The March 2021 issue of the Appropriate Technology magazine (Vol. 48, No. 1) published two articles on women innovators in Kenya and Nepal. Prolinnova partners in the two countries have been working with these women in farmer-led joint research and helping them share their experiences within and beyond their communities. Both women presented their innovations at the virtual Global Farmer Innovation Fair hosted by Prolinnova and A Growing Culture in February 2021. Read the articles here:

   Farmer-researcher Angie Koch, EFAO (Photo: Stills Motion Content)

On 12 March 2021, students of the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development of the University of Guelph in the province of Ontario, Canada, organised a webinar on “Farmer-led research in the resilience of rural communities”. The webinar examined farmer-led research (FLR) from the perspectives of farmers in the Global North and South.

Angie Koch, a farmer researcher with the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario (EFAO), made a keynote presentation on her experiences in FLR. She stressed how important it is in her research to follow her own curiosity and seek answers to her own questions for her farm. She enjoys learning from other farmer-researchers' methods and results as much as she appreciates the opportunity to share her own.

Sharad Rai is not a stranger to Prolinnova. He joined Prolinnova–Nepal in 2005 representing Practical Action and was an active member of the National Working Group (NWG). Sharad was involved in identifying and documenting farmer innovation and supporting farmer-led joint research in Nepal.

During his time in the NWG, he developed guidelines for Participatory Innovation Development in Nepal, which was awarded a prize as the Knowledge contest winner for Best Knowledge Product by Practical Action Headquarters in the UK in 2007. Sharad played a key role as part of the Prolinnova Nepal’s organising team of two key events in Kathmandu in 2007: the first national-level Farmer Innovation Fair and the Asia-Pacific Innovation Symposium.

Year 1 of the 3-year Misereor-funded project Scaling Up Local Capacity to Innovate for Food and Nutrition Security (SULCI-FaNS) was completed in September 2020. Prolinnova Country Platforms (CPs) in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana and Kenya are engaged in strengthening the innovation capacities of small-scale farmers, particularly women and women’s groups, to improve food and nutrition security and resilience of local communities. They are also building the capacity of other stakeholders in agricultural research and development in promoting local innovation and farmer-led joint research and seeking to scale up this approach. SULCI-FaNS supports activities in the West & Central Africa and Eastern & Southern Africa subregions working toward regionalisation of the Prolinnova network in Africa. The Year 1 report describes achievements at these different levels.

Photo: Studio Mass, Benin

Troisième formation DPI au Bénin