Part of the Tikvah’s 50 Smallholder farmers Group Leaders who participated in the Africa Harvest DTC Training receiving seeds.
ICRISAT trained the members in community seed production and supported them with foundation seed. These farmers used the foundation seed to produce community seed. Through the project, they learnt about the need for sustainable seed systems through community seed banks.
“Through the training, we were introduced to the high yielding green gram, sorghum, finger millet and groundnuts certified seeds,” shared Vivian, one of the Tikva’s ToT. Before, the group members grew maize and beans, the staple food, that didn’t do well with the scarce rains. Through the partnership with ICRISAT, we are teaching the economics of agriculture and the importance of planting marketable crops.

These crops are not only drought tolerant but are also nutritious, climate-smart and have multiple uses to benefit farmers. Sorghum and millets, for example, are rich in micronutrients and have a low glycemic index. Drought-tolerant crops have low water footprint, low levels of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers hence smaller carbon footprint. In order to further reduce the use of inorganic fertilisers and improve soil health sustainably, we trains farmers on intercropping and crop rotation of drought-tolerant legumes and cereals.

To motivate the youth, Tikvah encourages them to approach farming as a business. In reinforcing the Government call for the agribusiness approach to farming, we partner with the Minsitry of Agriculture in promoting niche opportunities in the DTCs value chain like provision of labour-saving technology services like mechanical threshing and value addition.

To motivate the youth, Tikvah encourages them to approach farming as a business. In reinforcing the Government call for the agribusiness approach to farming, we partner with the Minsitry of Agriculture in promoting niche opportunities in the DTCs value chain like provision of labour-saving technology services like mechanical threshing and value addition.

Additionally, the group is involved in an ICT forum that assists in aggregation and marketing of drought-tolerant groups nationally.