Between the middle and end of April 2022, the first four Innovation platforms in Burkina Faso and Senegal should be launched within the focus areas. In Saria, Yilou, Ouarkhorkh and Niakhar there is now officially a team composed of farmers; value chain actors, like processors and bankers; extensionists; research partners and officials. This team represents the local stakeholders' interests in dealing with sustainable intensification based on crop, shrub, livestock (CSL) integration.
It was quite time-consuming to put these 20-headed teams together, inform everybody of the aim, assure its functioning and motivate to select the appropriate people within organisations. In the first year, the innovation platforms are supposed to meet quarterly to decide on priority innovations based on proposals developed by SustainSahel researchers in the field of agroforestry, soil sciences and livestock.
The respective national producer federation- CPF - The Peasant Confederation of Burkina Faso and CNCR - National Council for Concertation and Rural Cooperation from Senegal were the main organizers of these platforms. We are now all keen to see fruitful interactions in the coming months between these local stakeholders from the practice with the researchers.
Written by: Gian Nicolay: FiBL, Work package 2 co-lead.