Tchad

In preparation for the 2024 agricultural season, the national coordination of the Food System Resilience Program in Chad (FSRP-Chad) has launched a vast operation to distribute improved seeds. More than 3,000 tonnes of sesame and maize seeds were distributed to over 5,000 farmers in the Logone Occidental and Logone Oriental regions.

The initiative, carried out between 15 and 20 July by the Moundou regional coordination of FSRP-Chad, aims to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable households that depend mainly on agriculture for their income. During the distribution campaign, FSRP Chad officials also had the opportunity to meet members of the college of women seed producers, underlining the importance of including women in agricultural development.

The main aim of this distribution is to provide producers with high-quality seeds, which will improve agricultural production and guarantee food security for local communities. By having improved seeds at their disposal, farmers can look forward to a more abundant harvest that is more resistant to climatic hazards, thus contributing to greater resilience in the face of environmental and economic challenges.

The World Bank-funded FSRP-Chad continues to support farmers through various initiatives and programmes, demonstrating its commitment to improving the living conditions of rural populations and ensuring the sustainability of the food system in Chad. This seed distribution is just one of the many actions undertaken to strengthen food security and promote agricultural development in the country.

With a view to accelerating the implementation of the West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) in Chad, stakeholders and partners are being trained in innovative approaches and mechanisms for the production and dissemination of agricultural technologies.

More than 50 people from the various provinces in which the FSRP is being implemented in Chad have been trained in techniques for setting up innovation platforms. This training, provided with the support of CORAF, was led by the Laboratoire de Recherche sur l’Innovation pour le Développement Agricole (LRIDA) at the University of Parakou in Benin.

FSRP Tchad focuses its activities on the priority value chains of maize, wheat, and sesame. Through the innovation platform mechanism, the aim is to help ensure the successful transfer of agricultural technologies and innovations.

Through discussions and experiences sharing, participants learned that innovation platforms are a tool for dialogue between the various actors in the value chain to collectively identify challenges and find opportunities to improve production and marketing through the adoption of the best technologies and innovations. The innovation platforms bring together research structures, producers’ organizations, technical advisory and agricultural extension services, NGOs and civil society.

Through practical exercises, trainers and learners have diagnosed problems, explored opportunities and sought solutions to challenges. This is the approach promoted by innovation platforms to integrate rural producers into value chains in West Africa. By coming together in this way, social and economic actors try to resolve the constraints they face. In doing so, they build new synergies. Through a collaborative interrelationship, agricultural producers, processors, buyers, transporters, researchers, extension workers, etc. learn from each other, understand each other better and develop win-win exchanges.