Humidtropics uses Innovation Platforms (IPs) as one approach to achieve its agricultural research for development (R4D) objectives. IPs aim for innovations that can respond to site-specific constraints, through a process of participatory decision-making in which a variety of stakeholders collaborate. Stakeholders involved in the process are farmers, scientists and representatives from public and private sector. This far, IPs mostly concentrate on initiating the multi-stakeholder process, agreeing upon entry points for innovation and Natural Resource Management (NRM) experiments. Much less … [Read more...]
Bridging the Hunger Gap with Improved Leafy Vegetables in Cameroon’s Smallholder Cocoa Farms
Cameroon is one of the world’s largest producers of cocoa; 209,905 tons of cocoa beans were produced in 2014. Cocoa is the main cash crop of the Centre region of Cameroon and one of the main export commodities of the country. However, unstable international cocoa prices coupled with weather variability have increased food insecurity and malnourishment among cocoa farmers. Furthermore, even when cocoa prices reached high peaks in international markets, smallholder farmers received only 3.5 to 6.4 % of the final value of the chocolate bar. With highly volatile cocoa prices and … [Read more...]
Vegetable Innovation Platform in Vietnam Bears Fruit – and Vegetables!
With suitable agroclimatic conditions, low labor costs, and good infrastructure, the Northwestern uplands of Vietnam have the potential to move from the production of low value staple crops into the production of high value fruit and vegetables. Vegetable production in the area is increasing, albeit slowly. The change in production systems requires coordinated action on the part of farmers, input suppliers, government agencies, and vegetable traders. In 2014, Humidtropics set up an Innovation Platform on vegetables to promote this process, enhance collaboration, and build trust among the … [Read more...]