Agri-agency Fert, a member of the international alliance AgriCord, has been supporting Fifata in Madagascar for 30 years. Fifata and the specialized service organizations whose emergence it has supported, such as the Ceffel association specializing in fruits and vegetables, are united within the Fifata Group. Fifata defends a family, professional, competitive and growing agriculture; it currently federates more than 300,000 family farms in 11 regions of Madagascar.
The 11th Triennial Conference of the African Potato Association (APA) in Kigali, Rwanda from 25 to 29 August 2019 was an opportunity for two representatives of the Fifata Group (a Fifata farmer director and the director of the Ceffel association) to discuss with other Farmer Organisations (FOs) on a common topic: “Enhancing the value of potatoes and sweet potatoes for a sustainable nutritional food system“.
Through thematic conferences, workshops or field visits, the FO partners of the agri-agencies members of the AgriCord alliance were able to express their needs, share their experiences, and establish together a development strategy for the potato sector (in vitro cultivation, production of healthy plants, experimentation, storage, market access…).
The reflections and proposals resulting from these exchanges will be taken up at the World Potato Congress in Dublin in 2020 and will serve as a basis for the development of a common programme within AgriCord.