Steve Larocque’s Post

The Innovation, Research, Extension, and Advisory Coordination Hub (iREACH) in West Africa (WA) is an ambitious initiative led by CORAF | West and Central Africa for Agricultural Research and Development and Kansas State University College of Agriculture. The mission is to revolutionize agricultural research, extension, and advisory services across West and Central Africa, starting with USAID-funded research activities and other CORAF projects such as #FSRP and #TARPro. Active in 9 countries, #iREACH has established 10 agricultural technology parks, demonstrating over 400 innovative solutions. Watch how this USAID-funded project organized 38 agricultural technology demonstration days, attracting over 2,500 participants, 36% of whom were women. By strengthening partnerships, involving 36 organizations, and training over 680 people, iREACH is paving the way for sustainable and resilient agriculture. This video shows the significant impact this project has had on farmers, researchers, and policy-makers in the region. #CORAF #FSRP_WestAfrica #CatalyzingInnovations #agriculture #TechnoPark #Innovations #ClimateAction #Foodsecurity

Some exciting new opportunities added to the North East Support Directory in the last week! I'm thinking of sharing these teasers as a regular feature on LinkedIn each week to highlight some of what's new and available. What do you reckon? 🤔 Sign up for free today to discover more opportunities that could be relevant for your business. Farming Futures: Nutrient Management Phase 1 - Industrial Research https://nesd.link/fvegrt Farming Futures: Nutrient Management Phase 1 - Feasibility https://nesd.link/wpyw9n International Green Corridors Fund: UK – NL Feasibility Studies https://nesd.link/tn17cq Enterprise Development Programme https://nesd.link/gd6qgw RTS Bursaries https://nesd.link/qkrsix Ernest Rutherford Fellowship 2024 https://nesd.link/hkalp2 Sunderland Business Support Fund https://nesd.link/qq6sg9 #grants #businesssupport #opportunities #signposting #businessgrowth #competitions

The #Back2Farmers Conference, organized by #HWST concluded successfully last week. This event brought together 🌍a network of African universities, non-governmental organizations, farmer organizations, and friends. Key areas of discussion including; Enhancing cooperation with universities, Strengthening collaboration with farmers, Fostering partnerships between universities and farmers, Building stronger ties between universities and industry. Conducting applied research 👨💻 to address farmer challenges. The conference showcased developed simple solutions to address farmers' challenges, transforming lives with support grants of €5000. The pressing question now is: What happens to these successful technologies supporting rural smallholder farmers? The conference concluded by looking into future collaboration priorities. Let’s continue with the conversation... #Back2Farmer #HWST #Triesdorf #FarmingSystemskenya

| (T)ransforming access to excellence with successful (ALL)iances of (H)igher (E)ducation in (D)igital (A)griculture | 📢 I am happy to share that our upcoming project, TALLHEDA, under the Horizon Widera initiative, is set to launch in January 2024! 🔗 As Smart Agro Hub, we are proud to contribute to this innovative endeavor. 🚀 TALLHEDA aims to forge a long-term Alliance for Digital Agriculture, uniting Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in the agricultural domain from two Widening countries, Greece and Serbia, with leading non-widening agricultural universities, as well as local and international stakeholders. 🌐 The TALLHEDA Widera Project is poised to to outline a path to excellence for the Widening agricultural HEIs, by building a joint and long-term alliance between the HEIs and surrounding ecosystems, which will allow to share best pedagogical and research practices to increase scientific, technological and staff capacity in Digital Agriculture and foster the Quadruple Helix concept of innovation. Follow TALLHEDA to be part of our journey! #SmartAgroHub #TALLHEDA #DigitalAgriculture #HorizonWidera #InnovationInAgro #CollaborationForChange

Thinking back on the Low Carbon Agriculture Show 2024 - 6-7 March 2024 🌟 As a newcomer to the field, I was truly impressed by the dynamic atmosphere at the show. The level of engagement among participants, speakers, and exhibitors was remarkable, underscoring an industry eager to embrace change. 👨🎓 Key takeaways from the event included discussions on #regenerativeagriculture, buoyed by shifts in #subsidy structures and the impact of geopolitical tensions such as the conflict in #Ukraine and the ongoing challenges posed by climate change on agricultural product pricing such as wheat. 🔍 A notable highlight was the keen interest shown in research conducted at the University of Leeds by stakeholders across the industry spectrum. Our researchers fostered invaluable connections, both forging new #partnerships for potential projects and reigniting existing collaborations. It was evident that this platform provided an excellent opportunity for them to engage with relevant businesses, laying the groundwork for future #grant applications and the advancement of their research endeavours. 💡 In light of these insights, I wholeheartedly recommend that #academic researchers actively participate in specialised trade shows like this. Such events offer a wealth of knowledge and facilitate meaningful connections beyond the confines of academia, particularly beneficial for #earlycareerresearchers seeking to broaden their horizons and tap into real-world applications.

Digital agriculture has the potential to contribute an additional US$500 billion annually for low- to middle-income countries (LMIC) globally while contributing at a significant scale towards more inclusive rural development (e.g. 64 million women with access to digital agriculture solutions), and reduce GHG emissions by almost 10% (-360 MMT CO2eq). 🌲 From widespread consultation, we have collaboratively developed "5 investible concepts" that could lead to a step-change towards this potential future for LMIC regions globally 🌏. If you would like to be involved and collaborate on any of these actionable concepts, we are in the process of forming coalitions around these efforts! 👇 👇 👇

The CAPS just started 1st Dec,2023,the project aims to explore the concept and practices related to the Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), an approach promoted by the FAO, to create favorable technical, policy and investment conditions for sustainable agricultural development that addresses climate change issues while ensuring food security #collaboration #savetheplanet #environmentalfriendly #economicgrowth #vet #research #naturalresources #sustainabledevelopmentgoals #ClimateAction OUR PARTNERS 1.@ COSVITEC SOCIETA CONSORTILE SRL 2 Business Innovation 3 @STRATEGICOMNIA RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT LTD 4 Rezos Brands 5 Puntland Technical University 6 Puntland Innovation Hub 7 Social View Kenya 8 Horizon Institute of Entrepreneurship Development

Digital agricultural tools are going to be key for enabling farmers' access to markets, data, advisory, credit, insurance for many decades to come. The digital adoption levels amongst farmers in LMIC countries is at around 10%. This needs to go up significantly to catalyze transformation in agriculture for better farm incomes. Five identified interventions to achieve the above are: developing data sharing models: agtech investors network; fund of funds for underserved markets; blended finance products and impact measurement metrices. We at Beanstalk AgTech are building a collaborative network to implement these five thematic areas and look forward to suggestions and partnership opportunities.

A few years ago, when we were helping build ecosystem(s) (in a very very rural setup) - FPO(s), SHG(s) and market-acess around the doubling-income policy rollouts, we were pushed back by many saying - "quality of life is already good, but what you are saying is inviting GREED!" And we were only trying to create market-access for the FPO(s) and SHG(s). Ofcourse, those who latched on are doing really well including having a multiplier effect. Hemendra Mathur, your identified interventions should help extrapolate the much needed vitaminM for ventures towards Digital adoption and agri.

#Crima's #ONGs #Framework #Partnership #innovations. Tools for the rural future,  The nature innovation cycle processes must cooperate with socio-economic change in rural areas of developing countries, # Innovation systems conceptual needs a deep moderns discussions experiences and perspectives. Partnerships framework guide needs your answers from one of questions of reflections on partnership, institutions and learning. 🤝 ?1#Does your business, market, partnering with farmer organizations, NGOs, and an impact investor to source responsibly from small-scale farmers? 🍵?? Let enhance ways to enhance learning in building capacity more effective agricultural innovations capacities on deploying agricultural sciences and technology as part of the socio-economic development process.