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ABSTRACT
In conventional agricultural research for development (AR4D) projects, decisions about rural innovation activities often rest with scientists. In transdisciplinary AR4D projects in Kenya and Tanzania, we designed a methodology aiming to give key decision-making rights to the farmer groups involved. Five collaborating groups were facilitated to explore different innovation possibilities and they then put forward ideas that they wished to implement. Next, the groups were invited to apply for a small grant using a video proposal. This practical note provides information on the participatory video proposal process and highlights some benefits and challenges experienced by farmers and scientists.
Acknowledgements
We thank the members of the farmer groups in Tanzania and Kenya for their active participation in the action research process. We also acknowledge Andrew Maina and Devotha Mchau for their work as field assistant/interpreters.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Pamela Richardson-Ngwenya is a geographer affiliated to the German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture (DITSL). She completed her doctorate at the University of Oxford in 2009 and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa (2010–14). With a passion for creative and participatory methodologies, she has expertise in agro-food geographies, innovation processes, gender and socio-cultural difference, and ethics. She has facilitated over 100 participatory video workshops internationally over the past decade.
María José Restrepo Rodríguez studied biology and specialised on environmental education early in her career and worked with local communities in the Colombian Amazon and Andean Highlands. From 2013 to 2017 she worked at DITSL to develop and implement a collaborative learning approach with small-scale dairy producer groups in Kenya to reduce post-harvest losses and support local innovation. This work formed the basis of her PhD thesis completed at the University of Hohenheim, Germany (2017). Her research interests include transdisciplinary and action-oriented approaches to studying linkages between human activities and sustainability of social-ecological systems.
Raúl Fernández is currently a research associate with the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative hosted by UNU-EHS, developing expertise in gender inclusive approaches to and impact assessment of climate risk insurance. He previously gained project work experience with the German Department for International Cooperation, DITSL and at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. He undertook his MSc thesis with DITSL in the frame of the Trans-SEC project in Tanzania.
Brigitte A. Kaufmann is professor for the social ecology of tropical and subtropical land use systems at the University of Hohenheim and the scientific director of DITSL. She has over 25 years of experience in research on tropical agricultural and livestock systems. She focuses on transdisciplinary research in areas of food security, resource management, food value chains and adaptation to climate change. In her research, she emphasises methodological advances in the areas of knowledge integration and co-creation, multi-stakeholder processes and collaborative learning.
Notes
1 These projects are Trans-SEC, “Innovating pro-poor strategies to safeguard food security using technology and knowledge transfer: a people-centred approach” (http://project2.zalf.de/trans-sec); and RELOAD, “Reduction of Post-Harvest Losses and Value Addition in East African Food Value Chains” (http://reload-globe.net/cms).
2 To gain insight into the farmers’ perspectives on the role that the PV proposal played in their innovation processes, 73 semi-structured interviews (including critical incident questions), five narrative interviews and three feedback sessions were conducted with group members across the five study sites.
3 For example, using solar power units for charging, carrying spare batteries, using a mini battery-powered projector, and using smart phone or flip cameras, are ways of making the video process more accessible.