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GALA taking shape in Tanzania

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Silvia Silvestri, from CABI, explains that the Gender and the Legume Alliance (GALA) partners are planning to meet to kick-start the project in Tanzania …

The GALA project will operate in Ghana and Tanzania. In Tanzania we are building on a strong body of work that has been developing over the past 18 months to scale-up small-scale farmers to intensify production of common beans and soybean. In Ghana we will be looking to build new partnerships to deliver some campaign style activity.

The scale-up work in Ghana and Tanzania will leave a valuable legacy. However, GALA will also provide research for governments, investors and decision makers, that can inform the delivery of more effective policies and investments. This should lead to better-targeted, communication for farmers on agricultural intensification and more effective value chains. The research will take particular account of women and youth involved in legume value-chains.

The GALA project wants to work with decision-makers and stakeholders, at multiple levels, to finalize its research plans and build a shared oversight of the collection of data and packaging of information and lessons.

The next step for us is to organize a meeting of key stakeholders in Tanzania. This will bring together willing parties and will help build understanding about what is known about information sharing approaches for soybean and common bean. We then will be able to to tease out casual linkages and test internal assumptions at the different steps in the impact

In September there are some other useful meetings hosted by the Legume Alliance in Arusha, Tanzania. So, we are taking advantage of this gather information for the GALA project.

The focus of the DFID-funded project is to explore sustainable development. This is development that can support the long-terms intensification of agriculture without a detriment impact on the environment. The range of legume technologies work well in this respect and the Legume Alliance work on promoting improved seed, inoculation, P-fertilizer blends and good agricultural practice are proven technologies. The fact that beans are short duration crops means that farmers can recoup their investment in around 3 months.

The GALA meeting will take place on 27 September 2016.

Key objectives of the meeting:

  • Build a common understanding about Legume Alliance
  • Build a common understanding of scope of SAIRLA-GALA project and how it can/will link with other soy and common bean initiatives
  • Consolidate the Theory of Change
  • Information on status quo (current position) covering awareness of effectiveness of different information sources, information flow across value chain and other information that will help to build up the project baseline

Preparation for the collection of baseline will start in October in Tanzania with the training of research enumerators who will collect information in the field using a set of tools developed by IITA, CABI and The Royal Tropical Institute.

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