- Back number
“When knowledge empowers you, challenges are not problems.”
The Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education (SAFE) is a sister organisation of SAA, with a focus on providing academic qualifications to mid-career extension agents. So far, SAFE has graduated nearly 6,000 students across a network of 24 universities and colleges in nine African countries. The first SAFE program in Nigeria was launched in 2002 at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria. The purpose of the SAFE program in Nigeria is to contribute towards the agricultural development efforts o...
“Let your motto ‘Take it to the Farmer’ reach all Tudun Wada”, says Abdullahi Kau
Abdullahi Kau is a farmer and maize grower living in the Tudun Wada Local Government Area of Kano State, Nigeria. He is very happy with how SG-2000 Nigeria trained him, which has resulted in him being happy to conduct agriculture as a business. Abdullahi owns a one hectare farm. He farms both for demonstration, as his is a Model Adoption Plot (MAP), and commercial purposes. “Sasakawa first trained me on how to plant, and how to apply fertilizer. Next, they taught me how to tell when my produce i...
“We realized crop failure is farmers’ failure”
This is the Maize Multi Actor Value-chain Platform and Disability Intervention in Tudun Wada, Kano state, Nigeria. The project is supported by SAA Nigeria’s Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs) program. Muhammmad Yaro is a maize Commodity Association Trainer (C.A.T.). He explained: “We have been organized in this maize commodity value-chain organization since January 27, 2014. I am training farmer groups specializing in the maize value chain, which is functioning well. Last year’s harvest produced ...
“Today we are able to produce high quality rice” Fatoumata Sangarés
The Rice Platform of Women Group of Niéna is situated in the rural commune of Niéna, cercle of Sikasso, in Sikasso region. The platform was formed in 2014 and currently comprises 11 villages and 556 members. The main activities of the Platform are upland and lowland rice production, parboiling, storage and marketing of rice.
Fatoumata Sangaré is the Platform’s Secretary of Finance. According to Fatoumata, “Our platform is composed of 14 women groups and Sasakawa is involved in various ways i...
“Development is a chain” Seydou Sidibé
Seydou Sidibé is a community based facilitator (CBF) at a Farmer Learning Platform (FLP) and inputs shop in Boidié, a rural commune in the Cercle of Barouéli in the Ségou Region of southern-central Mali. Sidibé said:
“I am the intermediary and facilitator between the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) in Mali and the village community. SAA is very important in Boidié because of the volume of work they do here. When SAA came in, they showed us the benefits of micro dosing fertilizer technology...
Student-led SAFE programme helps communities focus on value-chain oriented agriculture
Robert Koomson is a farmer from the Krofu Agro Processors Association, located in Krofu, Mfantsiman Municipal District, Central Region of Ghana. Elisabeth Utuka is also from the central region and from the Theomark Enterprise, situated in Assin Edubiase. The two farmers were in attendance at the West Africa Regional Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education (SAFE) Stakeholder Workshop, held in Accra, Ghana. Dr Festus Annor-Frempong, Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extensi...
“Acquiring business skills has transformed my life, my families”, Kawumba Carol
30 years old Kawumba Carol lives in Bukomolo village, Nandere parish, Kadama Sub County in the Kibuku District of Eastern Uganda. Her success started when she was sponsored by SG-2000 Uganda to go for a farm study tour in Masaka, a town in the Central Region of Uganda, west of Lake Victoria, under the Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs) project.
That trip to Masaka changed Kawumba’s life, as narrated in her story: “We were taken to a model farmer, a woman whom many admired. She had banana farm...
Empowering Group with Special Needs
The Sashemene Association of Persons Affected by Leprosy is supported by the Nippon Foundation, and the Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education (SAFE) as part of the initiative and rationale behind cooperation and selection of user friendly agricultural enterprises for Farmer Based Organization (FBO) members with special needs. In Kuyera, located just north of the main Shashemene town some 260 km south of the Ethiopian capital, this association had been granted 1.5 acres of land by the muni...
SG-2000 Ethiopia Empowering Women through CDP-WAD
28 years old single mother of three Yiftusira Ashenef is a host farmer of Community Demonstration Plot (CDP) in a 0.1 hectare plot in Wikma village of Gol Wikma Kebele, Enarj Enawga Woreda, East Gojam Zone, Amhara region of Ethiopia. She received training at farmers training center (FTC) organized in 30 members’ farmer group, of whom five were women. She first took training on agronomic practices like soil management, line planting, spacing, weeding, and post-harvest handling as well as training...
"We realized crop failure is farmers’ failure"
This is the Maize Multi Actor Value-chain Platform and Disability Intervention in Tudun Wada, Kano state, Nigeria. The project is supported by SAA Nigeria’s Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs) program.
Muhammmad Yaro is a maize Commodity Association Trainer (C.A.T.). He explained: “We have been organized in this maize commodity value-chain organization since January 27, 2014. I am training farmer groups specializing in the maize value-chain, which is functioning well. Last year’s harvest produced...
SAA Publications
E-newsletter
"Walking with the Farmer"
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.