"A reward for me is to see organic farmers get decent price": Meet Assefa Anassha, an organic cotton internal inspector

 Assefa Anasha is a field agent working at PAN-Ethiopia since 2019. He graduated from Welaita Sodo University in plant science. Since he joined PAN-Ethiopia, he has been working very closely with smallholder farmers providing support in their farming routines. He facilitates farmers field school (FFS) training sessions in five villages – in Gamo Zone. The FFS approach is an experiential, and hands on training approach where farmers learn from each other, from the farm on a rotational basis. It is used as an extension system to help farmers learn from which actually is happening on the farm, analyse the agroecosystem – the crop, the pests, weather, natural enemies etc before they make decisions on plant protection and agronomic actions.

Mr Assefa (left) supporting a smallholder farmer on insect scouting during FFS session 

It was also a platform where farmers interact and learn that there are several plan protection and production management methods which can be used in an integrated manner – which as a project was called Cotton Integrated Pest Management (IPM and sometimes Integrated Pest and Production Management (IPPM).

Mr Assefa was working in the village level agriculture office as a development agent before he join PAN-Ethiopia. He indicated that he was not very much aware of about the practical implementation of IPM methods beyond hearing the name. “I heard about the use of IPM methods on few fruit crops which being promoted by NGOs in the village where I used to work. Despite that, I was focused on promoting the use of agrochemical inputs to increase production and productivity, as we used to call it in my department – back in my college days”.

After he joined the cotton IPM and organic cotton production project, he was taken through capacity building trainings on FFS facilitation, conduction agroecosystem analysis and preparation of spray recipes from locally available inputs that can be used for plant protection purposes. 

Mr Assefa (rigth) during his field based capacity building training 

When asked about how he coped with his new role, he mentioned about the challenges faced and opportunities he got.  “The cotton IPM project gave me an opportunity to learn the organic production principles and practices in details and how to help farmers implement those practices on the ground. The main challenge I faced was that I had to cope with all the meticulous and yet new activities to meet the organic standards, inspect each and every farm to check if they comply with the organic system plans.”

When asked about the challenges he faced in supporting and inspecting organic cotton farmers; he was fast to pick documentations. As the farmers are third party certified, they have to document all their activities to show that the organic system plans are being done on the ground. For farmers doing the activities on the farmer is not a challenge – documenting is. Hence, he had to go to each farm to check whether they farmers are copying with the organic production control systems or not.

Mr Assefa has seen his fruits for two consecutive years with the certified farmers getting quality cotton and decent price. He said that he is happy to see his farmers get rewarded with good prices after all the year round hard work.

Mr Assefa in an organic cotton field