Please find below information about the upcoming African Jersey Forum (AJF) Virtual Conference to be held 3rd November 2021 0900-1300 UK time, hosted by the Royal Jersey Agricultural & Horticultural Society & Project Mercy, Ethiopia.nand the new AFJ website which has just been launched.
‘The Jersey Footprint in Africa’ Virtual Conference
A virtual conference exploring the increasing role and impact of the Jersey cow on dairy development in Africa.
‘The Jersey Footprint’ Virtual Conference will cover:
Firstly, a focus specifically on the Jersey breed and its role in the growth of developing dairy markets and specific benefits in an African context;
secondly on the science and technical knowledge underpinning Jersey breed focused work in Africa;
thirdly (and given that this conference had originally been scheduled to take place in person in Ethiopia), a focus on the implementing partners and beneficiaries of the Jersey Overseas Aid-funded ‘Dairy for Development’ projects in that country and the impact on their lives and livelihoods.
In June 2019, a regional dairy workshop, looking at ‘Why Dairy? Why Jersey?’ was hosted by the World Jersey Cattle Bureau at their annual meetings in Kigali, Rwanda where the African Jersey Forum was launched. The highly successful workshop focused equally on the importance of why dairy, before showcasing how Jersey cattle breed genetics and the support of Jersey Island have been improving the lives of many African families and how the Jersey cow could influence the future more widely across the continent. The African Jersey Forum virtual conference in November 2021 will present a progress update following the 2019 Regional workshop.
The format and agenda is still receiving finishing touches but we are envisaging a combination of live presentations, both in Jersey and Ethiopia and pre-recorded video content to come from a range of different speakers.
African Jersey Forum website - www.africanjerseyforum.com
As we are connecting to you today, we are also pleased to share with you the recently launched African Jersey Forum website.
This is a culmination of work in developing the African Jersey Forum concept following its official launch at the Regional Dairy Workshop and World Jersey Cattle Bureau conference held in 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda. There will be more to add and further communication with you on this and other media platforms being developed but we now feel the website is ready to be launched, in order to take it to the next level.
The website is intended to act initially as a promotional tool as well as an informative library of resources for stakeholders in the dairy industry including smallholders and commercial farmers, NGOs, policy makers and others. In time, as the Jersey breed inevitably grows in popularity on the African content and as more national breed societies emerge in the region, we hope for the website to showcase the activities of African Jersey Forum member organisations, and for the forum to be fully African owned and managed.
Overview:
Sub-sections under ‘About’ cover background on the Forum concept including a summary of the key organisations involved and the team behind the website
Sub-sections under ‘The Jersey Breed’ cover the benefits of the Jersey breed; both for commercial dairying and benefits of dairying for development more broadly. A sub-section on ‘Dairy for Development Expert Contributors’ provides an overview of the diverse range of partners the Society and JOA are working with in African dairy programmes.
Sub-sections under ‘Resources’ include videos and downloads sections with a range of educational and scientific resources, which can be sorted by type / theme. These cover breed-specific resources as well as more general reference material on dairy development, farmer training materials etc. This library is continually expanding and we are very open to requests for hosting new content. There’s also a short section within ‘Resources’ focused on the Jersey Gene Bank, a parallel initiative to the African Jersey Forum which will be further communicated in the coming months.
We’d be keen to hear your feedback and encourage you to share the link with your relevant networks.
Best wishes
Louise
Louise Agnès
Dairy for Development
Royal Jersey Agricultural & Horticultural Society (RJAHS)
E: D4D@royaljersey.co.uk