Artworks by Piet Mondrian: (left) Composition in Blue, Gray and Pink, 1913, and (right) Composition VII, 1913.
This article is a summary of a longer article, Livestock and Fish value chain flagship: Achieving transformation and scale, posted on the Livestock and Fish blog.
In late-March, the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish held a virtual review and planning meeting to take stock of progress since 2012, examine the wider science and development environment and devise plans and deliverables for the coming years. The discussions were organized around each of the five research and technology ‘flagships’ of the program, examining strengths, weaknesses and desired results.
What does that transformation look like?
New and enduring forms of inclusive participation, governance and power relations and efficient resource use allow pre-commercial actors and poor consumers to generate, and benefit from, more and better-quality milk, meat, fish and eggs.
New and existing knowledge, used in new ways, says this flagship’s leader, Acho Okike, can help communities and countries upgrade their pig, dairy, small ruminant and fish value chains. ‘Generating this new knowledge is at the business end of this flagship’s work.’
This flagship work is based on learning. As smallholder-oriented innovations in feeds and forages, animal health and animal genetics are deployed within the Livestock and Fish value chains, this flagship explores who uses these innovations and how and how much and to what effect, as well as what constrains adoption of the innovations. The flagship provides ‘safe spaces’ for innovation — idea incubators and small grants — that support entrepreneurs as they test their innovations. Capacity development and gender mainstreaming work hand in hand.
This flagship has ambitions to build a new ‘learning’ model. In a rapidly changing world, where new knowledge, understanding and skills are continuously required, what does a forward-looking learning model look like?
- One that is agile, responding to changing demands, capacities and knowledge in real-time
- One that allows learning-by-doing in short cycles
- One that is transferable and scalable
- One whose impacts are measurable
Partnership strategy
While scanning widely and engaging in numerous tactical collaborations, particular attention is being given to establishing the foundation for selected strategic partnerships, both globally and within the selected value chains.
Operational partnerships
ILRI and the three other CGIAR centres collaborating in the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish — the Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the World Fish Center (WorldFish) — have worked in close partnership for two years to deploy appropriate research within nine country-level livestock value chains. In addition, these four CGIAR centres work with other CGIAR research programs, such as those on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS); Humidtropics (HT); Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM); and Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB).
Research partnerships
Partnership negotiations are progressing with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and Wageningen University and Research Centre (Wageningen UR). This flagship also works directly with value chain actors and research partners in the program’s focus countries. For example, Livestock and Fish has established strategic partnerships in Tanzania with Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and the Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (TALIRI) and in Vietnam with Nong Lam University, in Ho Chi Minh City, and Tay Nguyen University, in Dak Lak.
Development partnerships
This flagship has also entered development partnerships with international non-governmental organizations such as the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) and CARE International. Partnerships have also been formed with local development actors such as Volunteer Efforts for Development (VEDCO), SNV, the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), BRAC and the Africa Institute for Strategic Services and Development (AFRISA), in Uganda; SNV, Land O’Lakes and Heifer International in Tanzania; and CARE, in Egypt. Livestock and Fish works closely with the Tanzania Dairy Board to support it in its stewardship of the national Dairy Development Forum in Tanzania. In Bangladesh, collaboration with Save the Children provides nutrition training to households involved in aquaculture training. And the program will continue working with private-sector actors Skretting, Aller Aqua and MAKRO and local private hatcheries to improve business skills among commercial farmers in Egypt; and with DOW AgroSciences, in the USA, to support the breeding of improved Brachiaria grasses.
In the coming two years, the program will extend its development partnerships in value chain sites by establishing multi-stakeholder learning and action platforms that form the basis of joint action in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Mali and Nicaragua and will continue to form new tactical partnerships in Egypt, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam.
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