This chapter is a part of the book Integrated Agricultural Research for Development: from Concept to Practice. It focuses on the development and implementation of action plans for innovation platforms (IPs). The chapter introduces the constitution of committees, IP operationalisation, the case of IP functioning in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and post-formation issues for IPs.
The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) implements participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) systems as a means of strengthening learning, self-reflection and facilitating institutional learning and change (ILAC) processes within Research and Development (R&D) institutions and local communities in Africa.
Social structure, especially in the form of social networks, affects the adoption of agricultural technologies. In light of an increasing focus on new demand-driven agricultural extension approaches that leverage social networks as an opportunity, too little is known about (a) which network characteristics matter? and (b) how do specific network characteristics matter? This paper investigates the impact of social networks in relation to smallholder dairy production technology adoption in Ethiopia.
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) initiated a 5 year project in June 2004 with the financial assistance from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The project, entitled: “Improving productivity and market success” (IPMS) of Ethiopian farmers, aims at contributing to a reduction in poverty of the rural poor through market oriented agricultural development.
This presentation was given for the SEARCA Forum-workshop on Platforms, Rural Advisory Services, and Knowledge Management: Towards Inclusive and Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development, Los Banos, 17-19 May 2016. It briefed innovation, innovation systems and multistakeholder processes (innovation platforms and learning alliances).
A Training Workshop for Trainers in Results-Based Monitoring & Evaluation (RBM&E) was held at Adama from 02 to 05 July of 2012. This Workshop was jointly organized by the Oromia Bureau of Agriculture (OBoA) and Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) project upon the request from OBoA. This is the 6th training workshop and it is part of the capacity building program that IPMS provided for the four regions where the project was operating and for federal MoA. Twenty two trainees (19 males and 3 females) have been trained with full attendance.
The Climate Change and Social Learning (CCSL) Initiative is a cross-organisation group working to build a body of evidence on how social learning methodologies and approaches contribute towards development targets. Together with a select number of participating initiatives from a variety of organisations, we are working towards establishing a common monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework for new projects and programmes using a social learning-oriented approach.
Agricultural marketing is the main driving force for economic growth. But it is poorly developed in most developing countries. The main cause for the poor development of the agricultural production is the poor development of the agricultural marketing. To overcome this problem the government of Ethiopia has developed a master plan to enhance market oriented production. To realize this plan different projects have been developed and implemented in different parts of the country.
Ethiopia has a diverse agro-ecology and sufficient surface and ground water resources, suitable for growing various temperate and tropical fruits. Although various tropical and temperate fruits are grown in the lowland/midland and highland agro-ecologies, the area coverage is very limited. For example, banana export increased from less than 5,000 tons in 1961 to 60,000 tons in 1972, but in 2003 declined to about 1,300 tons worth less than USD 350,000.
Graduate programs in agriculture and allied disciplines in Ethiopia are expected to make concrete contribution to market-oriented development of smallholder agriculture. This, among others, calls for realignment and engagement of the programs with smallholder farmers and, value chain, R&D and policy actors. No panacea exists, however, as to how to ensure effective linkages, and thereby responsiveness. Lessons from initiatives on the ground in the country and beyond is thus crucial to inform the development of appropriate policy and innovative strategy.