1. Ann Waters-Bayer, ETC Foundation, Netherlands
for the JOLISAA and INSARD teams
EC Lunchtime Conference on Research Serving Development
Brussels, 26 November 2013

2. • CIRAD, France
• ESAFF, Tanzania
• ETC, Netherlands
• ETC, Netherlands
• ICRA, Netherlands
• GRET, France
• KARI, Kenya
• PELUM RD, Zambia
• U Abomey-Calavi, Benin
• REPAOC, Senegal
• U Pretoria, South Africa
• and many smallholders and
their partners in innovation
• WUR, Netherlands
• and many smallholders and
their partners in innovation
Learning from local innovation in
Benin (Photo: Bernard Triomphe)

3. Objective of JOLISAA:
To learn jointly about how innovation processes in African
smallholder farming happened, so as to draw lessons for research,
policy and practice to support continuing innovation processes that
address the needs & demands of smallholders.
Objective of INSARD:
To ensure an informed participation of a broad range of European
and African civil society organisations in the formulation and
implementation of ARD policies that address the needs & demands
of smallholders.

4.  Showing pathways to support food & nutrition security
 Forging the kind of partnerships needed to achieve this
 Informing agricultural research & development (ARD)
policymaking
 Heightening interest in Europe & Africa in ARD in smallholder
family farming
 Strengthening the voice of farmer organisations & other
members of civil society in decision-making about ARD

5. 1) by farmers & other stakeholders jointly
analysing innovation cases in Benin, Kenya
& South Africa
2) by farmers & researchers jointly developing
research questions in Senegal, Tanzania
& Zambia
3) through cross-analysis of cases from different countries
4) in exchange with other groups studying innovation processes
in African agriculture

6.  How can we better understand
innovation processes in smallholder
farming & the role of formal research in
these processes?
Trying to understand innovation
process in South Africa
(Photo: Laurens van Veldhuizen)
 How can we generate a collective
understanding of an innovation
process in the “innovation system”, to
stimulate collective action?
 What lessons can we learn from this understanding for more
effective support to multi-stakeholder innovation processes
in smallholder family farming?

7.  Farmers in southern Benin
dug hwedos in floodplains
to trap fish as water recedes
 Intensified system through
better drainage & irrigation
to grow off-season vegetables
on raised hwedo banks to sell
to coastal city markets
 Rely on both fish & vegetables to
secure income while adjusting to
environmental & market fluctuations
 Introduced “modern” aquaculture
projects ignored this locally developed
low-external-input system
Maintaining canal to keep hwedo
productive (Photo: Anne Floquet)

8. Harvesting aloe in Kenya
(Photo: Bernard Triomphe)

9. ① Build on local dynamics: innovation “in the social wild”
② Combine local & external knowledge & ideas to enhance
innovative capacity (1 + 1 = 3)
③ Encourage access to diverse value chains to lower
the innovation risks
④ Support unpredictable innovation processes
⑤ Address the multiple dimensions of innovation

10. With little or no support from
public research & development
(R&D) institutions, many
smallholders are actively
innovating individually and
collectively to solve problems,
improve their farming and
income, & grasp opportunities.
Endogenous aquaculture development in
Benin (Photo: Anne Floquet)
Harvesting aloe for informal market chain
in Kenya (Photo: B. Triomphe)

11. Linking multiple sources of knowledge enhances the capacity of
all stakeholders to innovate, to adapt to changing conditions & to
grasp opportunities.
Innovation “in the social wild”
can be strengthened, speeded up
and made more sustainable
through appropriate inputs of
knowledge from different sources
that respond to farmers’ demands,
needs & actual possibilities.
Farmers & scientists in Benin explore
ways to improve the local innovation
(Photo: Anne Floquet)

12. Markets and value chains, whether local
or distant, can trigger & sustain dynamic
innovation processes that benefit
smallholders & consumers
… but imply significant risks for
resource-poor farmers and small-scale
processors.
Having access to diverse value chains is
critical to increase local resilience to
erratic & dysfunctional markets.
Soy cheese in fried pieces on
market in Benin
(Photo: Anne Floquet)

13. Innovation cannot be
planned from the onset.
It evolves in unpredictable
& often unexpected ways
over a long time & specific
to a changing context.
In-field water-harvesting
technique introduced for
large-scale cropping in
South Africa
Farmers adapted technique to
grow vegetables
(Photos: Water Wheel)
In supporting innovation,
formal R&D actors should
use highly flexible, open-ended
& iterative approaches adapted
to local conditions.

14. Beyond technology, innovation has important social &
organisational dimensions that cannot be addressed in
isolation from each other, if innovation is to be successful.
e.g. to deal with invasive weed
Prosopis juliflora in Kenya,
technological innovation
(charcoal making) had to be
intertwined with institutional
innovation (change in law) &
organisational innovation (selfformed charcoal-maker groups)
Making charcoal from prosopis in
Baringo, Kenya
(Photo: Ann Waters-Bayer)

15.  Changing the way governments and donors fund
interventions in agricultural research & development
 Supporting innovation platforms & other multi-stakeholder
alliances at different levels
 Developing innovation brokerage capacities
 Strengthening pivotal role of agricultural advisors
 Integrating innovation systems approaches into agricultural
education and training
Let’s act on these recommendations to achieve
a dynamic, innovative & productive smallholder family
farming sector!

16. www.jolisaa.net
www.repaoc.org/insard
This work forms part of the EU-funded projects “Joint Learning in Innovation Systems in African
Agriculture” (JOLISAA) and “Including Smallholders in Agricultural Research for Development”
(INSARD). The opinions expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author. Thanks to all
JOLISAA & INSARD consortium members and partners in Benin, France, Kenya, Netherlands,
Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia for their collaboration and providing data, insights
and comments.

17. South African innovator in backyard
poultry farming (Photo: Brigid Letty)
Kenyan farmer developed
feed supplements for goats
(Photo: Laurens van Veldhuizen)
International
Farmer
Innovation
Day !
Ethiopian farmer developed
water-lifting devices
(Photo: Ann Waters-Bayer)
Ethiopian farmer comparing modern
beehive & her local improvement on it
(Photo: Tesfahun Fenta)