Playful learning/better farming - Zimbabwe

Goal

To train farmers to manage their businesses as entrepreneurs so that they have the skills to increase their harvest and income. They learn this by playing the game Farming Forward on tablets. Trainers from three organisations are being trained to pass on their knowledge to the farmers.

Partner

Kucheza was founded in 2014. Farming forward has been applied in various countries in Africa since 2017.

Local partner

Ebenezer Agricultural training centre

Location

Bulawayo (360 km southwest of Harare)

Updates

April 2021: Continued training Zimbabwe 

The first 4 days of the training took place in January 2021, with Kucheza trainers fully present remotely. The Kucheza team worked closely with Leo and Thamu, both trainers from Ebenezer Agricultural Training Centre who were trained in the Kucheza training game and approach in 2019. Together we were able to deliver a successful training full of interaction despite the sometimes poor internet connection. 

We had a total of 22 trainers from 4 different organisations: Hamara Business School, Africa Alive, TMG and Ebenezer Agricultural Training Centre. Although all participants work with small-scale farmers and/or aspiring farmers, they all brought their own experience and perspective to the training. This made for an interesting and lively interaction, allowing participants to learn from each other as well. 

The participants were enthusiastic about the game and had a lot of fun during the training. They indicated that it helped them to connect theory and practice and that they have a renewed perspective on how to interact with their farmers/trainees in a coaching capacity (compared to the focus on knowledge transfer they are used to). Some participants indicated that they have finally realised how important it is for farmers to keep records and to calculate costs and profitability. The same applies to topics like business planning and marketing. 

The participants are very much looking forward to using the game and the approach in the field. The training has aroused their interest in the game-based learning approach and the trainers believe that this will help to make their training more effective. During the training, the participants from the different organisations already started thinking about how they could implement this for their target group and integrate it into their existing way of working with the farmers. Until the next training, the participants practice in the field with what they have learned. 

October 2020: Farming Forward-project in collaboration with Kucheza in Zimbabwe

Kucheza is a social enterprise that has developed a digital training game for small farmers in developing countries. Many small farmers lack the knowledge and skills needed to look at their farms as entrepreneurs. Because they are unfamiliar with the relationship between input and output, financial management and how to work together effectively, they are often unable to increase their harvest and income. Questions like "What effect does using more expensive improved seeds have on my harvest?" or "Is the investment in an irrigation system worthwhile?" remain unanswered for them. Kucheza's digital training game Farming Forward is a simulation of a small-scale farm where farmers are playfully introduced to increasingly complex challenges. Playing the game is embedded in a training programme with specific attention for reflection and deepening. Theory and practice come together and in a short time players gain the insights, knowledge and experience to actually realise a higher harvest and income.  

Kucheza and Seed4Farmers work together to train a group of trainers from some local collaborating initiatives in Zimbabwe so that they in turn can train small farmers in Zimbabwe to start treating their farm like a business. Kucheza provides two training sessions for the trainers to train them in the programme. In these sessions, the trainers learn to work with the digital training game and the programme for the farmers. In addition, they are further trained in training skills. In this way, the trainers can make farmers aware of the importance of an entrepreneurial approach, effectively transfer the necessary knowledge and skills and also encourage farmers to take concrete actions on their own farms.  

In between the training sessions, the trainers will work with farmers and will be coached by Kucheza. The first training session will be conducted in November 2020 by local master trainers who were previously trained by Kucheza. These master trainers will be supported remotely by the Dutch Kucheza team with instruction videos, assignments, reflection and live streams. For now, it is the intention that the Dutch team will provide the second training session in early 2021 live on location in Zimbabwe. It remains to be seen whether this will be possible in view of the developments around Covid-19. 

The local organisation will receive 15 digital tablets for the training programme. These will be used during the training sessions of the trainers and subsequently when the trainers in turn will train the farmers. Kucheza measures the progress of the farmers that are trained by the trainers based on the data that is generated when farmers play the training game. In addition, the trainers also conduct an extensive evaluation among the trained farmers to gain insight into the actions they will implement on their own farms as a result of the training.