Overview of the Mushinga innovation platform, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Overview of the Mushinga innovation platform, Democratic Republic of the Congo

MAPATANO Sylvain1 and ZOZO Rachel2

Context and platform

background Launchsing of Action Site meeting: to

select Action Site 23-24 may 2013

4 meetings have been organized to explain

the spirit of the programme

Field visit was organized in November 2013

“Improvement of Cassava-Grain Legumes

Production Systems through Livestock

Integration” was identified as entry theme

Rapid Appraisal for Agricultural Innovation System (RAAIS) workshop to identify and prioritize entry points : February 2014

Innovation Platform (IP) establishment and Management training: April 2014

Opportunities and constraints Opportunities: Various number of stakeholders. The

innovative idea is to work on the value-chain with a limited numbers of actors to be engaged for a beginning

Presence of active farmer organizations or associations

Presence of active R4D partners at field level Political cooperation and involvement of

local leaders Promiximity to Bukavu Accessibility to other sites Constraints: Post-conflict region with a number of

humanitarian actors Limited number of CG centers to work

around issues identified during the RAAIS workshop

Productivity must be enhanced so that agrodealers and microfinance can get interest

Pictures

Conclusions and ways forward Integrated farming system crop-livestock

component Integrated research systems on productivity,

nutrition, natural reseouce management, market and product policy developement; and gender and youth involvement

Soil fertilization though ISFM (Integrated Soil Fertility Management)

Water conservation management Agroforesterie practices Workplan developed and activities to be

implementd by September at Field site level The Institutionnal arrangement to make IPs

function is a key question we need to raise Some research work should be done very

soon, such as market analysis and business plan development

Platform progress IP first formal meeting was organized on 15 April 2014 Meetings will be scheduled on a monthly basis and debate

will be oriented around organizational issues Some activities to prepare next harvest season (May-June)

have been planned Reflexion for the next rain season has commenced in term

of land access, involvement of public sector …

Platform facilitation and

learning Facilitating IP platform needs good

capacity of communication The knowledge of the site is an

important key Good contacts in the area is also

important At the beginning, facilitator must

invest time in the establishment of the IP

It is important to have a good internal organization for the documentation of the process

The support of the ASF is crucial

Mapatano Sylvain, mapatano_s@yahoo.fr ● Bukavu, DRC Zozo Rachel,

z.mulangala@cgiar.org , IITA, DRC

Prepared for a capacity development workshop of the

CGIAR Research Program on Humidtropics, Nairobi, 29 April – 2 May 2014

http://humidtropics.cgiar.org/

This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution –Non commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License April 2014

April- May 2014

Platform characteristics Farmers are the most represented group

(75%) Key stakeholders represented namely

Farmers, NGO, inputs dealer, transporter, local leader, health centres, traders: 21 women and 13 men

The IP is operating at the community level called “Groupement”

The IP has been recently activated and platform members are currently defining rules and procedures ( to be validated in May) through a small committee

At this stage two people are facilitating: the President of the Community Based Organization (CBO) consortium and a staff of the Food for Hungry (NGO)