The Malawi Forum for Agriculture Advisory Services (MaFAAS) held its Farming and Extension Conference in Lilongwe, Malawi, from 19 to 22 July 2022. The conference brought together various stakeholders, who are working in the agriculture space in Malawi, from farmer groups to extension service providers (both state and non-state) and organisations that provide finance solutions to farmers and farmer groups.
MaFAAS is a platform for strengthening agricultural extension and advisory services through information sharing and action to achieve professionalisation, standardisation and quality assurance.
Access Agriculture showcased its work during the conference by setting up a booth, and also used various sessions to network. Some of the Access Agriculture young Entrepreneurs for Rural Access (ERAs) from Malawi managed the booth and shared information on the organisation and its work.
The conference had different themes for the sessions on each day, including ‘Agriculture extension for supporting youth empowerment in agripreneurship,’ and ‘Climate-smart agriculture.’ There was also a session on ‘Training in video extension’ that took place on the side-lines of the conference, where extension workers were trained in how to produce videos for extension.
Vinjeru Mlenga, Access Agriculture ERA Coach for Southern Africa, participated in a panel discussion on the theme ‘Agriculture extension for supporting youth empowerment in agripreneurship.’
Blessings Flao, Access Agriculture’s Regional Representative for Southern Africa, had a session during the video training for extension workers where he presented the Access Agriculture platform (www.accessagriculture.org) and the EcoAgtube platform (www.ecoagtube.org). “These platforms will greatly benefit agricultural extension workers,” said Blessings.
Thanking the organisers, her colleagues and partners, Vinjeru said, “The MaFAAS conference allowed us to showcase the wonderful work that we do as Access Agriculture – with the videos on sustainable agriculture in local languages, the ERAs, and also the EcoAgtube platform where people can upload their own videos. This was a wonderful opportunity to network with the various stakeholders who were represented here.”
