Fbo Community

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2.3 CONTRIBUTIONS OF FBOS TO FOOD SECURITY
Smallholder agriculture which is supported and coordinated by farmer-based organizations is a major tool for creating employment, for human welfare and for political stability in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in rural areas (Delgado. 2006). Given that, worldwide most poor people live in rural areas and that agriculture is their main source of livelihood, focusing on factors that will enhance smallholder agriculture will bring about a lasting solution to the problems of rural poverty and food insecurity (Lopez, 2002). Farmer-based organizations today are involved in all these pathways and are helping to help farmers to take there farming activities beyond the farm gate to achieve sustainable food …show more content…

It is thus possible to scale up interventions even when there is very few extension staff. Since solutions are obtained jointly and through an experimentation process the FFS can function (Arnold R. Braun and Deborah Duveskog, 2005:58). Due to the informal and participatory nature of FBOs, with its inbuilt group dynamic and team building exercises, it provides an ideal entry point to deal also with broader livelihood issues such as nutrition, health and sanitation. In particular sensitive aspects such as HIV/AIDS, violence, family planning and human traumas can often be effectively dealt with in FBOs following the breakdown of barriers between men-women and rich-poor that the FBOs situation stimulates. The FBOs approach can further act as a bridge between emergency and development by forming a platform for immediate input supply, agricultural training as well as building organizational capacities for future longer-term interventions. Whereas inputs and emergency support are important among communities suffering from civil strife or returnees’ efforts are also needed in terms of knowledge for efficient utilization of the inputs, food & income security and psycho-socio rehabilitation (Hagman and Chuma 2009:144). 2.4 Challenges facing farmer Based organizations According to (Hagman and Chuma, …show more content…

Many groups lack strong monitoring and evaluation component which would analyze the extent of progress and achievement of objectives to enable them to plan effectively. Poor soil fertility is a challenge faced by farmer-based organizations in the achievement of food security and rural wellbeing in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nutrient depletion, being a key factor in low soil fertility results when nutrients removed through crop uptake and other loses are not adequately replaced, which is widespread across sub-Saharan Africa. Nitrogen is the most affected due to its high uptake, vulnerability to leaching, losses in gaseous form and through crop harvest. The use of inorganic fertilizers to alleviate the problem of low soil fertility is limited by the high cost of inputs leading to very low usage per unit area. In addition, smallholders fail to use the recommended rates of inorganic fertilizers (Sheppard et al.,

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