From 3rd to 7th July 2017, 22 people – elected representatives and technicians from African producers’ organizations, partners of Fert, but also technical advisors and project managers Fert – met in Paris for the 3rd edition of the TransFert meetings. Back on a week not like the others.

Initiated as a ritual since the beginning of the TransFert program in 2015, annual meetings are seen as an important moment of intercognition, but above all of sharing problems and advances in the actions carried out in the five countries concerned by this program: Burkina Faso , Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania.

After Madagascar (2015) and Burkina Faso (2016), the 2017 meetings were held in France in a smaller format (5 days of work instead of 10 in Madagascar and 9 in Burkina Faso). Meetings in an organized format, since it was less a program of visits and exchanges on the main themes of the program, than evaluating the first three years of transversal actions in order to better envisage the future and Take time to reflect on Fert’s accompanying posture; With the highlight of the 5th of July, the General Assembly of Fert and a round table. Divided into three distinct times, the week was dense for the participants.

To begin the week, at the offices of Ifocap, the emblematic place for the training of managers and agricultural managers, the program evaluators presented their conclusions and recommendations for the continuity of the program in order to respond better to the problems faced by farmers Of the African countries concerned.

On Wednesday, July 5, all African participants were invited to attend the Fert Statutory General Assembly, during which Henri de Benoist passed the presidency torch to Jean-François Isambert. In the afternoon, a round table was organized. Entitled ‘Producer organizations, drivers of agricultural development: what are the conditions for their viability?’, It highlighted the progress of the organizations present – Fifata and Ceffel for Madagascar, the Cowpea Farmers’ Unions for Burkina Faso – in terms of organizational, technical and financial viability, by crossing the eye with a French organization, Fruiter of La Brune, who testified on the question of the viability of the FO in its environment.

A final sequence allowed to give the floor to the field technicians of these professional organizations but also to the advisers Fert, to talk about the methods adopted to accompany the FOs towards the viability.

In order to pursue this theme, the majority of the group met at the International University of Paris the following day for two days of training session around the function of adviser to FO. Facilitated by Ifocap, this sequence was an opportunity to focus on lived situations and to analyze together the postures to adopt in order to respond to the problems faced by farmers’ organizations.

At the same time, Burkina Faso and Madagascar elected representatives left for two days in the Beauce at the invitation of a Fert administrator, Paul Henri Doublier, for a program of visits on the theme of training and accompaniment of young people In agriculture: exchanges with a young farmer invested in the local union, meeting with the Axereal cooperative to discuss their support program for young cooperators, and visit of the agricultural college of Nermont in Chateaudun.

Everyone was able to return to their country, satisfied with the time invested in their stay, and ready to continue the collective adventure of this multi-country program.