Due to droughts and species extinction caused by climate change and biodiversity loss, agriculture is being forced to adapt rapidly. This is an especially great challenge for small-scale farmers in Africa South of the Sahara. Training can make a difference, but simply issuing instructions from above often fails to produce impact. In close cooperation with African People & Wildlife (APW), a community-based nature conservation organisation with 20 years of experience, the Hamburg-based Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF) has published a pioneering manual: the CmiA Community Engagement Training Manual. In this manual, the two partners introduce a new approach to agricultural consulting and to establishing a partnership-based dialogue on an equal footing with small-scale cotton farmers.

Designed as a practical guide, the new training manual moves beyond the top–down paradigm that often characterises traditional agricultural consulting. It was developed by both organisations in collaboration over several years, building on APW’s tried and tested ACTIVE Community Engagement Model. Divided into four modules, the manual covers topics ranging from socio-cultural planning to the holding of participatory sessions and the evaluation of learning success.

Complex challenges call for new paths

This manual places cotton producers at the heart of a process that involves collaborative learning, communication, and decision-making. Through this process, agricultural advisors and lead farmers develop into 'community champions' (moderators of change). Their main focus is on engaging farming communities in a dialogue-driven process to bring about lasting positive changes in traditional farming practices.

The reason for this is that climate change, biodiversity loss, and their impact on rural communities require extensive adjustments to be made to cotton cultivation. In order to implement these adjustments, it is not sufficient to give purely technical recommendations for action and to verify their implementation; rather, it is necessary to take into account local knowledge, traditional practices, and farmers’ individual risk perceptions. The manual provides facilitators in the growing regions with a guide to analysing local needs collaboratively, helping them identify what adjustments smallholder farming truly requires in each context. This approach will lead to a greater acceptance of innovative cultivation methods, to joint action, and to the development of a deeper understanding of the need for change.

Communities at the center of action

“The manual reflects our conviction that agriculture can only function in the long term if rural communities are the focus of action,” says Alexandra Perschau, the head of cotton standards at the Aid by Trade Foundation, continuing, “Farmers are not passive recipients of recommendations for action; they are equal partners as the pivotal point of change. Their valuable experience and the rich, traditional knowledge of many people and communities form the basis of the new approach.”

Currently, the handbook is being introduced to CmiA implementation partners through an initial 'Training of Trainers' and CmiA regional workshops led by APW. Key contributors to this effort include Alais Morindat, the head of the ACTIVE Community Engagement programme at APW; Revocatus Magyane, the ACTIVE programme director and the senior programme officer of APW; and Dr Ben Sekamatte, an agricultural expert and consultant for CmiA from Uganda.

The CmiA Community Engagement Training Manual