I want to be the President! – Lessons learned by GCARD2 social reporters

GCARD2 social reporters are honored by a visit from Uruguayan President José Mujica.

The Social Reporters of the GCARD event should all feel accomplished and proud after having the honor of experiencing a private meeting with the Uruguayan President, the Honorable, Jose Mujica. And proud we are!

As a young professional in agriculture from a small developing country, I was moved by the gesture extend by his Excellency to interact with us, young people, from all around the world. Such an experience is highly motivating to us, all of whom in a multitude of ways are seeking careers, livelihoods and development in agriculture.

GCARD consultations featured on latest Collective Action News letter

GCARD features as top story on the Collective Action News, a periodical e-publication of the CGIAR’s Regional Plan for Collective Action in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Entitled “Online consultations to enhance agricultural research for development, the article by Simone Staiger-Rivas, illustrates some aspects around broad participation and trust of the ongoing GCARD process from the perspective of facilitation and technology stewardship.

Download the newsletter

What I take from the CAC Region GCARD Consultations at Tashkent? Ajit Maru’s blog from Tashkent

As I packed my bags leaving Tashkent, I started wondering what I was taking beyond the tasty dried fruits and a bottle each of Armenian and Georgian Cognac that I had received as gifts from friends. I started making a list of new insights and reinforcements of old perspectives that I want to carry to Rome and the global ARD community.

Some of these are:

1. The need for a transformative change in the way agricultural research for development (ARD) is conducted. The CAC Regional Review, E-Consultations and the face to face workshop further validated my perspective of ARD. To me ARD is complex, with almost each individual farmer, producer and actor in agriculture having his or her unique problem. ARD is not complicated if the problems are unravelled by identifying whose problem it is. Many a times the solutions are already with those who are suffering from the problem. They only need some support to solve their problem. The resource poor are not helpless. They are denied true help.  Some problems of farmers can be clustered around categories (small, medium, large) and types of farmers (cereal farmers, cotton farmers, livestock keepers etc) as also around issues that may be bothering them, such as better yielding crops and animals, access and use of water, improving whole farm productivity, processing for value addition, marketing etc. Unfortunately, scientists and researchers do not see the issues in this way. They see problems as related to plant breeding, pathology, agronomy etc as per the discipline they are from. Sometimes the specialization goes to individual crops. We have to change this. We have to look at the problem and use our training in science, in structuring issues and resolving them through a constructivist approach rather than reducing the problem to introducing a gene or a machine. We have to consider the entire system, be it farming or market chain in developing solutions. We also have to involve the individuals and communities for whom the problem is. We cannot ignore them while we develop solutions.
2. All farmers, and more specifically garden (dekhon) and small farmers, need cutting edge technology. They need application of Biotechnology, not necessarily genetically modified organism based, Information and Communications Technologies, Space Science and Material Science. We should not consider that only large farmers and those producing for markets in a large way need the application of cutting edge technologies and not the small farmers and those who produce for themselves and their local communities.
3. We are severely neglecting the needs of farmers and producers who rear and produce from animals, fruits and vegetables, fisheries and forests. Most dekhon and small farmers produce a multiple of crops including fruits and vegetables, animals and animal products etc. We do not somehow see this and therefore neglect the needs of farmers beyond cereal crops.
4. Investment in agricultural and rural development is critical for investment in agricultural research to fruit. We, as researchers, cannot keep on demanding increased investment in agricultural research without also demanding investment in other development areas. Demanding investment only in agricultural research is very short sighted and almost self serving.
5. We, as researchers, are not really willing to look at ourselves and see how investment in ARD can be better targeted and used. This comes from the structure of agricultural research institutes and from systems of rewarding researchers. The more a researcher corners research funds the better researcher he is. We count success not in terms of how much the clients of research benefit from our work but the amounts of research funds we collect, the papers we publish and the International conferences we attend. This is because this is how research systems evaluate researchers.
6. Frameworks and methods to evaluate and understand holistically research needs of agricultural commodities market chains, farming systems and productions systems are very few and not used. They are not even fully tested. We urgently need these tested frameworks.
7. New capacities to do agricultural research in a fresh way are urgently needed, both in infrastructure and human skills all over the world. Our laboratories and field stations are becoming obsolete and decrepit. We are not able to apply cutting edge science and young minds in solving problems.
8. Agricultural policy is important and so is agricultural research policy and strategy at various levels, sub-national, national, regional and global. Along with this is the political will to implement these policies. Agricultural research needs to contribute to appropriate policy making. As revealed at the CAC level, socio-economic studies important for agricultural development and agricultural research are too weak or just not there. There is very little advocacy where it matters on issues related to improving ARD.
9. Getting and organizing ARD stakeholders to act together is vital but it is a complex, complicated and difficult task that needs financial investment and skills. In most cases, we think it will happen because we wish it so. It does not. That is why we need to strengthen the regional forums and bring professional management in them so that they are ultimately accountable to the stakeholders.
10. There is a huge amount of knowledge in agricultural development with the vast numbers of ARD actors including farmers and others involved in agriculture and related livelihoods that is not properly tapped by agricultural research. We need to do something about using this knowledge locally and globally and building appropriate knowledge systems. This itself needs

Ajit Maru’s blog from Tashkent – Friday, 16 October and Saturday, 17 October 2009

Tashkent is beautiful by the day. It is iridescent by night. The marriage season continues. Yesterday, 16 October, there were two beautiful brides both waiting their turn for a grand entry into the ballrooms of the Hotel. There was a musical quartet that played “here comes the bride(s) “when they made their majestic entrance. Cameraman all over shot their photographs and videos and the traditional pipe and drum players made a crescendo welcoming the couple. Evil certainly got scared away.

On the 16 October, we started our CAC Regional Face to Face Workshop. The achievement of previous days of establishing the Farmer and NGO Consortia plainly reflected on Dr. Ahmadov, the CACAARI Chair’s face. After his welcome, Dr. Khalikulov explained the Sustainable Agriculture Program of CAC-PFU.

Dr. Roozitalab presenting the CGIAR Strategic and Results Framework and the proposed Megaprograms

Dr. Roozitalab had come in the previous day (I had not known of his arrival) and his presentation had been translated into Russian. He made his presentation and I expressed a sigh of relief. There was good discussion after the presentation including why small farmers were not expressly mentioned, the impact of CGIAR’s work on poverty and livelihoods in the region.  Some participants during tea asked me why, if the decisions of GCARD were not binding to CGIAR as presented by Dr. Roozitalab, we were discussing the priorities.  I explained that GFAR was looking at ARD globally and regionally through the Regional Forums and it was for the CGIAR to decide after looking at what stakeholders said they needed to design their program. The CGIAR is a large International agricultural research body but it is not the agricultural research body of the world. The CGIAR contributes only about 4 percent of the public sector investment in ARD. The rest comes from Government and we at GFAR are aiming to convey the GCARD message to all ARD stakeholders and not CGIAR alone. Acad. Akimaliev, who also chaired the session expressed his concern at the ever diminishing role of CGIAR in the region in spite of ICARDA and other members of CAC-PFUs very significant achievements. He regretted the minimal presence of ILRI, Forestry and Fisheries Institutes in the region. He also was not happy of the constant turnover of the CAC-PFU Coordinators and the weak engagement with National Systems by the CGIAR. Mostly it is ICARDA that makes the engagement, not CGIAR.

I presented the progress on GCARD. Dr, Beniwal presented his summary of progress on CAC Region Review and Report for GCARD. There were many queries to Dr. Beniwal especially around the priorities for livestock production systems in the Region.

Group Work in Action

We went into the first Group session discussion around seven farmer categories and a variety of commodities they produce as per the matrix which looked at research needs at the input, throughput, output, post harvest and marketing and consumers levels. It was a huge exercise but the groups dealt with the issues confidently. There were animated discussions among all ARD stakeholders. I noted an MP arguing with a farmer representative who herself was a farmer. It was fun also.

Dinner

In the evening we had a dinner where all ARD stakeholders danced together. I never knew how agile Dr. Ahmadov was until I saw him dance the twist with the lovely ladies present at the Consultation. We all had even more fun and there was a lot of merriment.

Today, 17 October is Deepawali, the Indian Festival of Lights and one of the most important festivals in my part of India, Gujarat. This is when the victory of light over darkness is celebrated.  Tomorrow is the Gujarati New Year day. I wish all of you a very happy Deepawali and a prosperous New Year where all your endeavours are successful. Of course I feel a bit lonely for being away from my family. But then I am surrounded by friends who share my joy and the spirit of the festival..

Shahnoza summing up Group Work on a Flip Chart

First thing in the morning, we started with the presentations from the Group I session. These presentations were fascinating. . The differences in needs and also the issue of scale within similar needs of various categories of farmers, especially dekhon. small, small and medium farmers, came to fore in this group session.  How wrong are we to lump everything together in identifying an agricultural research agenda!

We did not have a group discussing the needs of the Fisher folk and this was a bit of a weakness.

After this plenary, we went into the Second Group discussion on cross cutting issues. We had totally different grouping that the previous one in the groups. Again, I observed very deep conversations around the topics. Dr. Beniwal certainly has a job on his hands to sift through the enormously rich data coming from these group sessions.

All the presentations from the groups and the facilitators’ reports have been collected and given to participants.

Dr. Ahmadov, Chair CACAARI making a point during Group discussions

The second group session brought to the fore the complexity of ARD. But to me it was heartening that all participants wanted cutting edge science employed in ARD to satisfy the needs of the poor especially the resource poor farmer. They wanted Biotechnology (though GMO was a controversy that evoked a very sharp response), Nanotechnology and ICT especially GIS, Modelling and Simulation applied to solve many problems.

After this group session, we summed up the research needs at the regional level and using nearly 20 flip charts went through a voting exercise on the focus of ARD as regards to the user community or thematic relevance and specific areas of research that would have development impact.

All participants appeared to be enthralled and very happy with the processes that engaged them fully. In this region, this was a unique experience for many. The involvement of all stakeholders, farmers, NGOs, researchers, donors, policy makers, University representatives all together and through an inclusive process of engagement and involvement in the Workshop.  The voting sheets could not be immediately counted.

The Workshop ended with thanks to all, especially ICARDA and its staff. Anvar, Shanoza, Sherzod, Mussaffar, Farhad, the drivers and so many others who had spent several sleepless nights arranging these workshops and meetings.

More on the outcomes of the F2F Workshop later. Watch this space.

Ajit Maru

Tashkent

Ajit Maru’s blog from Tashkent – Thursday, 15th October 2009

The weather here is now becoming colder. In the day, it was lovely. The nights colder. But, Autumn somehow has not made an appearance. The trees are green as ever.

Yesterday we had achieved the formation of the Consortium of Farmer Organizations I Central Asia and Southern Caucuses. We had spent half an hour at the meeting whether it should be Caucuses, Trans Caucuses or Southern Caucuses. The sensitivities are enormous.

I was discussing with my close Georgia friends, Oleg Shatbershvili and Guram Alxsideze, the different eco-region they belong. For Georgia, vine and grapes are the most important crops. How do we discuss the key researchable needs for Georgia? Another issue they felt that needs to be on the agenda of CACAARI is two sub-regional platforms. One for Southern Caucuses and one from Central Asia. Hope CACAARI looks at this issue soon. A similar issue is also in the Asia-Pacific. Some sub-regional forums such as for South Asia, Pacific, South East Asia and Asia can bring greater focus in the Regional Organization.

Today was a hectic day. It is very late in the day when I am writing this post. We had the meeting for constituting the CAC Region NGO Consortium. There was immense enthusiasm among those present for this Consortium. Very many issues were discussed by the participants after Dr. Beniwal’s presentation regarding his findings on opinions on research needs for the region. This ranged from climate change to potato seed availability in the region. I am sure these issues will be discussed with more vigour tomorrow at the Face To Face Workshop.  Of course the CAC Region NGO Consortium was formed. More on both the Consortiums will be communicated soon.

I am really worried about the presentation of the CGIAR Strategic and Results Framework and the Megaprograms (SRF & MP. I was informed that Dr. Roozitalab, who is to present it, will be here on 14 October. I haven’t met him yet. I do not know what his presentation will include and we have not yet been able to translate his presentation into Russian. This I think is not fair to the lead consultant as he has to defend something he has worked on in his regional review in a very ad-hoc situation. It is also not fair to the participants who do not understand English. Many would not have read the Progress Report. To me, we are missing an important opportunity to discuss the CGIAR SRF & MP in its necessary detail. This was one of the main reasons for the organization of the CAC Region F2F tomorrow and day after.

We had an extraordinary meeting of the CACAARI Steering Committee and the amendments to its Constitution as discussed at Tbilisi were accepted and ratified. The amended constitution should soon be on CACAARI website. In the evening we again had dinner together with all participants. Toasts were made. I toasted the hard working rural women for whom this day is dedicated.

It was late when we returned. I therefore could make this e-mail fully describing all the exciting things that happened today. I hope to revert to this day’s events soon.