From the Maya to modern times, beekeeping has been a much respected rural activity in Guatemala. Then in recent years, production increased and a national association was formed. But internal disagreements soon saw a fall in production and sales. Then thanks to CDAIS, producers across the country asked for and were given, a new space to gather. And there they rediscovered their common interests and goals, and have re-established their original organization, to excellent effect.

On 5 May 2018, the Association for Integrated Development of the Altiplano became formally established, and avocado farmers celebrated. “Today, we are so happy to have consolidated our consortium of eight producer associations from different municipalities in Sololá” explains Don Andrés, community leader and lifelong farmer. “Farmers from San Andrés Semetabaj and other communities around Lake Atitlán began to talk about growing a new variety of avocado some time ago. But since the CDAIS project came, so many things have changed.

“Before, people were not really interested” says Lionel Ozorio, president of the ATESCATEL seed cooperative, “but the CDAIS project has helped to bring people together and now we see much more buy-in.” This innovation partnership is building key functional capacities amongst producer associations, and now, bringing other stakeholders onboard to help improve nutritional security through innovative approaches in promoting a new bean variety with increased production potential and nutritional content.

“The empowerment of our organization was important, to realise our potential to access to finance, markets and to make bean cultivation more productive” expresses Moises Acosta, vice-president of the Honduran Seed Producers Network, “and the bean value chain is now being strengthened and made more sustainable.” He is one of the producers who CDAIS and partners work with in Olancho department, with results that are now being replicated across the country.

“CDAIS does not give us money, but it opens spaces for cacao producers, associations and industry to work together” says Sergio Segovia, president of the ASOPROCCAN association. Actors in the cocoa chain of Atlántida on the north coast are, thanks to CDAIS, now achieving quality standards and promoting entrepreneurship. This was the vision of this innovation partnership, to focus actions on fulfilling their dream of strengthening their organizations and applying good agricultural practices in cocoa cultivation.

“We first needed to know who we are, what we offer, and how to offer it,” says coffee farmer Denis Cortez. “We in the partnership organized ourselves, and now all get involved in working for the common good. We are more aware of the impacts of what we do, how to improve quality, and apply on our farms what we learn such as new processing methods.” He is one of thousands of producers that CDAIS and its partners are working with in western Honduras, with clear results.

This book collects 24 stories of change from the EU-funded CDAIS project. Launched in 2015, the overall objective of CDAIS is to make agricultural innovation systems more efficient and sustainable in meeting the demands of farmers, agri-business and consumers. The stories are about the eight pilot countries - in Africa, Asia and Latin America - in which CDAIS operates. Countries and title of the 24 stories are provided below, with date of last update for each story.

Angola:

01) From farm to agri-business (February 2018)

Ante los inmensos retos institucionales que plantea la construcción de un nuevo sistema de extensionismo en México, el proceso de diseño de políticas públicas correspondiente requiere de esfuerzos multidisciplinarios, combinados con ejercicios de reflexión que rebasen el ámbito nacional para nutrirse de las experiencias, aprendizajes y propuestas creativas provenientes de otros horizontes.

Con base en las limitaciones analizadas en el extensionismo tradicional, este documento propone un Sistema Integral de Organizadores Comunitarios (SICOMUN) en el que los Organizadores sean seleccionados por procedimientos meritocráticos, se encuentren vinculados a un proceso de capacitación permanente que les permita escalar en posiciones e incentivos a la manera del Servicio Nacional de Investigación y sean apoyados por un arreglo institucional de acompañamiento.

El presente documento contiene la propuesta conceptual y metodológica para la elaboración y puesta y en marcha de una herramienta que permita verificar el grado de modernidad de la segunda generación de planes de ordenamiento territorial (POT) y la primera generación de planes de ordenamiento departamental (POD), a partir de la revisión de los contenidos de los documentos asociados a los Planes y de los procesos desarrollados para su construcción.