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...]
Understanding, Facilitating and Monitoring Agricultural Innovation
Between April 29 and May 2, the first Humidtropics Capacity Development Workshop was organised by ILRI, Wageningen University and IITA in Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop brought together R4D and Innovation Platform Facilitators, Action Area Coordinators and other key players of Humidtropics from all over the globe. The topics covered include different approaches to agricultural innovation, designing and implementing multi-stakeholder platforms, capturing knowledge and learning in platforms, and reflexive monitoring and evaluating of platforms. The workshop’s interactive methods stimulated … [Read more...]
2014 IFSA Symposium – Humidtropics is Forging Partnerships to Build Systems Capability
Built on the challenge 'to give voice to small farmers', the International Farming Systems Association (IFSA) focuses on farming systems research to help smallholder development in the tropics. In 1992, the IFSA Europe Group was formed and mandated with organizing a bi-annual European Symposium. These symposia are a platform for dialogue between scientists and practitioners from a wide range of theoretical background and methodological focus. At the 2014 Symposium in Berlin, IFSA Europe chose to re-examine farming systems research in the context of global issues and widen its influence to … [Read more...]