January 2020

Joint learning through documentation of farmer–scientist collaboration

An important role of the Prolinnova network is facilitation of joint learning through analysis and documentation of the experiences made, thereby identifying good practice but also recognising weaknesses and room for improvement.

GFAR workshop on supporting co-innovation in family farming / Atelier du GFAR sur l'appui à la co-innovation dans l'agriculture familiale

On behalf of the international Prolinnova network, Do Christophe Ouattara from World Neighbors (WN) Burkina attended a workshop in December 2019 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, organised by the Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR).

This marked the start of a “Collective Action” (CA) bringing together farmer organisations and other stakeholders to develop an inclusive form of research governance that recognises family farmers and rural communities as central agents in agricultural innovation. The Ouagadougou workshop was financed by the McKnight Foundation, which also funds the Prolinnova project “Farmer-led Research Networks” (FaReNe) in Burkina Faso and Mali.

Farewell to Amanuel, founder of Prolinnova–Ethiopia

Amanuel Assefa Ezezu, 1960-2019 (credit: Chesha Wettasinha)

The Prolinnova network mourns the unexpected death of Amanuel Assefa Ezezu in December 2019 in Addis Ababa.

Amanuel played an important role in the Prolinnova network from very early on. While he was working with the NGO AgriService Ethiopia (ASE), he was a driving force behind setting up the Prolinnova multistakeholder platform in his country, which he initially gave the acronym PROFIEET (Promoting Farmer Innovation and Experimentation in Ethiopia), and he was the founding coordinator of the platform. He and his colleagues in PROFIEET hosted our first International Partners Workshop (IPW), which was held in Yirgalem in southern Ethiopia in March 2004.

Nouveau projet sur la gestion de l'eau en agriculture familiale / New project on water management in family farming

Quelques participants à l'atelier de lancement de Proli-GEAFaSa / Some participants in the Proli-GEAFaSa inception workshop (Photo:AgriBio Services)