Output 2.2. State extension services incorporate SLM guidelines for ASDs and provide targeted support to SAS
Strengthening rural extension for addressing land degradation through suitable mixes of SLM and SFM practices at farm and landscape level is one of the key initiatives of the project. The structures for technical assistance are already in place in Sergipe, but the challenge is to integrate the various organizations and institutions that implement technical assistance and rural extension (ATER) and ensure they have updated knowledge and capacities regarding land degradation. New conceptions of natural resource use and strategies for SLM as well as new patterns of social organization need to be better communicated by the extension agent to farmers. The project will support integrated interagency technical assistance in the region. This will include promoting dialogue and integration between extension and licensing processes, the design of a strategy to incorporate SLM principles in extension services in Sergipe and the development of a rural extension plan for Sergipe to promote joint action on SLM by MDS and MDA with the IFAD Dom Távora project.
This approach should be reflected in public procurement processes for companies hired to provide ATER services. Performance targets in these contracts should include SLM practices, both for direct government action (EMDAGRO, INCRA and SFB) and partnerships with local non-governmental agencies such as CFAC. The project will develop proposals for this purpose to be submitted to the NCCD and MDA.
In addition to the above, and to ensure specific technical training for deployment and dissemination of SLM practices, the project will support a program of technical training for extension agents and the development of specific guidelines on SLM practices for sustainable family farming, irrigation projects, livestock raising and integrated biodiversity management. The landscapes and specific sites selected under Output 2.1 will be used for field work in this training program, serving as a reference points for ATER and credit at a larger scale in ASD, influencing the procurement processes of the MDA as well as funding for entrepreneurial actions in initiatives such as the Dom Távora project, which operates in many parts of Sergipe. Specific technical materials (manuals, brochures, videos) of good SLM practices (conservation and soil management, use of contour plowing, "Zero-Base" dry stone dams, integrated forest management, nurseries and seeds, recovery of degraded areas, household energy security, environmental licensing etc.) will be prepared and used in training and dissemination activities.
The training program for technical staff and farmers who can act as agents of multiplication and dissemination of SLM technologies for reducing land degradation in the semiarid will include 20 technicians from each of the seven municipalities of Alto Sertão and 10 in the other ASDs in Sergipe. There will be specific technical training in practices for SLM for 250 farmer multipliers in Sergipe, in order to consolidate and disseminate actions in the areas of reference, involving technical staff of EMDRAGRO, other ATER agencies and technical agricultural schools. Another technical training program for best SLM practices for sustainable coexistence with the semiarid will involve 20 technical multipliers in each of the 11 states of the ASD, for a minimum structure of 220 multipliers. Field days will also be held on best practices of SLM for sustainable coexistence with the semiarid for leaders of public agencies engaged in credit and licensing such as BNB, BANESE and ADEMA.
An integral part of the extension effort will be communication and dissemination on WOCAT, the Desertification Network and NCCD, aimed at strengthening the process of institutionalization and raising awareness about the importance and potential of SLM best practices for sustainable coexistence with the semiarid.
ATER actions regarding SLM will be implemented through partnerships between funding agencies such as the Climate Fund of the MMA, the Forest Fund of the SFB, the FUNDECI of the BNB and the Environmental Fund of the CEF and technical assistance and rural extension and communication implementing agencies and public institutions such as EMDAGRO and INCRA.
