Abstract
This open access book shares the experiences of Tropical Legumes III (TLIII) project in facilitating access to seed of improved legume varieties to smallholder farmers through innovation platforms. It highlights practices and guiding principles implemented in eight developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This book details key processes that respective teams employed to create an innovation space that delivers seed, other inputs, knowledge and financial services to agricultural communities and most importantly, the underserved farmers in remote areas of the drylands. It offers valuable insights into the pathway to establishing, promoting and operating innovation platforms to enhance the performance and competitiveness of legume crops’ value chains, and addresses critical issues that must be considered to make innovation platforms more sustainable and attractive to beneficiaries. The book offers a wealth of practical insights for development workers, technical staff, and project managers. This publication is all about TLIII community of practice. It will definitely inspire other development workers and scientists to share their own experiences for others to learn from.
Highlights
Seed is the single most important input in crop production
The first meeting of Southern Groundnut Platform was organized by Tanzania Agricultural Research Institutes (TARI) Naliendele, where all cost related to the meeting were supported by TARI through Tropical Legumes III (TLIII) project
Concerted efforts have been made by various initiatives such as the Tropical Legumes (TL) III project to alleviate these constraints to improve farmers’ income and household food security as well as make Nigeria regain its lost glory in groundnut production
Summary
90% of the world’s cowpea is grown in sub-Saharan Africa, most of which is in West Africa in Nigeria (FAOSTAT 2017). The private sector, on the other hand, is not interested in investing in cowpea seed production because of the perceived weak market outlet and low returns on investment This calls for strategies to catalyze sustainable supply while imparting knowledge and skill in the production and marketing of cowpea between released varieties and those available at community level for farmer use. One of the key pillars of the TL III project was the establishment and utilization of multi-stakeholder platforms as fora for skill and knowledge enhancement, in linking legume value chain actors, as well as enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in technology promotion and dissemination for increased access by smallholder farmers to quality seeds of. The objective of the IP was, to strengthen linkages among various cowpea seed value chain actors to catalyze sustainable production and supply of quality seeds of improved cowpea varieties to smallholder farmers in Nigeria
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have