FRN woven around a farmer federation

Summary

In this example, the FUMA Gaskiya FRN is linked to a farmer federation, which facilitates networking. The federation consists of 21 farmers unions, 420 local farmer organisations and a total of 12,131 members, of which 55% are women. Due to exchange among all unions during the general assemblies of FUMA Gaskiya, knowledge and experiences are shared widely within the federation. Different unions participate in specific research activities (e.g. Cowpea Square trials, Variety testing, Seed production & marketing, Cereal-legume processing, Women's field project, biological headminer control initiative, Seedball project, and more). However, information concerning these research projects is shared among all unions during the general assemblies, which are usually held once or twice per year and where all unions are represented. Information is also shared by community radio, during seed fairs and other occasions.