Building local stakeholder networks for livestock development – a case study from Syria

We have been introducing a series of Technical Advisory Notes arising from the IFAD-funded Fodder Adoption Project on this blog. The last of these describes implementation of the project in Syria. Dr Asamoah Larbi (ex of the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas; ICARDA) writes:

“Feed scarcity prevents small-scale sheep and goat keepers in Syria from taking advantage of the growing market for livestock products to improve their livelihoods, build assets and escape poverty. This is due to poor access to information, credit, appropriate technologies; lack of enabling policies and institutions; and a weak extension system, input delivery services and fodder innovation capacity. The Syrian component of the IFAD-funded Fodder Adoption Project was implemented from 2007 to 2011 by ICARDA, community-based organizations (CBOs), and public and private sector partners to address the constraints. The overall objective of the project was to enhance livelihoods of poor livestock keepers through increased use of fodder.

Activities were implemented at three learning sites – El-Bab, (Aleppo province), Salamieh (Hama province) and Tal-Amri (Homs province). A network of partners led by ICARDA, including the Extension Directorate (ED) and Animal Wealth Resource Administration (AWRA) of the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (MAAR), Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKF), and farmers’ groups ran the activities at each site.

In terms of impacts, innovation capacity of the networks was strengthened through training, and joint learning by cross-site visits and field days. Informal seed systems were promoted to increase quality forage seed supply and farmer-to-farmer seed exchange. Farmers, research and development partners were trained in fodder and forage seed production and management of small ruminants. Appropriate fodder/forage seed production and feeding packages for small-scale lamb fattening and milk production were disseminated to more than 500 households, resulting in increased household forage production, and outputs of milk and meat and incomes.”

Read the full account here.

 

Building on local pockets of success: Some lessons on the process of up-scaling fodder and cattle development in Vietnam

Development projects can often point to local pockets of success: examples of where a project has had real impact on smallholder livelihoods through some successful interventions. However the real challenge comes in taking such success to scale – this involves somehow embedding the processes that led to success into the ways of working of local stakeholders who will remain after the project reports have been written.

In this Technical Advisory Note from the Fodder Adoption Project, Werner Stur draws some lessons on how to scale out local success using a case from Ea Kar District in Vietnam. The local success was described in a previous post – it involved using planted fodder as a catalyst to enable subsistence cattle keepers to make the transition into keeping cattle for cash income.

According to Werner Stur “The key to successful up-scaling” was to:

(i) have a convincing example that showed that it was possible for comparable smallholder farm families to produce high-quality cattle competitively

(ii) build local coalitions for development which facilitated the adoption and development process

(iii) strengthen the capacity of local stakeholders in facilitating the fodder and cattle development process, supporting farmers in technical issues, and developing market access, and

(iv) support stakeholders at new sites by linking them with experienced counterparts in a site where things are working as well as linking them with other project participants in an informal network of professionals.

Read the full account here:

and you can watch a video where Werner Stur talks about up-scaling local successes in a previous post.

 

Planted forage as an entry point to catalyse stakeholder action on broader livestock value chain issues – experiences from Ethiopia

Feed scarcity in smallholder systems is a key constraint to improved livestock production in developing countries. However, development efforts which have taken a narrow technology-focused approach to dealing with feed scarcity have had limited success. In the Fodder Adoption Project, we experimented with the use of local stakeholder forums in our sites in Ethiopia to bring local stakeholders together to deal with feed scarcity issues.

In this Technical Advisory Note we describe our experiences in combining stakeholder forums with introductions of improved forage varieties at farm level. The note shows how innovation approaches worked well in a site with good market potential for dairy and where diverse actors were present. In a food insecure site dominated by public sector actors things were more challenging.

We draw a number of lessons from our experiences:

• Local stakeholder forums required some practical action on the ground to stimulate interest and enhance credibility – in our case the “engine of change” was planted forage but other practical entry points could work equally well.
• Diversity of actors seems to be a key element of successful stakeholder forums.
• Enhancing productivity at farm level is a good first step but needs to be quickly accompanied by actions to deal with other value chain constraints such as input provision and marketing arrangements.
• In food insecure environments the use of local stakeholder forums for value chain development can be challenging. In such cases a different thematic focus such as food-security, capacity building or improving livelihoods might be more appropriate; this may also require a different set of actors including social welfare and health actors.
• Establishing a coherent livestock innovation system requires experimentation, learning from mistakes and careful adaptation. During the pilot phase some external resources may be required to cover the costs of workshops and meetings, training and other support and to underwrite new interventions that carry some risk until proven.

Read the full account here.

See previous posts on cattle fattening and novel arrangements for credit through traders in Vietnam for some parallel similar experiences.

 

How can farmers move from being ‘cattle keepers’ to ‘cattle producers’? A case from Vietnam

Across the developing world, millions of smallholders keep livestock as a means of storing capital and as an insurance against hard times. This is a vital function for livestock – but it is associated with poverty. As demand for livestock products increases and systems become more intensive there are opportunities for subsistence livestock keepers to make the transition from being “cattle keepers” to “cattle producers”. Deriving some cash income from livestock production helps farmers to transition out of poverty.

In this Technical Advisory Note from the Fodder Adoption Project, Werner Stür (formerly of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, CIAT) describes the way in which scientists from CIAT and Tay Nguyen University worked with local farmers and other stakeholders to bring about widespread change in cattle production in Ea Kar District in Vietnam.

According to Werner Stür “The key to success was the combination of a convincing technology – farm-grown fodder – and an innovation process that was participatory, actor-oriented, and both production and market focused. The immediate benefits of easy access to fodder stimulated stakeholders’ interest and provided an entry point for innovation. As cattle production improved and stakeholders realised that they could produce high-quality animals, market opportunities became the key driver for change”.

Read the full account here

 

Using participatory video with farmers in Ethiopia: Strengths and weaknesses

Earlier this year, Beth Cullen was commissioned to train farmers in participatory video (PV) – as a tool for capturing community views and perceptions on their collaboration with the Fodder Adoption Project over the last 3 years. More information on her work is here.

She recently submitted a short report on the assignment, describing the process as well as the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the activity.

 

Forages and farmers – Case studies from South-East Asia

Last week in Laos, Werner Stur circulated copies of a new book by ACIAR and CIAT with stories of innovative farmers, both men and women, who transformed marginal farming into productive, profitable and market-oriented enterprises.

The 11 case studies presented were collected from upland areas of Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. They document the nature and scale of livelihood impacts that can emerge from the combination of robust forage varieties, sound management practices and research approaches that encourage farmer innovation.

Download the report …

 

Fodder favourites …

This week, we were brainstorming – over dinner – with a group of livestock/feed enthusiasts attending the final meeting of the Fodder Adoption Project.

How might we mobilize the scattered expertise and enthusiasms of forage and fodder (and related crop and livestock)  people in the CGIAR and worldwide to focus attention on livestock feeding as a strategy to enhance livelihoods,  address future food security and mitigate climate change?

This all started when our CIAT colleague and local host Tassilo Tiemann mentioned that his ‘favourite’ fodder plant is ‘Leucaena leucocephela’, why – because he likes multipurpose trees.

This stimulated some debate with ILRI’s Alan Duncan expressing a preference for turnip,  the focus of his PhD research; Shirley Tarawali chose cowpea, perhaps because of her previous work at IITA;  Bruno Gerard of the CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Program chose a fodder ‘system’ comprising Faidherbia albida, Andropogon and cowpea; Ranjitha Puskur opted for Stylosanthes, because of its importance in dry areas in India; Lucy Lapar from ILRI Vietnam also selected ‘Stylo’; while Antonio Rota of IFAD chose sugarcane.  Michael Blummel was still contemplating his choice at the end of the evening, despite the helpful suggestions of colleagues – groundnut or sorghum!

We collectively mused on what the fodder favourites would be for other absent colleagues, recalling that the ILRI forage genebank has 18000 plus accessions and a ‘best bets’ list of 60 plants compiled by Jean Hanson.

What does this tell us?

First, there’s a lot of fodder diversity out there – biological, but also in terms of preferred options of fodder and livestock specialists.

Second, judging by the discussion spurred by the choices – and the reasons and stories behind them – there could be much that we could gain by documenting and extending this lighthearted exercise into something more structured where we ask people to briefly explain their favorite fodder/forage plants in terms of their potential to improve future food security and improve livelihoods for small holder livestock keepers.

A form of ‘crowd sourcing’, we could map opinions and preferences worldwide, stimulate discussion, learning and debate, and perhaps identify promising opportunities as well as as gaps to further work on.

As the current Fodder Adoption Project ends, this is perhaps an opportunity to try out a completely different exercise, with the same acronym: The ‘Fodder Appreciation Program’ – better sugestions welcome!

Share your favourite fodder option, and why you like it using the comment option on this blog post.

 

Communication in the fodder adoption project

This morning at the end of project workshop, project teams from Vietnam, Syria and Ethiopia shared their approach to the project’s output 3 – to enhance the capacity of project partners to experiment with and use fodder innovations through effective communication, technical information and training…

Mechanisms for joint learning used by the Vietnam fodder adoption project team (CIAT-led) include: Annual review and planning workshops including field visits and bringing together the key stakeholders from both sites; Frequent exchange on activities and progress through modern communication channels (email, Skype, phone); Partner meetings for field visits and report writing; Joint training courses; Participation at national and international conferences; and publications …  See the presentation.

For joint learning in Syria (ICARDA-led), the fodder adoption project team uses exchange visits, on-farm demonstrations, group discussions, field days (also special ones for women), community meetings, workshops, publications, and the dissemination of technical information and extension leaflets. A very strong focus on extension-based activities and demonstration work with farmers and communities. See the presentation.

In Ethiopia (ILRI -led) the main strategy developed for communication and joint learning in the fodder adoption project has been the establishment of active stakeholder groups. Activities of these groups include cross-site visits to inspire concerted actions by participants, field days, roundtable meetings, and within-site learning visits. These approaches generally combine a focus on technology (demonstrations etc) with networking and learning. A lot of training and learning has been directed to innovation systems approaches generally, linked with the stakeholder platforms.

The team produced a series of fodder fact sheets (in local languages) and brochures, set up a project blog for general communication, used various other tools (wiki, dgroups) for project coordination, and used video/film as to capture knowledge of project participants. Many project outputs – including the brochures, fact sheets, powerpoints, posters, reports etc) are indexed in the ILRI repository. See the presentation.

 

Fodder adoption project in Ethiopia – community video tells farmers’ story

As part of the reporting on the Fodder Adoption Project, ILRI commissioned Beth Cullen to train farmers in one of the project sites in participatory video. So they can tell their side of the project story.

This film was planned and filmed by project participants from Mieso woreda, Oromia Region, Ethiopia.

More on Beth Cullen’s participatory video work in Ethiopia

 

Fodder fact sheets for Ethiopia

In our sites in Ethiopia we find a knowledge gap when it comes to growing high quality fodder. Livestock in Ethiopia are largely kept for subsistence purposes and there is limited tradition of using high quality feeds to enhance productivity. As systems intensify, this is changing but there is a need for provision of simple information on how to establish, manage and utilize planted fodder.

With this in mind, local forage agronomist, Abate Tedla has taken existing information from ILRI’s Forage Diversity Project and added material on forage feeding aspects to yield a brand new set of 10 fact sheets for major fodder planted options for Ethiopia.

These are available in English, Oromiffa and Amharic and they are being distributed among farmers and experts we have been working with in our learning sites. Please contact us if you want copies.

Download the fact sheets here.

The Forage Diversity Unit at ILRI also has paper copies of various other fact sheets.

There are also fact sheets on the tropical forages database – a joint product from ILRI, CIAT and CSIRO completed around 2004.

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