The Association of Organic Agriculture Practitioners of Nigeria (NOAN) is a member of IFOAM – Organics International that brings together stakeholders of organic agriculture in Nigeria and is also their link to the international community.
Group picture of the attendees at one of NOAN’s AGM meeting © NOAN
Through one of these international interactions, NOAN collaborated with IFOAM – Organics International and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmBH to conduct the Training of Teams of Trainers (ToToT) in Nigeria from 1 – 5 February 2021.
The Covid-19 pandemic prevented the training from taking place in person as planned, therefore it was delivered in a hybrid style instead. The training was redesigned to ensure that virtual participants felt completely included in the various events.
Hear directly from some of the participants on their ToToT experience © IFOAM – Organics International
Jude is not the only one to benefit from the work that NOAN is doing in providing capacity development opportunities to different stakeholders in Nigeria and West Africa. A lot of practitioners have participated in the ToToTs so far and this is thanks to organisations like NOAN which are advocating for empowerment and providing access to information and resources like these training sessions.
Some of the NOAN members with the ToToT participants visiting a farm during an excursion © IFOAM – Organics International
NOAN is one of the partners of the KCOA in West Africa, with whom they carried out the ToToT and Ecological Organic Agriculture Leadership Course (EOALC) training sessions together. NOAN is participating in the KCOA project because together, they can achieve results that are beneficial to farmers in rural areas and other actors within the value chain, including policymakers, citizens and even in the maintenance of a sustainable environment.
Through the training sessions that were held in conjunction with this collaboration, both organisations were able to contact conventional farmers and give them the resources they needed to start using organic farming methods on their farms, creating a multiplier effect.
The programme also assists participants in building a strong network with the farmers as well as among themselves. Beyond granting them access to knowledge and educational opportunities, NOAN seeks to empower organic farmers. It also aims to connect them with significant organisations like processors, certifiers, and other value chain participants.
One of the ToToT participants Abimbola sharing her message on the #IGrowYourFood action day
Building a value chain network is something that NOAN is currently working on by developing various platforms that will streamline and equitably connect the actors.
Organic farmers will be able to easily access the indigenous knowledge that has been gathered as part of the KCOA project in a number of formats and native languages in addition to English. This removes some of the challenges that many farmers encounter while looking for advice on how to grow organically.
“That is why it is important to work with an organisation like IFOAM – Organics International. It is a repository that provides different avenues to exchange information and is a library of organic-related knowledge”, Jude enthusiastically shares.
Becoming a member of IFOAM – Organics International is the best thing that happened to NOAN, and it is the gift that keeps giving
Acknowledgment
Special thanks to Jude Obi, through whom it was possible to understand the workings of NOAN and its activities. Jude is an academic staff member in the Department of Soil Science and Land Resources Management at the University of Uyo in Nigeria. His interest in the soil also extends to the Soil Scientists Society of Nigeria, which plays a huge role in soil policy and the management of soil as a natural resource to support sustainable food production and security.
