Effective extension and communication in dairy cooperatives This is a NUFFIC funded project   being implemented by KIT (contract holder) and Agriterra (consortium partner) together with BAMSCOS. This training programme will contribute to enhancing food and nutrition security as efficient extension is expected to contribute to overcome 1. inefficient production 2. Post-harvest loss 3. Lack of Food Safety. This project also addresses inclusiveness (SDG 17) by putting specific emphasis in reaching out to women farmers . This post graduation and on the job training will   build the capacity of TVET graduated young extension officers that are employed by cooperatives or farmers organisation. These young professions can also inspire rural youth to take up entrepreneurial farming  being a role model. As listed in the NUFFIC Kenya Country Plan of implementation OK  the TVET institutions have their own limitations that affects the practical qualities of the young professionals working as extension officers in cooperatives. Hence post education training and coaching is needed to support these extension officers in becoming more effective in conveying practical skills to the farmers. This NUFFIC supported projects aims to strengthen the effectiveness of existing dairy extension methodologies by analysing and addressing in a systematic way the effectiveness of extension through improved communication and didactic skills of the extension staff and lead farmers. For BAMSCOSrsquo; growth and realisation of its ambitious long-term plan of adding value to their membersrsquo; produce  production and delivery of adequate volumes of quality milk by her members is key. While investing in milk handling facilities BAMSCOS and its members face challenges in realizing stable delivery of milk  particularly in the dry season. Members usually suffer a lot during the dry months and total milk production fluctuates to a low of sometimes 6000 litres per day as compared to the targeted processing capacity of approximately 100 000 litres per day by 2022. Fodder production ndash; and thus feed availability- very much depends on rainfall. This poses a serious concern and risks for both farmer members and BAMSCOS as dairy cooperative. Increasing overall and stable milk production throughout the year is thus a key ambition for farmers ndash; improving both household income and nutrition - and the dairy cooperative ndash; creating a sustainable business. To realize this  farmer members need to adapt their farming practices and modernize their dairy system fitting the local context.  Working towards this ambition and trying to address challenges mentioned BAMSCOS  supported by Agriterra  has made a concerted effort to build a sustainable and well embedded extension services system to reach out to all its 19 member cooperatives in close cooperation with the local government. It introduced a charge of 0.5 KSh/ litre milk to cover the basic costs of these extension services. It also established a pool of 32 lead -farmers (14 women) to act as local extension ldquo;volunteersrdquo; to support farmers that cannot be reached (yet) by own extension officer staff. Current extension team at union level stands at 3 (2 women) and 9 (3 women) at primary cooperative level.  These efforts have resulted in a more systematic and business steered extension services design which BAMSCOS is now implementing.  To support the extension efforts BAMSCOS also set up a demonstration field which purpose is to showcase to the members modern ways of establishing  maintaining and conserving fodder as well as acting as a training centre for these members. In this way  members are motivated to replicate such practises on their own farms  in order to address the perennial milk fluctuations.  The success of all above efforts is  however  still limited. On the one hand we realise that for farmers to make the necessary changes and adopt / adapt  new technologies  these technologies need to be selected and adapted to local conditions  they need to be discussed and trained in an open  interactive extension mode  also allowing issues of farmer change of mind set to be taken into account.  On the other hand it is also clear that the design and management of extension service overall needs further review and improvement so that it can really reach the majority of the members   men and women  Government extension services are hardly reaching the field and other service providers like ours need to fill this gap and advice the members. An important challenge we face in this is to organise our extension to reach many while keeping costs at levels manageable. At BAMSCOS  we will also need to focus more on inclusion of women in extension services  as they are often not invited for trainings  while they perform a lot of the activities in dairy farming. If we can strengthen our extension strategy successfully to focus more on women farmers we expect to be more effective as compared to providing the same services to mostly men.  BAMSCOS thus needs a well-trained pool of experienced lead farmers and extension staff  ready to take on board and induce systematically new lead-farmers (especially women) to reach out in a pyramid system to at least 10% of the members in one year and realise with them the required increase in milk production. And we need to be able to organise this service within the cooperative in sustainable manner. Explain how the training is linked to the priorities as mentioned in the Country Focus Document or the Country Plan of Implementation (CPI):This training programme will contribute to enhancing food and nutrition security as efficient extension is expected to contribute to overcome 1. inefficient production 2. Post-harvest loss 3. Lack of Food Safety. This project also addresses inclusiveness (SDG 17) by putting specific emphasis in reaching out to women farmers . This post graduation and on the job training will   build the capacity of TVET graduated young extension officers that are employed by cooperatives or farmers organisation. These young professions can also inspire rural youth to take up entrepreneurial farming  being a role model. As listed in the NUFFIC Kenya Country Plan of implementation OK  the TVET institutions have their own limitations that affects the practical qualities of the young professionals working as extension officers in cooperatives. Hence post education training and coaching is needed to support these extension officers in becoming more effective in conveying practical skills to the farmers. The full fledged proposal is uploaded in SPKIT-BAMSCOS Kenya Joint Proposal.pdfKIT-BAMSCOS Budget (1).pdf