Capacity building of extension workers on climate smart agriculture
Participants at the capacity building training. Photo: A Diama, ICRISAT
A three-day training focused on climate smart agriculture and technologies such as, zaï, half-moon, organic and mineral microdosing, composting, contour bunding and cereal – legume inter-cropping was held recently. Participants were trained on climate information tools developed by Malimeteo (national meteorological agency of Mali).
Zaï and half-moon are traditional West African practices to collect run-off water and organic matter in small pits (zaï) or semi-circular basins (half-moons). Stone bunds, zaï and half-moons are land management techniques that lead to improved soil fertility and soil moisture (Zougmoré et al. 2014).
“This training will enable the technical actors to have adequate technical knowledge and tools to better advice and train farmers and thus enhance their capacity to adapt to the effects of variability and climate change,” emphasized Dr Ramadjita Tabo, Research Program Director – West & Central Africa and Country Representative, ICRISAT – Mali.
The training sessions were conducted by Dr Bouba Traore, Knowledge Broker for Climate Science, ICRISAT; Dr Mathieu Ouedraogo, Scientist – Participatory Action Research, CCAFS;
Dr Dommo Tembely, Scientist, Natural Resource Management, Institut d’économie rurale, Mali; Dr Abdou Fall, Principal Scientist, Project Manager, International Livestock Research Institute; Birama Diarra, Director of Meteorological and Climate Applications for Malimétéo and Andree Nenkam, Scientific Officer, ICRISAT.
The opening ceremony of the training session was chaired by Dr Ramadjita Tabo, Research Program Director – West & Central Africa and Country Representative, ICRISAT – Mali; John Riley, Country Director of International Relief Development and Dr Mohamed Traore, Malian Agency for the Environment and Sustainable Development.
Thirty extension workers from project sites attended the capacity building training held on 24 – 26 January, at ICRISAT – Mali.
For more information on ICRISAT’s work in Mali, click here
Partners: Malian Agency for the Environment and Sustainable Development (AEDD); MaliMeteo; AMASSA Afrique Verte; G-Force; Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), Sénèkela (Orange Mali); Mali Women Engineers Association; Humanitarian Relief and Development Laboratory (HURDL); ICRISAT
Donors: UKaid BRACED (Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extreme and Disasters) Program
