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INNOVAFRICA Programme

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Programme/Project Development Objective (PDO)

Innovations in Technology, Institutional and Extension Approaches towards Sustainable Agriculture and enhanced Food and Nutrition Security in Africa (InnovAfrica) KENAFF is a member of a consortium comprising local and international organizations implementing the Innovations in Technology, Institutional and Extension Approaches towards Sustainable Agriculture and enhanced Food and Nutrition Security in Africa (InnovAfrica), a four year research project (2017-2021) supported by the EU under the Horizon 2020 program.
Along with KENAFF, other Kenyan partners include the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA—ILRI) InnovAfrica targets at improving FNS in Kenya by integrating sustainable agriculture intensification systems (SAI), innovative institutional approaches (IIAs) with novel extension and advisory services (EASs), and by enhancing capacity building and knowledge sharing in smallholder farming through a strong EU-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership.
InnovAfrica project is hoped to contribute to enhanced dissemination of SAIs, EASs, and IIAs and promote linkages and synergies among different institutions and stakeholders for increasing food production, thereby improving FNS. 

Work packages

WP1: Interdisciplinary review and mapping of most innovative SAI, IIAs & EASs
WP2: Innovative Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs)
WP3: Farmer-led experimentations of innovative technologies
WP4: Agricultural food value chains
WP5: Agriculture policies and institutions
WP6: Innovative knowledge exchange mechanism, dissemination and impacts
WP7: Coordination of project implementation The work packages will be implemented in two project sites in Kenya which sites are situated in Central highlands (at Kirinyaga) and Eastern midlands (at Kangundo).

Key components/ main activities

Main activities that will be carried out in the project sites include:
  •  Sustainable Agriculture Intensifications systems (SAIs) Brachiaria forage livestock system will be tested in the two project sites. The Brachiaria forage -feed system has been tested and found to be suitable in the Eastern midlands and hence it will be up-scaled in the region. While, the Brachiaria forage in the Central highlands will be tested first.
  • Extension and Advisory Services (EASs) InnovAfrica will establish one pilot Village Knowledge Centre (VKC) in Kangundo. VKC are ICT digital platform linking farmers through smart phones and social media as a conduit for faster and effective information and knowledge to rural communities. Through VKC, it is expected to bridge the knowledge, gender, and digital divides and empower the rural community by fostering inclusive development and participatory communication.
Others EASs include Farmer participatory research teams (FPRTs) and Farmer to Farmer Extension approach (F2FE), Nyumba Kumi (ten household) and Knowledge Hub. Innovative Institutional Approaches (IIAs) One of the IIAs interventions in Kenya is to establish one Multi Actor Platform (MAP).
  • A MAP consisting of five members from farmer’s organization, SMEs, public sectors and NGO have been established.
  • MAP will play a key role in facilitating functional linkages between the stakeholders and help in disseminating, and scale up promising results within in and beyond the project study sites. Cross cutting issues Gender mainstreaming and youth is one of the cross cutting issue to address in the project. The participants in the kick off meeting discussed on the challenges and opportunities of mainstreaming gender and youth in the project.
There is need to commence the baseline survey to characterize the farming system including understanding the role of gender in decision making on technology adoption.

KENAFF Programmes Manager

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