In Togo, as in many West African countries, the development of agricultural land, especially lowlands, requires human and financial resources that are quite costly for farmers. The latter are often faced with a lack of knowledge to make good use of the type of development made available to them, with limited financial means to maintain them.

Faced with these constraints, plus the effects of climate change, the SMART VALLEYS approach is increasingly being put forward as a sustainable solution that can strengthen the resilience of rice growers.

Less costly and more sustainable, SMART VALLEYS is a lowland management system designed to facilitate the retention and management of rainwater in fields, thereby reducing the loss of fertiliser due to flooding and boosting crop yields.

With a view to promoting this innovative approach and strengthening the resilience of rice growers, the FSRP/TOGO is supporting the training of a pool of endogenous rice grower-trainers through the Conseil Interprofessionnel de la filière riz au Togo (CIFR/TOGO), organised from 24 to 29 June 2024 at the Togo Food farm-school in Tchangaïdè, followed by theoretical and practical sessions with demonstrations of lowland management.

This training course for rice growers, which took place in Blitta in the central region, aims to build the technical capacity of rice growers to appropriate and extend the technology for simple, sustainable and inexpensive development of lowland rice fields for water and land management using the SMART-VALLEYS approach.

To facilitate the practice and dissemination of the technology, the FSRP/Togo has offered producers, in addition to the training, development tools consisting of wheelbarrows, bundles, ropes, cutters, decameters, picks and many other materials whose symbolic handover was made at the opening of the training by the Regional Director in charge of Agriculture Mr. ANADI Bayodjéba in the presence of the Regional Director of ICAT and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of CIFR. He thanked the FSRP/Togo for this multi-faceted support for the rice sector in Togo and urged the beneficiaries to make good use of it.

According to the trainees, this equipment offered by the FSRP is an asset to the training. It facilitates demonstrations and will show producers the difference between traditional methods and the SMART VALLEYS method, which is very simple to use. This is what Mrs Komla said in her own words: “My name is Mrs KOMLA Mamalinawè and I grow rice in Titigbé in the Sotouboua prefecture. As a woman, I don’t have a large area to cultivate. I used traditional methods inherited from my parents to grow my rice, with all the possible consequences. But thanks to this training, I’ve benefited twice over. I can now make improvements and hope for a good harvest at the end”, she told us.