The Origin, Activities and Future of FORMAT

Over the past four years, FORMAT has mobilized innovators and popularized technologies involving the management of organic resources. FORMAT was first conceived as a “platform” for engaging new ideas addressing more efficient utilization of underutilized organic resources in urban and rural areas of Kenya. To accomplish this goal, it first organized national and local events featuring presentations, exhibits, live demonstrations and contests.  Next, FORMAT produced publications and videos describing organic resource management, and commissioned some specialized initiatives in composting and waste recycling.  In the future, FORMAT will collaborate more closely with grassroots organizations to improve their capacities in identifying and adding value to organic resources in new and better ways.

Events organized by FORMAT have promoted several issues and technologies in organic resource management including manure handling, fortified and earthworm composting, bio-pesticide production and use, weed management, agroforestry, improved crop varieties, value-added processing of organic resources, traditional foods and plants, environmental protection, organic agriculture, and integrated nutrient management. Some of these technologies were promoted through television documentaries, publication and widespread distribution of FORMAT annual reports, and the appearance of articles in international and local magazines.  Several major impacts may be attributed to FORMAT during its first four years.

1. FORMAT popularized organic resource management as a legitimate, value-added activity rather than a “last resort” of the poor.  Innovators have demonstrated to large numbers of stakeholders that the tools necessary for achieving food security and better livelihoods are already at hand.  Technical innovations in the areas of composting and nutrient recycling, the use and preservation of traditional foods, preparing handcrafted rural household products and tools from locally available materials, and several other emerging technologies (e.g. biogas generation, natural pesticides and small-scale briquette production) were widely popularized using both grassroots and state-of-the-art approaches.

2. FORMAT pioneered ways to reach a wider cross-section of the research and development community.  It posted a widely visited website developed by its own staff members and collaborators, and hosted for a fraction of what a local service provider would charge. It published and widely circulated its full-color technical reports in the same manner as much larger, international organizations. It published in local trade magazines and international scientific journals alike, and targeted its different messages to appropriate audiences.  Newspapers and television stations considered FORMAT events newsworthy, and some of the FORMAT documentaries were repeatedly aired for several months after they were produced. Last year, FORMAT brought its approaches and key innovators to the grassroots level, by holding its events at the district, rather than the national level.

3. FORMAT has set new standards for collaboration and partnership that are built along lines of merit and egalitarianism.  There are no “high tables” or “dignitaries” at FORMAT events; all speakers are assigned the same time, and exhibitors the same space.  Researchers, farmers, entrepreneurs and government officials sit side-by-side and discuss crucial topics as equals.  This approach is being adopted by other organizations that previously assumed they required the “blessing” of locally-powerful individuals.  Part of this change accompanies Kenya’s recent, and long overdue, change in government.  FORMAT events are usually opened by a farmer reciting his or her own poetry, and closed by outstanding innovators being awarded prizes for innovation and community service by their peers.

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