This guide is developed by synthesizing successful field experiences within a project known as Improving Productivity & Market Success of Ethiopian Farmers Project or IPMS Project. The main purpose of the IPMS project was to test methods, approaches, and processes that can help transform Ethiopian smallholder agriculture from subsistence to a market‐oriented agriculture.
There are four major project implementation pillars: knowledge management, capacity building, commodity development, and research & promotion. As part of the knowledge management pillar, IPMS tested several interventions hoped to bring about a functional knowledge management system at various levels of the Ethiopian agriculture sector. Selected examples of these interventions that are described so that others trying to carryout similar intervention can benefit from the experiences of the IPMS project includes: Woreda Knowledge Centers;The Ethiopian Agriculture Portal; MSc & BSc level education and research; Seminars; Working Papers; Enhancing the role of FTCs; Study Tours; Technology Exhibitions.
The IPMS project proposes to ‘contribute to improved agricultural productivity and production through market-oriented agricultural development, as a means for achieving improved and sustainable livelihoods for the rural population’ in Ethiopia. To accomplish this goal the project supports development and...
This paper was prepared to present at the Farmer First Revisited: 20 Years On conference at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK, December, 2007. Its focus is the challenge of strengthening agricultural innovation systems. The paper prefaces...
Upon a request from Jimma University, IPMS conducted four days Training of Trainers Workshop on Results-Based Monitoring & Evaluation to the University staff. The training workshop was organized jointly by the University and ILRI-IPMS from January 16-19, 2012 at the...
One option for practically applying innovation systems thinking involves the establishment of innovation platforms (IPs). Such platforms are designed to bring together a variety of different stakeholders to exchange knowledge and resources and take action to solve common problems. Yet...
The Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project is funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada. The LIVES capacity development pillar seeks to strengthen innovation and the learning capacity of value chain actors...