2015 was our second full year of operating the SAT Farmer Training Centre in Vianzi, Morogoro. Since the training opening in May 2015 we have conducted 15 courses attended by 313 participants. We hosted guests from 11 different regions of Tanzania which included Morogoro, Dar es Salaam, Mtwara, Mbeya, Kilimanjaro, Dodoma, Mafia, Zanzibar, Shinyanga, Lindi, Arusha and even from surrounding countries such as Kenya, Burundi and Malawi. Among them were also farmers and field officers from major organizations and organic companies such as BioRe and SNV who chose our trainings in order to enable their farmers and field officers get a broader view of organic farming techniques and strengthen their knowledge for their practices. The farmers learnt how to process food and how to increase its value; they were trained in soap making and obtained knowledge on agricultural conservation methods, and they learned how to produce useful things out of discarded waste in the sustainable waste management course.
The following courses were conducted in 2015 at FTC:
- Food processing and beekeeping (2 courses)
- Natural medicine (1 course)
- Food processing and Value addition
(1 course) - Organic agriculture basic (4 courses)
- Training of Trainers (1 course)
- Conservation Agriculture (1 course)
- Attract Youth to Agriculture Camp
(4 courses) - Participatory Guarantee System (1 course)
We are proud of receiving good feedback from our participants who positively emphasize the practical approach of our courses which gave them the opportunity to apply the acquired knowledge at home and to learn in a vivid and easily comprehensible way.
Organic agriculture is on a very good way! This is shown by made bookings for our organic agriculture courses. The farmers are happy to gain knowledge in sustainable farming practices which improve soil fertility, increase yields and reduce their input costs. In particular the Attract Youth to Agriculture Camp is of great interest. In this course we taught the youth skills including sustainable agriculture methods, basics of business administration and food processing as a practical training.
2015 has been a successful second year for our Farmer Training Centre and we expect to make a further big step forward this year. The Schedule for 2016 is out already and we are very much looking forward to welcoming new guests at our Farmer Training Centre in Vianzi!
We warmly thank all our partners and supporters who finally made it possible for us to have such a successful year and afforded us the great opportunity for the dissemination of organic farming methods.
Best training by offering the best possible quality!