Twenty three people from 13 African countries took part in an Organic Agriculture Development (OAD) course in Kenya in January. OAD is one of many international training programmes of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The participants represented government departments, NGOs and the private sector. Swedish organic consultancy company Grolink conducted the course.
The two-week Kenyan session was the second installment of the two-part course, the first three-week part having been held in Sweden in August 2006. Both parts comprehensively covered areas important to the development of organic agriculture, using the examples of Sweden and Kenya as case studies.
Among areas covered were organic production methods, marketing and product development, standards and quality assurance of organic products, agricultural policy and organics. The learning modules consisted of classroom lectures as well as study visits to various kinds of organic establishments.
Kenya has a small but vibrant and growing organic sector. Course participants heard about and interacted with some of the key drivers of organic development in Kenya. Group discussions gave participants time to analyze the challenges and the opportunities the sector contends with in the country.
Study visits were to smallholder cooperative organic production schemes as well as larger agri-business operations. Various retail establishments were also visited to assess the market penetration of organic produce in Kenya, and what factors needed to be overcome to increase it.
African Agriculture will in the next several days and weeks be featuring stories on various aspects of the Kenyan farming scene.
Chido Makunike
African Agriculture
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