Applied Research Fund country workshop in Uganda

The Food & Business Applied Research Fund (ARF) addresses the knowledge and research needs of partners in the bilateral food security programmes of the 15 Dutch development cooperation partner countries and focuses on food security as a local challenge. From June 18 to 20, 2019 an ARF country workshop takes place in Uganda, organized by NWO-WOTRO together with the Food & Business Knowledge Platform and AgriProFocus Uganda. All Uganda-based projects have now published factsheets with their midterm or final research results.

The areas of interest and objectives of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs form the focal points of the ARF projects. The projects develop new solutions for practical problems in the partner countries. They aim to help the most vulnerable populations, and to align with the strategic plans of the Embassies. All research is jointly conducted by local practitioners’ organizations and research or higher education institutes.

The projects integrate the knowledge of practitioners and scientists in joint research (co-creation). In this way, project teams generate new insights that really can add value through new products, processes, services, technologies or policies. In order to increase the chance of success, all teams describe, before the start, how their activities will contribute to outcomes and impacts, with verifiable indicators for the output and outcome levels.

You can find an overview of all ARF projects here.

Country workshop

All ARF projects situated in Uganda will come together from June 18 to 20, 2019 to take stock of the insight and outcomes and jointly reflect, learn and work on further uptake of results. In the ARF Uganda Country Workshop the focus will be on enhancing outcomes and (potential) impact of the ARF Uganda projects in policy and practice, and facilitate further uptake of knowledge.

The first workshop day is an internal ARF project day and is designed to share lessons learned among the projects and best practices for change and scaling. Thereafter, a public dialogue will take place with the overall theme “Strengthening Ugandan Food and Nutrition Security in policy and practice – Scaling innovations from food and agricultural research”. Here, ARF project insights and outcomes will be showcased and discussed on specific themes with a broad group of external stakeholders from policy and practice in order to facilitate scaling. The workshop finishes with a field day to the Value Addition Institute and the Food Technolocy Business Incubation Centre (MAK-FBTIC), both partners of the “Affordable protein fortified cereal products developed in Uganda (Afri-Taste)” project.

Factsheets

Please find below the factsheets recently published by the projects sharing their final or midterm results.

Applied Research Fund Call 1

• Cashew nuts for farmers’ income Uganda: factsheet with final findings.
• Farmer-led soil innovations to sustain food production in Uganda: factsheet with final findings.
• Affordable protein fortified cereal products developed in Uganda (Afri-Taste): factsheet with final findings.
• Stabilizing sesame productivity in northern Uganda: factsheet with midterm findings.

Applied Research Fund Call 2

• Cassava Applied Research for Food Security in Northern Uganda: factsheet with final findings.
• Strengthening agribusiness Ethics, Quality Standards & ICT usage in Uganda’s value chains? (AGRI-QUEST): factsheet with final findings.
• Enhancing Rice Markets in Uganda through Smart Micronutrient Fertilization (ENRICH): factsheet with final findings.

Applied Research Fund Call 3

• Improved Resilience Through Sustainable Production Of Grafted Tomatoes In Uganda (IRESO): factsheet with midterm findings.
• Enhancing Rice-Greengram productivity in Northern Uganda (ERIGNU): factsheet with midterm findings.
• Commercial Seed System for African Indigenous Vegetables in Uganda: factsheet with midterm findings.