Programmes Training Materials

This is a collection of background documents produced by other agencies, for review and reflection

Environmental resources are critical in agricultural systems for providing ecosystems services and an ecological context.  This course introduces farmers and staff to key concepts and elements in the environment that should be considered when planning at household, farm and community.

The SAC approach to agriculture is a Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) one.  It is based on a premise of starting with the available resources, and working within the agro-ecological system.This type of farming attempts to work with and model the farm systems on those found naturally - using pest control methods that change the balance of the pest/host system in favour of the host and thus reducing the pest numbers, for example, or making an environment unfavourable for a disease to establish.  This approach is seen well in the use of IPM, but also underpins the reliance of smallholder farmers on the ecosystems services provided by less intensively farmed and wild areas.  Other examples of the use of natural systems thinking are reflected in the use of biological soil improvers rather than synthetic chemical ones, and the tendency towards biodiverse farms, not monocultures.

Soil is one of the key Natural Resources that farmers need.  The physical conservation of soil is covered in the course Conserve Soil, Water and other Environmental Resources.  This course looks into the biochemistry of soil in so far as it provides nutrients to plants which then form a significant part of the farm ecosystem.  The third attribute of soil is the biological health of the soil - the living organisms within it.  Although it is artificial to divide it in this way, this course covers much of the specific material on soil texture and structure, and also touches on the biological issues so that tools for farmers to discover more about their soils are in one place on the learning syllabus.

Conservation of Physical resources is key for farm production.  Topics in the course range from on farm soil and water conservation structures to landscape level community planning.  Ecosystems services to communities are critical to their health and well being as well as to food production, and the losses of natural resources affect local microclimate as well as impacting the planetary system, resulting in weather pattern changes which then have their own impacts.  On farm this contributes to productivity, but the impacts on neighbours are key to planning overall Natural Resource management in a community.

Bioslurry can be used as a soil improver - but what is the evidence for the usefulness of the content of this by-product?  The potential uses and scientific data are presented.

Manure, hides, urine, mechanical change in environments can be by products of the use of large animals for primary production of meat and milk.  Various of these might be used on the farm

Many smallholder farmers in East and Southern Africa either have cattle as part of their farm system, or aspire to do so.  Send a Cow originally provided dairy cows to farmers, using the Pass on the Gift (POG) system so that the farmers ultimately 'paid forward' their gift to another farmer.  After the BSE crisis in the early 1990s when livestock movement into East Africa from the UK was suspended, SAC firstly sourced animals from the region, where numbers of improved dairy and dairy crosses had increased, also supported AI services and later worked more on animal management improvement.  SAC still trains farmers on improving their animal management practices to get the best out of the livestock they have, and also to improve the quality of the genetic stock through AI, selective breeding and access to purchasing animals appropriate to their agro-ecological zone and household needs.  Send a Cow has much experience in smallholder dairy cow management.  Farmers with existing dairy animals, and those who access them through government or SAC schemes will receive comprehensive training on how to keep these animals well.  All participants cover the Farm Systems Principles, Five Freedoms and animal signals, and the Biosecurity training courses.  All farmers who receive dairy animal training will start with use of the checklist tools to be able to analyse and understand the theory behind the key areas of dairying.

All our animal management training is based on the premise that improving the welfare of animals on a farm leads to improved production and thus the foundational training starts with the Five Animal Freedoms of the RSPCA (UK) and the Animal Signals approach initiated by CowSignals  https://www.cowsignals.com/en/ The background to the Five Animal Freedoms can be found herehttps://kb.rspca.org.au/knowledge-base/what-are-the-five-freedoms-of-animal-welfare/

This second level explores the relationship between power and abuse as well as how beliefs influence safeguarding.

The objective of this training module is that we all share an understanding of social and disability inclusion and how it applies to Send a Cow.