The Knowledge Hub of Organic Agriculture in West Africa funded by GIZ, organized her sub-regional annual planning workshop between February 14 and 19, 2022 at Hotel Le Saly, Senegal. The event had in attendance representatives of the Project, Institutional Focal Points such as Songhai( Benin), CNOP (Mali), The Gambia , Organic Agriculture Practitioners of Nigeria(NOAN) and implementing partners (Enda Pronat, Agrecol and FENAB).
NOAN, Nigeria was ably represented by the Dr Jude C. Obi, the Country Coordinator, Mr Fidelis Ezegbogu, the Project Manager, Miss Rebecca Okunola, the Communication Manager for the project.
The discussions focused on plannings by the implementing entities of the activities for the year 2022, exchanges around the result matrix as part of the monitoring and evaluation, communication plan and the profile of the continental digital platform initiated by the project.
At the opening session of the workshop, Mr Elhaji Faye, the Country Coordinator, Enda Pronat, Senegal stated that organic agriculture is the needed system of agriculture in Africa and that the system is what the project(KCOA) will innovate, he quoted thus “it is for us to go into our tradition and leverage on what we have”. He emphasized that there are a lot of stakeholders in the custody of these knowledge who are isolated; hence, he advised that we have to identify the gaps and find means of bridging the gaps. This necessitated the partnership with Songhai, CNOP, NOAN and The Gambia. He commended the efforts of stakeholders such as Dr Dogo Seck, Prof. Simplice Vodou-he and Mr Mouhadou Fayinke.
In the course of the presentations, Dogo Seck suggested that it will be interesting to review all the recommendations and build on their strength to enable various teams improve on their strategies. Mr Ramadam also pointed out that due to the dynamics of soils and other factors, we need to take into consideration the need to fabricate blueprints that suits Africans. It was also advised that knowledge acquired in course of the project should be made accesible to the public.
Mr Alpha Ba, the moderator of the event pleaded that all implementers should seize the opportunities around them to support the project; he added that country organizations should ensure that the budgets are expended efficiently.
At the end of the workshop, each country organization was presented with a smart projector as the gadget will support the implementation of the projects in their respective countries.
