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Women at the Forefront of Model Cooperative
Fatouma Burka is treasurer of the Borata Arjo Grain Marketing Primary Cooperative Society in the Bubata Arjo kebele of the Oromia region, Ethiopia. The group was established in 2010 with 27 members, all but one of whom were women, and the following year were registered and certified by the cooperatives promotion office. Current membership has now surpassed one hundred members, ten of them men. They are now a member of the Uta Wayu Cooperative Union – one of the most successful unions in Ethiopia...
Lop Ape: A farmers’ group for the love of one another
Christiana Jeron Buba is from the Pokwangli II town, situated in the Tungo District of the Kaltungo Local Government Area of Gombe State, Nigeria. She is an active member of the Lop Ape farmers’cooperative group. ‘Lop Ape’, in the local parlance of Hausa, means“a farmers’ group for the love of one another”. The group has a membership of 20 people, 15 of whom are women. They mainly cultivate maize, as well as cowpea and rice.
Christiana said that, thanks to Sasakawa Global 2000 Nigeria’s(SG 20...
WOMEN’S AGRO-PROCESSING ENTERPRISES: A source of income for rural women in Nigeria
Since 2012, the Postharvest Handling and Agro-processing programme (PHAP) of Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG 2000) in Nigeria has been promoting improved agro-processing technologies and techniques in rice, maize and soya production, with the aim of empowering women – particularly those in rural areas.
Through SG 2000 interventions, several agri-business enterprises
were established, and women’s agro-processing cooperatives currently operate in Adamawa, Kano, Gombe, and Jigawa States. Several techn...
“Those who see us want to be our partners”
The Yiriwa Djè Union of Tingoni, located in the Baraoueli Cerclearea of the Ségou Region, Mali, is made up of 17 cooperatives with a membership of 1,068 people, including 370 women and 698 men. Its holistic approach is based on the crop value chain, which runs from production to the demonstration of new technologies, to marketing through group sales and favourable market research.
The creation of the Union was the result of the support offered by SG 2000 Mali through its Village Development C...
Unity and Hard Work Does Pay Off: The Andinet Primary Cooperative
The Andinet Primary Cooperative can be found in the Debre Libanos woreda of the Dire Jibo kebele, North Shewa zone, in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.It was first established in 1977, although it wasn’t until 2004 that a new organisational structure brought renewed vigour and focus to the group. What started as a modest collective of 51 people now has a membership of 854, including 650 men and 204 women, and a working capital of 750,000ETB, under the guidance of the Sasakawa Africa Association.
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Increasing Youth Participation in Agriculture: Katamba’s story
29 year-old Katamba is a farmer from Bulera sub-county, Mityana district, in the Central Region of Uganda. He is married with three children. He started working with SG 2000 Uganda in 2015, as a host farmer under the Nabumbugu Youth Development Group, made up of 30 members (15 men and 15 women). He was motivated to join the group in 2014 after being impressed by the outputs from a maize demonstration.
In the same year that he joined the group, he was selected to host a maize demonstration Tec...
The 12th National Cereal Stock Exchange Fair
The City of “Balanzans”, known as Ségou, hosted the National Cereal Stock Exchange Fair from 10-11 February, 2018. The event was chaired by the Minister Commissioner for Food Security of Mali,Mr. Oumar Ibrahima Toure. The Sasakawa Africa Association, as a founding member and the Ministry’s partner organization, mobilized 10 Farmers’ Organizations through Production, Postharvest and Trade Centers (PHTC) for participation.
Since its inception in 2006, on the initiative of the President of the P...
TONNY OYER: A story of success with the Sasakawa Africa Association
Tonny Oyer is a 39 year old resident of Awila Parish, Akokoro Sub County in Apac district, Uganda. He is married and has four children. His father passed away early in his life, and his mother some years later, leaving him with the responsibility to take care of his six siblings.
In 2005, he dropped out of secondary school to obtain a certificate in woodwork and carpentry. After completing the course he opened a workshop, but was unable to make enough money to support his family. He decided t...
From ‘hopeless widow’ to a household full of joy: the story of Hellen Epuruge
Nyarakoti Farmer Field School 1 is situated in Asinge C, Nyarakoti parish, in the Usukuru sub county of Tororo District. It consists of 30 members, 18 of whom are women. Its enterprises include 6 acres of rice production, 4 acres of groundnuts and 8 acres of maize. Formed in 2012 and fully registered, it initially received Ugandan Shilling (USh.) 10,000,000 from SAA in Uganda under the Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs) project, which was invested in ‘farming as a business’ and paid back in one y...
“We are productive!” – The Loudjouraton Group of Molodo
Molodo is a village and seat of the commune of Kala Siguida in the Ségou Region of southern-central Mali. The Loudjouraton group of Molodo is a Farmer Organization (FO) of persons with special needs. The organization was established in 2015 by 11 members, and had grown to 32 in 2017; including four women and six children. The group produces rice, onions and shallots. The members work under the supervision of SAFE, the Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education, with whom the FO has been able t...
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SAA publishes a bimonthly e-newsletter reporting on SAA activities.
SAA history book
"Walking with the Farmer: The journey of the Sasakawa Africa Assoication since 1986"
This book chronicles the history of SAA from its inception to the present.
Success stories
Voices from the Field Special Edition 2022
This is a special edition of the "Voices from the Field" articles.