The imGoats project reflects on use of Outcome Mapping and innovation platforms to improve goat value chains

Group discussions at the imGoats project learning and reflection workshop, Udaipur, India, 2-6 July 2012 (photo credit: ILRI/Tezira Lore).

The imGoats project seeks to investigate how best goat value chains can be used to increase food security and reduce poverty among smallholders in semi-arid regions in India and Mozambique.

On 2-6 July 2012, the project teams from both countries met in Udaipur, India to take part in a learning and reflection workshop on the activities achieved so far and the work still remaining.

The five-day, intensive workshop gave the participants ample opportunity to discuss and share progress achieved by the teams in Rajasthan and Jharkhand in India and Vilanculos in Mozambique in order to learn from each other's experiences in using Outcome Mapping and innovation platforms to improve the functioning of goat value chains.

In addition, the teams were able to review their communication plans and refine their strategies towards identifying the communication outputs to be produced and activities to be undertaken in the final six months of the project.

"The agenda of the workshop was very dense but it is heartening to see that all the teams have made good progress. Outcome Mapping has helped us to adapt our planning and improve our work. The session on innovation platforms was useful for sharing experiences and frustrations, too, and how to overcome these," said imGoats project coordinator Saskia Hendrickx of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) at the close of the workshop.

"We have six months left and a lot to do but there is a good team spirit and we can make it," Hendrickx added.

For more information about the workshop, check out the session notes on the imGoats wiki or read some reflections by ILRI postdoctoral scientists Birgit Boogard and Ramkumar Bendapudi on their experiences with the use of Outcome Mapping and innovation platforms in India and Mozambique. Also check out the workshop photos on Flickr.

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Funded by the European Commission - International Fund for Agricultural Research (IFAD), the imGoats project is led by researchers from ILRI in collaboration with the BAIF Development Research Foundation in India and CARE International in Mozambique. For more information, visit imgoats.org.

Goat value chain actors in India and Mozambique hold innovation platform meetings

Small-scale goat production and marketing are important sources of livelihood for poor livestock keepers in the arid and semi-arid regions of India and Mozambique.

The Market Opportunities theme of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is leading a project in collaboration with BAIF Development Research Foundation in India and CARE International, Mozambique towards increasing incomes and food security in a sustainable manner by enhancing pro-poor small ruminant value chains in India and Mozambique.

The project Small ruminant value chains as platforms for reducing poverty and increasing food security in India and Mozambique (imGoats in short), which is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), got underway in February 2011.

It uses an innovation systems approach aimed at transforming informal subsistence-level goat production to a viable, profitable model while preserving community and national resource systems. In addition to goat keepers, project beneficiaries include small-scale traders and providers of inputs and animal health services.

Project partners in India and Mozambique recently facilitated inaugural innovation platform meetings in Inhassoro, Mozambique (May 2011) and Jhadol, Udaipur, India (July 2011). Innovation platforms offer an opportunity for the different actors in the goat value chain to gather and exchange knowledge and share experiences towards improving goat production and marketing processes for the benefit of all.

During the innovation platform meetings, participants shared the challenges and constraints they face during goat production/marketing and discussed possible solutions and priority areas for action towards addressing the constraints.

For more details about the imGoats project and to read the meeting reports, please visit http://imgoats.org or contact Dr Ranjitha Puskur of ILRI (r.puskur @ cgiar.org).

New project to study goat value chains as platform for boosting food security in India and Mozambique

A woman herds her goats in Rajasthan, India. New project targets goat value chains as pathways out of poverty for small-scale goat keepers in India and Mozambique. (Photo credit: ILRI/Mann)

Following a planning workshop in February 2011, a new project on goat value chains is now underway in India and Mozambique to investigate how best these value chains can be used to increase food security and reduce poverty among smallholders.


The main target groups are poor goat keepers, especially women, and other marginalized groups like scheduled castes and tribes in India; households living with HIV/AIDS and female-headed households in Mozambique. These include small-scale agropastoralists who cultivate small plots of land, as well as the landless.


The project, Small ruminant value chains as platforms for reducing poverty and increasing food security in India and Mozambique (imGoats), is led by researchers from the Market Opportunities theme of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in collaboration with the BAIF Development Research Foundation in India and CARE International, Mozambique. It is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Download the project brochure in English (Small ruminant value chains to reduce poverty and increase food security in India and Mozambique)

Download the project brochure in Portuguese (Cadeias de valor de caprinos como plataformas para reduzira pobreza e aumentar a segurança alimentar em zonas semi-áridas da Índia e Moçambique)

For more information, please email Dr Ranjitha Puskur at r.puskur @ cgiar.org

Featured video: The potential of livestock markets in Mozambique

What holds back Mozambican livestock keepers from making a better living from their farm animals are the country’s underdeveloped and unconnected livestock markets.

Find out more in this 6-minute film by ILRI, titled The potential of livestock markets in Mozambique.

Innovation platforms boost livestock value chains in Mozambique

A novel approach to enhancing livestock commercialization is helping to improve market participation by smallholder livestock keepers in semi-arid Mozambique.

The Innovation Platform (IP) approach uses value chain analysis to identify challenges and constraints to livestock production and marketing. Based on these, opportunities to overcome the bottlenecks are then sought.

By collectively engaging all value chain actors, the IP approach strengthens linkages among sector stakeholders thus helping to enhance efficiency through better alignment of livestock production and market requirements. In addition, improved flow of market information results in reduced transaction costs and greater market efficiency.

The Livestock and Livelihoods (LILI) project (Livestock and Livelihoods: Improving market participation of small-scale livestock producers), implemented from 2007, used the IP approach to contribute towards achieving the project's objectives.

These objectives were to: (1) improve market participation of small-scale goat and cattle keepers in semi-arid regions of Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe; (2) evaluate constraints to and opportunities for commercialization of smallholder production of goats and cattle; (3) test and evaluate alternative livestock marketing and input delivery systems; (4) assess the impact of market-led technology change on household incomes; and (5) establish an effective communication strategy to facilitate networking and exchange of information among sector stakeholders.

The LILI project was collaboratively undertaken by the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the National Agricultural Research Institute of Mozambique (IIAM), the Matopos Research Station of Zimbabwe and the Namibian National Farmers' Union (NNFU). 

Some of the experiences of implementing the IP approach in the LILI project are documented in an April 2010 report, The innovation platform in Mozambique: Evidence from Chicualacuala and Changara, by Dr Manuel Filipe, a scientist formerly with ILRI's Market Opportunities research theme.

"The Innovation Platform can be a platform for constructive debate and problem solving," Dr Filipe notes in his report. "The market actors as well as the local authorities have embraced it and it is being used as an entry point for other initiatives such as training and planning, among others," he adds.

The LILI project was funded by the European Union and supported by the Southern African Development Community.

Download the report

Citation
Filipe M. 2010. The innovation platform in Mozambique: Evidence from Chicualacuala and Changara. Project report. ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute), Nairobi. 18pp.