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The annual International Farmer Innovation Day (IFID), initiated by the Prolinnova international network, is held on 29 November. The day offers a time to celebrate and stimulate the creativity of innovative farmers and to provide sources of inspiration to farmers and other stakeholders in agricultural research and development (ARD). Furthermore, it provides a stage to demonstrate how research and extension agents (private and governmental) can interact and support this process through Participatory Innovation Development (PID). Since 2012, Prolinnova Country Platforms (CPs) organise different types of activities as appropriate in their countries. 

On this occassion, and to provide an update on its activities, Prolinnova has just released a new bulletin (in attachment below). Prolinnova is a Partner in GFAR, and GFAR has for several years supported this NGO-initiated multistakeholder programme promoting local innovation in ecologically oriented agriculture and natural resource management. The platform builds on and scales up farmer-led approaches, documenting and sharing how farmers experiment to develop and test new ideas for better use of land and other resources. Understanding the rationale behind local innovation transforms how research and extension agents view local people and stimulates collective action.

Several Country Platforms are about to celebrate the International Farmer Innovation Day (IFID) this week, in some cases combined with the national launching of the new project funded by Misereor/KZE (Catholic Agency for Development Aid): “Promoting local innovation in Food and Nutrition Security” (Proli-FaNS). On 14–18 November, the project was launched with a meeting of all partners in Accra, Ghana. Proli-FaNS is a 3-year project supported by Misereor / KatholischeZentralstelle e.V. (Catholic Agency for Development Aid) (KZE, Germany) through a grant of the “One World No Hunger” initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It will support rural communities in these countries to develop their innovative capacities to improve food security, nutrition security and nutritional diversity so as to enhance community resilience to change. In doing so, Proli-FaNSwill promote wider recognition of rural women as innovators and support them in further developing their innovations related to food and nutrition, from which the women control the benefits (more info here).

Still more CPs are actively seeking partners and funding, often with a focus on innovation for food and nutrition security, which is likely to be a major topic for sharing and learning at the International Partners Workshop (IPW) to be held in May 2017 in Tamale, Accra, hosted by ACDEP. 

In recognition of the achievements former CPs have made in the past, their documents are now included on the Prolinnova website in the CP archive. Some of the former coordinators have agreed to be contact persons for anyone in their countries who is interested in joining forces to promote farmer innovation and farmer-led research.

Also attached below is the English version of the Misereor/WeltSichten dossier on small-scale farmer innovation and farmer-led research. Versions in German and French have also been published, and all three version are available on the Prolinnova website here.

 

Photo credit: FAO-Riccardo Gangale