JICA organize 4-day workshop for SHEP, ISMAP approach in Cairo

CAIRO – 1 March 2020: More than 30 officials from Morocco, Palestine and Sudan are meeting in Cairo, on Monday to attend the “Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment & Promotion (SHEP) and Improving Small-scale Farmers' Market-Oriented Agriculture Project (ISMAP) Approach International Workshop in Egypt”.

The four-day workshop, is organized by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Egypt Office, in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, and to continue until March 5.

JICA has been promoting “Smallholders Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion” (SHEP) Approach in Africa for supporting market-oriented agriculture projects for small-scale farmers in Kenya from 2006 to date. These projects help farmers be aware of the importance of the attitude of “Grow to Sell” as opposed to the conventional “Grow and then Sell” attitude through their practice of the SHEP Approach. Through their participation, the farmers take action to increase their income from their horticultural produce.

As for the Middle East countries, in Egypt, Improving Small-Scale Farmers' Market-Oriented Agriculture Project (ISMAP), which utilizing SHEP Approach was implemented in 2014-2019, and livelihood of smallholder farmers were improved. The project also developed a unique gender mainstreaming approach to address women in the targeted areas, which pays attention to their needs to contribute to their household economy, and in the same time sensitive to the traditional social norms of rural communities in Upper Egypt. Now government of Egypt established the ISMAP unit as follow-up of the project to expand the outcome of the project in Egypt.

The aim of workshop is to brush up and deepen understanding on the (SHEP) Approach and its concept, and also to showcase Egypt experience in supporting small-scale farmers through the (ISMAP) project that was implemented by JICA in Upper Egypt from 2014 until 2015. It is also would be a good opportunity to share knowledge, experiences, challenges and ideas of the current SHEP activities implemented in each country and programs.

The workshop will take place in Cairo, Minia and Assiut governorates, and it will be attended by Mr. SATO Tadashi, Vice President of JICA, Mr. Omura Yoshifumi, Chief Representative of JICA Egypt Office, and a number of officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and international donors working in Egypt.