Learning together about how innovation happens in smallholder farming in Africa
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Transcript of Learning together about how innovation happens in smallholder farming in Africa
LEARNING TOGETHER ABOUT HOW
INNOVATION HAPPENS
IN SMALLHOLDER FARMING IN
AFRICA
Ann Waters-Bayer, ETC Foundation, Netherlands for the JOLISAA and INSARD teams
EC Lunchtime Conference on Research Serving Development Brussels, 26 November 2013
JOLISAA partners INSARD partners
• CIRAD, France
• ETC, Netherlands
• ICRA, Netherlands
• KARI, Kenya
• U Abomey-Calavi, Benin
• U Pretoria, South Africa
• WUR, Netherlands
• and many smallholders and their partners in innovation
• ESAFF, Tanzania
• ETC, Netherlands
• GRET, France
• PELUM RD, Zambia
• REPAOC, Senegal
• and many smallholders and their partners in innovation
Learning from local innovation in Benin (Photo: Bernard Triomphe)
Objective of JOLISAA:
To learn jointly about how innovation processes in African smallholder farming happened, so as to draw lessons for research, policy and practice to support continuing innovation processes that address the needs & demands of smallholders.
Objective of INSARD:
To ensure an informed participation of a broad range of European and African civil society organisations in the formulation and implementation of ARD policies that address the needs & demands of smallholders.
These EU-funded research & networking projects are important for: Showing pathways to support food & nutrition
security
Forging the kind of partnerships needed to achieve this
Informing agricultural research & development (ARD) policymaking
Heightening interest in Europe & Africa in ARD in smallholder family farming
Strengthening the voice of farmer organisations & other members of civil society in decision-making about ARD
1) by farmers & other stakeholders jointly analysing innovation cases in Benin, Kenya& South Africa
2) by farmers & researchers jointly developing research questions in Senegal, Tanzania & Zambia
3) through cross-analysis of cases from different countries
4) in exchange with other groups studying innovation processes in African agriculture
Processes of action research & joint learning
Main questions
How can we better understand innovation processes in smallholder farming & the role of formal research in these processes?
How can we generate a collective understanding of an innovation process in the “innovation system”, to stimulate collective action?
What lessons can we learn from this understanding for more effective support to multi-stakeholder innovation processes in smallholder family farming?
Trying to understand innovation process in South Africa (Photo: Laurens van Veldhuizen)
Range of cases: from endogenous innovation in aquaculture …
Farmers in southern Benin dug hwedos in floodplains to trap fish as water recedes
Intensified system through better drainage & irrigation to grow off-season vegetables on raised hwedo banks to sell to coastal city markets
Rely on both fish & vegetables to secure income while adjusting to environmental & market fluctuations
Introduced “modern” aquaculture projects ignored this locally developed low-external-input system
Maintaining canal to keep hwedo productive (Photo: Anne Floquet)
… to orchestrated innovation that took on its own “life”: e.g. aloe value chain
Harvesting aloe in Kenya (Photo: Bernard Triomphe)
5 policy recommendations for enhancing innovation by smallholder farmers
① Build on local dynamics: innovation “in the social
wild”
② Combine local & external knowledge & ideas to
enhance innovative capacity (1 + 1 = 3)
③ Encourage access to diverse value chains to lower
the innovation risks
④ Support unpredictable innovation processes
⑤ Address the multiple dimensions of innovation
① Build on local dynamics: innovation “in the social wild”
With little or no support from public research & development (R&D) institutions, many smallholders are actively innovating individually and collectively to solve problems, improve their farming and income, & grasp opportunities.
Endogenous aquaculture development in Benin (Photo: Anne Floquet)
Harvesting aloe for informal market chain in Kenya (Photo: B. Triomphe)
② Combine local & external knowledge & ideas to enhance innovative capacity (1 + 1 = 3)
Linking multiple sources of knowledge enhances the capacity of all stakeholders to innovate, to adapt to changing conditions & to grasp opportunities.
Innovation “in the social wild” can be strengthened, speeded upand made more sustainable through appropriate inputs of knowledge from different sourcesthat respond to farmers’ demands,needs & actual possibilities. Farmers & scientists in Benin
explore ways to improve the local innovation (Photo: Anne Floquet)
③ Encourage access to diverse value chains to lower the innovation risks
Markets and value chains, whether local or distant, can trigger & sustain dynamic innovation processes that benefit smallholders & consumers
… but imply significant risks for resource-poor farmers and small-scale processors.
Having access to diverse value chains is critical to increase local resilience to erratic & dysfunctional markets.
Soy cheese in fried pieces on market in Benin
(Photo: Anne Floquet)
④ Support unpredictable innovation processes
Innovation cannot be planned from the onset.
It evolves in unpredictable & often unexpected ways over a long time & specific to a changing context.
In supporting innovation, formal R&D actors should use highly flexible, open-ended & iterative approaches adapted to local conditions.
Farmers adapted technique to grow vegetables (Photos: Water Wheel)
In-field water-harvesting technique introduced for large-scale cropping in South Africa
⑤ Address multiple dimensions of innovation
Beyond technology, innovation has important social & organisational dimensions that cannot be addressed in isolation from each other, if innovation is to be successful.
e.g. to deal with invasive weedProsopis juliflora in Kenya,technological innovation (charcoal making) had to beintertwined with institutional innovation (change in law) &organisational innovation (self- formed charcoal-maker groups) Making charcoal from
prosopis in Baringo, Kenya (Photo: Ann Waters-Bayer)
Some promising paths to innovating innovation
Changing the way governments and donors fund interventions in agricultural research & development
Supporting innovation platforms & other multi-stakeholder alliances at different levels
Developing innovation brokerage capacities
Strengthening pivotal role of agricultural advisors
Integrating innovation systems approaches into agricultural education and training
Let’s act on these recommendations to achieve a dynamic, innovative & productive smallholder family farming sector!
Thank you
This work forms part of the EU-funded projects “Joint Learning in Innovation Systems in African Agriculture” (JOLISAA) and “Including Smallholders in
Agricultural Research for Development” (INSARD). The opinions expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author. Thanks to all JOLISAA & INSARD
consortium members and partners in Benin, France, Kenya, Netherlands, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia for their collaboration and providing
data, insights and comments.
www.jolisaa.net
www.repaoc.org/insard
Friday, 29
November 2013
International Farmer
Innovation Day !
Ethiopian farmer developed water-lifting devices (Photo: Ann Waters-Bayer)
South African innovator in backyard poultry farming (Photo: Brigid Letty)
Kenyan farmer developed feed supplements for goats
(Photo: Laurens van Veldhuizen)
Ethiopian farmer comparing modern beehive & her local improvement on
it (Photo: Tesfahun Fenta)