NOEL - Nurseries of Excellence for Aceh

This project will provide smallholder farmers with the skills
necessary to establish and operate agroforestry tree nurseries,
ensuring they have access to high quality planting materials. As well
as improving the livelihoods of dryland farming communities, the
project hopes to result in further rehabilitation of degraded areas in
Aceh.

Aceh's dryland agriculture, such as tree and annual crops
and small livestock production, is prevented from becoming more
profitable because of numerous external factors, many of which are
poorly understood.

The first step in this project will be to
provide training and technical support so that ‘action research' can be
carried out on a range of interrelated issues. Such issues include
access to planting materials, product quality and standards,
transportation, processing, marketing, potential new products and
potential export markets.

Members of dryland farming communities
will undertake the training, where possible working with local
government staff, and supported by ICRAF and partners.

The second
step is to establish agroforestry tree Nurseries of Excellence (Noel).
At least six district-level nurseries will be established among three
participating district (Kabupaten) governments. At the community-level,
20 nurseries will be established using Islamic Community Education
Centers (dayahs) as an entry point.

In addition to providing high quality planting material, both the district and community nurseries will be used for training.

District
nurseries will be centres for training farmer leaders, local government
extension staff and some local NGO extension staff in nursery
techniques. The training is also likely to incorporate agroforestry
techniques and a train-the-trainer component.

At community
nurseries, the skills gained at the district level will be transferred
to local farmers using the Farmer Field School approach. Past
experience has shown that many farmers who participate in Nursery
Farmer Field Schools go on to establish their own nurseries, some of
which become commercial enterprises.

An Agroforestry Farmer
Support Network will be established amongst those involved to encourage
continual knowledge sharing between farmers, local governments and
other organisations.

World Agroforestry Centre
ICRAF Southeast Asia Regional Office
Jl. CIFOR, Situ Gede
Sindang Barang, Bogor 16115
PO Box 161 Bogor 16001, Indonesia
Ph: +62 251 8625415, fax: +62 251 8625416
Email: icraf-indonesia@cgiar.org
For addresses of our offices in
Thailand, Philippines, China and Vietnam, see:
www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/sea