“I see mindset shifts being promoted by CDAIS says Gemechu Nemie, director of the Ethiopian Animal Feed Industry Association (EAFIA) and a key member of the livestock feed safety and quality innovation niche. And this is the sort of change that the CDAIS project is beginning to engender, as partners start to implement approaches that better promote innovation in agriculture, by inspiring small and simple personal revolutions… Ethiopia is one of eight CDAIS pilot countries, and within each, several ‘niches’ or ‘innovation partnerships’ have been selected.

For many years, rural women have been creating their own agri-food processing companies, that promote local agriculture by bringing to the market original foods in products that are accessible to urban populations. The aim of CDAIS is to support their development by strengthening their capacities to experiment and learn together, as well as to negotiate and make contracts with suppliers and traders. And Dakoupa in Bobo Dioulasso is one of many small family businesses supported by CDAIS through the women-led agri-food processing microenterprise innovation partnership.

Chickpea is an important crop in Ethiopia, but yields and grain quality remain poor. To help unlock the full potential, CDAIS has supported the value chain around the northern city of Gondar since 2016, in partnership with the N2Africa project. As a result of new platforms, experience sharing and developing a combination of new organisational skills and behavioural change, research and extension support services stopped telling and started listening, and joined forces in innovating together with farmers.

The CDAIS ‘marketplace’ to promote agricultural innovations in Burkina Faso took place on July 6th 2017 in Ouagadougou. It was a rich event involving more than 80 people who are working directly with, or interested in working with, different partnerships. The marketplace allowed stakeholders in the six selected niches to get to know and develop relationships with suppliers of agricultural support services. It also provided an opportunity for service suppliers and other participants to show their interests in accompanying the niches on their respective journeys…