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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

Credit through traders – enabling the poorest to engage in cattle fattening in Vietnam

Lack of cash to purchase inputs is a major barrier to poor livestock keepers escaping poverty. Short-term credit is a potential solution but often local micro-finance institutions are unwilling to offer credit to the poorest due to lack of collateral. This was the situation faced by the poorest livestock keepers in Ea Kar District in … Continue reading →

Livestock stakeholder group in Ada’a, Ethiopia builds momentum

Three years ago when we set up stakeholder groups to work together on fodder/livestock issues in Ethiopia, we were worried about the sustainability question. Who would facilitate such groups after our Fodder Adoption Project and the Improving Productivity and Market Success projects phased out? With this in mind, this year we devolved facilitation of the … Continue reading →

Scaling out project outcomes requires a ‘special chemistry’

After a session of the the November 2010 Fodder Adoption Project (FAP) workshop in Laos, we recorded ‘notes’ of three world cafe hosts who collated cross-project lessons (from Ethiopia, Syria, and Vietnam) on three issues: Innovation approaches, feed assessment, and scaling out. In this video, Werner Stür, formerly with CIAT in Vietnam, reports back on … Continue reading →

Innovation approaches – Collective learning from the Fodder Adoption Project

After a session of the the November 2010 Fodder Adoption Project (FAP) workshop in Laos, we recorded ‘notes’ of three world cafe hosts who collated cross-project lessons (from Ethiopia, Syria, and Vietnam) on three issues: Innovation approaches, feed assessment, and scaling out. In this video, Ranjitha Puskur of ILRI reports on the lessons on innovation … Continue reading →

Innovation systems principles – Strengths and weaknesses

On 18 and 19 November 2010, the Fodder Adoption Project organized a mini-symposium on feed in smallholder systems as part of the week-long discussions. On the second day of the symposium, discussions focused on innovation systems principles and their application in livestock and feed research for development. The aim was to examine if such approaches … Continue reading →

Selecting an innovation systems research site

At last week’s end of project workshop, we asked project teams to identify ‘generic’ lessons that could inform the selection of research sites in a project like this one. Keith Sones reflects on the conversation on site selection, asking “what would be a ‘good’ FAP site?” An interesting dilemma arose during the discussion about site … Continue reading →