The PARM Stories Challenge winning videos “Nurturing Farms, Growing Futures” produced by Pascal Ishimwe from Rwanda; “Cultivating Change: A Badja Woman’s Journey to Agroecology” realized by Steven Costa Midjola from Togo; and “ZAI, a sustainable agroecological technique for food security in northern Cameroon” put together by Dewa Aboubakar from Cameroon, have been awarded and officially presented, on 30 October 2024, by the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) at the 20th edition of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme Partnership Platform (CAADP-PP) and the 15th Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security (ADFNS) held in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The 20^th CAADP-PP and 15^th ADFNS brought together delegates from the African Union member states and technical and financial partners to reflect on the nexus between nutrition, food systems and education. An opportune occasion to showcase rural farmers’ day-to-day self-resilience and innovative initiatives to agricultural risks and raise awareness among stakeholders on the urgency of strengthening their resilience and increasing their productivity to contribute sustainable agri-food systems.

Watch the Awards Video

“As a filmmaker, the discussions held during the event inspired me to produce more contents promoting agriculture as the backbone of many African countries’ economies and raise awareness of the challenges faced by small-scale farmers in Africa”, said Pascal Ishimwe, 1^st place winner of the PARM Stories Challenge.

According to Steven Costa Midjola, filmmaker and 2^nd place winner of the Challenge, it is crucial to promote agricultural best practices and increase support to small-scale famers who produce the food we eat on our plate. “Most of the rural farmers I met, especially women, lack access to finance, therefore, their production remains more for subsistence than for really contributing to the economy”, he said.

“This award has placed a greater responsibility on me as the 3^rd place winner of the PARM Stories Challenge. I feel even more challenged to produce further stories that bring forward rural farmers’ initiatives to manage climate and environmental shocks. This could help perpetuate best practices such as ZAI, a traditional technique consisting of manually digging holes to concentrate runoff water and organic matter for restoring the productivity of poor and crusted lands”, Dewa Aboubakar said.

Launched in 2023, The PARM Stories Challenge aims to portray rural farmers’ self-resilience to agricultural risks, and showcase how this could be strengthened in order to increase their productivity and sustainable agri-food systems in their communities, contributing to the achievement of sustainable development goals 1,2,5 and 15.