Taking stock of ten years promoting farmer-led innovation

The report "Ten years of promoting farmer-led innovation: taking stock of achievements of the Prolinnova Global Partnership Programme and network" provides a synthesis of all findings and information generated through a “stocktaking” process that involved a desk study of Prolinnova documents and evaluation reports, a questionnaire to 40 staff members of international organizations in agricultural research and development (ARD), self-assessment by the Country Platforms (CPs) and backstopping visits to five CPs.

New host for the Prolinnova-Nepal network

The Natural History Museum of Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu has accepted the task of hosting the Prolinnova network in Nepal. Since the network started in 2003, it has been capably hosted by LI-BIRD (Local Initiatives in Biodiversity, Research and Development) based in Pokhara.

PROFEIS Mali coordinator named Special Advisor to the Government

In February 2016, Ms Assétou Kanouté, the national coordinator of the activities of PROFEIS (Promoting Farmer Experimentation and Innovation in the Sahel) in Mali, was named Special Advisor to Ms Assétou Migan, the Malian Minister for Scientific Research. This provides an excellent opportunity to integrate the concepts and approaches of promoting farmer innovation and farmer-led research and development into the agricultural research system in Mali.

Prolinnova presented at migration conference in Malta

The strong flows of migrants into Europe have raised awareness of the need to promote economic opportunities and development in the Global South in order to address the root causes of displacement and migration. For its 2015 Annual Conference, the Malta National Contact Point of the European Migration Network invited a presentation of Prolinnova’s work with small-scale farmer innovators.

Prolinnova partnership with Access Agriculture

The Prolinnova network recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Access Agriculture, an international non-governmental organisation registered in Kenya with a global mandate to promote the sharing of videos in support of sustainable agriculture and natural resource management in developing countries.

Prolinnova and Access Agriculture will collaborate in promoting the production, translation, distribution and use of high-quality farmer training videos in local languages. Prolinnova members will be able to upload their videos on farmer innovation and farmer-led research on the Agtube web platform (www.agtube.org).

Prolinnova-Ethiopia brings out new book on farmer innovation

Best Practice Association (BPA) and the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) have compiled descriptions of innovative practices developed by small-scale farmers in the book “Best practices of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia”.

The stories give recognition to and celebrate the innovative capacity of Ethiopian farmers and are meant to inspire other farmers as well as professionals in agricultural research and development. This is the second book in the series “Stories of change at the grassroots”. For more information, contact the authors Hailu Araya (hailuara@yahoo.com) and Yohannes Gebremichael (yohannesgmichael@gmail.com). 

Farmer Innovation Fair in Bolivia

The National Meeting of Farmer Innovators was held on 4 December 2015 in Cochabamba, Bolivia. A total of 45 innovations were selected. The fair was attended by 51 innovators, 38 stands from six departments: Santa Cruz, La Paz, Oruro, Potosi,Cochabamba and Chuquisaca.

Can grassroots innovation bring global solutions?

This was the topic of a Global Discourse in September 2015 at the Centre for Development Research (CDR) at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria. The discussants were Ann Waters-Bayer from Prolinnova/KIT and international consultant Lemlem Sissay Fetene, moderated by Birgit Habermann from CDR/BOKU. A summary of the discussion can be found here: www.boku.ac.at/en/centre-for-development-research/

Prolinnova at Workshop on Mobilising Youth in CGIAR Research Programs


Prolinnova at WRF Global Conference on Family Farming

During the V Global Conference “Let’s Build the Future: Family Farming” organised by the World Rural Forum (WRF) on 21–23 September 2015 in Bilbao, a roundtable on linking family-farmer organisations and research centres was held.

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