Africa - Need Assesment - Eugenio & Osman in Liberia and Guinea

Main information on the project
 

Location(s): Upper Guinea  (Around Kankan, Siguiri, Kouroussa, Mandiana e Kerouane)

• Project related to MDGs number: 1 eradicate extreme hunger
• Project Synopsis: To increase production and commercialisation of rice, aubergine and onion, and to help rural peasants organisations develop professional training, equipment and infrastructure.
• Page of description of the main activities:http://www.lvia.it/en/node/800 | http://ec.europa.eu/development/icenter/repository/foodfacility_auction_floor_en.pdf | http://www.cisvto.org/ita/progetti.php?paese=13[1]
• Contact Information: Cisvto | lvia
   

Email: segreteria@cisvto.org
Web: http://www.cisvto.org | www.lvia.it | http://www.lvia.it/sud/guinea-conakry/scheda_paese/staff-e-contatti
Tel:+39 011 899 38 23
Address: Corso Chieri 121/6 10132 Torino

Status: Deleted - already contacted two times - first feedback: they were intersted but have to find time!!- last feedback: at the moment they had no time because they are involved in Christmas campaign to find money and on the other hand thay are preparing an hard documentaion for new project financed by Eu. So thery really regreat but they dont' manage to follow even this thing.

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
World Food Summit, 1996
There are many issues confronting agriculture in Africa.
A large number of inhabitants of Africa are involved in agriculture, ranging between 30 %-40% in North Africa to over 80 % in West Africa.
Majority of farmers in Africa are subsistence farmers, who have small farm holdings, ranging from 0.5 hectare to about 4 hectares. They produce food for their household plus little for sales in the neighbourhood.
Agriculture in Africa is labour intensive, as they rarely use advanced technology in farming; rather they use limited technology, such as hoes and cutlasses. Farmers in Africa are not financially adequate; they are unable to invest in modern technology.
Majority of farmers in Africa are aging, as rural-urban drift is prevalent among the youths. For example in Botswana, the rural-urban drift has been phenomenal. While the rural population of Botswana constituted 90.4% in 1991, it fell to j47% in 2001.
 large number of African farmers are illiterate who cannot read or write in any language
 

According to the n.1, food security is the basic prerequisite for any other purpose of millennium. We'll try to understand what are the difficulties of local agriculture and how to improve the productive capacity of the rice sector and some vegetables (aubergine and onions), together with a field training of farmers, to fight against rising prices and improve the general food safety. We'll be focused on women empowerment as agriculture workers as well. Is there any difference in the empowerment of women, as agriculture workers, compared to the empowerment of men? Any prejudice to face?
 

The drama is represented by the difficulties of an Italian NGO (cisv) in training local farmers (men and women) and in trying to give them more power and consciousness of their value, as part of local agriculture communities (FUMA and FUPRORIZ). The drama is given by the difficulties in overcoming prejudices, specifically in the tension between men and women, as they are both empowered for agriculture roles.
 

We will visit many infrastructures they have built in order to improve agricolture production. Moreover we will speak to people who received benefits from the program so they can explain about new tecnique they learnt and how, sometime even small changes, could mean new hopes for the future for a better life quality.

We will put in evidence the importance of cooperation, training and synergy among the various local communities to be more influential in the local market 
 

Landscape of upper Guineè is one of the most beautiful in the country
 

African agriculture could still have a huge potential.