TRANSITIONAL AGRICULTURE: Promoting exchange between Farmers’ Organizations

Based on a 2019 agreement between the Association of Peasant Farms and Agricultural Cooperatives of Russia (AKKOR) and the German Farmers’ Association (DBV) together with the Andreas Hermes Akademie (AHA) and officially launched in January 2020, the Transitional Agriculture project is a 3-year exchange program to work closely with African Farmers’ Organisations on challenges and solutions of family farming in fast-changing, transitional contexts.

The project brings together farmers’ organisations from Russia (AKKOR), Germany (DBV), Malawi (NASFAM), Zimbabwe (ZFU), Rwanda (INGABO), and Ghana (COFAG) under the umbrella of the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) to foster a direct exchange on agricultural issues relevant to development policy. It promotes a peer to peer network of farmers organisations with the firm belief that the most effective way of agricultural exchange is the communication among farmers.

Supported by the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), the project is implemented through Andreas Hermes Akademie (AHA) and AgrarKontakte International (AKI).

The first round of seminars took place between May and June 2020 and, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was held online and concluded with the webinar “COVID-19: Resisting Now to Build Back Better”, on July 3rd.

The project “Transitional Agriculture” will continue in September, October, and November 2020 with a second and third round of seminars on capacity development, a topic of great interest for participants.

The pandemic outbreak has impacted the first program and at the same time, offered the opportunity to innovate the farmer-to-farmer exchange.

Farmers learn more from other farmers than from anybody else, and we hope such exchanges could take place soon on the farm.