relation: https://orgprints.org/id/eprint/25747/
title: SYPROBIO: Driving farmer-led innovation platforms to address food security, poverty alleviation and resilience to climate change in West African cotton communities
creator: Gian, Nicolay
creator: Dabire, Rémy
creator: Fliessbach, Andreas
creator: Glin, Laurent
creator: Sissoko, Fagaye
subject:  Systems research and participatory research
subject: Research methodology and philosophy
subject: Africa
description: The social problem of food insecurity and the challenge for farmers in adapting successfully to climate change in West African societies build the framework and scope of our research for development (R4D). It is addressed through a project called Syprobio, operating in Mali, Burkina Faso  and  Benin. Elected farmers, representing 2000–3000 organic  farmers, are conducting on-farm research and cooperating with 40–50 researchers and technicians in testing  27  innovative practices by forming innovation platforms. Soil  fertility, seed improvement, pest management, agronomy and socio-economics are the main themes. The innovations being tested are meant to improve food security and climate change adaptation. The main R4D methods used are transdisciplinarity, actor-network theory (Latour 2005), focus-group discussions and decentralised action-research hubs. The innovation, the testing farmers and the  researcher build an actor network. After two years, all ten  circles of concerted actors (CAC) are productive and, in 2013, they started the second round of testing their selected innovations. The main concern of the farmers is the low soil fertility. Both farmers and researchers  learn  mutually, as well as the technicians from the farmer organisations. The creativity, determination and curiosity of the self-organised farmer groups, embedded in a  supportive research  network and exciting value chains,  allow fast and effective identification of innovations to be tested and implemented. It is recommended to further invest in better alignment at national level of farmer needs, research methods of national agricultural research institutes and  universities, and policies in order to  create functional institutions.
date: 2013
type: Conference paper, poster, etc. 
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
language: en
identifier: /id/eprint/25747/1/Nicolay_syprobio_2013.pdf
identifier:    Gian, Nicolay; Dabire, Rémy; Fliessbach, Andreas; Glin, Laurent and Sissoko, Fagaye    (2013) SYPROBIO: Driving farmer-led innovation platforms to address food security, poverty alleviation and resilience to climate change in West African cotton communities.   In:     Proceedings AISA Workshop on Agricultural Innovation Systemsin Africa, Nairobi, 29–31 May 2013, pp. 156-161.