Cases of local innovation in Mozambique

Member organisations of Prolinnova-Mozambique contributed cases of local innovation to this catalogue that covers the period from 2008 to 2017. Most of these are cases that have been encountered during the partners' day-to-day interactions with smallholder farmers in the villages where the organisations work.

Proli-FaNS + African Regional Meeting in Kenya in May 2018

As part of the regionalisation of Prolinnova outlined in the network’s 2016–20 strategy, the focus in 2018 is on strengthening the subregional and regional networks. On 22–23 May 2018, the five Country Platforms (CPs) involved in the Proli-FaNS project will hold their annual sharing-and-learning meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. The programme for these two days is being drawn up by Joe Nchor, Proli-FaNS coordinator based at ACDEP in northern Ghana. A third day (24 May) will be devoted to sharing about experiences with regionalisation of the network and planning how to work toward a Prolinnova–Africa network. The programme for this day is being drawn up by the two subregional coordinators: Amanuel Assefa for Eastern & Southern Africa and Georges Djohy for West & Central Africa. 

All Prolinnova CPs in Africa will be invited to Nairobi. They will need to generate own funding for travel, lodging and food. In some cases, CPs in countries neighbouring Kenya may be able to arrange less costly modes of travel to be able to take part in the African Regional Meeting.

Exchange visit to Mali between FaReNe project partners

For better sharing of experiences about farmer innovation, facilitating joint experimentation, setting up farmer innovator networks and managing Local Innovation Support Funds, an exchange visit between Burkina Faso and Mali was held on 6–8 October 2017 in the villages of Zeimbougou Mangoni, Nampasso, Kanouala, Nabougou and Nayo (Mali). The delegation from Burkina was made up of 10 persons: farmer innovators, women food processors and staff from Diobass, World Neighbors and Réseau MARP. The report below is in French.

Visite d’échange au Mali entre partenaires du projet FaReNe

Farmer-led documentation of local innovation in Kenya

In 2017, the Farmer-Led Innovators Association of Kenya (FALIA) worked together with the Prolinnova partner organisation A Growing Culture (AGC) to document farmer innovations in Kisumu in Western Kenya. FALIA and AGC identified 20 promising innovations addressing a range of issues from biodiversity preservation and economic empowerment to gender equality and improved food security. Their joint activity sought to:

  • Identify and document useful innovations to be included in the Library for Food Sovereignty (LFS)
  • Amplify and spread innovations through a participatory farmer-led innovation documentation framework
  • Recognise farmers for their achievements and identify opportunities for scaling out and building on local innovations.

A description of the outcomes of the documentation can be found on the AGC website: www.agrowingculture.org/project/farmer-led-innovation-documentation-kenya/

International Farmer Innovation Day 2017 celebrated in Nepal

University staff in Nepal learn about farmer-led joint research

Staff members of the Institute of Science and Technology (IOST) at Tribhuvan University and affiliated campuses joined a training programme on local innovation and farmer-led joint research, thanks to funding from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Nuffic (Dutch organisation for internationalisation of higher education).

The training began with a 6-day residential workshop in March 2017 conducted in Nagarkot by Chesha Wettasinha of the Prolinnova International Secretariat at the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) and Basanta Rana Bhat of Ecoscentre in Nepal, with support from Dharma Dangol (IOST) and Suman Manandhar (UNDP) as resource persons. The training included visits to three peri-urban farmer innovators near Kathmandu involved in rooftop gardening, mushroom growing and nursery management. The trainees were highly impressed by the creativity of the farmer innovators.

Refreshing PID in Mozambique

In collaboration with Vicente Zefanias, Romualdo Rutazihana conducted a two-day refresher course in November 2017 for more than 20 participants from Prolinnova-Mozambique partner organisations. A third day was set aside for elections: one focal point was elected for each of the three provinces where the network is operating (Maputo, Gaza & Inhambane). The workshop participants asked Romualdo to take the chair of the National Steering Committee, as he has been with Prolinnova-Mozambique from the outset and has the longest institutional memory. During the same meeting, the network reviewed the new catalogue of local innovations to be published in December 2017.

AFAAS/GFRAS event on Developing Local Extension Capacity, Durban, South Africa

On 4 November 2017, upon the invitation of Max Olupot (AFAAS), Brigid Letty (a member of Prolinnova-South Africa and a member of the Prolinnova taskforce for the Eastern and Southern Africa Sub-region) attended an event that was a joint initiative of GFRAS (Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services) and AFAAS (African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services). It was a side event of the Joint Conference comprising the 3rd AFAAS Africa-wide Agricultural Extension Week and the 51st Annual Conference of the South African Society for Agricultural Extension.

Proli-FaNS Year 1 report

The overall progress report on Year 1 of the Proli-FaNS (Promoting local innovation in Food and Nutrition Security) project funded through Misereor covers the period from 1 August 2016 to 31 July 2017. It shows how Prolinnova partners in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya have been enhancing the innovative capacities of rural communities to improve food security, nutrition security and nutrition diversity. The project focuses on recognising and working with women innovators in farmer-led research and development.

The Year 1 report prepared by ACDEP, the NGO in northern Kenya that coordinates the multi-CP project, is available in English and French.

Profeis-Mali funded by Misereor for 4th 3-year phase

The Country Platform of Profeis-Mali has been funded by Misereor to implement a fourth 3-year phase starting 1 March 2017. The key objectives of this fourth phase are (a) to spread farmer innovations, (b) to institutionalise the Participatory Innovation Development (PID) approach, and (c) to optimise farmer innovations through PID.

Le programme Profeis-Mali vient d’obtenir de Misereor un financement pour une quatrième phase de trois années d’activités qui ont débuté le 1er mars 2017. La quatrième phase du programme Profeis-Mali repose essentiellement sur trois objectifs clés, à savoir : (a) la diffusion d’innovations paysannes pertinentes; (b) l’institutionnalisation de l’approche Développement Participatif de l'Innovation (DPI); et (c) l’optimisation des innovations paysannes.


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