Biovision Africa Trust to start working with PAFID (Participatory Approaches for Integrated Development). In an MoU that was signed by BvAT’s Executive Director Dr. David Amudavi and PAFID’s Programme Manager Colin Gunson, the two organizations agreed to work together in improving the livelihoods of the smallholder farmers in Kenya. At BvAT, we believe that working with other like-minded organizations in the field of sustainable agriculture is what we need to succeed in increasing our reach and help our farmers access more services that will improve their livelihoods and empower them. While BvAT is an irrevocable Trust registered in the Republic of Kenya dedicated to contributing to alleviation of  poverty and improving the livelihoods of poor small-holder farmers in Kenya and other African countries, through supporting ecologically sound and environmentally friendly initiatives by supporting the generation and dissemination of knowledge and information to improve human, plant, animal, and environmental health and pays attention to the multi-functionality of agriculture including assuring the provision of ecosystem services. PAFID on the other hand is […]

The African Union led Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOA-I) with support from theSwiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has commenced its second phase ofimplementation for another period of 4 years (May 2019- April 2023). Biovision Africa Trust(BvAT) is the Executing Agency for the SDC grant of over 6.3 million US dollars.The Initiative’s overall project goal is to contribute to mainstreaming of Ecological OrganicAgriculture (EOA) into national agricultural production systems by 2025 in order to improveagricultural productivity, food security, access to markets and sustainable development inAfrica.In preparation for rolling out the new phase, BvAT organized 2 regional inceptionworkshops. The Eastern Africa partners met between 10 th and 11 th July in Nairobi, Kenya,while the West Africa partners had their inception meeting on 17 th and 18 th July 2019 inDakar, Senegal. Each group brought together 30 partners from across our implementingpartners and those targeted to take part in Phase 2 of the project. The workshops alsoincluded chairpersons of the National and Regional Steering Committees. The main objectives of the workshops […]

PELUM Uganda is the new Country Lead Organization (CLO) for the EOA Initiative in Uganda. PELUM Uganda is part of the PELUM Association – a regional network of over 220 civil society organizations in 12 countries in East, Central and Southern Africa working in the area of participatory ecological land use management. The network strives to improve the livelihoods of small-scale farmers and the sustainability of farming communities, by fostering ecological land use management. Other organizations selected during the process are; Uganda Marty’s University to lead the Research and Applied knowledge Pillar, Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers’ Forum (ESAFF) Uganda to implement the Information, Communication and Extension Pillar and Kulika Uganda was selected to lead in the implementation of the Value Chain and Market Development Pillar. These selections were made in a multi-stakeholder process that brought together different stakeholders across Uganda. The process also involved a due diligence exercise by a selection team comprising members from BvAT and PELUM Kenya. The Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT) is the Lead […]

Mr. Musdalafa Okello Lyaga, Radio Assistant at the Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT) for the FCP’s TOF Radio was among 20 Food Journalists Celebrated on World Press Freedom Day by Food Tank. The day is marked annually on 3rd of May as proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993, following the recommendation of UNESCO’s General Conference. The World Press Freedom Day is a day to recognize the principles of press freedom that support journalists—and the challenges they face daily to inform the world. Journalists face attacks on their independence from many fronts: censoring, backlash, and threats from governments, corporations, and more. On this day, the world also pays tribute to journalists who have lost their lives on assignment. To honor the journalists that have advocated for better resources for farmers, improved food policies, healthier options for all people, and more, Food Tank highlighted 20 journalists with major contributions. With the help of journalists who provide today’s news, the world learned more about famine in Yemen, South Sudan, and Nigeria; […]

On the 23rdof May 2019, the Executive Director of Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT), Dr. David Amudavi and the Coordinator of the AU led EOA-I Continental Secretariat, Mr. Alex Mutungi hosted the Co-Founder and Director for International Development of Access Agriculture, Dr. Paul Van Mele for a partnership meeting. Access Agriculture is an international non-profit organisation with head office in Belgium and with regional offices in Kenya, Benin, Bangladesh and Bolivia. Based on the demand of the community of agricultural extension service providers, agricultural universities, government staff and farmer organisations in developing countries, and with backing of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Access Agriculture was founded in 2012 to enable South-South exchange on and access to quality farmer training videos to secure sustainable livelihoods of smallholder farmers and users of natural resources. BvAT is hosting the Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) Secretariat and overseeing the implementation of EOA projects across Africa (Mali, Senegal, Benin, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and now moving to Rwanda in the Phase II of […]

The BvAT team in KALRO Katumani Machakos has been honored for their efforts in promoting youth involvement in agriculture in the region. The team was identified as one of the organizations connecting young people to Agriculture by the FAO and they will be supported to participate in an open forum where young entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector will be invited to showcase their projects in Machakos Town on 24th April 2019. Other young people will be invited to come and learn. The team was also requested as a build up to the event, to market it in their radio programs on Mbaitu fm. The honor came about because of a program they did early last month (in March) on youth and agriculture. Join me in congratulating the team for their hard work – Kodos to the Machakos team!!

During the launch of the Knowledge Centre for Organic Agriculture in Africa at Biofach in Nurnberg, Germany on 15 February 2019, Dr. Stefan Schmitz, Deputy Director General at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), noted that “Agriculture is not just key to fighting poverty but is also critical to food security and an economic engine of growth”. He noted that with productive land shrinking efforts are needed to ensure food production is in line with the environment. With the current trend of depletion of resources and climate change, Africa is likely to feel more strongly the consequences. He advised that the entire food and agricultural systems therefore need more improvement, modernization and ecologically sustainable practices. He cautioned that, “Business as usual is not an option and that Organic farming is the way to go”. He reported that only about 2% of land globally is managed organically and this has to change. Organic agriculture is the key to sustainable intensification, strengthening health of soils, ecosystems, water retention […]