Young farmers
trained in new techniques
By Hawkar Jalal Ahmed - SLEMANI
SOMA Paper -
Issue No.34 Monday, November 24,
2008 - Sunday,
December 07, 2008
The
Halabja-based Young Farmers Training
Organization (Y-FATO) is aiming to
lead an agricultural revolution by
teaching young farmers the latest
innovations in agricultural science
and technology, in order to help
them produce higher quality and
greater quantity yields.
During the summer months, the fields
of the Kurdish region may not be
that green, but they are certainly
fertile. It places the region in the
enviable position that it has the
potential to be self sufficient, but
without an agricultural revolution
this will remain a distant dream.
In an effort to realize this dream,
in 2004 a new non-governmental
organization (NGO) called the Young
Farmers Training Organization (Y-FATO),
based in Halabja was launched. Y-FATO
runs a program, now in its second
year, that trains young farmers in
various fields of agriculture, in
new forms and practice of modern
agriculture to produce a large yield
that is high in quality, so that
they can play their part in
developing the agricultural
industry. The course runs for 11
months and has both practical and
theoretical components.
The students will work on 52 donims
of agricultural lands owned by the
NGO to plant some of the crops that
they study. Upon finishing the
course the graduates will receive a
certificate of participation and
accreditation. Jalal Ali Abdullah,
56, an agricultural engineer and
head of the General Directorate of
Agriculture, Slemani, says that due
to newly available funds, they have
been able to donate new equipment to
the Y-FATO. Work started in the
program under the supervision of a
committee advised by head of the
general directorate of Agriculture
in Slemani, and participation of
head of the agriculture branch of
Halabja, an agricultural engineer,
as an administrator of the
organization, as well as a
representative of the Kurdistan
Farmers Union.
Opening another center for training
Kurdish farmers is an important step
in reaching the self sufficiency
dream. Kurdish farmers need training
on protecting their fields and how
to efficiently use the water
resources in their fields, says
Abdullah.
Karzan Faqe Hama Salih, an
agricultural engineer and director
of administration at the Y-FATO,
says that there are however, some
conditions on who can participate in
these training courses.
Firstly, they have to be villagers
with large areas of agricultural
lands used by them or their
families. Secondly, they could not
be government employees and that
they must be aged between 18-40
years old. The aim is for the school
to be similar to those of the United
States, Europe and Australia.
One method being used is to hold
classes in the farmers fields, to
further increase the accessibility
of the courses. It will also allow
them to tailor their learning to the
type of land that they farm. Hama
Jaza Ahmed, 55, an agricultural
engineer, working in the field of
plant production, says that the
first of these courses based on the
farmer's farm is a horticulture one
in Slemani.
Another new method for training
farmers is the agricultural
extension partnership, where farmers
are free to choose the location and
time of the lectures, as well as
what specialty they wish to pursue.
Beston Hama-Amin Reza, 44, an
Agricultural Engineer in
Agricultural Extension, says that in
Iraq two people from each city will
be selected to participate in a
training course about Guidance to
participate to train facilitators
in the Agricultural Extension
Partnership for nine weeks in the
city of Erbil, in cooperation with
the ARDI organization. This method
is practiced in many countries like
Egypt, and Morocco but it is new to
Iraq.
Already 11 persons have been trained
to act as facilitators in villages
around Slemani, such as Sharbazher,
Arbat, Rania, Kalar and Kifri, where
they have started opening several
sessions for the farmers in those
areas. The courses are already
making a difference. The eight
farmers who took part in the
training course in the village of
Kulajo, in Kifri, which looked at
increasing the yield of their melon
crops. saw their product yield rise.
The proportion of production was
3,200 kilograms per donim, compared
to 2,800 kilograms per donims for
those that did not partake in the
course. By holding the classes in
the farmers fields, it allows them
to get as much from the course as
possible, learning about what crops
will grow best in their soil and how
to increase the yield of such crops.
These various courses are a step
towards self sufficiency and
rehabilitating the villages, which
in turn reduces the strain on the
regions cities