The livelihoods of mountain farmers are often constrained by poor access to markets and limited entrepreneurial skills for adding value to produce. Research and development organizations have now recognized that improving market access and enhancing the ability of resource-poor mountain farmers to diversify their links with markets are among the most pressing challenges in mountain agriculture.

There have been repeated calls for a ‘new professionalism’ for carrying out agricultural research for development since the 1990s. At the centre of these calls is a recognition that for agricultural research to support the capacities required to face global patterns of change and their implications on rural livelihoods, requires a more systemic, learning focused and reflexive practice that bridges epistemologies and methodologies.

The Raya valley in Tigray, where Alamata Woreda is located, has suitable climate and rich water resources, among others, to grow various tropical fruits. Development of fruits only started a few years ago (1996) with the Raya Valley Development Project and the OoARD (Office of Agriculture and Rural Development), mostly focusing on papaya. A participatory rural appraisal (PRA) study conducted by the Woreda stakeholders identified tropical fruits as a potential marketable commodity in 2005.

Bure district has a diverse ago-ecology, different soil types, a relatively long rainy season and a number of rivers and streams for irrigation. Therefore, it has suitable tract of land to grow temperate, subtropical and tropical fruit crops. In 2007, fruits were identified as a potential marketable commodity by the stakeholders participating in the IPMS project. They diagnosed that farmers had limited orchard management knowledge and skill and were growing locally available less productive and low quality fruit varieties.

The poster briefs the introducing and utility of tools and training materials to help to mainstream gender in Humidtropics activities, how they work, results and outputs and who the legacy products are useful for. 

The first part of the working document on the global strategy brings together the ideas of some 40 experts involved in gender and participatory research who took part in the workshop ‘Repositioning Participatory Research and Gender Analysis in Times of Change’ in Cali, Colombia (June 16–18, 2010).The workshop participants firmly believe that gender responsive participatory research (GRPR) offers some of the most powerful and useful approaches for achieving sustainable development, including alleviating poverty, improving well being, achieving sustainable levels of natural resource use, and

Self Help Africa was mandated under the project “Expanding Utilization of Roots, Tubers and Bananas and Reducing Their Postharvest Losses” to implement activities tailored at achieving output 4, “Skills in entrepreneurship, agribusiness and collective action developed for selected actors (men, women and youth) in specialized ware potato markets” among 4 target potato associations (PA) in Eastern Uganda.

The sustainable agricultural intensification research and learning in Africa (SAIRLA) project is a five-year program (2015–2020) funded by the UK Department of International Development. The project seeks to generate new evidence and design tools to enable governments, investors and other key actors to deliver more effective policies and investments in sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) that strengthen the capacity of poorer farmers’, especially women and young people, to access and benefit from SAI.

The gender strategy of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish highlights the key role of gender analysis in livestock value chain research and guides the integration and implementation of related research activities. The  Program’s gender team has produced a gender capacity assessment tool to evaluate existing skills and gaps in partners’ gender capacities and identify measures to address them. In 2015, the tool was implemented in four L&F value chain countries (Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Tanzania and Uganda). 

Cassava is an important source of food and income in Uganda. However, it cannot be marketed over a long time and distance thereby reducing incomes to growers and traders, leading to less investments and hence low productivity. This report describes the capacity building process and training activities that were done to enable the value chain actors adopt and adapt the pre-and post-harvest practices, and waxing and high relative humidity storage technologies in order to run a successful business enterprise .