Assessing the status of innovation platforms in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda: Report 2021
Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ASARECA
Abstract
The study characterized existing innovation platforms (IPs) in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, assessed their functionality, and identified the stakeholder groups taking part in them. It used a consultative, qualitative case-study design. The authors assessed 102 IPs and selected three for detailed documentation: Huguka Mudende IP (Rubavu, Rwanda), the Soroti Sweet Potato Producers and Processors Association (Serere, Uganda), and the Bungoma South Farmers Innovation Platform SIMLESA (BUSOFIPS, Kenya). Findings were validated at a virtual meeting with 18 participants. The study found that IPs foster collaboration among diverse actors and have helped smallholder farmers raise on-farm production and productivity. It recommends that governments adopt IPs as a framework for improving farmers' market participation, that a policy brief on the IP approach be produced, and that policies encourage private-sector partnership with IPs
Description
A baseline study commissioned by ASARECA for the AIRTEA consortium to provide evidence for institutionalizing innovation platforms in three countries. It contains three in-depth case studies, a proposed framework for integrating IPs into national agricultural planning, and annexed inventories of IPs and innovation champions per country.
Keywords
innovation platforms, institutionalization, agricultural innovation systems, integrated agricultural research for development (IAR4D), multi-stakeholder processes, smallholders, sweet potatoes, case studies, agricultural planning, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda
Citation
Agole, D., Ochatum, N., & Asiimwe, W. (2021). Assessing the status of innovation platforms in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda: Report 2021. Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa