Rwanda has benefited from ‘hard’ agricultural invest ment projects in the past two decades, promoted by a supportive and responsive government in collaboration with various donors and development actors. CDAIS looked to increase the impacts of such investments through strengthening ‘soft’ skills in three innovation niche partnerships surrounding significant public, private or donorfunded infrastructure developments, and linking this to organisational and national levels. Of these, this story focuses on experiences from the Rwangingo– Karangazi catchment partnership, where a dam and irrigation scheme had led to conflicts between different groups of water users and not the immediate benefits expected. CDAIS brought everyone together and, through structured and facilitated dialogue, rapid progress was made, consolidated through meetings and training, and brought local issues to the national level through policy dialogues. The concept of the need for strengthening functional capacities has gained ground and is now increasingly accepted as a crucial component in future agricultural projects.
Pineapple is one of the most important commercial fruit crops in the world. In Bangladesh, it is ranked third in
terms total production and area farmed, both of which are increasing continually. It is grown in all regions, but...
The CDAIS ‘marketplace’ to promote agricultural innovations in Burkina Faso took place on 6 July 2017 in ouagadougou. It was a rich event involving more than 80 people who are working directly with, or interested in working with, different partnerships. The marketplace...
For many years, rural women have been creating their own food processing companies that promote local agriculture by bringing to the market original foods in products that are accessible to urban populations. The aim of CDAIS is to support these companies’ develop-...
Ethiopia has more livestock than any other country in Africa. The sales of meat, milk and other animal products from
57 million cattle, 29 million sheep, 29 million goats, 7 million donkeys, 2 million horses, a million camels and...
To ensure food security, farmers must have access to quality seed, in adequate quantities. The government of Ethiopia acknowledges this, and has responded by investing in improving the seed sector. However, as this example shows, not all challenges can be...
