‘We’re determined to keep going.’

  HATEM ZITOUNI  

The manager at Tunisian dairy products company Délice is a strong supporter of training for dairy farmers. He also worked as a Master trainer at the Farmer Business School (FBS), one of the activities of the Green Innovation Centre set up by GIZ as part of BMZ’s ONE WORLD – No Hunger initiative.

Has the longstanding partnership between your company and the Green Innovation Centre continued to pay off during the pandemic?
Absolutely. We were able to join forces immediately in a kind of COVID-19 crisis team. We produced posters and flyers to inform the milk suppliers about new hygiene rules. Our technical advisor team distributed these and provided gloves, aprons and disinfectant at the milk collection points to guarantee quality standards.

The goal of FBS is to give smallholders the training they need to make them more resilient in crises. Is that succeeding?
Yes. They learn to think like entrepreneurs and use new approaches and technologies to increase their incomes. For example, we are training 6,000 breeders in sustainable animal husbandry. Innovative equipment like automated drinking troughs, refrigerated mini-tanks and solar power systems helps the farmers to increase the value they are adding.

What are you particularly proud of?
The trainers we initially trained with FBS have already passed on their knowledge to more than 6,000 dairy farmers. By 2023, we hope this will be 10,000. The pandemic might have slowed us down, but we’re determined to keep going. Now more than ever, we can see how important the supply of good-quality dairy products really is.

akzente 3/2020