Farmers at the Busia Food Fair
@John Ndungu/BFN Kenya
Organize Traditional Food Fair
In the project's lifetime, two traditional food fairs were organised at Busia's Agricultural Training Centre. The food fairs increased community participation in managing biodiversity by changing people’s mind-set and attitude towards local foods. During the fairs farmers collected and competed for the most comprehensive display of plant parts, seeds, fruit samples and traditional food items. It was also an occasion for farmers to share biodiversity-related information and associated traditional knowledge as well as planting material and seeds, while it enabled the research team to locating new custodians of biodiversity. It is felt that the fairs have contributed in encouraging consumers, schools, youth, policy-makers and farming communities to make continued use of local crops and varieties, thereby contributing to their conservation.
There is need to identify champions within the community and at the policy level to ensure that the message is adequately transmitted and supported. Organizing a traditional food fair also requires significant organizational skills, and therefore some thought should be given to assignining roles and responsibilities for different parts of the organization.
- Sufficient funds should be sought, either through direct funding or in-kind (help in organizing the fair), as the events can be a costly affair
- Advertising - sufficient time should be allocated to widespread advertising prior to the event. Use every mean you can think of to ensure the message is spread. I.e. church groups, radio, sms broadcast, Whattsapp, social media, email
- Allow some space for competition. In the Busia event, seven farmer groups competed against each other for the best presentation and variety of traditional foods, but were also judged based on hygiene, value addition. Cooking competitions are also a hit and could be a good way of engaging the public