Celeste Sitoe, a smallholder farmer in Lhate Village, Chokwe, Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).
The research priorities and value chain master plan of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) were among the topics discussed at an international conference on innovations and incentives in agricultural research for development, the proceedings of which have just been published online.
Delia Grace, who leads the food safety and zoonoses program at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the agriculture-associated diseases component of A4NH, gave two presentations at the third annual Agricultural Research for Development conference which took place on 26-27 September 2012 at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).
In addition to keynote addresses, the conference held parallel sessions that featured the work of several CGIAR Research Programs.
Grace’s first presentation highlighted the synergies between A4NH and the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish.
Research by the Livestock and Fish program adopts a ‘whole value chain’ approach and is targeted at selected animal-source food value chains with the aim of achieving impact at scale.
The A4NH value chain master plan is premised on four assumptions or hypotheses:
- Nutrient-dense foods in basic diets can have important outcomes
- Informal markets are most important and require risk- and incentive-based approaches
- CGIAR research can work effectively at the demand side
- CGIAR research has potential for consumer education and health
The second presentation focused on innovations and incentives in agricultural research for poor countries and highlighted two cases studies: an innovation that failed (community-based tsetse control in West Africa) and one that succeeded (training of informal sector milk traders in Kenya).
One of the key lessons from the case studies was that while innovations are the lever, incentives are central and value chain actors need to capture visible benefits.
Access the conference proceedings
About the Agricultural Research for Development conference
Agricultural Research for Development is the name of the annual multi/inter-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder conference on agriculture, livestock and forest research in an international development context.
It is organized by four networks: the Swedish Research Network – Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry for Development (Agri4D), the Swedish International Agricultural Network Initiative (SIANI), the Forest, Climate & Livelihood Research Network (Focali) and Future Agriculture.
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