This is a common problem in international agricultural development – a project with external funding and support has achieved impressive first results, but funds are running out, time is running out, and there is no clear plan to continue and expand the success of the project.
Over the past seven years, the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has established Green Innovation Centers in 13 countries in Africa and two countries in Asia to support mechanization adoption in collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). y projects in ways that enhance long-term food security and promote economic growth. Now, as the project enters its final two-year funding period, GIZ and CIMMYT are focused on ensuring that the benefits generated by the Green Innovation Center are not lost.
As with any complex challenge, there is no single solution to the problem of sustainability, but CIMMYT is trying to solve the huge question of why pilot projects fail in agricultural development by introducing a systematic approach to scalability. This approach recognizes the importance of environment and space projects on a sustainable path before the money runs out.
As the Green Innovation Center enters a crucial final phase, the CIMMYT-led team recently completed the training of seven GIZ staff from Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Ethiopia and Zambia, who are now certified to use the CIMMYT scaling tool and train others to put their country’s agricultural innovations on a solid growth path. The training team included Lennart Waltering, CIMMYT Scaling Consultant, Leon Jamann, CIMMYT Mechanization Support Specialist, and students from the Universities of Hohenheim and Weinstephan-Triesdorf in Germany.
Scaling Scan is a hands-on tool that helps users set clear growth goals, analyze their readiness to scale through ten key elements, and identify specific areas that need attention to reach their scaling goals.
GIZ staff learned how to use zoom scanning, applying it to early innovations in their country, from commercial feed production in the southern provinces of Zambia to the seed value chain in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia.
In Ethiopia, small-scale bean, wheat and maize farmers are fighting to increase yields to levels that improve food security, provide higher incomes for producers and their families, and promote economic growth and employment in farming communities. To help small farmers develop sustainable solutions, GIZ Senior Consultant Molla Dessalen joined the team at his Green Innovation Center to brainstorm and present a series of 20 innovative proposals ranging from risk mitigation and new contract structures to the introduction of new technologies, all to boost agricultural productivity. economy.
To date, more than 200,000 smallholder farmers in Ethiopia have gained new knowledge and methods to improve their production through these innovations. But as the project closed, Molla and his team scrambled to determine which innovations had the best chance of surviving and progressing past the finish line. So they tested their pilot project with Scaling Scan.
The scan included an intense one-day workshop originally intended for face-to-face communication, but the remote version also proved successful as COVID restricted global travel. Scanning focuses on a comprehensive analysis and assessment of the current status of pilot projects and their growth potential, taking into account realities.
Coordinators lead program managers in assessing the ten elements needed for successful scaling, from finance and collaboration to technology, expertise and public sector management. The result is a clear set of data to evaluate the scalability of a pilot project and focus on specific areas of improvement before the project can achieve significant growth.
The scan results surprised Molla. He believes that some of the more successful early-stage strategies, such as contract farming schemes, scored poorly, while the scan found the deployment of mobile seed cleaners as a particularly promising scalability solution. These results prompted the team to refocus on this strategy.
About 95 percent of small farmers in Ethiopia rely on informal seed systems, either saving and reusing seeds or trading poor quality seeds with other farmers. Seed washing plays a vital role in helping farmers establish a high quality, high yielding seed development system. Molla and his team have already distributed three mobile seed cleaning machines in partnership with the Oromiya Small Farmers Cooperative, which they know farmers in the region rely on.
Among other things, the Zoom scan showed them that the successful implementation of the seed cleaner has more potential — an innovation that local stakeholders, including the Department of Agriculture, can support and even scale up.
The results prompted Molla to recommend investing in more mobile seed cleaners — four for the cooperative in the Amhara region and five for the Arsi West district in Oromia. The machines are now being used to help more small farmers improve the quality of their seed stocks. This initial expansion confirms the results of Scaling Scan, a growth that CIMMYT plans to continue to support by acquiring another series of seed cleaners.
Scaling Scan also identified problems with the business model of supporting mobile seed cleaners through cooperatives in Ethiopia, prompting the Green Innovation Center to work with consultants to improve this area. Thus, one of the most important advantages of scanning is its ability to guide the decision-making process.
Seed cleaners alone will not solve all crop problems for Ethiopian farmers, but scanning has already helped the initial introduction and adaptation of new agricultural mechanization in two regions of the country, with more coming soon.
Now that he is certified as an instructor, Molla plans to help farmers, policy makers and other developers apply this rigorous approach to evaluating innovations that show potential. When funding for his project ends in 2024, he will leave Ethiopia’s 300,000 smallholder farmers with more than just machines – he will leave them with the knowledge, experience and practice to take full advantage of the technologies that are now improving their yield solutions and creating a safer future. for their communities.
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