Developing the Capacity to Innovate in Cameroon and Nigeria.
Dr. Wole Fatunbi making a presentation during the workshop in Nigeria. Photo by Deji Adewumi, Humidtropics.
R4D Platform members in Cameroon and Nigeria received a special capacity building training on how best to set up Innovation Platforms and work in an interactive fashion with the stakeholders involved. The two workshops were organized by FARA and IITA: the first was held in May at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and the second in June at Centre Touristique de Nkolandom, Ebolowa, Cameroon. Dr. Wole Fatunbi, Program Officer, Partnerships and Strategic Alliances at FARA, facilitated the trainings.
Innovation Platforms are physical or virtual forums established to facilitate interactions, and learning among stakeholders around commodity value chains. The expected results of these interactions are participatory diagnosis of problems, joint exploration of opportunities and investigation of solutions leading to the generation of agricultural innovation along a targeted commodity chain.
Participants at the workshop in Cameroon. Photo by Latifou Idrissou, Humidtropics.
The participants at the workshop were taken through training modules on how to successfully implement the platforms. This gave them a clear understanding of the process and skills required for the application of the innovation systems approach and Innovation Platform concept. As one participant pointed out: “The most important thing I learned today was that in order to keep an Innovation Platform running, each person has to contribute something and be able to gain something from their participation in the platformâ€. In other words, stakeholders involved in these platforms must be well represented, and readily available to make contributory efforts to the success and progress of the platform.
When this training was completed, the West Africa Humidtropics team was ready to move on to the next phase, which is to initiate the set-up and operationalization of Innovation Platforms in the Nigeria and Cameroon Field Sites.
Creating Vital Partnerships around Innovation Platforms in Nigeria
Setting up the Innovation Platform in Lagbedu Village, Ogo-Oluwa, Oyo State, Nigeria. Photo by Deji Adewumi, Humidtropics.
Partnership is one of the major characteristics of the integrated system approach. It aims at bringing together different stakeholders with different background, perspectives, interests and goals to put their resources and efforts together towards developmental achievement. At Field Site level, this partnership is made possible through the set up of Innovation Platforms, which gathers stakeholder groups with different but interrelated interests together to interact and find solutions to their common problems.
Last May, the West Africa Humidtropics team, led by the Flagship Project Manager and supported by the Action Site Facilitator, along with members of the Nigeria R4D Platform, set up Innovation Platforms in the four designated Field Sites of Nigeria:
The Nigeria Action Site and its four Field Sites.
- Ido Local Government Area in Oyo State;
- Ogo-Oluwa Local Government Area in Oyo State;
- Ayedire Local Government Area in Osun State;
- Atakumosa East Local Government Area in Osun State.
In each Field Site, a village which is described as a centre point for surrounding villages was identified and became the location where the set up meeting was convened with the participation of the farmers, extension workers, input dealers, marketers, traders, local government authorities and other stakeholders around the commodity value chain.
The meeting agenda, which was applied throughout the four sites, entailed the characterization of the different farming systems, identification of the main tree-crop systems and their component crops, constraints faced in the farming systems, and also identification of the stakeholders around the value chain of the different crops.
The farmers across the four Field Sites all identified cocoa as the dominant tree-crop system and highlighted in order of importance the other crops cultivated in it. In three of the four Field Sites (Ido, Ogo-Oluwa and Atakumosa East), the farmers ranked cassava as the second main crop, while in Ayedire, oil palm was ranked as the second main crop after cocoa.
Field visit in Akindele Village, Ido, Oyo State, Nigeria. Photo by Latifou Idrissou, Humidtropics.
At the end of each meeting, the Innovation Platform was officially set up, with a committee of representatives from each of the stakeholder groups present at the meeting, of which at least 30% are women. This committee will serve as a link between the community and Humidtropics. Afterwards, fields visits were organized so that participants could observe the cocoa cropping system, and gain a better understanding of some of the problems and complaints the farmers have emphasized during the meeting.
The Platforms’ next important task is to help prepare the plan of work that will identify the specific research activities to be carried out in each Field Site.
Blog by Latifou Idrissou, West Africa Flagship Manager, Humidtropics, and Tomi Fakolujo, Communication Specialist, West Africa Flagship, Humidtropics.
Watch Latifou explain in French what Humidtropics is all about: