It is time to present results

It is time to present results

Hello there,

Last Friday I had a meeting with Ecohabitats Foundation, Community leaders and Coffee Association (Agricod) at the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Cauca (CRC) in Popayán to present to them the results and have a discussion.

The meeting was composed by :

  • Luis Ortega (Ecohabitats)
  • Molly (Internship Ecohabitats)
  • Waldina Bermúdez (Cauca CSV farmer, she is specialised in organic production, and she is doing workshops about organic fertiliser)
  • Valentina Santa Cruz (Leader of the Rural Youth Environment Node)
  • Alfredo Chará (Agricod Association and the person in charge of the installation and monitoring of the meteorological stations in Cauca CSV)
  • Ana Cecilia Vargas (Commercialization and technic assessment in Ecohabitats)
  • Jimmy Mañunga (President Association of Northwestern communal actions of Popayan)
  • David (Cauca CSV farmer), and
  • Anton Eitzinger (CIAT-DAPA, he is the person in charge to develop the app where the surveys were taken).

Their voice was significant as it will help to develop an instrument to support local stakeholders and practitioners in their planning and decision-making processes to promote and scale out climate-smart agriculture among smallholder farmers in Colombia.

During the 3 hours meeting, all the participants were engaged in the presentation as after every graph that I was presenting we were having a discussion. It was an excellent opportunity to hear their voices as they could explain some of the results that I did not have known.

They also realised that is important that the surveyors need to have a proper workshop and assist to it to have valid results. Of this reason for the next survey, the surveyors will be people from the Rural Youth Environment Node.

Furthermore, some of the survey questions will be modified to make an easy understanding for the farmers with pictures or short videos to show the CSA practices. For example, for the CSA practice, organic fertiliser during the meeting was a big discussion about the type of organic fertiliser. The question on the survey did not specify types of organic fertiliser and for example, the results show that is the practice more implementing in Cauca CSV, but the components of the meeting said that the numbers that the results were showing are not real.

The discussion during the meeting had a significant feedback on all the participants. It is the first time that the survey was done in Cauca-CSV and all the feedback will help to improve next surveys.

Next Friday I will be submitting already the thesis (Yes, I know it seems yesterday when I started all the journey), but my journey in Colombia will continue until mid-October to finish the project with CIAT-CCAFS and Ecohabitats Foundation. If you have any question about the project feel free to contact me on my email  – l.nagelijuan@nuigalway.ie or twitter.

See you next time,

Laia