22 January 2023, Hyderabad, India — Access Agriculture, an international non-profit organisation that supports agroecology and natural farming, is set to kick off its programme on equipping selected young agri-entrepreneurs and key partners with an innovative e-learning technology and related skills, 23-25 January 2023, in Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
The Director General of the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), Dr. P. Chandra Shekara, has graciously accepted to host this event under the aegis of MANAGE. He will inaugurate the Partners’ Event of the Access Agriculture programme on 25th January and deliver the keynote address.
The e-learning technology that will be distributed by Access Agriculture at this event consists of a portable smart projector kit that contains Access Agriculture’s entire multimedia knowledge resource – with over 3000 high quality farmer-training videos and audio files across 95 languages. It can be used to train farmers even in offline and off-grid environments.
Access Agriculture is a leading multimedia knowledge resource for farmers on agroecology, climate change adaptation and rural entrepreneurship in the Global South that seeks to empower rural communities by enabling them to access expert and farmer knowledge and experience through its multimedia products and platforms.
It has developed a last mile delivery model involving young rural entrepreneurs. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Access Agriculture is piloting this entrepreneurship model in close collaboration with local partners, with support from the Kristian Gerhard Jebsen (KGJ) Foundation.
The selected youth, known as “Entrepreneurs for Rural Access” (ERAs), are equipped with smart projectors to screen farmer-training videos in villages and bring to the local farmers, a wealth of new ideas on agroecology from around the world to improve their lives as well as to provide the youth an opportunity to earn a dignified livelihood.
The Access Agriculture training programme in MANAGE will equip and upgrade the skills of seven ERA teams (consisting of 18 individual ERAs, including 9 dynamic young women), who were selected based on a call for proposals that laid a special emphasis on young women entrepreneurs.
The main components of the Access Agriculture’s event in MANAGE are the following:
23rd and 24th January – ERA Training Programme
- Distribution of a smart projector kit each to the seven winning ERA teams
- A 2-day hands-on training to help the ERAs familiarise themselves with the functions and use of the smart projector and upgrade their skills to become successful e-extension and advisory service providers and skilled facilitators in screening training video shows
25th January - Partners’ Event
- Inauguration of the Handover Ceremony of the smart projectors to key Access Agriculture partner organisations in India, followed by a short familiarisation session.
Partner organisations, which have been selected to receive the smart projector, include MANAGE; M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF); Watershed Support Services Activities Network (WASSAN); Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA); Green Foundation; Trans-Disciplinary University (TDU); Satat Sampada; International Development Enterprises (IDE-India); ● Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS); Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN); and AME Foundation.
Thanking the MANAGE Director General and his team for their strong support to the event and all the participants, Access Agriculture Executive Director Josephine Rodgers, said, “We are committed to sharing our knowledge resources and empowering young people from rural India so that they can make their local food systems more resilient, and we realise how much our partnerships are crucial to achieving this shared goal.”
For more information, please contact:
Phil Malone, Co-founder and Communications Specialist, Access Agriculture, phil@accessagriculture.org
Whatsapp / Mobile : +44 7899 897693
Savitri Mohapatra, Mass Media Officer, Access Agriculture, savitri@accessagriculture.org;
Mobile: +91 9885881096
National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), 23-25 January 2023, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
