Poster prepared by Sylvain Mapatano and Rachel Zozo for the Capacity Development Workshop of the CGIAR Research Program on Humidtropics, Nairobi, 29 April–2 May 2014

1. Overview of the Mushinga innovation
platform, Democratic Republic of the Congo
MAPATANO Sylvain1 and ZOZO Rachel2
Context and platform
background
 Launchsing of Action Site meeting: to
select Action Site 23-24 may 2013
 4 meetings have been organized to explain
the spirit of the programme
 Field visit was organized in November 2013
“Improvement of Cassava-Grain Legumes
Production Systems through Livestock
Integration” was identified as entry theme
 Rapid Appraisal for Agricultural Innovation
System (RAAIS) workshop to identify and
prioritize entry points : February 2014
 Innovation Platform (IP) establishment and
Management training: April 2014
Opportunities and constraints
Opportunities:
 Various number of stakeholders. The
innovative idea is to work on the value-chain
with a limited numbers of actors to be
engaged for a beginning
 Presence of active farmer organizations or
associations
 Presence of active R4D partners at field level
 Political cooperation and involvement of
local leaders
 Promiximity to Bukavu
 Accessibility to other sites
Constraints:
 Post-conflict region with a number of
humanitarian actors
 Limited number of CG centers to work
around issues identified during the RAAIS
workshop
 Productivity must be enhanced so that
agrodealers and microfinance can get
interest
Pictures
Conclusions and ways forward
 Integrated farming system crop-livestock
component
 Integrated research systems on productivity,
nutrition, natural reseouce management,
market and product policy developement;
and gender and youth involvement
 Soil fertilization though ISFM (Integrated
Soil Fertility Management)
 Water conservation management
 Agroforesterie practices
 Workplan developed and activities to be
implementd by September at Field site level
 The Institutionnal arrangement to make IPs
function is a key question we need to raise
 Some research work should be done very
soon, such as market analysis and business
plan development
Platform progress
 IP first formal meeting was organized on 15 April 2014
 Meetings will be scheduled on a monthly basis and debate
will be oriented around organizational issues
 Some activities to prepare next harvest season (May-June)
have been planned
 Reflexion for the next rain season has commenced in term
of land access, involvement of public sector …
Platform facilitation and
learning
 Facilitating IP platform needs good
capacity of communication
 The knowledge of the site is an
important key
 Good contacts in the area is also
important
 At the beginning, facilitator must
invest time in the establishment of
the IP
 It is important to have a good
internal organization for the
documentation of the process
 The support of the ASF is crucial
Mapatano Sylvain, mapatano_s@yahoo.fr ● Bukavu, DRC Zozo Rachel,
z.mulangala@cgiar.org , IITA, DRC
Prepared for a capacity development workshop of the
CGIAR Research Program on Humidtropics, Nairobi, 29 April – 2 May 2014
http://humidtropics.cgiar.org/
This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution –Non commercial-
Share Alike 3.0 Unported License April 2014
April- May 2014
Platform characteristics
 Farmers are the most represented group
(75%)
 Key stakeholders represented namely
Farmers, NGO, inputs dealer, transporter,
local leader, health centres, traders: 21
women and 13 men
 The IP is operating at the community level
called “Groupement”
 The IP has been recently activated and
platform members are currently defining
rules and procedures ( to be validated in
May) through a small committee
 At this stage two people are facilitating:
the President of the Community Based
Organization (CBO) consortium and a staff
of the Food for Hungry (NGO)