About 30 rural advisory service (RAS) facilitators from five districts of Uganda – Buikwe, Bugiri, Sembabule, Lira and Soroti – were introduced to Access Agriculture’s resources and tools to enhance their digital skills during a RAS Facilitator orientation training and project commissioning, which was conducted from 15 April to 17 May 2024.
The event was organised as part of the ‘Global Programme for Small-scale Agroecology Producers and Sustainable Food Systems Transformation Project’ (GP-SAEP), which is being implemented by the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) in close collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Access Agriculture is a partner of this programme relating to access to knowledge and empowerment.
In addition to the RAS facilitators, the participants consisted of Master Trainers, representatives from Uganda Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (UFAAS), including one UFAAS Board member, the Project Coordinator, and M&E officer. Access Agriculture representatives at the event included Ezra Masolaki, Entrepreneur coach for East Africa, and three Entrepreneurs for Rural Access (ERAs) based in Uganda (Abdallah Sseryrazi, Ochen Umar Bashir and Canary Ahabwe).
“This programme offered a great opportunity for us to foster strong collaborations with our project partners, including UFAAS, RAS provider organisations and the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS),” said Ezra.
“We introduced our digital resources and tools to the participants and helped the RAS facilitators in accessing and navigating the Access Agriculture video platform, the range of videos in local languages, technical factsheets, EcoAgtube video-sharing platform and Access Agriculture App,” Ezra added. All the RAS Facilitators were able to create their accounts on Access Agriculture and EcoAgtube video platforms.
In addition, Access Agriculture also introduced video resources to communities through demo video training sessions. During one field demo video training session, one woman farmer said, “I am have done farming for over 60 years, but I had never learnt the value of crop residues as we have been burning them.” She said she would adopt the improved practices shown in the videos.
The District Production Officers for Buikwe and Lira also showed their appreciation of the training videos. According to them, the videos are going to reshape the image of the extension in rural areas.
Access Agriculture also facilitated the selection of 200 videos to be translated into Lusoga, Luganda, Runyakitara, Lango and Ateso this year under this project.
