“Forging Paths to New Opportunities: Local & Global Perspectives“
79th Professional Agricultural Workers Conference (PAWC) 2021 took place from 5th – 7th December 2021 at Tuskegee University USA in virtual form. The Professional Agricultural Workers Conference (PAWC) is a forum committed to a world that values and promotes equal opportunity equitable access to information and technology for sustainable development of communities and natural resources.
During the event, many experts had the chance to present and you can check out the full agenda here. UPSCALE partner Maseno University (MU) from Kenya was represented by Dr. Frederick Aila. Dr. Aila participated in presenting the progress of the UPSCALE and other MU project titled: “Addressing Global Food Security Challenges through Partnerships and Local Community Engagement.” This project builds upon the work initiated through the UMES Center of Excellence for International Engagement and Development (CEIED), and currently continuing through the Center of Excellence for Global Food Security and Defense (CEGFSD), to address two broad goals, namely (1) strengthening agricultural development in developing countries; and (2) addressing new and emerging animal and plant pests and diseases.
The objectives are to:
- Apply innovations in genetic improvement of mainstream and orphan crops and assess the socioeconomic impact of fall armyworm and striga weed on maize production, and
- Develop and promote the utilization of high-value added products developed from local crops.
MU engages students to work with farmers to promote a push-pull cropping (PPT) system that involves intercropping of a main crop (maize or sorghum) with a fodder legume (silverleaf/Greenleaf desmodium) and Napier grass and Mulato II as border crops. This is done by leveraging on experiences and expertise stemming from UPSCALE consortium partners.
All of the session recordings are available on the PAWC website. Please note that there is a simple registration process and once you log in, you have the video and materials reporistory.
If you are interested to learn more about the increased adoption or how to become one of the farmers implementing PPT within UPSCALE project, contact us!
