Production of Irish potato is on the rise in the highlands of Rwanda and is considered a priority crop in the North and West regions of the country. Potato average yield in Rwanda is relatively low even though Rwanda is among top 5 producing countries in Africa. But there is high potential to close the gaps if improved pre and post harvest practices are introduced. Average consumption of Irish potato for one household member is 150 kg per year and up to 250 kg /year in some areas such as Gishwati, where potato production is very intensive. In Kadahenda, potato farmers face many challenges … [Read more...]
Getting Down to Business to Enhance Scaling of Innovation Platform Activities
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...]
Integrated Systems Research is Changing Lives and Landscapes in Ethiopia
For many years, Teklu Erkossa, a Humidtropics Researcher from IWMI, has been doing research on land and water resources in Ethiopia, a country where agricultural productivity is suffering from water scarcity and land degradation. "In addition, the soils often have quite particular water-related characteristics that are unsuitable for many traditional crops. As a result, we have been exploring alternative cropping options to restore and preserve highly degraded areas in the country. Our platform-driven research project has demonstrated that using Innovation Platform approaches is an … [Read more...]