In his opening remarks, BoANR Extension Director, Lemma Bogale, emphasized the importance of training and skill development to further scale up Hedasse wheat variety in the region and urged participants to actively learn these important skills presented in the training.
The four-day training event focused on the agricultural extension approaches, its methods and strategies, as well as on good agricultural practices on Hedasse wheat. Also included in the training were sessions on how to integrate cross- cutting issues of gender, nutrition and CSA in reaching out smallholder farmers in selected woredas.
The facilitators used participatory methods during the training including activities, exercises, small and large group discussions. At the end of the session participants provided feedback to course organizers and facilitators on training content, learning environment, performance of the facilitation team and how the training might be improved.
As a result of the training participants expressed their readiness to provide practical training on scaling up of Hedasse wheat to development agents who will reach farmers. Woreda staff promised to roll out the training before the planting season and allocate budget for seed and other inputs.
In his closing remarks, Dachasa Dhugassa, Oromia PCU coordinator, thanked CDSF for organizing the ToT and urged all participants to roll-out the training to frontline agricultural staff as soon possible.