Society President Chimdo Anchala said farmers are showing growing interest to use improved technologies and agricultural practices to boost crop productivity.

 

According to the president, some farmers are using livestock technologies. But, there is a big rift between farmers' desire to use modern technology and distribution of new and affordable breeds, he noted.

 

To fill rift, Chimdo said: "The society is aggressively working to support farmers in utilizing technologies and best practices to boost their production and productivity."

 

However, he underscored that agricultural extension workers need to be equipped with skills to enable farmers improve harvests.

 

As African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services extends its advice on the need for building the capacity of extension workers for better gains from farms, Forum Programme Officer Samson Eshetu said building the capacity of agricultural extension workers would make them respond to challenges facing farmers.

 

"We need to build the capacity of farmers and extension workers and we have to use available facilities at farmers training centres where we can share our experience with the farmers," he said.

 

The government is investing a lot in establishing and strengthening farmers training centres which would help to identify needs and provide responses accordingly, he added.

 

Samsom underlined that the first steps must be identifying farmers' needs and refraining from making impractical recommendations." This will elicit innovative farming."

 

Stressing the need for advanced farming technologies, the programme officer said: "We should not always expect [top-down ] technologies but there are practices that farmers long employed."

 

He added that such practices need to be promoted as a bottom-up approach to mitigate shortages.

Source : allafrica.com