastern Africa share the same outlook. We all face the same basic challenges, our first and foremost concern being the challenge of increasing production and improving quality. The key thing is sustainable agriculture, being able to replicate again and again, producing for a specific market, and environmental management."

Other highlights of the Farm Africa team's visit to the UK include meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury on his visit to Shuttleworth College, speaking at Farm Africa's AGM, and meeting thousands of children from primary schools across East Anglia at the East of England Agricultural Society's Food and Farming Day on 3 July.   

 

 

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