Outsiders often hear of Africa’s big disasters and failed projects while small successes are ignored.
“Africa is littered with small scale success,” says Christie Peacock, chief executive officer of the non profit aid society Farm Africa.
“Too often development in Africa is done to people by outsiders rather than building on what is there,” she told delegates to the Commonwealth Agriculture Conference in Calgary last month.
Christie said about 80 percent of the continent’s population relies on agriculture yet governments are reluctant to provide much help in the way of extension services or financial assistance.
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Poverty is rampant among residents of rural areas, where there are few business alternatives to agriculture. A strong political commitment is needed to increase support to farmers, she said.
“If this isn’t done, I personally have a very bleak view of the future of Africa if agriculture is not put back into the forefront.”
Peacock supports work done by local people because these projects have a greater chance of acceptance and success among small farmers.
One grassroots organization finding success is a Toggenburg goat project based in Kenya.
The Meru Goat Breeders Association is run by 70 farmer groups and was formed to develop the dairy goat business for small farmers.
The association introduced the European dairy breed to increase the quality of livestock and help small landholders who live on a dollar a day earn extra income with milk and meat sales.
There are 250 million goats in Africa; most are kept by nomadic herders in pastoral systems.
As more drought occurs in the sub-Sahara region, more people are switching from cattle to sheep and camels that can survive as brush encroaches over grazed lands.
The association manages buck breeding stations to provide healthy males to improve the domestic herd in remote communities. The association also supplies breeding stock throughout East Africa and earns money through stud fees and livestock sales.
This program also helps small farmers obtain goats. The species multiplies quickly and its milk and meat can be sold for food and medicine.
“They are an asset for people. You can sell that asset and buy food,” she said.
Owning several goats can spread the risk on a small holding. If a farmer has one cow and it dies, she has nothing, but if one goat of several is lost, she still has some livestock.
Farm Africa has helped set up private veterinary extension clinics to work with local farmers. Farmers are trained as “barefoot vets” to do basic work on their animals with support from a qualified practitioner located in their community. Farm Africa and the breeders association also teach people how to manage their goats and find suitable animals to upgrade their herds.
To date there is a waiting list for 4,000 goats but the project can only supply about 200. Import restrictions from Europe and among African nations make it difficult to move breeding stock.
For example, Uganda has banned the importation of live goats or semen from other African nations and will not allow livestock from Europe due to concerns about BSE. South Africa is a good source of Toggenburgs but the goats and their freight are expensive.
