1.2 Detalles de contacto de las personas de referencia e instituciones involucradas en la evaluación y la documentación del Enfoque

Nombre del proyecto que facilitó la documentación/ evaluación del Enfoque (si fuera relevante)

Soil protection and rehabilitation for food security (ProSo(i)l)

Nombre de la(s) institución(es) que facilitaron la documentación/ evaluación del Enfoque si fuera relevante)

Alliance Bioversity and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Alliance Bioversity-CIAT) - Kenia

1.3 Condiciones referidas al uso de datos documentados mediante WOCAT

¿Cuándo se compilaron los datos (en el campo)?

09/02/2023

El compilador y la/s persona(s) de referencia claves aceptan las condiciones acerca del uso de los datos documentados mediante WOCAT :

Sí

1.4 Referencia/s al/los Cuestionario(s) de Tecnologías MST

2.1 Breve descripción del Enfoque

The Soil Fertility Improvement Cluster approach engages five or more farmers living in a village who share skills and labour to prepare and use improved compost as well as to demonstrate it to non-member of the group.

2.2 Descripción detallada del Enfoque MST

Descripción detallada del Enfoque MST:

The Soil Fertility Improvement Cluster approach engages five or more farmers living in a village who share skills and labour. Soil fertility improvement interventions in Kersa district of Jimma zone follows this approach. A cluster introduces diverse benefits to the participants including access to a package of inputs, and other benefits and services. Furthermore, it creates awareness and facilitates the adoption and diffusion of various soil fertility improvement technologies such as the preparation and use of improved compost. Kersa district, as one of the scaling out woredas for the Integrated Soil Fertility Management Project (ISFM+), strives to spread appropriate technologies against the growing issues of soil degradation, particularly soil acidity. The approach aims to promote collective learning and action where labour is shared amongst the participating farmers.
The district/Woreda Office of Agriculture’s Soil Fertility Improvement Unit organises annual training for 20 to 40 model farmers from different kebeles, of which five or more are located in the same village and can form a cluster. At the end of the training, the woreda office of agriculture donates a spade or other farm tool as an incentive to engage the participants in the preparation of organic fertilizers such as improved compost and vermicompost. Strict follow-up is carried out, with technical support provided by woreda development actors.
On top of the training organized on improved soil fertility by the woreda office of agriculture experts, a local NGO known as “FC Ethiopia” provides experience exchange visits to other parts of Oromia where improved compost was piloted. This technology involves different activities for the production of improved compost (described in detail as a Technology in the WOCAT database). Farmers' participation in training, exchange visits, collective learning and action, and lessons learning from the actual use of this organic fertilizer vis-à-vis using synthetic fertilizers motivates farmers to uptake and implement the technology. Land users like the simplicity of preparing the compost which takes less time than conventional compost preparation.

2.3 Fotos del Enfoque

2.4 Videos del Enfoque

2.5 País/ región/ lugares donde el Enfoque fue aplicado

2.6 Fechas de inicio y conclusión del Enfoque

2.7 Tipo de Enfoque

• iniciativa local reciente/ innovadora

2.8 Propósitos/ objetivos principales del Enfoque

To learn and prepare improved compost in a group, and restore the increasingly growing problems of soil acidity, the main causes of soil degradation in the area.

2.9 Condiciones que facilitan o impiden la implementación de la/s Tecnología/s aplicadas bajo el Enfoque

3.1 Partes interesadas involucradas en el Enfoque y sus roles

3.2 Involucramiento de los usuarios locales de tierras/ comunidades locales en las distintas fases del Enfoque

	Involucramiento de los usuarios locales de tierras/ comunidades locales	Especifique quién se involucró y describa las actividades
iniciación/ motivación	interactivo	SLM experts and extension workers provide technical support, and a group of farmers jointly learn and implement the technology.
planificación	interactivo	Extension workers engage in the planning process.
implementación	auto-movilización	Farmers are keen to learn and implement the technology via group steering and self-mobilization.
monitoreo y evaluación	interactivo	Woreda SLM experts, extension workers, and farmers engaged in participatory evaluation and learning in a cluster.

3.3 Flujograma (si estuviera disponible)

3.4 La toma de decisiones en la selección de Tecnología(s) MST

Especifique quién decidió la selección de las Tecnología/ Tecnologías a implementarse:

• principalmente usuarios de tierras con el apoyo de especialistas MST

Especifique las bases que sustentaron la toma de decisiones:

• hallazgos de investigaciones
• la experiencia personal y opiniones (no documentadas)

4.1 Construcción de capacidades / capacitación

¿Se proporcionó la capacitación a usuarios de tierras/ otras partes interesadas?

Sí

Especifique quién fue capacitado:

• usuarios de tierras
• personal de campo/ consejeros

Si fuese relevante, también especifique género, edad, estatus, etnicidad, etc.

A few women farmers participated in the training among other men counterparts.

Forma de capacitación:

• en el contexto de trabajo

Temas avanzados:

Improving soil fertility using organic fertilizers, acid soil management, crop residue management, crop rotation, etc.

4.2 Servicio de asesoría

¿Los usuarios de tierras tienen acceso a un servicio de asesoría?

Sí

Especifique si servicio proporcionado se realizó:

• en los campos de los usuarios de tierras
• en centros permanentes

Describa/ comentarios:

Advisory service is often given at Farmers Training Center (FTC) and complemented by field visit and provision of on- the- spot technical support and counseling services.

4.3 Fortalecimiento institucional (desarrollo institucional)

¿Se establecieron o fortalecieron instituciones mediante el Enfoque?

• sí, un poco

Especifique el nivel o los niveles en los que se fortalecieron o establecieron las instituciones:

• local

Describa la institución, roles y responsabilidades, miembros, etc.

Farmers cluster (soil fertility improvement group). Member farmers jointly learn the technique of producing organic fertilizers, SLM practices, and sharing labor during the time of applying the fertilizer to the farm.

Especifique el tipo de apoyo:

• construcción de capacidades/ entrenamiento

4.4 Monitoreo y evaluación

¿El monitoreo y la evaluación forman parte del Enfoque?

Sí

Comentarios:

The monitoring and evaluation are conducted by Woreda SLM experts and seldom with member of the woreda administration and the land users.

Si respondió que sí, ¿la documentación se utilizará para monitoreo y evaluación?

No

Comentarios:

As the district/woreda is one of the scaling up woredas for the ISFM+ project, it may/may not be used for the documentation.

4.5 Investigación

¿La investigación formó parte del Enfoque?

No

5.1 Presupuesto anual para el componente MST del Enfoque

Si no se conoce el presupuesto anual preciso, indique el rango:

• 2,000-10,000

Comentarios (ej. fuentes principales de financiamiento/ donantes principales):

Actually, specific data for operational data is not available at the level of the compost production cluster since the training and exchange visits were organized by the woreda office of Agriculture and an NGO. Of course, there are huge labor costs spent by land users to access the feedstock. Also, materials/accessories and farm tools cost for compost production was not precisely accounted for.

5.2 Apoyo financiero/material proporcionado a los usuarios de tierras

¿Los usuarios de tierras recibieron financiamiento/ apoyo material para implementar la Tecnología/ Tecnologías? :

Sí

Si respondió sí, especifique el tipo o los tipos de apoyo, condiciones y proveedor(es) :

Material support during the training such as farm tools (spade/fork) only.

5.3 Subsidios para insumos específicos (incluyendo mano de obra)

• ninguno

5.4 Crédito

¿Se proporcionó crédito bajo el Enfoque para actividades MST?

No

5.5 Otros incentivos o instrumentos

¿Se usaron otros incentivos o instrumentos para promover la implementación de Tecnologías MST?

Sí

Si fuera el caso, especifique :

The woreda SLM/Soil Fertility Improvement unit sometimes purchase surplus organic fertilizer produced by land users to promote them consistently produce and use to restore their soil fertility and address threat of degradation.

6.1 Impactos del Enfoque

6.2 Motivación principal del usuario de la tierra para implementar MST

6.3 Sostenibilidad de las actividades del Enfoque

¿Pueden los usuarios de tierras sostener lo que se implementó mediante el Enfoque (sin apoyo externo)?

• sí

Si respondió que sí, describa cómo:

Farmers enjoy the benefit accrued from the production and use of improved compost. It improves soil fertility and mitigates the effects of soil acidity on the best use of synthetic fertilizers. Also, land users are enjoying the sale of surplus production. At least about 0.5 tons of compost is harvested from a pile which increases the cumulative production of as many heaps as possible.

6.4 Fortalezas/ ventajas del Enfoque

Fuerzas/ ventajas/ oportunidades desde la perspectiva del usuario de la tierra
The approach is based on preliminary training, exchange visit, motivation, and technical support.
It promotes mutual learning at the local level and allows other stakeholders to learn from the pilot activities.
As it is less labor-demanding and matured shortly compared to conventional compost making, it has a high rate of scaling opportunity.

Fuerzas/ ventajas/ oportunidades desde la perspectiva del compilador o de otra persona de referencia clave
It is an inspiring initiative in the middle of adversity relating to soil degradation so that land users learn from one another, and arrest the ongoing soil degradation.
The technology can be easily scaled up as the district is located in high biomass production areas that serve as a source of feedstock to produce more compost as compared to the other part of the country where there is huge competition for multiple uses of crop residue as an ingredient for compost making.
Farmer clusters promote collective learning, labor sharing, and transferring knowledge and skills to other land users as peer learning has groundbreaking effects over centralized advisory services associated with conceptual than practical showcasing.

6.5 Debilidades/ desventajas del Enfoque y formas de sobreponerse a ellos

Debilidades/ desventajas/ riesgos desde la perspectiva del usuario de la tierra	¿Cómo sobreponerse a ellas?
All members of the cluster do not actively participate in collective action.	Promote the active participation of the member of the cluster by strengthening ties and labor-sharing traditions. Also, to engage family labor to cover the gaps.

Debilidades/ desventajas/ riesgos desde la perspectiva del compilador o de otra persona de referencia clave	¿Cómo sobreponerse a ellas?
Limited stakeholders participation as it is not project-based and is being derived from the motivation and goodwill of Woreda soil fertility improvement unit experts and the model farmers who are members of the cluster.	Create more awareness of the approach. Also, the woreda needs to acknowledge and institutionalize such a beneficial approach that strives to promote collective action against the growing issues of land degradation.

7.1 Métodos/ fuentes de información

7.2 Referencias a publicaciones disponibles

Título, autor, año, ISBN:

CLUSTER FARMING AS NEW APPROACH IN ETHIOPIA. Dejene Mamo. 2019. Conference: Academic presentation

¿Dónde se halla disponible? ¿Costo?

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347976115_CLUSTER_FARMING_AS_NEW_APPROACH_IN_ETHIOPIA

7.3 Vínculos a la información relevante disponible en línea

Título/ descripción:

Collective Action in Rural Communities

URL:

https://resources.uwcc.wisc.edu/Research/AFRI_final_report_full.pdf