Enhancing livelihoods of poor livestock keepers through increasing use of fodder: Ethiopia Report on Output 3 - Enhanced capacity of project partners to experiment with and use fodder

Enhancing livelihoods of poor livestock keepers through increasing use of fodder: Ethiopia Report on Output 3

Enhanced capacity of project partners to experiment with and use fodder innovations through effective communication, technical

information and training

Fodder Adoption Project (FAP)(IFAD Technical Assistance Grant 853)

Presentation by Alan Duncan, Kebebe Ergano, Aberra Adie and Abate Tedla at the FAP End of Project Workshop, Luang Prabang, Laos, 15-19 November 2010

Output 3. Enhanced capacity of project partners to experiment with and use fodder innovations through effective communication, technical information and training

Activity 1 - Development of appropriate communication strategies for joint learning within and between countries

In Ethiopia the main strategy developed for communication and joint learning has been establishment of active stakeholder groups. – In Ada’a woreda, the activities of the stakeholder

group have supported establishment of a dairy cooperative, procurement of cross-bred cows and improved milk marketing mechanisms

– Cross-site visits in Ada’a and Alamata have also proved to be an effective tool for inspiring both farmers and wider stakeholders to take concerted action on livestock development.

– Stakeholder groups have also organized within-site learning visits bringing in multiple stakeholders

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Mieso Alamata Ada’a

FAP Research Team

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A Fodder Roundtable

Used Fodder Field Days as a mechanisms for bringing key stakeholders together in a relaxed forum

Used Cross-visits as a way of building knowledge and momentum among farmers – But .... organised by Stakeholder Platform

Activity 2 - Identification and participation in training modules for innovation systems (with DFID project)

Getting to grips with innovation thinking

Cross-project learning with Fodder Innovation Project:– Alan Duncan participated in FIP project meeting

Jan 2008.– Alan Duncan participated in FIP stakeholder

meeting in Hyderabad - May 2010– Mona Dhamankhar joint stakeholder workshop in

Nazareth, Ethiopia– FIP co-ordinators (Peter Bezkorwajnij and Ranjitha

Puskur) and researchers (Rashid Sulaiman) have participated in all FAP co-ordination meetings.

– FIP-FAP meta-analysis was commissioned (Seife Ayele)

Within-country activities– Initial cross-project training in

Ethiopia in April 2008– Ethiopia sharing workshop at

Nazareth in June 2009– Short trainings at project sites in

2010 - Kebebe– But mainly ... “learning through

doing” at project sites.

Getting to grips with innovation thinking

Activity 3 - Identification of partner capacity building

needs

A pronounced technical capacity gap on establishment, management and utilization of planted fodder - both farmers and extension personnel. – Series of technical training events have

been provided in project sites in Ethiopia. Trainings have been run in collaboration with regional research colleagues.

– Also, a series of fact sheets on fodder management are being developed and will be translated into local languages. Many existing fact sheets have already been distributed.

Summary of trainings conducted

Title of TrainingNumber

of trainings

Number of

traineesFodder establishment, management, utilization and conservation 10 439

Forage seed production training 2 30

Innovation Process Facilitation 1 48Training on Rapid Market Appraisal (RMA) for Fodder Products 1 13Seasonal Feed Market Data Collection and Processing 2 9

Understanding Fodder Innovation 1 23

Grand Total 17 562

Activity 4 - Development of project communication

material

Fodder fact sheets

Developed project blog

Blog hits

Developed project wiki

Fodder Roundtable flyers and D-Group

Key messages

Existing approaches do work: cross visits, farmer field days, simple information leaflets in local languages, practical training on technical aspects

We embedded these within the activities of the stakeholder platforms: farmer field days used to build bridges between stakeholders; joint delivery of training with permanent stakeholders helped to make things sustainable

We both facilitated the stakeholder groups (Years 1 and 2, devolved in Year 3) and were a member: one thing we could offer was technical support – this was important for our credibility.