Annoucement: e-mail conference from 4 June to 1 July 2012 on "Ensuring the full participation of family farmers in agricultural innovation systems

4 June to 1 July 2012. FAO is hosting a moderated e-mail conference  on "Ensuring the full participation of family farmers in agricultural innovation systems: Key issues and case studies".

The UN General Assembly has declared 2014 to be the International Year of Family Farming and has invited FAO to facilitate implementation of the International Year, in collaboration with its partners. Among its initiatives for the International Year, FAO is planning to publish a major study on family farming and Agricultural innovation systems (AIS) in 2014 in the State of Food and Agriculture series, which is FAO’s major annual flagship publication.

Agricultural innovation systems are systems of individuals, organizations and enterprises that bring new products, processes and forms of organization into social and economic use to achieve food security, economic development and sustainable natural resource management. AIS include a multitude of potential actors, such as producer organizations, research organizations, extension and advisory services, universities and educational bodies, governments and civil society organizations, co-coordinating bodies, individual farmers and farm laborers, and the private sector (including traders, processors, supermarkets etc.).

The e-mail conference is open to everyone, is free and will be moderated.

The Background Document to this FAO e-mail conference is available here.

Meeting the needs of smallholder farming families also provides the central theme of the GCARD RoadMap, which sets out the systematic changes required to transform and strengthen innovation systems to better meet the needs of resource-poor smallholders around the world.  Results from the FAO e-mail consultation will help inform discussion in The Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD 2): “Foresight and partnership for innovation and impact on small-holder livelihoods” on practical actions underway and that are required to implement these systematic changes. The GCARD 2 will be organized in Punta del Este, Uruguay, 29 October – 1 November 2012, more information is available on the GFAR website.  The Pre-Registration for the GCARD 2012 Conference is now open.

Outcomes from the email consultation and the GCARD Conference will inform preparation of the major FAO study in 2014, as well as help to build cooperation around key forward-looking agendas and facilitate planning of joint actions among all AIS stakeholders to deliver large scale development outcomes.

Programme DONATA : diffusion des nouvelles technologies agricoles en Afrique

La technique de multiplication rapide des boutures de manioc par recépage à Dabou en Côte d’Ivoire fait école en Afrique. Conçu par le FARA, le Forum pour la Recherche Agricole en Afrique, le CORAF-WICARD et financé par la BAD, la Banque Africaine de Développement, le programme DONATA est un projet dont le but est d’améliorer la productivité agricole en Afrique.

Dans le cadre d’un atelier chercheurs-médias organisé par le FARA/CTA, du 19 au 23 mars à Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), une trentaine de chercheurs et journaliste francophones de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre étaient sur les traces de ce projet exécuté à Dabou. Sur le site du village de petit Badien, la recherche agricole ivoirienne, les services de vulgarisation expérimentent la production de deux nouvelles variétés de manioc à haut rendement : Boucou I et Boucou II à partir de la nouvelle technique de multiplication rapide des boutures de manioc par recépage. Une technique de production de manioc qui suscite beaucoup de convoitises et fait de DONATA un projet de recherche agricole à succès en Côte d’Ivoire.

Le reportage de Ernest KAMBIRE RTB/Télévision

Making things happen: Stories of how DONATA’s innovation platforms are strengthening farming communities across Africa

Making things happen: Stories of how DONATA’s innovation platforms are strengthening farming communities across Africa
Series 1:
Burkina Faso – Building better lives
DRC – Working wonders with miracle maize
Kenya – Sweet success with sweet potato in Busia
Mali – Food security is our motto
Mozambique – Maize magic
Tanzania – Improving access to promising technologies
Uganda – Transforming lives with technology in Gulu
Zambia – Back to basics with sorghum

DONATA [Dissemination of New Agricultural Technologies for Africa]is a continental platform for technology dissemination co-created and co-managed by FARA Secretariat together with the SROs and NARS. Most of its work in the field is conducted through innovation platforms for technology adoption (IPTAs). IPTAs operate at sub-national level and are composed of agricultural research-for-development (ARD) partners, including extension agencies and farming communities. They work on a common commodity and analyse gaps in the commodity value chain to define the IPTA’s specific interventions. They follow the concept that effective agricultural technology dissemination – the adoption, use, uptake or commercialisation of existing knowledge – calls for understanding of farming systems through strong linkages and active participation among a range of actors.

IPTAs include researchers, primary producers, extension workers and NGOs, government policy makers, equipment manufacturers and suppliers, traders, processors and others. All of these stakeholders are organised into a coherent platform, with each participant (individual or corporate) contributing to the attainment of its goals.

Agriculture innovation systems: An investment sourcebook

Agricultural Innovation Systems: An Investment Sourcebook

by:  The World Bank

Agriculture and Rural Development Series
English; Paperback; 680 pages; 8.5x11
Published February 21, 2012 by World Bank
ISBN: 978-0-8213-8684-2; SKU: 18684
Research, education, and extension investments, while usually necessary, are often insufficient alone to bring knowledge, technologies, and services that enable farmers and entrepreneurs to innovate. Efforts to strengthen research systems and increase the availability of knowledge have not increased innovation or the use of knowledge in agriculture at the pace or the scale required by the intensifying and proliferating challenges confronting agriculture. Agricultural Innovation Systems: An Investment Sourcebook contributes to the identification, design, and implementation of the investments, approaches, and complementary interventions most likely to strengthen agricultural innovation systems (AIS) and to promote innovation and equitable growth. The Sourcebook provides a menu of tools and operational guidance, as well as good practice lessons, to illustrate approaches to designing, investing in, and improving these systems.

Managing the ability of agriculture to meet rising global demand and to respond to the changes and opportunities will require good policy, sustained investments, and innovation—not business as usual. Experience indicates that aside from a strong capacity in R&D, the ability to innovate is often related to collective action and coordination, exchange of knowledge among diverse actors, incentives and resources available to form partnerships and develop business, and an enabling environment. While consensus is developing about what is meant by 'innovation' and 'innovation system,' no detailed blueprint exists for making agricultural innovation happen at a given time, in a given place, for a given result. That said, the AIS approach, which looks at these multiple conditions and relationships that promote innovation in agriculture in specific contexts, has moved from a concept to a subdiscipline with principles of analysis and action.

Drawing on approaches that have been tested at different scales in different settings, this Sourcebook emphasizes the lessons learned, benefits and impacts, implementation issues, and prospects for replicating or expanding successful practices.

The Sourcebook reflects the experiences and evolving understanding of numerous individuals and organizations concerned with agricultural innovation, including the World Bank. It targets the key operational staff who design and implement lending projects in international and regional development agencies and national governments, as well as the practitioners who design thematic programs and technical assistance packages. The Sourcebook can also be an important resource for the research community and nongovernmental organizations.

Agricultural Innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa: experiences from multiple-stakeholder approaches

Agricultural innovation in sub-Saharan Africa: experiences from multiple-stakeholder approaches.
Adekunle AA, Ellis-Jones J, Ajibefun I, Nyikal RA, Bangali S, Fatunbi O and Ange A.
2012.
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Accra, Ghana
ISBN 978-9988-8373-2- 0 (print)
ISBN 978-9988-8373-2- 4 (pdf)
160 pages

The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) has promoted the integrated agriculture research for development (IAR4D) approach based on an innovation
systems framework. This brings together multiple actors along a commodity value chain to address challenges and identify opportunities to generate innovation. The approach creates a network of stakeholders or partners who are able to consider the technical, economic, social, institutional, and policy constraints in an environment. The network facilitates research and learning that not only generates new knowledge, products or technologies, but also ensures the use of research products.

The IAR4D approach is being tested at three pilot research sites across SSA: in Eastern and Central Africa around Lake Kivu (Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda); Southern Africa (Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe); and West Africa (Niger and Nigeria). This has involved the establishment of 36 stakeholder innovation platforms thus: creating functional linkages between farmers, the private sector, and service organizations; integrating productivity, natural resource management, markets and policy; establishing effective mechanisms for organizing and learning processes for farmers; and ensuring action research oriented toward problem-solving and impact. There are strong indications that IAR4D is an effective concept, applicable across a broad spectrum of agricultural systems.

This review examines the experiences of 21 case studies covering a wide range of African farming systems over broad geographic and historical landscapes. Each case study was reviewed by accessing and analysing existing data sources, published material and grey literature. It also involved important consultation with stakeholders in each country.

WIPO's World Intellectual Property Report 2011

WIPO's World Intellectual Property Report 2011 focuses on the Changing Face of Innovation. It describes key trends in the innovation landscape - including the increasingly open, international and collaborative character of the innovation process; the causes of the increased demand for IP rights; and the rising importance of technology markets.

Against this background, the Report explores the ways in which economists' views of the IP system have evolved. Finally, it takes a closer look at collaborative innovation models, analyzing how best to balance private collaboration and competition, and how best to harness public research for innovation.

Announcement: Innovation System Perspective in Agriculture and Rural Development for smallholder farmers

The eleventh regional conference of the Southern and Eastern African Association of Farming Systems Research-Extension (SEAAFSRE) will be held on 19-21 November 2012 in South Africa. The conference, whose theme is ‘Innovation System Perspective in Agriculture and Rural Development for smallholder farmers’ is intended to share experiences and best practices in moving agriculture from subsistence to commercial among resource-constrained farmers in the region. In particular, the conference will share practical experiences on the role innovation, agricultural training, research and extension can play in enhancing a value chain orientation in smallholder agriculture.

Call for papers
Papers are invited on research and other experiences on the above theme. Those working, or have worked, on these issues are particularly encouraged to submit their papers. While conceptual papers will be considered, preference will be given to papers based on practical experiences. Papers will be considered under the following sub-themes:

1. Innovation systems in smallholder farming
2. Farmer level value chain orientation
3. Value chain oriented policies
4. Capacity building

The deadline for submitting abstracts is 31st March 2012 and the deadline for submitting full papers is 30th June 2012. Details on venue, etcetera, will come with the second announcement end of April 2012.

The Need for Educated People to Take Up Farming

28 December 2011. allafrica.com. Joseph Nkandu, executive director of Nucafe (National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises), believes that for as long as farming is shunned by the well educated people, it will continue to be largely conceived as an occupation for the poor. He says there is a need for a new generation of farmers capable of blending scientific knowledge and entrepreneurial skills for farming to become a paying venture.

"Even in school, agriculture is regarded as a science subject," he says, "and indeed that's what it is. So it must be practiced by well educated people who look at farming with an entrepreneurial mind and are capable of broadening it beyond the farm; by taking the commodity value chain approach, mapping and judging at what level they can make more money."

Educated breed of farmer

Nkandu is a breed of agricultural scientists and social entrepreneurs with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree from Makerere and a Masters of Business Administration Degree in Social Entrepreneurship and Management from the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, and despite the fairly prestigious qualifications he holds, he is continuing with coffee farming. He has 60 acres of land at Bunjakko village, Buwama Sub-county in Mpigi District most of which is now already under coffee. He says the market for any form of coffee is not our biggest challenge but rather Africa's entrepreneurship and institutional deficit.

"There is need to institutionalise entrepreneurship especially in the agricultural enterprises beginning with families so that generations after generations go on producing agricultural products, amassing experience and expertise, a practice that has not been here in Uganda and Africa as a whole," Nkandu further says. "The first institution should be the family and the business rotating around the family before expanding it to the community."

Ever since he got that land in Bunjakko, Nkandu and his wife Eva, who is a medical doctor, have been encouraging neighbouring farmers to grow coffee. "That's how the entire village has now become an island of coffee," he said proudly.

A well educated farmer is in a better position to practice scientific farming practices which is key to getting bigger yields. He is likely to keep book records and to search for better markets for his commodity. Governments in Africa must create an environment that fosters a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among farmers.

Nkandu's advice for educated people in well paying jobs is that they should use their savings to acquire land and become farmers because, according to him, the economic future of our country lies in promoting agricultural innovation and entrepreneurship.

Agriculture innovation systems: An investment sourcebook

Forthcoming on February 17, 2012.
Agriculture and Rural Development Series
English; Paperback; 696 pages; 8.5x11
Published February 17, 2012 by World Bank
ISBN: 978-0-8213-8684-2; SKU: 18684
Price: $49.95
Book ordering information

The long-awaited agriculture innovation systems sourcebook is going to be published by the World Bank early in 2012.

According to some pre-materials, “the agricultural innovation system (AIS) approach has evolved from a concept into an entire subdiscipline, with principles of analysis and action, yet no detailed blueprint exists for making agricultural innovation happen at a given time, in a given place, for a given result. This sourcebook draws on the emerging principles of AIS analysis and action to help identify, design, and implement the investments, approaches, and complementary interventions that appear most likely to strengthen innovation system and promote agricultural innovation and equitable growth.”

It is “targeted to the key operational staff in international and regional development agencies and national governments who design and implement lending projects and to the practitioners who design thematic programs and technical assistance packages. The sourcebook is also an important resource for the research community and NGOs and may be a useful reference for the private sector, farmer organizations, and individuals with an interest in agricultural innovation.”

Key messages of the sourcebook are:

• Agricultural development depends on innovation. Innovation is a major source of improvedproductivity, competitiveness, and economic growth throughout advanced and emerging economies, and plays an important role in creating jobs, generating income, alleviating poverty, and driving social development.
• If farmers, agribusinesses, and even nations are to cope, compete, and thrive in the midstof changes in agriculture and economy, they must innovate continuously.
• Investments in science and technology are a key component of most strategies to improve and maintain agricultural productivity and innovate.
• Research, education, and extension investments are necessary components but have not been sufficient for agricultural innovation to occur. Other conditions and complementary interventions are needed.
• In addition to a strong capacity in RD, components of effective agricultural innovation are collective action and coordination, the exchange of knowledge among diverse actors, the skills, incentives and resources available to form partnerships and develop businesses, and enabling conditions that make it possible for actors to innovate. These conditions and complementary interventions have not been consistently addressed to date.
• Innovation and business development by different stakeholders does not occur without complementary investments to create a supportive environment. Enabling conditions in a given context depend on a (innovation) policy mix, innovation governance, a diverse set of regulatory matters and other investments with synergistic effects.
• The agricultural innovation system (AIS) investments must be context specific and respond to the stage of and vision for development in a particular country and agricultural sector. Given the resource limitations, investments need to be assessed, prioritized, sequenced, and tailored to the needs, challenges, and resources that are present.

THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURAL R&D WITHIN THE AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION SYSTEMS FRAMEWORK

This paper (40 pages) traces the evolution of the innovation systems framework within the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa, and presents a conceptual framework for agricultural innovation systems. The difference between innovation ecology/ecosystems and intervention-based innovations systems is highlighted, given that these two concepts are used at different levels in promoting and sustaining agricultural innovations. The role of open innovation, innovation platforms, and innovation intermediaries in catalyzing, enhancing, and facilitating the innovation process are discussed, as is the role of R&D in the innovation process.

The paper goes on to consider the interconnectedness of the innovation systems perspective and value-chain analysis in agricultural R&D processes, before summarizing the current status of agricultural R&D in Sub-Saharan Africa, lessons from past experience, and implications and key challenges confronting development practitioners in institutionalizing the agricultural innovation systems concept within the agricultural R&D in the region. Finally, some key conclusions and areas for investment are presented.

Related blog post:
AGRICULTURAL R&D: INVESTING IN AFRICA’S FUTURE

Impact of the breakthrough pigeonpea genome mapping on poor farmers

The International Crops Research for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and several partners, including China’sBGI-Shenzhen, have mapped the genome of the pigeonpea. The pigeonpea, or toor dāl in India, is an important food for millions of small farmers in semi-arid regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Often dubbed “poor man’s meat,” pigeonpeas are high in protein and amino acids, and flourish in dry, hot regions. The new knowledge of its gene sequence will be used to breed more productive, disease- and drought-resistant varieties of pigeonpea. This video from ICRISAT elaborates on the breakthrough and some of its implications.

Video-mediated farmer-to-farmer learning for sustainable agriculture

From June to September 2011, Agro-Insight conducted a scoping study for SDC, GFRAS and SAI Platform on the production, dissemination and use of farmer training videos in developing countries, with a focus on sustainable agriculture. Literature was consulted, the internet screened, experts and users consulted and a global on-line survey launched in English, French and Spanish.

The survey was announced via various listservs, websites and blogs (Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education; CTA; eRAILS; PAEPARD; FARA-net; FFSNet; KIT; LinkedIn Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development; Prolinnova E-group; Swiss Forum for Rural Advisory Services; and various regional farmer platforms such as ROPPA, PROPAC, EAFF).

The on-line survey, with more than 500 respondents, indicated that research institutes, universities and NGOs are better linked to professional networks and hence more easily reached through the internet than extension services, radio stations and farmer organizations. Although feedback from the food industry was relatively low, most SAI Platform members were represented.

• There is a general consensus that farmers need good agricultural training videos, but they do not browse the web in search of them. For watching videos they rely mainly on outside agencies.
• Farmers would watch videos on their own with their family or neighbours if video disc distribution mechanisms were in place. And they are willing to pay for video discs and video shows.

Only about 20% of all respondents have never used video to train farmers and have never searched the web for agricultural videos. Many of those didn’t know where to look for videos, hadn’t found videos on the right subject or hadn’t found videos in their local language.

“I have viewed many agricultural videos in YouTube no doubt they were interesting. But I found that they were not relevant to the conditions of the farmers where I am involved in capacity building.” A. Thimmaiah, National Organic Program, Bhuta

About 85% of the respondents found local languages very important for farmer training videos. To ensure that videos are sharable and of use to the global community of extension service providers and farmers, producing many poor quality local language videos is not cost-effective. The zoomingin, zooming-out (ZIZO) approach shows how to make regionally relevant and locally appropriate videos. Organizations are willing to translate and use videos made in other countries if they are relevant and of good quality, and if video scripts are available. Lower quality videos serve intermediaries only and are rarely used to actually train farmers. The five priority areas for new video productions are: crops and trees, water management, plant health, soil health and farmer organizations.

The report compares the pros and cons of key models of farmer-to-farmer video production and dissemination, and discusses the implications for future capacity building and how each model could contribute content to a global web-based platform.

Most (82%) public and private service providers are keen on the idea of a new web-based platform devoted to agricultural training videos only. Many people opposed including advocacy and opinion sharing, but suggested a type of a discussion forum for users of the platform to exchange experiences on video production and use.

To reach farmers with agricultural videos, a new web-based platform is required, but not sufficient. Efforts to link people with different professional backgrounds and to establish regional and national communication, translation and video disc distribution mechanisms have to be established.

A new not-for-profit organization, called Access Agriculture, is proposed to facilitate content creation and sharing of agricultural training videos through its web-based platform and an evolving network of linkages and experts. Institutional set up and operational models for Access Agriculture have been discussed with SDC, GFRAS and SAI Platform, but are not included in this report.

Innovation with Impact: Financing 21st Century Development

4 November. Gates presented his “Innovation with Impact: Financing 21st Century Development” report (pdf) to world leaders in Cannes attending the G20, outlining the steps that should be taken to bring about a fairer, more equal planet.

Outlining the value of international aid, and the lives saved by advances in innovation, he said:

“In the past 50 years, a billion people were saved from starvation by advances in agriculture. Health has improved in stunning ways, thanks to innovations like vaccines. In 1960, 20 million children under the age of 5 died. In 2010, fewer than 8 million children under 5 died. The world population more than doubled during this time, which means the rate of death has been cut by over 80 percent.

“Aid generosity has played an important role in these successes.”

On the importance of aid and the need for governments to maintain Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) in straitened times, he added:

“Times, some people will say rich countries should cut their ODA. They should not. Not only because they have made promises, but also because important pieces of the development agenda won’t be addressed without assistance. ODA spurs innovation by funding pilot projects that poor countries would not undertake themselves…

On innovation:

“Key innovations like new seeds and vaccines – and new ways to deliver them to the poorest – can multiply the impact of the resources we’re already devoting to development. We’ve made a big difference, but we can improve the basic tools of development by making them cheaper, easier to use, and more efficient – or by inventing wholly new tools.
“One of the newest resources for development – and potentially one of the most transformative – is rapidly growing countries’ capacity for innovation. Countries like Brazil, China, India, and Mexico are in a great position to work closely with poor countries because they have recent experience in reducing poverty, as well as enormous technical capabilities.”

The inspirational, life-saving examples of innovation and international cooperation cited by Gates in the field of agriculture include:

• A new variety of rice, specially bred to survive underwater, being grown by farmers in flood-prone areas of India where crops are regularly wiped out by standing water. In the next six years, up to 20 million farmers will plant the new varieties.
• Going back three decades, Brazil has been working with Japan to help poor farmers inMozambique grow soybeans.
• China has recently launched the “Green Super Rice” partnership, to help develop adapted varieties of rice with 15 poor countries in Africa and South Asia. Africa already accounts for approximately one-third of global rice imports and demand is growing – so helping African farmers increase rice production is critical for food security on the continent.

Gates concludes his report by saying:

“Scientific and technological innovations will allow us to solve problems that cause significant misery and hold societies back. A malaria vaccine, for example, would change the economic outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa. Better seeds for the crops that poor people rely on – cassava, maize, millet, rice, and sorghum – would feed billions, improve nutrition, and guarantee food security for the world.

“Another kind of innovation – a fundamental shift in the way we think about development – will provide amazing opportunities. It used to be that the world was, roughly speaking, one-third rich and two-thirds poor. Now, the absolute number and the proportion of dynamic, healthy, highly educated countries are much higher.

“That has been good for everybody, because it means a more prosperous and stable world. It also means that there are now more countries that have more to give to development. When I see the mix of countries around the G20 table, I am excited about our ability to capitalise on this… We can do much more to promote innovation for development.”

Guide to making commodity-based projects work

Edited by Paul Mundy et al. 
Published by Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) 
Website: www.kitpublishers.nl 2011, 150pp, ISBN 978 94 6022 156 9(Pb), €25 or free to download



From sorghum to shrimp is an accessible, sensible and practical, and a very valuable guide to making commodity-based projects work. It draws on the experience of 11 Commonwealth Fund for Commodities projects, from Asia, Africa and Latin America, guiding the reader through a series of key questions. What commodity to choose is the first: there are advantages to choosing a 'privileged' or established commodity like cocoa, cotton or coffee, but for the poorly resourced community, an 'infant' crop, such as bamboo in East Africa, or a neglected, 'orphan' crop like sorghum, will have less competition from big players and is often the best choice.



Working in a single country helps to reduce complications, which is a good idea as most commodity projects need to focus on bottlenecks at various points in the value chain, and not expect to achieve a result from action on just one issue. Being flexible throughout the project implementation, responding to unexpected problems, taking advantage of new opportunities and constantly assessing whether the project goals need to change in light of the evolving situation, are all important ingredients to success. Other chapters focus on the roles of stakeholders and partners, using market opportunities and achieving a lasting impact.

New Agriculturist: Book reviews - From sorghum to shrimp: A journey through commodity projects

Farmer networks hold key to agricultural innovation in developing countries

This study on farmer networks was co-authored by Pamela Matson, dean of the School of Earth Sciences and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford.

New technologies can improve agricultural sustainability in developing countries, but only with the engagement of local farmers and the social and economic networks they depend on, say Stanford University researchers.

“Most people tend to think that technology information flows to farmers through a direct pipeline from scientists, but that isn’t true,” said lead author Ellen McCullough, a former research fellow at Stanford’s Program on Food Security and the Environment, now at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The study was co-authored by Pamela Matson, dean of the School of Earth Sciences and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford. To better understand how farmers decide to adopt new technologies, the researchers interviewed growers, farm credit unions and agricultural experts in the Yaqui Valley in Sonora, Mexico – the birthplace of the “green revolution” in wheat and one of Mexico’s most productive breadbaskets.

“If scientists want to offer solutions to manage these environmental impacts, they need to understand what influences farmers’ decisions about technology and production strategies,” McCullough said.

Valley growers also have a long history of working with the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, a world-renowned agricultural research center known by its Spanish acronym, CIMMYT. But interviews conducted for the PNAS study revealed that most farmers take their cues from local credit unions and not from experts at CIMMYT. As an example, McCullough pointed to a collaborative effort between CIMMYT scientists and farmers to develop a nitrogen diagnostic tool that reduces fertilizer use without sacrificing crop yields.

The device, which gives real-time readings of nitrogen levels in the soil, proved early on that it could save farmers 12 to 17 percent of their profits. Yet most farmers rejected the new technology until CIMMYT researchers finally convinced credit union officials that it was a worthwhile investment.

"The most successful innovations that have been adopted by farmers in the Yaqui Valley have come from collaborations among researchers, farmers and local establishments, like the credit unions," McCullough said. Because of their considerable influence among farmers, credit unions should be included in any effort to effect environmental change in the region, she added.

Learn more about this agricultural study for farmer networks on Biomechanism.com

Facilitating multi-actor change

Facilitating multi-actor change

Boosting the honey trade – Ethiopia

In English: Facilitating multi-actor change, article 16 pages, Dec. 2010
In French: Facilitation des processus plurilateraux, article de 16 pages, dec 2010

In the practice of capacity development, there has been a gradual shift away from training individuals to strengthening organizations. Currently, the emphasis seems to be shifting again; from working with single organisations to facilitating multi-stakeholder processes (MSPs).

Donor agencies are learning that most development challenges cannot be addressed by individual organisations. Agencies face the challenge of developing new ways of providing funding that allow for effective engagement with MSPs.

Donors face the challenge in ensuring that established donor-recipient relationships do not undermine support for MSPs. Donors need to recognise that they are also part of the system and that their role can beneficial but also harmful to MSPs.

Facilitating MSPs requires considerable skill. Many of these competencies can be acquired through research, while others are honed through experience. While MSPs may be about working towards a common vision, they are also an arena for power games. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

“The role of a trusted broker is to decrease the levels of risk for actors to engage and who helps them to do things that they did not consider feasible before” (Kenyan advisor, Thomas Were, one of the co-authors of enclosed article.

Interview with Advisor Thomas Were on the new livestock market in Samburu, Kenya

Related:

The Change Alliance is an emerging global network of organisations joining forces to increase the effectiveness of the multi-stakeholder processes in which they engage. Its aim is to help improve the quality of the design, dialogue, learning, and facilitation, on which these processes depend. The logic of the Alliance is that complex problems demand a new dynamic of how governments, citizens, business and civil society organisations work together. On the NING, their online learning platform you will find interesting discussions, a Q&A section, blogs and announcements from members of the Change Alliance. For a short introduction to the change alliance you can read and share the four-pager "the Change Alliance in a nutshell"

Grants to build agricultural commodity “value chains” to improve the productivity of sorghum, millet, cassava, sweet potato, potato and bean farmers

A new program that provides grants to bioscientists working to improve food production and environmental management in eastern Africa was launched on 16th of March at the Nairobi headquarters of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Visit the website for more information.

The newly established Bioresources Innovation Network for Eastern Africa Development (Bio-Innovate) Program—provides competitive grants to African researchers who are working with the private sector and non-governmental organizations to find ways to improve food security, boost resilience to climate change and identify environmentally sustainable ways of producing food.

IIn its first three-year phase, the program is supporting five research-based projects working to improve the productivity of sorghum, millet, cassava, sweet potato, potato and bean farmers; to help smallholder farmers adapt to climate change; to improve the processing of wastes in the production of sisal and coffee; and to better treat waste water generated in leather processing and slaughterhouse operations.

In a second call for proposals, beginning mid-2011, Bio-Innovate will help build agricultural commodity “value chains” in the region and a supportive policy environment for bioresource innovations.

The five-year program is funded by a USD12-million grant from the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). Bio-Innovate is managed by ILRI and co-located with the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BeCA) Hub at ILRI’s Nairobi campus. Bio-Innovate will be implemented in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda

Bio-Innovate is building on a previous project that trained 20 regionally recruited bioscientists to PhD level. Now the new Program plans to move from research outputs into partnerships with private sector players and other delivery mechanisms. The real focus and the success of Bio-Innovate will be delivery of products to African farmers. See interview with Gabrielle Persley, Senior Advisor to the Director General of ILRI

Watch the short (2-minute) filmed interview of Calestous Juma by ILRI:

In the interview, Juma, says that biosciences offer many regions in Africa an opportunity to produce surplus food for the first time. ‘Without biosciences research within Africa, agriculture will face a difficult future. The Bio-Innovate Program is important because it will stimulate new industries that are linked to the life sciences. Farmers will not benefit from producing more food unless they can get it to markets to process and sell.

‘Rwanda after the genocide, the first thing they did was to modernize agriculture. And Rwanda has started to feed itself.’

How local innovation, coupled with scientific insights and principles, can help improve yields without harming the land, water and the rest of the environment

Documentary film series: the ingenuity and grassroots expertise of small farmers in developing countries

Organisation: Prolinnova and TVEAP

A new documentary film series highlights one way forward: tap the ingenuity and grassroots expertise of small farmers in the developing countries. They have long mastered the art of resilience and survival against formidable odds.

The 4-part series, produced by TVE Asia Pacific (TVEAP), shows how local innovation, coupled with scientific insights and principles, can help improve yields without harming the land, water and the rest of the environment.

TVEAP, a non-profit media foundation, produced the series in partnership with Prolinnova, a global learning network that promotes local innovation led by small-scale farmers in sustainable agriculture and management of natural resources.

The film series were premiered at the 2011 Prolinnova International Partners Workshop, on 21 March 2011 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. (see related blog spot:  International Forum on the Mainstreaming Participatory Approaches into Agricultural Research and Development

Filmed during 2010 in four countries on three continents, the short film series begins with an overview of the global agricultural research and development challenges tackled by Prolinnova partners. It shows how this work improves farmers’ ability to feed a world that’s both crowded and warming.

It also showcases the processes and products of participatory innovation development in three countries: Cambodia, Niger and South Africa. 

The examples featured in the series cover both technological and social innovation. Among them: an improved fish smoking oven and the use of millet glumes as cassava fertiliser in Niger; how goat rearing strengthens the economics of poor families in South Africa; and more efficient rice farming that uses considerably less water in Cambodia.

All four films illustrate how Prolinnova operates: bringing government, academic and civil society groups together with small farmers to work as equals.

Prolinnova partners are pleased with how the film series has turned out.

“The whole project -- which involved making three short films in Cambodia, Niger and South Africa, and an overview film covering the global programme -- was done within the span of a year. It was most challenging and exciting,” says Chesha Wettasinha, Coordinator of the film project of on behalf of Prolinnova at the ETC Foundation in The Netherlands.

She adds: “It was no small feat to capture in film concepts and approaches espoused by Prolinnova, but TVEAP did remarkably well in showing in a nutshell what we had written in reams of publications. Hats off to TVEAP for a job well done!”

The series was researched and scripted by TVEAP Director Nalaka Gunawardene, a science writer with wide experience in covering development issues in the print, television and online media.

“Many researchers and development professionals talk among themselves, usually in their own technical language,” says Gunawardene. “They don’t reach out enough to the policy makers, business leaders and the public. Films like these can bridge this gap, and make a difference.”

The series was conceptualised and produced by TVEAP under commission from the Prolinnova Network. It comes in two languages: English (original) and French (version). Interviews have been conducted in several local languages.

Says TVEAP’s Series Producer Manori Wijesekera: “Our challenge was to distil the essence of nearly a decade of field work by dozens of Prolinnova partners. We had to tell their story in an engaging and authentic manner – and in a nutshell.”

The series was filmed with local video crews in Cambodia, Niger and South Africa – as well as at the 2010 international partner meeting held in Wageningen, The Netherlands. Prolinnova partners at each location provided technical guidance and logistical support. The series was edited and post-produced in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where TVEAP is anchored. 

Both Prolinnova and TVEAP are firmly committed to the principles of open content. Thus, the video film series is being released and distributed without any copyright restrictions. The films may be used, adapted, versioned or copied without license fees or royalty payments, as long as the original sources are acknowledged.

The films can also be viewed online, in their entirety, at the TVEAP website:
http://www.tveap.org/?q=node/545

PROLINNOVA Niger: Arid Land, Fertile Minds

Mushroom production using coffee waste

GRO (green recycled organics) (The Netherlands)  has begun mushroom production using coffee waste from the La Place range of restaurants in a closed transport network with Vroegop-Windig transporters. 

• La Place restaurants collect coffee grounds into re-used sealable plastic buckets. 
• Vroegop Windig transports this to GRO where the coffee is used for the cultivation of mushrooms.
• Vroegop-Windig takes the harvest back to La Place, where mushrooms are used in many dishes. 

220 tons of coffee waste is produced a year at La Place, now this residue is a basis for new products, making full use of logistics at no extra mileage. Possible developments are to also use spent grains from breweries for the cultivation of mushrooms, to begin producing cleaning products using citrus waste, and as production expands, to employ disadvantaged youth. Thus different partnerships within a chain can implement responsible and sustainable production and use of residues. GRO has won the first Horecava Sustainabilty Award 2011.

Chido Govera (Zimbabwe)

GRO (green recycled organics) was established in the Netherlands, inspired by projects in Zimbabwe, and with cooperation with the Ten Foundation.


The method of using agro-waste to farm nutrient rich mushrooms only working with biomass left-overs has been demonstrated in Zimbabwe, Colombia and India. UNDP supported the original work in Africa.

The backbone of this project was the knowledge and experience of Ms Chido Govera and the support structure originally provided by the African University in Mutare, Zimbabwe.  and researcher Mrs. Margaret Tagwira in particular. The program started with technical support of Prof. Dr. S. T. Chang from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a grant from the ZERI Fondation. Chido started her work with agro-waste as an orphan from the countryside some 40 km outside Mutare, Zimbabwe. She received her mushroom farming training at the age of 12, after surviving for 5 years scavenging waste food and working for a bowl of milo after her mother succumbed to the AIDS virus. Now at the age of 28 she has a rich experience in training and supporting women and orphans in Zimbabwe, Colombia and India. (see: ZERI Southern Africa)

An excerpt from an Article by ZERI Pan-Pacific; Chido Govera: The Orphan who Discovered Mushrooms:

Margaret Tagwira

Margaret Tagwira set out to test water hyacinth as a substrate for mushroom growing and presented a first scientific paper outlining the results of her findings with the peer review of Prof. S. T. Chang and Prof. Dr. Keto Mshigeni (then Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Namibia) . She discovered that on one hundred kilograms of dry base water hyacinth, she could harvest up to 240 kilograms of fresh mushrooms, known as a biological efficiency of 240 percent. Margaret felt that there was a great need to quickly move beyond the academic exercise to determine the biological efficiency; she wanted to ensure that the recent findings would empower a growing number of vulnerable citizens. In the fall of 1996, Margaret organized the first mushroom farming training for 15 orphans at Africa University. Chido Govera was amongst the first to participate in this program. She was barely 12 years old though keen to learn how to feed her family nucleus without having to scavenge the fields, and how to convert this generative capacity of natural systems into a permanent resource for their local community.

Now fast forward to 2011, Chido Govera is now organizing hands-on trainings in villages around the world. Chido plans to maintain a small research base in Zimbabwe. Learning from her teacher, she takes an “approach to sharing solutions in a way that is easily understood and accessible to the poorest since she knows how to survive with little.”

The ZERI Foundation’s innovative pulp-to-protein project received SCaa’s 2009 Sustainability award, while the program benefits farmers’ livelihoods and the environment. Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives (ZERI) is a global network of creative minds seeking solutions to world challenges. The common vision shared by the members of the ZERI family is to view waste as resource and seek solutions using nature's design principles as inspiration. Please read HERE

The New Harvest, Agricultural Innovation in Africa

ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2010) — Africa can feed itself. And it can make the transition from hungry importer to self-sufficiency in a single generation.

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The startling assertions, in stark contrast with entrenched, gloomy perceptions of the continent, highlight a collection of studies published December 2 that present a clear prescription for transforming Sub-Saharan Africa's agriculture and, by doing so, its economy.

The strategy calls on governments to make African agricultural expansion central to decision making about everything from transportation and communication infrastructure to post-secondary education and innovation investment.

The approach is outlined in an independent study, "The New Harvest, Agricultural Innovation in Africa," led by Harvard University professor Calestous Juma.African agriculture is currently at a crossroads, at which persistent food shortages are compounded by threats from climate change. But, as this book argues, Africa faces three major opportunities that can transform its agriculture into a force for economic growth: advances in science and technology; the creation of regional markets; and the emergence of a new crop of entrepreneurial leaders dedicated to the continent's economic improvement. 

Filled with case studies from within Africa and success stories from developing nations around the world, The New Harvest outlines the policies and institutional changes necessary to promote agricultural innovation across the African continent. Incorporating research from academia, government, civil society, and private industry, the book suggests multiple ways that individual African countries can work together at the regional level to develop local knowledge and resources, harness technological innovation, encourage entrepreneurship, increase agricultural output, create markets, and improve infrastructure.