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Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification

Tag: collaboration

SIIL Supported Graduate Student Finds Employment with Peace Corps Senegal

Fatou Tine is in her last year of her PhD program at the University of Dakar in Senegal, conducting research for her dissertation funded through support from the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification (SIIL) at Kansas State University (KSU).

After graduating with a master’s degree from Virginia Tech in May 2016, she decided to return to her home country, Senegal, and contribute to its agricultural development by sharing her knowledge with farmers and young students who are currently training to be tomorrow’s leaders. As excited as she was to return and contribute to the modernization and expansion of her country’s expansive agricultural sector, she, at first, could not find any opportunities open for her to do so, as there were no positions available at the time. Therefore, she spent her first two months in Senegal at home and, from time to time, visiting and assisting friends from university and other research institutions. Fortunately, at the end of her second month back home, she received the opportunity to participate in data collection for a survey on cashew farmers in the Kolda area.

Fatou Tine conducting biomass sampling for research. Photo provided by: Fatou Tine

While conducting this data collection for the National Center of Forestry Research, she met an acquaintance who spoke to her about SIIL and its important role in assisting with sustainable agriculture research in Senegal.  With this funding, aimed at building capacity in SIIL target countries in East and West Africa, as well as Southeast Asia, researchers and students alike,  and youth and women in particular, have the opportunity to be trained in their field, as well as conduct research on their chosen topic.  After meeting with the in-country SIIL team, she was selected as a PhD student in Agronomy, and received funding to do both her studies and her research.

As Fatou observes, “A woman running an agriculture project is not an easy thing to do in Senegal, however, with the support from the wonderful SIIL team, I was able to conduct my field experiments, collect data, and also enjoy time with my family.”

During these last three years, SIIL has not only provided funding for her research, but has also provided several opportunities for personal and professional development through trainings, meetings and other relevant activities. Additionally, working with SIIL has allowed her to improve her knowledge and skills in agriculture, particularly within the Senegalese agricultural system, as well as internationally.

As a result of her time working with SIIL and its partners, most recently she had the opportunity to connect with Peace Corps Senegal, leading to her securing a position with them as an Agriculture Program and Training Specialist. This is especially exciting, as SIIL maintains a close partnership with the in-country Peace Corps program, providing training to new and continuing agriculture Peace Corps volunteers. “I am excited to use my skills professionally and am very grateful for the opportunities that SIIL has provided for me though their support”, says Fatou.

 

SIIL- Peace Corps training in Senegal. Fatou is third from left in the front row. Photo credit: Peace Corps Senegal Staff

Bridging the Gap: Connecting Women in Research, Farming and the Peace Corps

 Photo Credit: LaTrese Taylor

I remember vividly that a desire to travel and have a career in social programs was borne from my grandmother’s dreams, conversations with her, and the humble way in which she lived her life. Up until middle school, our household did not have a television, so listening to the radio led us into countless discussions on social topics in the United States and abroad. Our immediate family gave to churches, to other family members and friends, and of course, to organizations such as “Feed the Children”, which worked extensively in Africa.

Fast-forward thirty-five years. I am now a military retiree and reflecting on a family dynamic that brought an awareness of needs outside of my community and the United States, and making a transition into international development felt like the natural next step, only I didn’t know what that looked like until Peace Corps (PC) Senegal began their work with Kansas State University’s Sustainable Intensification and Innovation Lab (SIIL). In 2018, PC Senegal, SIIL and the Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA) partnered together to demonstrate new agricultural technology and innovations in the fields of PC/Senegal’s Master Farmers. Under this program, Senegalese graduate student Khady Diome came to Keur Bakary, a small village in Senegal, to lead a research site.  She worked on testing millet and fertilizer varieties as well as seed-spacing techniques in the fields of three local farmers.

In conferences and one-on-one discussions, what echoed in my head time and again is that there needs to be an intermediary with the ability to connect more research and pilot projects to government organizations and institutions, as well as smallholder farmers, without a long lead-time. With this trifecta partnership, we are building synergies that will be able to breach this paradigm and, in turn, Master Farmers like Chiekh Dieng can work with researchers to identify more readily technology that has been tailored to his community’s farming practices and challenges, but with “scaled up” benefits for the broader Senegalese farming system.


ISRA researcher Khadi Diome and Master Farmer Chiekh Dieng 
Photo Credit: LaTrese Taylor

As I prepare to wrap up my third year with Peace Corps Senegal, I plan to return to American University in Washington D.C. to pursue a Master’s Degree in International Development, with focus in West African Food Security, armed with the hands-on experience in working with researchers. Working with PC Senegal to manage this partnership also gave me a birds-eye view of what research-led youth development looks like in Senegal, and how research that incorporates nutrition-led agriculture, can fit into the greater system. In this particular scenario, my primary role was creating the linkage between the smallholder farmer and the researcher, and while it may have been a small role, it was still one with a potentially large impact in making these type of relations more customary in the future. This theme obviously warrants more discussion and work, and I plan continue working in the international development community to see how that unfolds and how I can contribute to its growth.

 

LaTrese Taylor

Food Security Peace Corps Volunteer Leader

Peace Corps Senegal 2016-2019

Collaborate, Learn, Adapt: 2017 SIIL Annual Meeting

Thirty-six researchers and collaborators from 10 countries, and 12 states within the U.S. gathered to learn about the annual progress and discuss future opportunities for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification (SIIL). The theme for the meeting held in Manhattan, KS, was: Collaborate, Learn, Adapt.

Collaborate.

 

Participants started the meeting with a knowledge sharing activity. Scientists from each project shared their progress and future plans via poster and small group discussion. Each table formulated questions and comments regarding their work. This was a great opportunity to foster collaboration between researchers of different expertise. Nutritionists, gender specialists, and farming systems experts were able to offer input and guidance on how to best incorporate these disciplines into their work. Each project was able to consider their work from varying viewpoints, ensuring that each domain of sustainable intensification (SI) was being considered and implemented. Continue reading “Collaborate, Learn, Adapt: 2017 SIIL Annual Meeting”

Feed the Future Innovation Lab’s Alliance Primed to Drive Sustainable Intensification in Ethiopia

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An Ethiopian farmer shows researchers how the rope and washer water-lifting technology works on his farm

The 24 innovation labs gathered under the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative are strongly expected to collaborate and bring synergies to address the problems caused by climate change with the aim of increasing food production for a growing population in the countries where they work.

Ethiopia is one of the Feed the Future focus countries with nine active labs (see this fact sheet). The Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab (SIIL) is one of these nine labs working in the country, through a sub-grantee, the Texas A&M Universityand its director Neville Clarke.

Clarke is also leading the Innovation Lab on Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI), which has been active in Ethiopia for over two years. ILSSI and SIIL are collaborating in Ethiopia through a grant from SIIL known as ‘Sustainably intensified production systems impact on nutrition’ (SIPS-IN). This grant complements the ILSSI and involves the same partners as well as Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston and Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia.

Continue reading “Feed the Future Innovation Lab’s Alliance Primed to Drive Sustainable Intensification in Ethiopia”