Changing Perceptions of Rangelands and Pastoralists through Multistakeholder Action before and during the IYRP

The International Year of Rangelands & Pastoralists (IYRP) should draw attention to rangelands and pastoralists and their economic, social, cultural and environmental contributions to global wellbeing. The “gap analysis” by UN Environment revealed much ignorance and misperceptions about rangelands and pastoralism among national governments, international institutions and the general public. The IYRP campaign seeks to foster better understanding of how rangelands are used in an ecologically sound and resource-efficient way, e.g. through mobile pastoralism. It seeks to raise awareness of the importance of rangelands and pastoralists among policymakers. It seeks to encourage investment in the rangelands and related policy support, referring especially to the initiatives of pastoralist men, women and groups and of other local people toward decent livelihoods. It seeks to convince conservationists of pastoralists’ contribution to biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource management. It seeks to raise the awareness of pastoralists themselves about the value of their production system and provide them with good arguments for defending its integrity. To make this possible, scientists need to work already now – years before the IYRP begins – to generate better evidence. The gaps in data about rangelands and pastoralists need to be filled so that well-founded information is available to draw the world’s attention to the importance of pastoralists and rangelands during the IYRP and beyond. This presentation sets the stage for country/regional papers that bring examples of concrete actions needed at those levels to generate information and awareness. Much of the work involves transdisciplinary and multisectoral research, as well as widespread sharing and discussion of the knowledge generated for the benefit of all stakeholders. The path toward the IYRP is as important as the Year itself. This session should encourage joint planning and implementation of multistakeholder endeavours before and during the IYRP to generate and analyse data and deepen global understanding of rangelands and pastoralism

Exploring the Information Base Needed for Sustainable Management of Rangeland Resources for Improved Livelihoods

Pastoralism is one of the most sustainable production systems worldwide and plays a major role in safeguarding ecosystem services and biodiversity in rangelands. The unique biological and cultural diversity of rangelands contributes to goods, services and knowledge that benefit humans also beyond the herding communities. Yet data currently available on grassland, forestry, agriculture and livestock are inadequate for informing policymaking on rangeland-based livestock systems. A review of global environmental assessments, online databases, peer-reviewed literature and international project documents showed that available information seldom disaggregates rangelands from other ecosystems or pastoralists from other rural dwellers. Few peer-reviewed publications address pastoral and rangeland issues combined. While some international projects present contextualised information on cases of pastoralism and rangelands, most do not share the data on their websites. A challenge encountered when seeking information is the inconsistency in defining pastoralists and rangelands. Estimates of the total number of pastoralists vary from 22 million to over half a billion; estimates of area covered by rangelands vary from 18% to 80% of the world’s land surface. The variation in definitions and lack of disaggregation of data lead to significant knowledge gaps on the condition and trends of pastoralism and rangelands. These therefore tend to be devalued. Underrating benefits of livestock mobility and inaccurate data on rangeland degradation could cause governments to blame and dismantle traditionally sustainable pastoral systems – in other words, ‘fix’ something that’s not broken. Without good data on pastoralists and rangelands, the impacts of current policies on these livelihoods and ecosystems cannot be assessed, and sustainable use and management of rangelands for improved livelihoods may be hindered. Improving the information base is high on the agenda of the initiative for an International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists to increase global awareness of the importance of rangelands and pastoralists for livelihoods and healthy ecosystems

Do theories of change enable innovation platforms?

Theories of change (ToCs) are increasingly used to articulate pathways for interventions and to support learning. This responds to the recognition of the complexity of agricultural development. Through two examples, this paper examines how ToCs have enabled practitioners to navigate towards impact in settings characterized by a multiplicity of views from different actors on issues of joint concern. The cases discuss how the intervention programs test the ToCs, as well as organize and reflect on feedback. The cases reveal that one cannot predict the route to impact, but one can compose plausible story lines explicating the assumptions. Developing and using ToCs takes time and requires a deliberate effort to monitor actions and changes. Connecting practitioners with researchers makes it possible to use more intermediate theorisations tailored to situated and specific impact pathways. However, the dynamics captured by ToCs may contrast with the donors’ demands for accountability and consistent reliance on a rigid log-frame approach to determine project activities and outputs. Therefore, it is relevant to make explicit choices about how to relate ToCs to M&E efforts

Making sense of innovation processes in african smallholder agricullture

The European-funded Framework Programme 7 project, Joint Learning in Innovation Systems in African Agriculture (JOLISAA), assessed agricultural innovation experiences focused on smallholders in Benin, Kenya, and South Africa. Fifty-six cases were characterized through review of grey literature and interviews with resource persons, according to a common analytical framework inspired by the innovation systems (IS) perspective. Thirteen of the cases were assessed in greater depth through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and multistakeholder workshops. The cases covered a wide diversity of experiences in terms of types, domains, scales, timelines, initiators of innovation and stakeholders involved. Findings revealed multiple triggers and drivers of innovation. For external stakeholders, key triggers included likelihood of offering a technological fix to an existing problem and availability of funding. For local people, access to input and output markets was a powerful trigger and driver. Market types and dynamics varied greatly. Developing functional value chains and accessing markets proved particularly challenging, especially for poorer and weakly organized farmers. Over long periods, determinants of innovation changed dynamically and often unpredictably, including motivations of key stakeholders, triggers, drivers and stakeholder arrangements. The direction of innovation evolved, often moving from a technology entry point to more organizational or institutional issues. A recurring challenge for fostering innovation is whether and how to build on local initiatives and knowledge, and how to sustain externally driven innovation processes beyond the project time frame. A major conclusion from JOLISAA is that innovation has to be seen as a continuously evolving process of ‘innovation bundles’ (a combination of different types of innovation) of various kinds, rather than as a pre-planned, and usually, narrowly-defined technical intervention. Consequently, open-ended, flexible approaches to innovation are needed with the potential to engage meaningfully over a long time with local stakeholders and bearers of local innovation dynamics, so that they take full charge of the innovation process and direction

Developing an award program for children's settings to support healthy eating and physical activity and reduce the risk of overweight and obesity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This paper aimed to identify the best way to engage, motivate and support early childhood services (ECS) and primary schools (PS) to create policy and practise changes to promote healthy eating and physical activity. This information would be used to develop a suitable program to implement within these children's settings to reduce the risk of childhood overweight and obesity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The Medical Research Council's (UK) framework for the design and evaluation of complex interventions was used to guide the development of the healthy eating and physical activity program suitable for ECS and PS. Within this framework a range of evaluation methods, including stakeholder planning, in-depth interviews with ECS and PS staff and acceptability and feasibility trials in one local government area, were used to ascertain the best way to engage and support positive changes in these children's settings.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both ECS and PS identified that they had a role to play to improve children's healthy eating and physical activity. ECS identified their role in promoting healthy eating and physical activity as important for children's health, and instilling healthy habits for life. PS felt that these were health issues, rather than educational issues; however, schools saw the link between healthy eating and physical activity and student learning outcomes. These settings identified that a program that provides a simple guide that recognises good practise in these settings, such as an award scheme using a health promoting schools approach, as a feasible and acceptable way for them to support children's healthy eating and physical activity.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Through the process of design and evaluation a program - <it>Kids - 'Go for your life'</it>, was developed to promote and support children's healthy eating and physical activity and reduce the risk of childhood overweight and obesity. <it>Kids - 'Go for your life' </it>used an award program, based on a health promoting schools approach, which was demonstrated to be a suitable model to engage ECS and PS and was acceptable and feasible to create policy and practise changes to support healthy eating and physical activity for children.</p

Fulani cattle productivity and management in the Kachia grazing reserve, Nigeria

Kachia Grazing Reserve (KGR) in northern Nigeria was home to some 10,000 Fulani pastoralists and their 40,000 cattle in June 2011. This study examines productivity and management of cattle belonging to livestock keepers within the reserve before and after a mass immigration event when 3,000 refugees moved into the reserve with their cattle to escape inter-community violence during May 2011. Data, on livestock management strategies (transhumance) and production parameters (herd size, composition, fertility, dynamics), were collected in March, June and October 2011.Cattle productivity in KGR is geared to supporting Fulani households while maintaining herd wealth. High offtake of young animals, especially the selling of heifers, was an unusual finding and may indicate that KGR pastoralists have been restricting their herd size voluntarily as well as limiting milk production to household requirements. This is probably due to the absence of a commercial milk market and a higher reliance on the sale of young stock to meet cash needs.Despite the widespread perception that grazing reserves are promoting sedentarisation of Fulani pastoralists and curbing transhumance, the inhabitants of the KGR were observed to practise wide-ranging transhumance both during wet and dry seasons driven by the limited availability of grazing. Some households selected a sub-sample of animals for transhumance rather than sending their whole herd, and some maintained cattle on alternative land-holdings outside the reserve. KGR households described modifying their usual transhumance practices in response to the mass immigration event and insecurity.Nevertheless, the herd demography results from this study are broadly similar to data obtained from other studies over the past 40 years, indicating that productivity and management practices have remained relatively unchanged

Effectiveness of innovation grants to smallholder agricultural producers: an explorative systematic review

Grants for agricultural innovation are common but grant funds specifically targeted to smallholder farmers remain relatively rare. Nevertheless, they are receiving increasing recognition as a promising venue for agricultural innovation. They stimulate smallholders to experiment with improved practices, to become proactive and to engage with research and extension providers. The systematic review covered three modalities of disbursing these grants to smallholder farmers and their organisations: vouchers, competitive grants and farmer-led innovation support funds. The synthesis covers, among others, innovation grant systems in Malawi (Agricultural Input Subsidy Programme), Latin America (several Challenge Funds for Farmer Groups), Uganda (National Agricultural Advisory Services ), and Colombia (Local Agricultural Research Committees - CIAL)

Patterns of Passage into protected areas: drivers and outcomes of Fulani immigration, settlement and integration into the Kachia Grazing Reserve, Northwest Nigeria

Abstract Increasing land use and associated competition for natural resources in the wake of high human and livestock population pressures have been major challenges confronting pastoralists of West Africa. This is especially true in Nigeria where Fulani make up 4% of the national population and prevailing national insecurity issues are impacting on pastoral livelihoods, including violent conflicts over land and ethnic, religious and political disparities. This study examined the dynamics of immigration within the Kachia Grazing Reserve (KGR), an exclusively Fulani pastoralist community in Kaduna State, northwest Nigeria, prompted by concerns from both the farming communities and the authorities about mounting pressure on existing limited resources, particularly in regard to availability of cattle grazing resources. Drawing from a household census conducted in 2011 and employing a range of qualitative methods (focus group discussions and key informant interviews), this study explored the drivers and consequences of immigration and subsequent integration within the KGR community. The study revealed two types of immigration: a steady trickle of pastoralists migrating to the reserve to settle and acquire land, secure from the stresses of competition from cultivators, and the sudden influx of internally displaced persons fleeing violent clashes in their areas of origin. Population pressure within the reserve has risen steadily over the past three decades, such that it is severely overgrazed (as evidenced by reports from the KGR community that the animals run short of pasture even during the wet season due to desertification and the spread of non-edible weeds). The newer immigrants, fleeing conflict, tended to arrive in the reserve with significantly larger herds than those kept by established residents. Pastoralists in the reserve have been forced back into the practice of seasonal transhumance in both wet and dry seasons to support their herds, with all the attendant risks of theft, clashes with cultivators and increased disease transmission

Citizen science breathes new life into participatory agricultural research : A review

Participatory research can improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and scope of research processes, and foster social inclusion, empowerment and sustainability. Yet despite four decades of agricultural research institutions exploring and developing methods for participatory research, it has never become mainstream in the agricultural technology development cycle. Citizen science promises an innovative approach to participation in research, using the unique facilities of new digital technologies, but its potential in agricultural research participation has not been systematically probed. To this end, we conducted a critical literature review. We found that citizen science opens up four opportunities for creatively reshaping research: i) new possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration, ii) rethinking configurations of socio-computational systems, iii) research on democratization of science more broadly, and iv) new accountabilities. Citizen science also brings a fresh perspective on the barriers to institutionalizing participation in the agricultural sciences. Specifically, we show how citizen science can reconfigure cost-motivation-accountability combinations using digital tools, open up a larger conceptual space of experimentation, and stimulate new collaborations. With appropriate and persistent institutional support and investment, citizen science can therefore have a lasting impact on how agricultural science engages with farming communities and wider society, and more fully realize the promises of participation