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)