The role of root and tuber crops in strengthening agri‐food system resilience in Asia. A literature review and selective stakeholder assessment.

This publication begins with a review of the literature on resilience, noting the wide diversity of perspectives on the term and the range of disciplines that have employed the concept. From its use to describe engineering systems that are close to equilibrium, the concept of resilience has evolved to characterize non‐linear systems far from equilibrium in ecology and later, in social‐ecological systems where resilience derives from the complex interactions of ecosystems and social systems. It then looks in some detail at the way the term resilience has been used more recently in relation to recovery from disaster and in assuring food and nutrition security. Drawing on this literature, and also on earlier food security work by the Food Security Through Asian Root and Tuber Crops project (FoodSTART), a provisional conceptual framework was proposed to help understand the relationship between shocks and stressors and the social‐ecological system. For this review the latter is characterized as the agri‐food system made up of interacting households with their food access, assets, knowledge and social capital and more or less diverse and robust agro‐ecologies. Shocks and stresses can directly affect food security outcomes, such as through the destruction of crops. But responses coming from the agency of individuals, households and communities in the form of preparedness, coping, adaptation and transformation, can mitigate the negative food security outcomes. In the light of the theoretical background and the proposed agri‐food system resilience framework, the paper goes on to review literature on different agri‐food systems in the Asian region. It identifies the key characteristics and vulnerabilities of these systems and the important functions of roots and tubers within them. The ubiquity of root and tuber crops (RTCs) among ethnic minorities practicing shifting agriculture throughout the tropical and sub‐tropical hill areas of Asia because they are robust, can be continuously harvested and can be depended upon to contribute to household food and nutritional security. Roots and tubers, especially cassava and potato, also have played significant roles in the widespread transformation of shifting systems into more commercial, permanent field agriculture. Roots and tubers are also important rotation and relay crops in lowland agri‐food systems in Asia, including in coastal areas, where they have been shown to have a role as ‘secondary’ relay crops with primary food and resilience‐related functions. The planting of RTCs in these systems gives rise to their reputation as emergency food. They contribute to increased productivity of the systems through use of marginal spaces and reduced risk through their capacity to withstand weather extremes. Finally, RTCs play a key role in rural and urban homegardens, a distinct agri‐food system that is widespread in the region. This literature, which was analyzed through the lens of the agri‐food system resilience framework, also provided evidence of the important contribution of roots and tubers to mitigating the effects of different kinds of climate change‐related stressors and shocks and contributing to system adaptation. The paper also presents and discusses the specific characteristics and traits that make these crops particularly tolerant or resistant to shocks and stressors (especially abiotic stressors like heat, drought, soil salinity and water‐logging and shocks like typhoons/cyclones) and important contributors to post‐disaster recovery (for instance, due to the possibility of piecemeal harvesting and their short growing cycles). In order to validate the findings from the literature review about Asian agri‐food system resilience and the role of roots and tubers within it, a ground‐truthing was conducted through field studies in Northeast India and in central Philippines. This provided access to the voices of women and men who faced different types of shocks and stressors and allowed a better understanding about how they responded, including the role played by RTCs in their responses to the adverse events. It was possible to go beyond homogenous household and community responses to shocks and stressors through differentiating perceptions in terms of genders and socio‐economic status. Whilst those who were better off were often more prepared and more able to respond because of greater asset endowment, some kinds of stressors, such as livestock diseases in East Khasi Hills, affected the better off more severely. The paper presents f examples of adaptation and even transformation occurring among households with different socio‐economic status. Prompted by the literature survey, women and men were also asked about subjective resilience, the individuals’ self‐perceptions about their ability to ‘bounce back’ or ‘bounce forward’ and conversely people’s loss of hope and feeling of incapacity. There was evidence of strong positivity among some women’s groups in the face of stressors and shocks and a determination to “fight back with all their strength”. This included a determination and confidence to find ways to reestablish agriculture by striving to obtain seeds. The importance of reestablishing access to seed through any means available confirmed the commonly identified importance in the literature of seed as a means for supporting longer‐term recovery after shocks and stresses. It was not always easy to differentiate between types of agency deployed in response to crises, in other words between coping and adaptation and transformation. The case studies also showed differences in responses both within the environments selected and also between them, especially in terms of the level of post‐disaster assistance received and the self‐characterization of responses by different socio‐economic groups. Discussions with the farming households involved in the field study supported conclusions from both the agro‐ecosystem and the technical literature regarding root and tuber crops. They were reported to play a key role in both highland mixed systems and coastal systems in Asia, agri‐food systems which are among the most vulnerable to climate change. In summary, these crops contribute to the robustness and diversity of agro‐ecologies and strengthen preparedness, coping and adaptation strategies of households

Qualitative, comparative and collaborative research at large scale:The GENNOVATE Field Methodology

We present a field-tested “medium-n” qualitative comparative methodology, which enhances understanding of the strong and fluid influence of gender norms on processes of local agricultural innovation in the Global South. The GENNOVATE approach (“Enabling Gender Equality in Agricultural and Environmental Innovation”) weaves together three broad methodological challenges—context, comparison, and collaboration—and highlights how addressing the social context of innovation contributes to applied research. We discuss GENNOVATE’s analytic approach, sampling framework, data collection, and analysis procedures, and reflect critically on the research strategies adopted to document and learn from the perspectives and experiences of over 7,000 women and men in 137 villages across 26 low- and middle-income countries

Managing complexity and uncertainty in agricultural innovation through adaptive project design and implementation

The recent shift towards agricultural innovation systems recognizes that agricultural development is complex and must involve multiple actors. This makes innovation through a project framework inherently challenging. This paper draws lessons from a project that fostered postharvest innovations in Uganda. First, a two-stage design allowed scoping out business cases with partners to identify potential innovations. Second, stakeholders used the Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) to flexibly develop the innovations. Third, flexible funding made it possible to seize new opportunities along the way. Fourth, the project was attentive to surprises in implementation and encouraged reflection

An agriculture and health inter-sectorial research process to reduce hazardous pesticide health impacts among smallholder farmers in the Andes

Authors are also recipients of the Teasdale-Corti grant (103460-068)Work with multiple actors is needed to shift agriculture away from pesticide use, and towards greater sustainability and human health, particularly for vulnerable smallholder farmers. This research in potato and vegetable farming communities in the Andean highlands worked with partners from various sectors over several projects. Increased involvement in organic agriculture was associated with greater household food security and food sovereignty. More diversified, moderately developed agricultural systems had lower pesticide use and better child nutrition. The Ecuadorian Ministry of Health has rolled out pesticide poisoning surveillance modeled on this research

Research-development partnerships for scaling complex innovation: Lessons from the Farmer Business School in IFAD-supported loan-grant collaborations in Asia

The Farmer Business School (FBS) is a participatory, action learning process focused on product and business development, and like the Farmer Field School, is a complex, multi-dimensional innovation with the potential to benefit large numbers of farming households economically, socially and institutionally. Scaling this approach requires rethinking both innovation and scaling. The paper draws on the insights of recent research which argues that a systems approach to innovation can better address the complexity of scaling processes and provides frameworks that link together processes of innovation and scaling. In examining these frameworks, the paper identifies the key role of partnership dynamics in those processes. Drawing on both the innovation and scaling literature and literature on partnership dynamics, a conceptual framework is developed to analyze how partnership dynamics contribute to and constrain the transition from small-scale ‘niche’ innovation testing led by researchers, to large scale integration of the approach by development partners in agricultural ‘regimes’. Using case studies involving partnerships between a small international agricultural research grant recipient and six large development projects supported by IFAD multilateral loans and managed by government agencies undertaken in four Asian countries between 2011 and 2018, the study analyses the variable dynamics of the partnerships from initial networking to integrated collaboration, in the process of scaling the FBS innovation. Responding to the main research question about the drivers of partnership dynamics that contribute to scaling, the paper examines the partnerships in terms of six drivers which derived both from the literature and also from the empirical evidence presented in the study. The drivers include two dimensions of “fit”, one about the convergence of research expertise and development demand, the other about the systematic integration of the innovation with different elements of the development actions. Other drivers relate to the issue of the convergence of project cycles, the stability of staffing in partner organizations, internal decision-making processes and the dimension of “partnering” – the value-based and behavioral aspects of collaboration. The paper also discusses the results of a “partnership health check-up” process conducted periodically during the partnerships and reconsiders the driver about system fit to understand the extent to which there had been a transformation in the conventional ‘regime’ approach to innovations and scaling. Finally, the paper proposes to adjust the conceptual framework based on the analysis of these partnerships for scaling innovations

Toward more nutritious diets for young children in southern Bangladesh: Assessing the contribution of Community Nutrition Scholars and identifying constraints to utilization of orange-fleshed sweetpotato

This study seeks to assess progress so far towards achieving Output 4 of the project ‘Strengthening food system resilience in Asia's mega deltas with salt-tolerant sweetpotato and potato’, namely increased utilization of improved OFSP and P varieties by target households (HHs), especially to support and improve the nutrition of small children. The intervention strategy to achieve that output involved combining nutrition and hygiene education given by a cadre of community nutrition scholars (CNS) to mothers of small children combined with the distribution of planting material of nutritionally beneficial crops to those women. This assessment uses sexspecific Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with selected women participants in the training and selected male spouses or other male relatives of women who participated, with one female and one male FGD located in each of the sub-districts (upazilas) targeted in the training interventions. In addition, two FGDs were conducted with CNS, one in each of the target districts. FGDs were adapted to the conditions of the coronavirus pandemic, so numbers of women and men were smaller than a normal FGD and the timing of the FGD shorter. The CNS FGDs were maintained at a more regular size (10 persons) to capture experiences from the different sub-districts. The FGDs aimed to understand whether the participation by mothers in the CNS training program resulted in changes in mothers’ and fathers’ knowledge and behavior that in turn contributed to children’s improved nutrition and health. The study also examined what were the specific constraints and opportunities involved in the utilization of OFSP as a nutritional food for young children

Agricultura urbana : motor para o desenvolvimento municipal sustentável

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