Welcome to the Africa Brazil Latin American and Caribbean Agricultural Innovation Marketplace Blog!


Aug 2, 2012

Day 1 Report

The Learning Events happened yesterday in the afternoon.
The participants were divided in four places, and in each one they got to the following conclusions about each theme:


• ENHANCING PRODUCTIVITY
It’s more than yield!
- Innovation can increase productivity - 2 examples discussed:
1) Napier (elephant) grass project (Brazil-Kenya) diverse germplasm might allow farmers in Africa to grow forage grass with higher yields, protected against stunt and smut diseases, and potentially grass that can be grazed (instead of cut and carried to feed livestock), and
2) Jatropha project (Brazil-LAC) – synchronizing flowering will increase farmers’ harvests.
- Germplasm matters – both conservation of diverse germplasm and exchange
- Quality matters – nutritional quality to reduce hunger and malnutrition, and quality traits for local consumers and export markets
- Doing more with less – sustainability is key, increasing productivity in low-input systems
- Beyond harvests – translating yield gains into benefits for farmers, including post-harvest storage, transport to markets, and adequate processing capacity

Farmers face more complexity in their decision-making than research scientists!
- Participatory research - We must involve farmers in identifying key problems and potential solutions
- Integrating and sharing knowledge – farmers must have access to knowledge and inputs: farmer organizations can play a key role here, along with other actors such as extension agencies – it takes a support system from seed to market.

We need a supportive environment!
- Institutions – research and extension
- Finances – long-term support is critical
- Policy – enabling regulations that allow scientists and farmers to innovate and share.

• NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
The key leverage points for innovation in this area are:
1. Need to plan for and manage future climate risks on natural resources
2. Preserving genetic variability is a fundamental part of protecting all the ‘nuts and bolts’(available sources) that we will need to develop future agriculture
3. Need to be able to measure sustainability and communicate research results to raise public awareness – also need strategies for disseminating and publishing sensitive results (e.g. evidence of environmental damage may be resisted by governments)
4. Need to move beyond measuring problems to offer concrete solutions, particularly on how to transform agriculture and boost productivity in a sustainable way
5. Research needs to inform policy, e.g. on protocols for the management and transfer of genetic resources.

• POVERTY ALLEVIATION TECHNOLOGIES
The session had the presentation of two projects, one in Kenya which was under implementation on an integrated pest management (IPM) strategy for small-holders that showed the importance of engaging farmers in the decision for the technology and in using natural resources to control pest; another project recently approved on hydraulic ram-pump in Uganda showed how affordable and easy-to-use technology could be utilized by small-holders in stimulating irrigation up-taking.
The main key issues addressed by the session on technology and innovation leverage for poverty reduction were as follows:
1. Affordability: the need for technology to be low-cost and simple to use in order to be absorbed by small-holder farmers;
2. Sustainability: it is important the technology is economically sustainable and in this regard profitable for farmers to help them to make the transition from peasant farmers to commercially viable farmers; at the same time it needs to be ecologically sustainable having due regard for the natural resource system which involves it;
3. Adoption: the main challenge is for smallholders to adopt, capture the technology, in this regard it is important that technological advancements come together with capacity building and training;
4. Participatory: for technology to be adopted by serve small-holders, it is imperative that it is devised involving the community so that it is demand-driven. This would also avoid pre-made packages or technological kits imposed on small-holder farmers. As such, the best would be to adopt a holistic approach which is comprehensive including all actors and dimensions of the surrounding environment;
5. Demand-driven: in order to develop technology, it is important to connect with the market, it should not only consider the production side of the equation, but also the end-market of the products;
6. Replicability: it is important that it has a demonstration impact, so that it is first piloted and tested but then easily replicated by small-holder farmers;
7. Policy: decisions on technology need to be made considering the policy dimension an enabling environment, including the institutional framework.

• POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING
The main conclusions were
1. Policy and institutional environment is paramount
2. Both productivity and markets drive improvement of livelihoods, but market may prove more important in many cases;
3. Greatest rate of technological change is in ICT, and the greatest source of technological changes is coming from outside the agriculture (e.g. recent report on yield stagnation in OECD countries); information is the fastest growing asset in the world, and it needs to be incorporated in the innovation process.
4. Solutions can be provoked in response to demand (e.g. operations research; linear programming as a means to address logistical issues that have arisen during WWII).
5. Most valuable assets in countries are people and institutions improving institutions are important; a lot of change is happening and institutions and policies will need to adjust to these changes; the institutional learning process is not linear; there are a lot of trials and errors, but also tremendous learning opportunities.
6. Establishing research focus/agenda: strong and focused research institutions can adapt/evolve to different opportunities and challenges
7. Optimize the use of public resources: rights policies/institutions help deliver quick impacts and minimize corruption; inspire greater confidence among stakeholders
8. Effective institutions are able to predictably influence policies
9. Closing the gap between science and society
10. Facilitating the transferring of technologies/leading to impacts
11. Ensuring flexibility of institutions to foster innovations
12. Linking knowledge to action: in term of relevance, credibility and legitimacy
13. Strengthening the institutional environments to improve access to markets and to secure sustainable funding for education/capacity building and for research and extension services
14. Increasing community participation/engagement to increase the possibilities to better livelihoods

Leverage points for innovation through policy and institutional strengthening:
15. Participation of farmers and other stakeholders in innovations, to increase ownership and use of interdisciplinary knowledge
16. Capacity is in place to translate policies/strategies into outcomes for farmers/end users (implementation)
17. PPP, including protection of IP rights
18. Internal mechanisms exist to encourage a culture of partnerships, and there is a budgetary room for flexibility
19. Information exchanges and use of open access to spark innovations
20. Adequate financial capacities and instruments to bridge the gap between research and society (e.g. seed money)
21. Harmonization of regulations (e.g. seed policies, biotech, etc.)
22. Surpassing cultural barriers and bringing together different groups with different experience around a shared goal

Topics for future Marketplaces:
23. Priority setting methodologies, and their use in Africa & Brazil
24. Tools to aid in impact assessment of land use and other agricultural sector policies
25. Training young researchers in novel approaches, such as action research and participatory planning
26. Reducing gap between research and policy (decision support models and interdisciplinary projects)
27. Developing partnership models of research organizations in-country (including the private sector, NGO’s and public institutions)
28. Communicating research through a 2-ways communication streams (listening and sharing) through different outlets (radio, pamphlets, papers, etc.)


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