TRAINING
TRAINING
Participants from 11 Countries Attend IFDC Agro-Input Marketing Strategies Training Course
which they operate,” said Dr. Joshua Ariga, IFDC scientist-economics and a technical instructor for the program. While in Alabama, participants visited Jimmy Sanders, Inc., one of the largest agro-input supply and distribution businesses in the mid-south region. With 75 locations in eight states, Sanders’ operations include seed production and sales, agricultural chemical distribution, bulk handling of fertilizer, variable rate technology and other precision agriculture services. Additional field trips included: Isbell Farms in Cherokee, Alabama; Crop Production Services in Owensboro, Kentucky; Monsanto Company in St. Louis, Missouri; and The Fertilizer Institute in Washington, D.C. Participants were given the opportunity to establish contacts with 19 U.S.-based organizations involved in agro-inputs.
IFDC will hold the U.S. training and study tour again in 2014. For more information about IFDC training programs, visit www.ifdc.org/Training and/or the IFDC Training Facebook page at www. facebook.com/IfdcTraining. A calendar of the remaining 2012 international training programs is available on the back cover of this publication.
“Being in such a diverse group of people from so many different countries…opens my mind to a lot of possibilities and gives me a new perspective on the future of agricultural business and inputs in general,” said Caleb Usoh, manager of business development at Notore Chemical Industries Ltd. in Nigeria.
5Trainees and instructors visit the Jimmy Sanders, Inc. blending plant in Town Creek, Alabama, USA.
IFDC’s second international training and study tour on ‘Designing and Implementing AgroInput Marketing Strategies’ was attended by 23 agricultural professionals from 11 countries. First organized in 2010, this year’s program was held in the United States from July 23 to August 3. The 10-day program focused on challenges that developing countries and transitioning economies face in the supply and marketing of agro-inputs in liberalized, open and competitive markets and on the development of practical techniques and skills necessary for customer-oriented marketing.
Trainees included representatives of private agribusiness companies, ministries of agriculture and research and donor organizations. A distinct program benefit was the opportunity for participants 54 IFDCreport
to network and learn about agricultural market situations in both developing and developed countries. The training consisted of classroom lectures and field trips to observe supply and marketing activities in the United States. Participants visited IFDC headquarters in Muscle Shoals, Alabama; agricultural input suppliers and dealers, farms and logistics management business operations in Alabama and the midwestern United States; and policymakers and national associations in Washington, D.C. “This was a very informative workshop for the participants. IFDC not only created awareness of its activities to improve food security in developing countries but also its efforts to assist value chain members to understand the global environment in
Carly Lee Nzanzu Kasivita, Minister of Agriculture of North Kivu Province in the DRC, plans to use the knowledge he gained from the program to inform others in his country about what he learned, as the central government develops and enhances the country’s fertilizer sector. After 20 years of war, the DRC has made rebuilding its agriculture sector a priority. According to Kasivita, the DRC is now allowing agro-dealers to import fertilizers without paying a tax in order to strengthen fertilizer markets and promote private sector growth. “The training program was very interesting in the sense that I better understand how the international fertilizer market operates,” said Muntanga Simalumba, principal agricultural economist and national coordinator of the Zambian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock’s Farmer Input Support Programme. “For the past five or six years that I have been a part of the program I’m coordinating now, I never knew what happened on the international market. But with the knowledge I’ve collected here, I’ve already gained some insight into what drives the price of fertilizer.”
5Robert Bosheers (left, pointing), coordinator of greenhouse and pilot plant services for IFDC, gives training participants an overview of IFDC’s pilot plant.
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