A one-day training workshop on the use of Cropping Calendar
Construction (CCC) tool was held on 2 November 2018 at the AfricaRice Saint
Louis Training Center, Senegal.
Twenty-six participants from the extension services of the
Senegal Agricultural Research Institute (ISRA) and the National Society for
Development and Exploitation of the Senegal River Delta Lands (SAED) attended
the workshop. From AfricaRice, Dr Kazuki Saito, Mr Adin Bloukounon and Dr
Mandiaye Diagne participated in this workshop as trainers.
The CCC is an Excel-based tool developed by AfricaRice,
which can help to investigate intensification options and optimize cropping
calendar for irrigated rice-based systems (van Oort et al. 2016). The
participants learned how to run this tool, optimize cropping calendar, and
interpret results.
As next step, the participants are expected to identify
promising calendars for their target zones in the Senegal River Valley (SRV),
and these calendars will be assessed in coming years. Furthermore, feedback
from the participants will help improve the functionality of this tool.
At the end of the workshop, the participants expressed their
gratitude to AfricaRice for developing such a tool that will help tackle the
crucial issue of managing the rice cropping calendar in the SRV.
AfricaRice thanked ISRA and SAED for their collaboration, and the trainees for
their active participation and commitment to take ownership of the tool for the
benefit of rice growers.
The workshop was supported by the project ‘Fostering the
Impact of Rice Technologies for better Livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa (FIRITEL),
funded by the Belgium Development Cooperation. The FIRITEL aims to
generate knowledge that facilitates informed and effective decision-making by
the various rice stakeholders to support the growth of the rice sector in
African countries to achieve food security and better livelihoods. The FIRITEL
is being implemented in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal during the period
2018-2021.
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