In March 2011, we caught up with ILRI’s Augustine Ayantunde. In this video, he introduces the ILRI-led project on ‘integrated management of rainwater in mixed crop-livestock integrated systems’ (in the Volta river basin).

Similar to the Nile Basin projects, the Volta Basin work aims to evaluate and test ‘best fit’ rainwater management strategies – but in Ghana and Burkina Faso.

According to Ayantunde, the approach of the project is not ‘business as usual.’ Instead of traditional linear resaarch for farmers, the emphasis is on the participation of local stakeholders and communities through innovation platforms. The platforms are mechanisms or spaces where many people involved in a value chain can meet together and collectively design, with the farmers, the right interventions.

Ayantunde and colleagues from West Africa will participate in the upcoming Nile Basin science and reflection workshop in Addis Ababa, 4-6 May 2011.

The Volta Basin Development Challenge is funded by the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF).

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