In October 2013, at the Agrecol seminar on “Strengthening the efforts of smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change”, Prolinnova presented its experience in using locally managed innovation funds in Eastern Africa to stimulate farmer-led experimentation. The workshop – held in Germerode, Germany – focused on initiatives to strengthen rural people’s resilience to change by encouraging local innovation and adaptation in ecologically oriented farming. The participants looked at the potential of ecologically oriented agriculture to meet the challenges of climate change in smallholder farming, examining this within the wider legal, economic, infrastructural and organisational conditions that influence local adaptive capacity and initiative, such as formal research and extension, land-use security and seed policy. The Prolinnova paper on “Strengthening local adaptive capacity through farmer-managed innovation funds” can be found here.
