Mult-actors Agricultural Innovation Platform (MAIP) is established in rural communities where farmers and key value chain actors become empowered through participatory action research, knowledge co-creation and application, market linkages and so on. MAIPs, as a model for inclusive and collaborative innovation, are increasingly deployed in farmer communities to solve the last-mile bottleneck, namely, the empowerment of smallholder farmers and value chain actors to access innovation and services to drive field-level change.
The Office of Innovation launched the Portfolio Sense-Making initiative to mainstream the concept of innovation portfolio management across FAO teams and Divisions/Offices at HQ, Regional and Country levels. Portfolio Sense-Making involves systematically analyzing and visualizing innovation projects and their key data to understand their interrelationships, strengths, areas for improvement and potential impacts, thereby facilitating informed decision-making and strategic alignment with Organizational goals.
The FAO Innovation for Blue Transformation series introduces relevant policy initiatives, mechanisms and tools to promote innovation and technical solutions that can accelerate aquatic food systems transformation. The series shares brief and practical knowledge needed for sustainable and resilient aquatic food systems that can nourish the world’s growing population, providing solutions to the challenges preventing these systems from delivering their full potential.
This report, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), explores the promotion of bioeconomy through sustainable agricultural practices in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The analysis highlights the critical role of sustainable and circular bioeconomy in addressing environmental, social, and economic challenges, particularly in the agrifood sector.
A novel rectangular hand net (RHN) was developed to manage insect pests in rice seedbeds, overcoming the limitations of traditional round nets, which can damage seedlings and are less effective in catching insects. The RHN features a 50 cm by 20 cm rectangular frame made of 4 mm GI wire, with a 100 cm plastic pipe handle and an 80 cm mosquito net. The net is used by walking rapidly around the seedbed, sweeping to catch harmful insects while releasing beneficial ones back into the field.
The franchising business model developed by Rikolto in collaboration with the National Union of Parboiling Women (UNERIZ) in Burkina Faso was initiated in 2017.
It empowers women parboilers by providing a holistic support system, ranging from technical training to access to credit and market opportunities.
Soil pollution in Egypt, particularly in the eastern Nile Delta, is caused by excessive use of mineral fertilizers, pesticides, and the discharge of domestic wastewater into agricultural irrigation systems. This leads to the accumulation of heavy metals and pollutants in the soil, affecting crop yields and posing risks to human health. Soil pollution not only endangers health and the environment but also reduces food security and causes economic losses.
Existing scaling support methodologies often fail to consider the socially differentiated impacts, including gender effects, of innovation uptake. To address this gap, GenderUp was developed as a conversational tool to enhance the inclusivity, reflexivity, and responsiveness of scaling initiatives. GenderUp employs a five-stage process facilitated by trained facilitators, guiding teams through discussions, learning activities, and practical integration to create socially responsible scaling strategies.
Within the sustainable rural livelihood’s framework, Agrisolve has designed the WESOLVE program that targets women and young women smallholder farmers’ agriculture and financial inclusion ensuring easier access to resources for increased yield and livelihood improvements. Through WESOLVE, women are given access to arable land under in-grower schemes, input credit, good agronomic training and market access. The program also engages women in alternative livelihood programs on value addition during the 7-8 months of non-farming activities to improve incomes for sustainability.
The Muni University-Omia Agribusiness Development Group (OADO) partnership operates in the West Nile sub-region of Uganda, an area facing challenges such as land degradation, poor soil health, and climate change. Historically a tobacco-growing region, it now relies on smallholder rainfed agriculture and is adopting high-value horticultural crops. Despite development interventions, 84% of the population lives in multidimensional poverty.