FARM-Africa: Helping Spread Vital Information to Farming Communities

Sisilia Gabriel created a business plan for her raffia weaving business and priced her baskets fairly. Her new professional approach has made a big difference to her family: her children are able to attend school, the roof has been fixed and they have two new pigs.

Sisilia is one of many Africans to have benefited from the work of Food and Agriculture Research Management, or FARM-Africa. In 2007 FARM-Africa was awarded a $34,000 grant from the Elsevier Foundation’s program for Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries, to spread vital information about agricultural best practices, forest management and policymaking in Eastern Africa.

Good practice guidance and training materials

“The project funded by the Elsevier Foundation was invaluable in enabling us to collate all the project experiences, good practice guidance and training materials we’ve developed over 20 years of grassroots work with farming communities in Africa,” said Dr. Christie Peacock, Chief Executive of FARM-Africa.

Farmers, non-governmental organizations, governments and the private sector can now access a web portal containing profiles, case studies and lessons learned across Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia. Local communities across the region rely on this information to conserve forests, manage their natural resources and increase their production and access to markets, while teams of experts use it to provide training and technical advice and to influence policy.