The Formagri association is the result of an initiative by Fert, decided in 1991 and started in 1993. Fifata has been closely associated with it from the outset. Formagri’s vocation was to train farmers’ leaders through two distinct but complementary training courses: the Farmers’ Itinerary, the first level of training, and the Farmers’ University, which was aimed more at regional and national elected officials.
Internal governance and management difficulties forced Formagri to stop its activity in 2009. Faced with the strong demand from elected agricultural representatives, Fifata and Fert set up an internal training system (FLP: farmer leader training) to train the leaders of the Fifata group from the local to the national level (young people, local leaders, regional Farmers Organisation (FO) and executive-elected tandems).
However, there was a lack of a training system for elected officials and managers of national farmers’ organisations. At the initiative of Fifata and the other national FOs (Soa, Koloharena, CPM, Fekritama and TTM), and with the support of Fert, Formagri is relaunching a renovated farmers’ university in 2020. Classes of 20 trainees will benefit from 6 one-week sessions for :
- Strengthen their civic knowledge, which is considered essential for public debate
- Analyze key agricultural issues in Madagascar and
- Building arguments to defend the interest of Malagasy producers in front of decision-makers
