Rooted in the Danish political ambition to design policies that enable the private and public sector to become more innovative and competitive, the Minister of Agriculture put in place clear procedures for involving relevant stakeholders in order to ensure that the plan could meet the needs of the sector. Involvement was secured at the beginning of the plan development process based on a year-long consultation process and collaboration with the organic sector.

The history of governmental support to organic farming in Denmark starts in 1987, when the Danish Parliament adopted the Organic Farming Act, which laid down the basic structure of Danish organic farming policy, which still remains today. Permanent subsidies for organic farming were introduced in 1994. Early Organic Action Plans (OAPs) were established from 1995 to 1999.

The current OAP ‘Working together for more organics’ covers the period 2011 to 2020. It was revised and expanded in 2015, following a change of Government. The plan aims at doubling the land area of organic production by 2020 (against a baseline of 2007), and earmarks specific budgets over the period 2015 to 2018 to a set of different action-points. This plan was initiated by the Ministry for Agriculture and developed with the assistance of an external consultant.

Between 2003 and 2010, several pilot programmes supporting organic farming were launched, including the implementation of bio-villages where farmers were trained in organic farming practices and the production of organic inputs such as composting, organic fertilizers and organic pesticide using with local plants and cow urine. During this period, the government also invested substantially in the construction of vermicomposting pits. By 2009, more than 100 villages had benefited from these programmes, reaching 10,000 farmers in all four districts of the state.

Under the Sikkim Organic Mission, launched in 2010, a number of additional actions to support organic agriculture were implemented, including capacity building, organic seed and planting material production, setting up a seed and soil testing laboratory, operation of Sikkim Organic retail outlet at New Delhi, the inclusion of organic farming in school curricula, the conversion of the two state government farms at Nazitam and Mellidara, which became Organic Centres of Excellence for conducting organic farming demonstrations and trials, and the launch of three livelihood schools as training centres for unemployed youth.

Once demonstration sites are selected, local ASM groups receive training and are contracted to implement FRM through six steps:

1. Preparation & Planning: degradation, boundary, hydrological & equipment assessments; labor, volume estimates; waste management; OHS standards
2. Technical Rehabilitation: infill, regrading and reprofiling; use of limited mechanisation
3. Topsoils: identification, conservation and re-distribution across sites
4. Biological Rehabilitation: topsoil enrichment ; natural regeneration assessments; identification of native and key vegetation communities; seed collection; seeds and natural fertilizers distribution into topsoils; tree, shrub and grass plantings
5. Mitigation Hierarchy: integrating rehabilitation planning into active ASM design and operations so as to reduce primary environmental impacts and unnecessary rehabilitation efforts
6. Handover of completed rehabilitation site to relevant government administrations for approval/sign-off

Acknowledging and identifying conflicts between ministries and sectoral stakeholders is important. It is important at the early stages of an initiative to recognise these problems and to establish and work through a consultative platform to make the case for a methodology that is of value to all stakeholders, that is inclusive of artisanal miners and the stakeholders impacted by such mining as well as government ministries. It is only through such collaboration that a methodology can be developed that addresses environmental concerns, meets artisanal miners needs for performance-based incentives and access to land, and can be valued by government in formalising condition-based permitting for mining. It is within the context and platform of engagement that the FRM can be demonstrated to be of value to all stakeholders, and deliver outcomes at the local as well as national level.

The farmers together with the technical advice by the agricultural extension service by the cooperative "Agra va Iqlim" get the opportunity to purchase directly the appropriate packages of seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and other agrochemicals. As these purchases are needed at the begin of the growth season, when financial means are scarce, they are partly provided on loan basis under affordable conditions (interest rate below normal market rates).

Irrigation water can be used from different sources. In the region, where the solution is implemented these are:

- the Syrdarya river, from where it is pumped through large pipelines;

- irrigation canals;

- wells;

- small springs, which are captured by simple means;

- rainwater collection from the roofs of houses.

The different water sources are related to a diversity of governance systems. The regional government owns and maintains large pipelines and canals, medium irrigation canals are in the responsibility of district water management authorities and smaller structures are cared for by the communities or by individual farmers.

Depending on the amounts of irrigation water available and the associated costs there are increasingly new and water efficient technologies applied for irrigation of the lands.

Working together with other stakeholders for synergy helps in ensuring success.

Pooling human, technical and financial resources helps in achieving more for less time and money, and also helps curb replication of solutions.

All partners and the community are actively involved in the entire process thus each party takes ownership resulting to success.

Community led initiatives have a higher chance of success. Working with the community for the community is one of the best ways of ensuring process and results ownership.

In our reference case of Vihiga County, after desseminating results of the baseline survey to the intevention community, with the guidance of all participating partners the locals were allowed to brainstorm and come up with possible feasible interventions.

This largely contributed to the success of the project as the participants enthusiastically made effort to ensure successful implementation and continuity. Some members voluntered their land and other resources towards the project, it beng their very own.

Partners offered some financial support to kick start the project, and also agri nutrition knowledge and skills.

Reliable and recent data about the study community is a key contributor to the success of an intervention.

Data provides prior knowledge of the community and possible areas of collaboration with other exisiting projects, if any exist.

In our Vihiga project, results of the baseline survey informed us of the current situation (exisiting nutritional gaps). The results were also shared with the communities and it is from these findings that the communties based their deliberations and came up with possible ways of tackling the problems found.

For scaling up of the project in Turkana and Ethiopia, we will utilize agrinutrition data collected earlier in both areas.

Data collection in the mid and end will help determine the effectiveness or otherwise of the intervention