Miguel Tafula is an irrigation engineer in Mozambique. He talks about a project he is working on and how he ensures farmers are actively engaged in irrigation developments.
It’s very important to identify farmer champions because they are the ones who have the ability to influence other farmers and can also help in terms of integrating the farmers into our activities.
We don’t elect a champion farmer – we consider a farmer who is knowledgeable but is self-motivated and emerges naturally. We identify the champion by seeing the motivated farmer who also has the ability to influence other farmers and also to explain what we are doing in the local perspective.
So a champion leader is a very important factor during the implementation of new technologies, new innovation platforms. Also they are the one who influence the other farmers and motivate them to participate in each activity we are developing.
They’re the ones who are responsible for demonstrating the new techniques that we want to implement and also they are the ones who coordinate all fields of activities. We don’t do it by ourselves – we make them understand that they are leading the different activities that we want to promote in the field. We are just facilitators to introduce the new technologies. But it is the farmers who lead and who coordinate the introduction of new technologies and it is the champion who is responsible for demonstrating the new technologies to them.