Group 4 - Approach

Approach

Focus of the project

The main theme of the project focusses on food security.Almost all African traditional societies produced most of their own food, hence handling food security through availability. There were several varieties of all food types. However, with emergence of “development” concepts, many societies abandoned their traditional types for mass production of exotic varieties. The beginning was promising but subsequently the exotic varieties have not lived to their promise, many communities are impoverished and are food insecure.The aspects of food security considered in this project include availability, accessibility and utilization and will concentrate in the areas of Fish farming and indigenous vegetables in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa.

Project collaborators

The collaborators will include Ministry of Agriculture in Kenya where there are on-going projects on orphan crops; NGOs in Kenya, promoting small scale commercial fish farming; Egarton University, Moi University and Uinversity of Malawi,Bunda college – Departments of Aquaculture and Fisheries Science; and Forestry and horticulture with similar on going projects and Makerere University, Agricultural Extension Education department.

Goal and the purpose of the project

The goal of the project is to improve food security through the promotion of fish farming and production of indigenous vegetables.

The purpose and objectives of the project

There are two major purposes and a number of specific objectives on the project and these include:

1. To increase production of fish and indigenous vegetables
2. To promote effective utilization of fish and indigenous vegetables

The specific objectives include:

1. To determine the species levels of small scale production of fish in the region
2. To determine the types and levels of production of indigenous vegetables
3. Increase the quality and quantity of fingerlings among small scale fish farmers in the region
4. Increase the quality and quantity of fish among small scale fish farmers in the region
5. To promote the use of locally available materials in formulating quality and affordable fish feed
6. To promote widespread production of indigenous vegetables
7. To establish the utilization patterns for fish and indigenous vegetables
8. To enhance effective utilization of fish and indigenous vegetables by small scale farmers

Outputs and outcomes of the project

Output 1

1. Inventory of available fish species and indigenous vegetables in the region
2. Increased quantity of viable fingerlings
3. Increased quantity of table size fish
4. Fish feed from locally available material formulated
5. Increased production of indigenous vegetables

Output 2

1. Inventory of utilization patterns of fish and indigenous vegetables
2. Increased consumption of fish and indigenous vegetables
3. Increased income from fish and indigenous vegetables

Expected outcomes

1. Increased food and nutrition security
2. Increased incomes
3. Improved asset accumulation

Project management – organizational structure

The project will be managed by collaborating partners in the region. There will be the Team leaders based in Kenya/Lilongwe and project technical team of specialists in the areas of fish farming,horticulture,extension and outreach; and monitoring and evaluation. The activities will involve working with fish and indigenous vegetable farmers in the region hence a lot of contacts with the communities. There is a need to have a proactive management team that would effectively implement the project.

Monitoring and evaluation

Monitoring and evaluation will be a key component of the project to feed into operational and strategic management. Monitoring will be used as a learning and feedback tool since it is only through monitoring and evaluation that management is informed. The project will integrate monitoring and evaluation as a continuous process in all its activities. A participatory monitoring and evaluation approach will be used in the project that will involve all partners and stakeholders in the process. A PM&E approach will enable all stakeholders to participate and learn from the system.

A monitoring and evaluation system for the project will developed that will be used to guide all the monitoring and evaluation activities of the project. The system will include pre-project evaluation through a baseline study, monitoring and evaluation plan, a performance indicator tracking table, project communication and reporting plan and management information system.