News

An expert was once a beginner!

My name is Pacifique Ndayishimiye and I am from Rwanda, Muhanga district. I have a bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness from University of Rwanda, College of Agricultural and Animal Veterinary Medicine. I work for Agriterra Rwanda as junior consultant, but started as an intern. Getting some kind of practical work experience after graduation is always a challenging period for most of Rwandan young people. Last Year I was among the luckiest young people. I got a professional internship at Agriterra.

Damota Wolayta Union coffee export increased even during COVID-19 period

ETHIOPIA - Due to a networking and marketing training provided by Agriterra, Damota union was able to increase export by 125%. Despite the COVID-19 restrictions, the union has a lot of confidence in the future and aims to increase export even further and purchase its own dry coffee processing facilities.

Follow up mission to strengthen fruits and vegetables value chain

My name is Fabrice Niyonkuru. I am from Rwanda, Kigali. I have a bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness from the University of Rwanda, College of Agriculture, Animal Science, and Veterinary Medicine in 2017. After my graduation, the sole question was: What is the next step? The answer was: Look for professional internship first!

Have you started your career development by looking for internships? For me, I looked for it several times, but failed and I felt a bit nervous! I really wanted to develop my career in something thing that I like most: Working with smallholder farmers. One day I woke up as usual, but I ended my day with different feelings. I was a lucky man that day, because I got an internship at Agriterra! The day I signed my internship contract will be one of those days I will never forget in my career!

Locally and online, a new way of providing advisory services

Bolivia - One of the main challenges Royal Quinoa farmers in the Southern Highlands of the country are currently facing is how to increase their yield as a result of the application of the best management practices. For this reason, the efficient management of pesky insects is vital to contribute to increasing yield and reducing crop production costs. During the last two months, Agriterra has been collaborating with the National Association of Quinoa Producers (ANAPQUI), with an advisory service on "Recognition of Pesky Insects in Quinoa" as part of a joint effort to improve the productivity of the farmers.

Press release: Cooperatives in Agriculture have solutions for Climate Change

Kees Blokland, General Manager of Agriterra, and Juan Lucas Restrepo, Director General of The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (CGIAR), signed a Memorandum of Understanding online to join forces.

The birth of a co-packing idea

Baringo county, the home of BAMSCOS Union, was among the least directly affected counties in Kenya of Covid-19, in terms of infection rate. The first case was officially reported in the county on  27 July 2020 and since 10 October the case load stands at 56 infections and no fatalities reported.

‘A problem shared, is a problem solved’

Jambitor Marketing Cooperative (JMC) in South Sudan is an organisation with five producing groups and a total of 200 members, who are all involved in production and they are accessing services from the cooperative. The cooperative members are producing vegetable and cereals. They are very happy with the cooperative services. Working together has helped them to approach farming as a business and they started to invest their money in the cooperative and to sell their produce to the cooperative and paying 10% of the profit to the cooperative to support its operation.

The cooperative’s activities are marketing of the member produce, credit business, value addition to some commodities and input business. As a cooperative the members increased their production base of the cooperative activities.

Dairy Virtual Exchange Tour

APL, Asople, Fedeple, Fedeplet and La Purita, five dairy farmers’ organisations from Bolivia, participated in the First Virtual Exchange Tour organised by Agriterra Latin America. 
Although Covid19 frustrated the possibility of an on-site exchange tour, the flexibility of a remote tour allowed to discuss and analyse for a longer period, with more cooperatives, more countries and more Agripool experts.