Capacity for knowledge-based smallholder agriculture in Ethiopia: Linking graduate programs to market-oriented agricultural development: Challenges, opportunities and IPMS experience

CIDA

Graduate Programs in agriculture and allied disciplines in Ethiopia (henceforth theGPs) are expected to make concrete contributions towards achieving market-led andknowledge-based transformation of smallholder agriculture. To that end, strengtheningcapacities of the GPs and linking them to development deserve due policy attention.No panacea exists, however, as to how the programs can be better strengthened, linked,and become more responsive. Lessons from initiatives on the ground in the countryand beyond are thus crucial to inform policy and the development of context specificinnovative strategies. This paper aims to make a modest contribution to the discoursein Ethiopia and beyond on transforming GPs related to agriculture into ‘developmentalinstitutions’. The paper highlights the imperatives for knowledge-based transformation ofsmallholder agriculture in Ethiopia and emerging roles of GPs; discusses key challengesof the GPs to realize their mandates and to meet ever changing expectations.It also presents a case study of an initiative by +aimed at linking GPs through researchby students to commodity value chain development and actors, and discusses qualitativeand quantitative indicators of outcome in terms of enhanced research and learningexperience. The paper draws out some lessons and identifies strategic and practicaloptions, including from the review of good practices elsewhere, that may help to improvelearning and research in the GPs. The analysis shows that the GPs are currently facingseveral challenges, which could not be solved by government or by the programs alone,but rather require multiple linkages and collaborations. The GPs, on the one hand,need to be more proactive in creating linkages and partnering with regional and federalgovernments, and with development/interventions, and, on the other, actors who aretruly committed to sustainability should be more willing to integrate systematically intodevelopment programs, as a critical component, partnering with and strengtheningcapacity of key capacity building national institutions, such as the GPs. Revitalizingthe programs calls for holistic approach from an innovation systems perspective, multiprongedand multi-level strategies, and long-term commitments.