Surplus People's Project (AgriPlan-it Trialing and Testing pilot)

Partner(s):

The mission of the Surplus People Project (SPP) is to support local agrarian struggles of small-scale farmers, farm dwellers & movements through development support, popular education, participatory research and social mobilization for sustainable livelihoods and food sovereignty. SPF takes the approach that the rural economy can be transformed through land, water and agricultural reform. They support and build grassroots organisations & movements of small-scale farmers, farm dwellers and women in the Western and Northern Cape, through a process of institutional development and various forms of capacity building. SPF pays high regard to local experiences and participatory research. For more information on Surplus People’s Project please click on this link http://www.spp.org.za

Our Involvement:

SAIE provides cutting edge agricultural expertise that is customized to the specific needs of small scale agribusiness entrepreneurs. SAIE compliments the participatory approach adopted by SPF in order to bring more ownership of the development initiative to the small scale farmers themselves. The programs allow them to systematically progress from food sustainability to the agri-business mode. This sets in motion a snowball effect of self sustaining livelihoods thereby meeting SPF’s most crucial imperatives.

Project Progress:

Sponsored by Coronation Fund Managers, AgriPlan-it is an agricultural training course that was developed to complement AgriPlanner by providing training on a diverse range of farming situations. The aim was to develop a comprehensive agricultural entrepreneurial training course that offers insight, understanding as well as hard planning skills to small-scale farmers in an accessible manner.

During the ‘Trialing and Production’ phase of the project, part of the strategy was to implement pilot AgriPlan-it training to selected partner organizations. The Just Think design team finalised the AgriPlan-it training course and the training kit for levels one and two. And the AgriBest game and facilitator's guide was also produced as a separate kit.

Surplus People’s Project (SPP) was selected among other Community Based Organisations as the most appropriate partner that could provide credible feedback for the development of the program. In September and October 2007, the SAIE offered two Training of Trainers courses.

In the training course one (17th-21st September 2007) eleven people from 9 organisations attended the first training course. The attendees represented a range of organizations from the agricultural research council to emerging lead farmers, namely Abalimi Bezekhaya, Wes-kaap Ubuntu Farmers Union (WEKUFU), Goedgedacht Agricultural Resource Centre (GARC), Fresh Produce Traceability Project, ARC-Infruitec-Nietvoorbij, and David Palos and Eric Klass The second training Course (1st – 5th October 2007) was conducted for the SPP.

Members of both training groups expressed a keen interest to apply the training in the field and felt that the AgriPlanit kit would be an extremely useful tool that they could apply in their own contexts. Participants in the training commented that the methodology offered a unique approach to the unpacking of complex issues. The tool kit has been designed in such a way that the support organisations can adapt the training to match the pace of the farmers. The facilitators guide is a detailed instruction manual that will assist the facilitators to guide the trainees through a step-by-step training programme.

Funder:

Product:

Agri Planner

Location:

Western Cape