Togo

Raising small ruminants is a vital source of income for many rural women. In the context of the fight against poverty, the quest for food security and resilience to the effects of climate change, the introduction of more efficient breeds appears to be a priority for creating income-generating activities and improving the incomes of vulnerable women through more productive and sustainable goat farming.
With technical support from the Institut Togolais de Recherche Agronomique (ITRA), the FSRP Togo has launched the pilot extension of the Maradi red goat in twelve (12) localities spread across the country's six agro-ecological regions, with the aim of improving the incomes of vulnerable women by breeding the Maradi goat, nicknamed "the poor man's dairy cow" because of its high milk production.
Originating in the Maradi department of Niger, this remarkably robust breed of goat has a number of assets, including its great hardiness and its ability to produce milk rich in vitamin A. Thanks to these assets, the Maradi red goat has proved to be the mainstay of economic development for rural households.
This FSRP initiative to introduce prolific breeds into livestock production systems is based on a rigorous methodology, as explained by Dr DJABA Atouga, head of the goat and sheep programme at the ITRA agricultural research centre in Kolokopé: The Maradi red goats you see arrived at the centre on 9 October 2024 and underwent a two-month quarantine period before being mated. To ensure that the organised matings were successful, we observed a further period of around four months to see the first signs, including udder development. Following these appearances, we proceeded to distribute the goats to vulnerable women identified in the country's six agricultural regions. Each woman received at least two (2) pregnant goats and a suitable feeding kit.
After just a few days of providing pregnant goats, goat kids have been born in some places. This is the case of Mrs Kossiwa Yao, a beneficiary based in Langabou, who describes her experience with the animals: "These goats are all I have today and I look after them as if they were my own children. As soon as they were born, they gave birth to a vigorous male kid within a week. Even though she is nursing the kid well, she still has a lot of milk in her udders. I'm planning to extract some of it to make cheese and sell at the market. 
Through this action, the FSRP Togo is laying the foundations for structural improvement in the goat sector, while placing rural women at the heart of the agricultural development dynamic. This initial pilot phase paves the way for a gradual extension, based on concrete results, in favour of more resilient, inclusive and economically viable family farming.
ICAT's technical services provide regular veterinary and technical monitoring of these animals for the twelve women who have each received at least two (02) pregnant goats in the country's six agricultural regions.       
 

In Togo, women play an essential role in agricultural production. However, their involvement in processing, trading and entrepreneurial activities remains marginalised. This under-representation is the result of several obstacles, including social and cultural norms and structural barriers to access to finance and economic opportunities. 
With a view to strengthening the economic empowerment of women, the FSRP Togo supported from 12 to 15 March 2025, through the Coordination Togolaise des Organisations Paysannes (CTOP) and other women from sister organisations such as the Fédération des Promotrices d'Agro-industrie du Togo (FEPROMAT) and the Réseau National des Femmes Agricultrices du Togo (RENAFAT), the organisation of the 2nd edition of the fair to promote local products and trade opportunities in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The aim of this event is to support women by promoting local products and developing new business opportunities linked to the AfCFTA. 
The opening ceremony was marked by three speeches, including that of the President of CTOP, who thanked the Head of State and all the partner organisations of CTOP, the FSRP, which had supported the organisation of the fair. He invited and encouraged the population to buy and consume the products on display, the quality of which is no longer in doubt: "Yesterday there were doubts about the quality. But today, with the support and assistance of various projects, the women at are putting good quality products on the market, as you can see. I invite you to try them! They are 100% produced by Togolese women". He said.
The representative of the PRSF Deputy Coordinator and the representative of the Minister of Agriculture, Village Hydraulics and Rural Development welcomed the massive attendance of women at this training course. They invited and encouraged the women to seize the opportunity to find out more about market access opportunities under the FTAA and to obtain the necessary documentation to prepare to export their products to countries in the sub-region. 
Mrs Edou Adjovi Dodji made no secret of her delight at receiving the training: "Before, we used to cross borders without any papers; without an identity card, a CFE card or an economic operator's card, unaware of our rights and duties. Thanks to this training, we've learned a lot. How to formalise our businesses, our cooperatives or processing units so that we can cross the border easily with our products, processed locally in Togo.  We also learned about all the documents we need to formalise, and the files we need to provide to customs to be able to cross borders easily. After this training, we plan to set up a WhatsApp group through which we can relay the training, keep up to date with the latest news from the Ministry of Trade, and ask for ongoing support from the expert so that we can export more easily to the FTAA zones".
It should be noted that the training benefited 120 women processors and producers of agricultural products, who exhibited their products at the fair organised to mark International Women's Rights Day, celebrated every 8 March.

Recent progress in the development and supply of improved crop varieties in Togo has helped to improve agricultural productivity and yields.

However, this production has so far been limited to a small group of producers. In addition, with the private sector positioning itself on the promotion of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP), ITRA's basic cutting production capacity needs to be strengthened to meet this ever-increasing demand and, above all, to serve areas not yet covered by improved seeds.

The FSRP has therefore supported ITRA in producing the basic cuttings of two high-yield, climate-resilient PDCO varieties in order to make an effective contribution to food security in Togo. The cuttings produced are used to supply the PDCO root multipliers and producers selected in the savannah region.

After production, the FSRP Togo has begun to make these two new high-yield varieties of orange-fleshed sweet potato, which have recently been added to the national catalogue, available to 25 multipliers spread throughout the country and 1,067 women producers and processors of PDCO in the savannah regions.

Carried out through the Togolese Institute of Agronomic Research (ITRA), this FSRP action aims to promote and distribute these improved seeds of high-performance varieties in areas not yet served and thus contribute to the substantial improvement of the productivity and resilience capacities of the targeted populations.

Prior to the distribution of these seeds, the beneficiaries were given training in the intensive production process (good production and conservation practices) for sweet potatoes and varietal recognition.

The producers were then given support in setting up their plots.

In most regions of Togo, where 90% of the economy is based on agricultural and pastoral activities, farmers face major challenges. These include declining soil fertility, limited access to water and finance, the impacts of climate change and, above all, restricted access to seeds and fertilisers, the costs of which remain high.

In order to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable farmers, who often only practise subsistence farming, the West African Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) in Togo is implementing initiatives aimed at improving the productive capacities of beneficiary farmers. One of the programme's flagship initiatives is the distribution of input kits consisting of improved seeds and fertilisers.

The 2023 agricultural season in the Kéran prefecture (Kara region) has been a turning point for local producers, thanks to the provision of certified seeds and fertilisers. A total of 1,562 farmers, 45% of them women, benefited from this 50% repayable input credit to improve their yields.

Thanks to the distribution of rice and soya seeds and fertilisers, farmers in the Kéran region have been able to plant a total of 400 hectares spread across the region's 9 cantons. This initiative has not only boosted local production, but has also supported the empowerment of women farmers, who make up a large proportion of the beneficiaries. Sambiani Biyina, a soya farmer, explains: "In 2023, I received 20 kg of soya, which enabled me to plant 0.25 ha. At the end of the season, I harvested 450 kg, which I turned into soya cheese for a profit of 200,000 CFA francs. This money enabled me to take care of some family expenses, help my husband build our house, and increase the area to be planted during the 2024 season (0.5ha).

Support for seeds and fertilisers has enabled Kéran farmers to significantly improve their yields. Rice and soya seeds, adapted to local climatic conditions, were chosen for their resistance and production potential. The use of fertilisers has also helped to maximise soil fertility and increase harvests.

Bonalé Kodjo, a rice farmer in Nambou, canton of Pessidé, is married to two women and has four children. He also has 3 nephews to support. "With the support of the FSRP, I received 10 kg of rice seed, 50 kg of NPK and 25 kg of urea. I grow maize, but given the number of family members and the high demand for rice for consumption, I planted 0.25 ha and harvested 600 kg of rice, which I made available to the family. 
The 120,000 CFA francs I used to spend on rice each year are now used for other things.

This year, with the 25 kg seed I've put together, I'm going to plant 0.75 ha for consumption and sale next year. The project has really helped me out of my vulnerability.

This initiative has had a positive impact not only on agricultural production, but also on the community as a whole. Increased harvests have led to better availability of food on local markets, reducing dependence on imports and strengthening the region's food resilience.

The fact that 45% of beneficiaries are women highlights the importance of including women in the agricultural sector. This support enables them to play a key role in food production and contribute to the food and nutritional security of their families and communities.

The efforts made in the Kéran prefecture illustrate the importance of targeted support to improve agricultural productivity and strengthen resilience in the face of climatic challenges. By providing essential resources such as seeds and fertilisers, this initiative is helping to build a sustainable agricultural future for the region. These essential inputs enable farmers to grow more resistant and productive varieties, thereby contributing to greater food security and poverty reduction in rural areas, while creating jobs for young people, like Potey Jérémie, a 33-year-old holder of the Baccalaureate who has returned to the village in 2019 to take up farming: 

"In 2023, I received 10 kg of rice seed from the FSRP, which I sowed on 0.25 ha. I harvested over 500 kg. I sold some of it, which enabled me to start raising guinea fowl. Thanks to the sale of the rice, I was able to finish building my house. I now live in my own home and no longer rent. The PRSF's support has not only given me a job, but also enabled me to live like a civil servant. I would like to thank the World Bank, ECOWAS and the Ministry of Agriculture for their support.

While continuing to provide advisory support to the beneficiaries of 2023, the distribution of seeds and fertilisers continued this year, with 1,197 beneficiaries, 58% of them women, receiving rice, soya, cowpea and maize seeds in the Kéran prefecture. 

With the aim of promoting the mass adoption of innovative agricultural practices and technologies that are resilient to climate change, the Food System Resilience Programme in West Africa, Togo project (FSRP-Togo) has initiated, since 2022, a series of training courses on good agroecological practices and the dissemination of climate-smart technologies for the benefit of targeted producers.

Thanks to the support of its partner organisations, in particular the Coordination togolaise des organisations paysannes et de producteurs agricoles (CTOP), the Institut de conseil et d'appui techniques (ICAT) and the Conseil interprofessionnel de la filière riz au Togo (CIFR), The FSRP Togo has facilitated practical training in a number of agroecological techniques, including compost making, seed coating, improved fallow, crop association and rotation, and the simple lowland management technique known as ‘smart valley’.

Three years after this support was provided, a survey of farmers carried out as part of the mid-term evaluation revealed perceptible socio-economic changes. On average, 87.65% of beneficiaries have seen their yields increase by 60% and their incomes by around 76%.

This is the case for Kouzotou Baomondom and her colleagues, who swear by the technique of summary management of low-lying rice fields:

‘This year, with smart valleys, we had to set up baskets, plant nurseries and transplant in rows.  We saw that with the little rainfall that arrived, the traps were able to collect water, and the water was used. The fertiliser we used was retained. The run-off water couldn't wash away. The rice really used this fertiliser to grow. This system saved me a lot more money, by using less seed. With the old conventional method, we gained 2.5 tonnes per hectare, but with the smart valleys approach we gained over 5 tonnes per hectare.’

FSRP Togo's support has also enabled many farmers who had abandoned their fields for lack of financial resources to get back on their feet, thanks to the project's support.

These various training and support programmes have reached 84,014 farmers, 35% of whom are women, who are practising the techniques they have learned on more than 248 Planned Agricultural Development Areas (ZAAP) and other undeveloped agricultural plots.

On 19 December 2024, in Akparè in the Ogou prefecture, the Governor of the Plateaux region, General Dadja MAGANAWE, on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture, Village Hydraulics and Rural Development, symbolically handed over market gardening tool kits to market garden producers.

     This symbolic handover marks the start of the distribution of input kits and small agricultural equipment acquired by the FSRP for the benefit of 5,500 market garden producers (including 2,475 women) identified in the country's six agricultural regions. Each producer will receive a kit comprising seeds (onion, tomato and chilli), a sprayer, 2 watering cans, a hoe, a wheelbarrow, biopesticide, biofertiliser, a shovel, a rake, a hoe and a daba. There are also plans to provide motor-driven pumps for the dynamic solidarity groups, to enable them to obtain a better supply of water to meet the needs of their crops.

This action by the FSRP Togo is part of the additional financing of the GAFSP and aims to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable agricultural populations by improving their productivity through the use of quality tools and inputs. In his opening remarks, the FSRP Togo's delegate operational coordinator said: "This support from the FSRP is a strong commitment from the highest authorities to support and strengthen the agricultural sector as a whole, and by extension, to help improve the living conditions of the population. This is therefore the ideal time to encourage you to make good use of this support, which should enable you to be self-sufficient from now on".

The authorities present in turn urged the beneficiaries to make good use of their kits. The handover was followed by a visit to a market garden production site in Nangbéto.

In Togo, agri-food processing is a sector that creates wealth and provides jobs for the population. Soya processing is dominated by small-scale and semi-industrial units, with large-scale units now gradually being installed throughout the country.

However, consumption of local processed products is lower than that of imported products, partly because of the hygienic conditions under which they are produced.

To remedy these weaknesses, the Food System Resilience Programme in West Africa (FSRP TOGO) is supporting the training of 200 soya processors in compliance with food hygiene standards, diversification of the range of processed products and packaging presentation. The aim of the training is to teach women about hygiene, quality, hazard control, packaging and good food processing practices, so that they can offer the public a diverse range of good-quality processed products.

Organised in conjunction with the Conseil Interprofessionnel de la Filière Soja au Togo (CIFS-Togo), this training targeted the family of processors organised within the Association Togolaise des Transformateurs de Soja (ATTS), and provided an opportunity to address issues of standards, hygiene, quality and packaging in order to correct shortcomings and offer the public products manufactured under good hygienic conditions.

As far as the FSRP's objectives are concerned, this training contributes to the adoption of nutrition-sensitive technologies by women processors and, in the short and medium term, helps to increase the proportion of nutrition-sensitive technologies and contributes to the implementation of the Togo 2025 roadmap, which itself aims to promote local processing through its third objective, that of strengthening agri-food processing industries and encouraging high value-added agriculture.

The training took place simultaneously from 30 September to 02 October 2024 in Tsévié, Atakpamé and Kara, and from 03 to 05 October 2024 in Sokodé and Dapaong.

As part of its West African Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP), Togo is continuing its efforts to optimise the dissemination of agro-climatic information to agricultural producers. One of the programme's innovative strategies is based on the creation of groups of relay producers responsible for transmitting this information in local languages to farmers within the Zones d'Aménagement Agricole Planifiées (ZAAP) d'excellence.

This initiative, implemented in collaboration with the Institut de Conseil et d'Appui Technique (ICAT) and the Agence Nationale de la Météorologie (ANAMET), is designed to alleviate the constraints on access to information faced by producers, particularly in a context of increasingly pronounced climate change. Through these information relays, producers in the ZAAPs receive key meteorological data, enabling them to adapt their farming practices and thus limit losses linked to climatic hazards.

In Ountivou, in the Ogou region, and in Atifoutou, in the Moyen Mono, the feedback from producers on this initiative is generally positive. The President of ZAAP Katoré 2 said: "Weather information is vital for us producers. With the climate change we are currently experiencing, this information will help us to organise our farming activities better and limit any losses due to the effects of climate change.

This innovative approach by the FSRP has led to the creation of more than 40 sub-committees within the ZAAP management committees at national level, responsible for relaying agro-hydro-meteorological information. Thanks to these joint efforts, Togolese farmers are better equipped to face climatic challenges, thereby ensuring greater resilience in their farming activities.

As part of the implementation of component 3 of the FSRP entitled "integration of regional food markets and trade", an ECOWAS agricultural trade and market scorecard (EATM-Scorecard) has been developed.

The Scorecard is an analysis tool that aims to better document intra-regional trade in agri-food products, identify gaps in agri-food trade policies and strengthen the implementation of regional policies by countries.

To make the Scorecard operational and regularly produce the information needed to monitor performance in the national implementation of regional policies and regulations, training for the focal points of the structures involved in implementing SCORECARD in Togo was organised from 21 to 25 May 2024 at the Woezon Hotel in Kpalimé.

The aim of the training was to enhance the skills of these focal points in data collection, processing, analysis and reporting methodology. It is organised in a hybrid format, with around thirty participants taking part in face-to-face and online sessions.

Chaired by the Policy, Planning and Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, the proceedings were opened by Mr Tawo O. Kodjovi, who welcomed participants on behalf of his director, before outlining the objectives and expected results of the five-day event. This was followed by a presentation by Mr NATOR Koffi Edoh, Head of Component 3 of the FSRP, on the SCORECARD programme, its implementation process and methodology.

Mr TCHADOUWA Abasse, who is responsible for component 3 at ECOWAS level, and Mr SUNDAY Odjo, Deputy Director of Operations for Akademyia 2063, took part in the training course.

It should be remembered that this training in Togo follows on from the training of trainers organised by the ARAA/ECOWAS from 19 to 22 February 2024 in Abuja, aimed primarily at teams from the FSRP countries (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Chad and Togo). Akademyia 2063 provided technical support for the organisation of this workshop.

This is significant support from the West African Food System Resilience Programme, Projet-Togo (PRSA/FSRP-Togo) to producers in the Maritime region.

On Thursday 1 August 2024 in the Moyen-Mono Vo, Yoto and Lacs prefectures, certified maize and rice seeds were distributed to vulnerable farmers in these areas in preparation for the ^2nd agricultural season in southern Togo.

"The selection of these small-scale producers took into account their degree of vulnerability, and despite the fact that they are in these conditions, the way in which they fight for agricultural production", says Kokou Guidigan, ICAT Bas-Mono Branch Manager.

He stresses that once the inputs have been distributed, his agency will continue its advisory support work so that farmers can follow the technical itineraries to ensure acceptable yields.

According to the distribution key, each grower was entitled to 10 kg of maize seed to plant half a hectare, for example. This quantity of seed will enable them to produce at least 2.5 tonnes of maize after production.

"This support comes at the right time, especially as we prepare for the next short rainy season. This second season will start in September and it's important for us to have these seeds available. We're currently harvesting the last crops of the first season, and as soon as we've finished, we'll be preparing the areas for the start of the second season", says Yawavi Kakpo Djakpata, a farmer at Afagnan Totamé in the Bas-mono prefecture.

It should be noted that in 2023, the PRSF received additional funding of USD 20 million from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP), with the aim of helping to extend the areas of intervention and the number of beneficiaries, and to take into account additional sectors such as market gardening, small ruminants, roots and tubers, and cowpeas.

For the 2024-2025 agricultural season, the FSRP has extended its activities to all regions of the country, enabling the project to acquire certified rice, soya, maize and cowpea seed and fertiliser for 28,362 producers, including 13,895 women (48.99%).

To date, 98% of certified seeds and fertilisers have been distributed throughout the country. For the 2024-2025 agricultural season, certified maize, rice, soya and cowpea seeds and fertilisers have been distributed to 28,362 vulnerable farmers in rural areas of the country.  

This support, which is an extension of the FSRP's intervention thanks to additional GAFSP funds, will strengthen the support provided in 2023 to around 22,746 producers in the Savanes region and the Kéran prefecture as part of the emergency programme to strengthen community resilience and security (PURS).