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...]
Road to Self-Reliance: the Story of an Innovation Platform in Uganda
Innovation platforms are structures that bring together different stakeholders from the same area to identify solutions to common problems. They exist as long as necessary to handle existing challenges and new ones that might emerge during the process, and they take advantage of opportunities that help them create solutions to existing problems. Past experience has shown that when platforms are driven by specific projects, there is often a risk that they will cease functioning if funding no longer becomes available. For platform members, stakeholders, and the communities who benefit from the … [Read more...]
The Partnership Behind Uganda’s Fledgling Soybean Industry
One of the main bottlenecks to the development of Africa’s rural economy and agriculture sector is an often divergent agenda from the government, private sector, researchers and NGOs. Someone needs to “connect the dots†to enhance synergy, and avoid contradictory advice for farmers. East and Central Africa is facing many complex agricultural problems that no single actor can solve on their own. Researchers, farmers, policymakers, the private sector and development partners all provide a piece of the puzzle, whether this is a scientific innovation, a helpful policy, or access to a … [Read more...]