Capacity development Zimbabwean fruit and vegetable farmers (OKP-TMT.18.00296 ZIM)
TAILOR-MADE TRAINING GLOBALG.A.P.
Q-Point has conducted a tailor-made training programme (TMT) in Zimbabwe on GLOBALG.A.P. implementation in Zimbabwe last year, designed for the farmers’ organisation Sisonke Ag-Fresh (SAF) and part of the Orange Knowledge Programme, funded by the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed by Nuffic. More information on the Orange Knowledge Programme
Examples of GLOBALG.A.P. implementation at member farms
TRACEABILITY
The farmers had the ambition to improve their farming practices, they lacked knowledge about the food safety and quality management systems to support these and to ensure traceability, as well as the skills for implementing such standards. Without the implementation of standards such as GLOBALG.A.P. the farmers are not allowed to export their crops to Europe. More importantly, the safety of their crops cannot be guaranteed towards buyers and consumers within Zimbabwe and the surrounding countries.
THEORY
The TMT focused on building the capacity of the SAF member farmers in the implementation of GLOBALG.A.P. and supported implementation on several farms. By addressing regulations, underlying theory and practical implementation of GLOBALG.A.P. for fruit and vegetable production, the farmers are now able to fully understand and apply the standards on their own farms.
Stakeholder meeting at SPAR HQ July 2019
PRACTICE
In addition to the theoretical training programme, we organised field visits to the farms of participants and an already GLOBALG.A.P. certified company. The farmers saw the practical side of GLOBALG.A.P., for example by seeing how toilets are built in the field, how easy it is to set up a safe storage area for pesticides, how to set up a registration system and how to make a farmer’s map. The practical farm visits were highly appreciated by the participants because it became clear that implementation does not have to be complicated, but can be realised with the resources at hand.
The farmers learned the practical approach to implementing standards and now look beyond the compliance aspect of it. For instance: record keeping is a tool for efficient and effective management.
One of the participants: “Record keeping is key for good farm management!”
The farmers now see that to become a professional farmer, you have to keep track of what you are doing.
AUDITING
The group was also trained in internal auditing to ensure the internal audit capacity available within the group. The training took on a training-of-trainer (ToT) approach to enable SAF to train its new members.
STAKEHOLDER EVENTS
As part of this TMT training, two stakeholder events have been organised to both connect Sisonke Ag-Fresh to relevant stakeholders and enable the trainees to apply new knowledge and skills in a network environment in collaboration with Q-Point´s second Nuffic TMT project in Zimbabwe: ‘Developing gender-friendly and sustainable fresh produce value chains in Zimbabwe. Check our update
