On March 7 and 8, 2023, a closing conference of the BFA project was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The conference was attended by the partners and stakeholders representing the private, academic and public sectors. The program included plenary presentations, panel discussions and group works on various topics. The conference started with a warm welcome by Dr. Huub Mudde, BFA Project Director, and the floor was given to the first speakers; HE Mr. Nigusu Tilahun Minister of State, Ministry of Labor and Skills and HE Mr. Henk Jan Bakker, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

After the final conference, there was still time to visit Alage & Woilata Sodo ATVET College and to do the last training sessions on location. The subject of this training is the implementation of the practical lessons and the skills sheets developed by the schools in the daily lessons.

And as CowSignals®  trainers, we also visit the school farms to see, together with the teachers, what adjustments have already been made in the stables and what can still be adjusted. At Alage ATVET college we were particularly impressed with the rearing of the calves. These were in the meadow during the day with unlimited feed and water. You certainly saw this in the health of the calves!

At Woilate Sodo ATVET College, sandboxes have been made for a number of cows following the training. In addition, they also have access to unlimited water and food. The effect on health, milk yield and other parameters is monitored. Here too we have given a number of advice to achieve even better results in the future.

About BFA

Bright Future in Agriculture is a three-year project (2019–2021) that supports the Ethiopian agricultural technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector. The project is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and is managed by Nuffic as part of the Orange Knowledge Programme. There are in total 12 beneficiary institutions in Ethiopia out of which the Federal TVET Institute and Arba Minch University are the lead partners. Maastricht School of Management from the Netherlands is the lead implementer and together with eight consortium member institutions from the Netherlands, Ethiopia and South Africa partake as providers.

For more information, please contact Lisanne Oskam.