Monitoring Geo-Spatial Diffusion of Agricultural Technologies in Africa

Transcript

1. Monitoring Geo-Spatial Diffusion of Agricultural Technologies in Africa CGIAR-CSI Annual Meeting Enschede, Netherlands, 22-24 September 2014. Presentation by: Tom Muga, Head of ICT ASARECA !
2. Who is ASARECA? Established in 1994 (20 Years Ago) The Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) is a not-for-profit sub- regional association of the national agricultural research and extension systems of 11 countries.
3. Who is ASARECA (contd)? • ASARECA brings together scientists and other stakeholders to generate, share and promote knowledge and innovations to solve the common challenges facing agriculture in the 11 member countries. • Collectively, ASARECA and its partners work to assist smallholder farmers in Eastern and Central Africa (ECA) to practice productive and profitable agriculture. Helping small holder farmers in ECA
4. What we do We ensure that women, youth and men small-holder farmers in ECA: •Harvest and store water for agriculture and domestic use •Increase yields by planting improved varieties •Improve on-farm management of natural resources •Improve production and profits from livestock and fisheries enterprises
5. What we do (contd) We ensure that women, youth and men small-holder farmers in ECA: •Access improved input and output markets •Operate their farm-based enterprises in a favorable policy environment •Access and use agricultural information to improve their enterprises
6. Our Partners Partners include: 1.Farmers, and Farmer Organizations 2.National, regional and international research, extension, and training organizations 3.Public and private sector actors 4.organizations (NGOs) and development agencies.
7. Our Strategy and Operational Plan ASARECA has been operating on a 10-year Strategic Plan which runs between 2008 and 2018. The strategy is being implemented under two operational plans. 1.Operational Plan 1 (OP1): 2008 to 2013 ▪ Provided guidance on the implementation of the first five years of the ASARECA Strategy ▪ Focus was on generation of TIMPs 2.Operational Plan 2 (OP2): 2014 to 2018 ▪ Built on the positive and negative lessons learned in the implementation of OP1 ▪ Focus: out-scaling of TIMPs
8. Our Strategic Outputs in OP2 Under OP2 ASARECA will work to transform agriculture into a viable market oriented venture: Key Outputs: Outcome “Equitable access and utilisation of agricultural research and development innovations enhanced”. 1. Appropriate technologies, innovations and management practices [TIMPs] generated 2. Appropriate TIMPs disseminated and up-scaled 3. Appropriate policy analysis and advocacy enhanced 4. Stakeholder capacity for innovation strengthened 5. Communication, information and knowledge management improved
9. TIMPs and ASARECA KI-Hub Outcome In OP1, ASARECA projects generated numerous TIMPs •The TIMPs generated include: • variety or management practice • whether it has been validated and is ready for scaling out and up or not • who it was targeted to, among other characteristics “Equitable access to and utilization of agricultural knowledge and information within and beyond the ECA sub-region”
10. Why is this important to ASARECA? •Brain-fed agriculture to complement rain- fed agriculture. • Knowledge-based transformation Careful deployment of systems, tools, techniques, processes and platforms Centralized platforms and modalities for sharing, learning and influencing *Changing realities in ECA w.r.t. AR4D *Need for transformation *Sharing of information is sub- optimal *Duplication of efforts, inefficiency and limited outcomes. *A number of TIMPs generated by ASARECA and other actors *Limited influence Challenge Strategy
11. Why is this so important to ASARECA? • Serious disconnect between research outputs and the needs of farmers and Farmer Organizations (FOs) • Tracking TIMPs adoption by farmers and other stakeholders • There is a growing demand for TIMPs by various stakeholders in Eastern and Central Africa region ▪ Farmers, scientists, policy and decision makers, extension service providers and all kinds of organizations are increasingly looking for TIMPs from ASARECA
12. Making the big Leap
13. Murakoze cyane!
 Webale nyo!
 Asante sana!