Last week the Humidtropics, Dryland Systems and Aquatic Agricultural Systems CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) met in Ibadan, Nigeria for the International Conference on Integrated Systems Research. The purpose of these three ‘systems’ CRPs is to identify and make the most of the complex intertwined nature of the agricultural production, marketing, and natural resources management systems to contribute to reducing poverty, improving incomes, nutrition and the status of women and other marginalized groups in humid tropical, drylands and aquatic ecosystems. The preliminary results from my … [Read more...]
Adapting Humidtropics Research Methods to Fit Local Stakeholder Interests in Thailand
Last month I travelled to Thailand to launch a situational analysis in the northern province of Nan. In line with what I had previously done in Northwest Vietnam and in Uganda and West Kenya, I had come to Thailand to present the expected outline of a Humidtropics situational analysis report. This is meant to paint a broad picture of the current situation of agrifood production, marketing and natural resources management systems, while relating those to rural development indicators and expected outcomes of Humidtropics. I was the main facilitator for the situational analysis launch meeting … [Read more...]
Maize, Pigs, Plums and Tea – Linking Smallholder Farmers to Markets in Northwest Vietnam
One of the key recommendations emerging from a situational analysis conducted by Humidtropics in four provinces of Northwest Vietnam is to use existing success stories of marketing business models to replicate those within value chains for indigenous local foods targeting niche markets. As a result, Humidtropics scientists from ILRI partnered with the Agriculture Economics and Value Chains Department of the Centre for Agrarian Systems Research and Development (CASRAD) to conduct a value chain assessment on four agricultural products: maize, pigs, plums and tea. This assessment provided … [Read more...]