Towards paradigm shift to access agricultural knowledge and technologies through learning and innovation platforms

1. Towards paradigm shift to access agricultural knowledge and technologies through learning and innovation platforms RAILS Lessons Learning Workshop 15-16 August 2013 Mombasa, Kenya Experiences of RAILS Learning Teams from Ethiopia Abebekirub abebekirub@gmail.com

2. Introduction • The Ethiopian RAILS team was established in late 2010. • The team is composed of several stakeholders from Ethiopian agricultural research training/ education and development actors. • The vision of the team is “to see information and knowledge on Ethiopian agriculture is fully accessed.” Support to improve production and productivity (extension and development) Support capacity building (training and education) Support core business (research)

3. RAILS actors The RAILS team include relevant actors from • Ministry of Agriculture, • Regional States Bureauesof Agriculture, • Zone and district agricultural development offices, • Agricultural research institutes (at federal and regional states levels), • Higher learning institutions (with agricultural faculties), • Agricultural training and vocational colleges, • Farmers training centers, • NGOs (involved in agriculture and rural development activities), and • Community-based organizations (within the spectrum of agricultural development).

4. Assumption to establish RAILS During the establishment of the team and identification of potential RAILS member institutions, it was assumed that members are expected to open up their information and knowledge resources for more access by all stakeholders (farmers, pastoralists, professionals, advocates, development agents, researchers, and educators/ trainers).

5. Challenges The team had experienced certain key challenges mainly in scaling up of knowledge that can influence knowledge transfer. These key challenges include, but not limited to • Less insight on the issues revolving around RAILS; especially at middle level leaderships; • Inadequate openness to agricultural knowledge resources from member institutions/ organizations; • Less regard to RAILS by some individuals and institutions; who, as a result opt for other optional platforms (social media and networks); • Staff turnover/ high attrition rates of skilled staff; • Unforeseen commitments that led to less involved in group activities ; and • Weak linkages with DONATA and RAILS (staff turnover at DODATA side thus discontinuity of joint activities)

6. Swimming against the tide successfully Several knowledge objects such as leaflets, posters, banners, radio and TV broadcasts and newspapers and magazine articles have been used to reach the farming and pastoralist HH • Through the team and potential multipliers’ activities, it was possible to reach about 2-5% (220,000-550,000) of the farming household (estimated at 11 million) and made part of the direct benefits of the platform outputs. • This was made possible with professional assistance of researchers and extension agents • A number of information and knowledge objects were in place for a robust knowledge transfer • Policy and development actors are in support of the activities of RAILS where new agricultural technologies are transferred • There is also a sign of new partnership with industries who consume agricultural knowledge for that domain of value-chain associated with agriculture • Students of higher education are more inclined to the activities of RAILS for the partial completion of their graduation/ academic requirements

7. Major outcomes • Initiating team spirit of agricultural information and knowledge management professionals • Training web2 tools and associated ICM resources (e-RAILS essentials) • Improved science communication skills (especially, for agricultural researchers). One instance among the many includes training given to over 180 young agricultural researchers at federal and regional levels to skill up their scientific writing. The training was mainstreamed by modular packages as well as writing scientific manuscripts from a processed or analyzed data. Because of this training, between 2010 and 2012 over 37 journal articles were published by young researchers (who took the training) in reputable journals both within the country and at international levels. This training also helped researchers to train extension agents on how to prepare effective and functional production guidelines (brochures, leaflets, and posters).

8. Knowledge sharing and scaling out The joint activities of members were involved around sharing of agricultural knowledge through the following mechanisms • Arranging farmers days; • Facilitating open house activities in various research centers; • Supporting agricultural exhibitions; • Facilitating scientific communications; • Sharing information and knowledge management tools (such as KOHA, and DSPACE) • Arranging discussion forums; and • Online content publication (using ICT in disseminating agricultural information and knowledge) Support from the government is promising and maturing. One of the expected support of the government was that the team used all available government media outlets including TV stations, radio stations (AM and FM) and the press extensively free of charge. It is also true that private radio stations and private press are kind enough to offer air time and space to transmit agricultural information and knowledge at a wider scale. This shows that in Ethiopia, mass communication is considering agricultural research and development sectors seriously.

9. Looking ahead The way forward to better serve the target communities considering a sense of paradigm shift from earlier approach of establishing RAILS team will be done as follows: • Identifying sources of commitment (trustworthiness) of regularly responding institutions and capitalize on their strengths; • Identifying and labeling key gaps and opportunities for a strong and functional RAILS team; • Continuous learning and assessment; and • Recognizing best practices and innovations

10. Organizations in e-RAILS

11. Best five websites on eRAILS portals

12. Gender balance in eRAILS

13. Thank you for your attention!!