Discussion between field visit participants and a woman farmer in her yam farm in Soubré.
Humidtropics launched its Ivory Coast Action Site last September at Pullman Hotel in Abidjan. The workshop gathered representatives from universities, national and international research centers, farmer organisations, private sector and civil society. The ceremony was opened by the representative of the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The workshop provided the opportunity to inform participants about Humidtropics and its integrated research for development approach, which entails the establishment and operations of Research for Development (R4D) Platforms at Action Site level and Innovation Platforms at Field Site level. Participants delineated the boundaries of the Ivory Coast Action Site, as well as two Field Sites where research activities will take place (see map) and established the R4D Platform of the Ivory Coast Action Site with a representative of École Supérieure d’Agronomie (ESA) of the Institut National Polytechnique Houphouet Boigny (INPHB) as the facilitator.
The launch of the Action Site was followed by the inception workshop of the Soubré Field Site at ICRAF Soubré Headquarters. The same categories of stakeholders present at the Action Site launch were invited at the workshop in Soubré region. The participants, together with representatives of the R4D Platform discussed agricultural constraints in the region and had a field visit to observe these problems. Farmers were met in their farms and a focus group discussion was also held with them. The major constraint identified is food security. In fact, most of the land is occupied by cash crops such as cocoa, coffee, rubber, etc., and food crops are only cultivated in marginal lands, especially by women. The problem was highlighted by the representative of the Head of Soubré division who pointed out that food security was the major constraint in the region and asked Humidtropics to include it in its objectives. Food security thus became the focus of the R4D Platform research project entitled Sustainable intensification of food crops production for nutrition improvement and poverty reduction in tree-crop-based farming systems in the department of Soubré (Côte D’Ivoire). Research activities are scheduled to begin early 2015.
The event was covered by local newspapers Fraternité Matin and L’Inter, which featured the launch of the Ivory Coast Action Site.
Blog by Latifou Idrissou, West Africa Flagship Manager, Humidtropics. Photo by Claude A./ICRAF. Map by GIS Unit/IITA.