In Depth Coverage

An Ivorian project for West Africa: the Centre for Rural Innovation

The Centre for Rural Innovation aims to be the first seed for the emerging centre of excellence federating partners able to develop the potential of eco-technologies in rural conditions:

- Enhance innovative activities that will support rural populations,
- Ensure necessary knowledge and equipment to them, improving their day to day lives and generating new incomes, while answering to climate change, food and energy scarcity,
- Contribute to the development of clean development mechanisms in West Africa, aiming to develop the economic opportunity of food production and sustainable energy in a framework respectful of food resources, arable lands and the environment, contribute to answers to climate change, food security, and sustainable energy, while granting rural populations the opportunity to respond to these challenges through mitigation and adaptation.

The Centre would like to focus on 4 areas of actions in Côte d'Ivoire and West Africa:

- Climate Change: reduce causes, promote adaptation & Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM);
- Vital Resources: develop lasting solutions to food vulnerability & water scarcity;
- Sustainable Energy: promote bio-energies & renewable energies, reduce energy access price;
- Knowledge Society: enhance information communication technologies for development.

The first programs to be undertaken in the Centre would focus on:
- Jatropha Curcas, to be planted in semi arid areas for immediate carbon storage, production of non edible bio fuel, organic fertilizing, organic pesticides, and soap;
- Moringa Oleifera, to be planted in semi arid areas for immediate carbon storage, nutrimental complements, oil, water purification, organic fertilizing, organic pesticides, and soap;
- Biochar, a charcoal obtained from agricultural waste via pyrolysis, will offer carbon reduction when used as a combustible, and carbon sequestration when used to enhance soil productivity.

Information communication technologies (ICT) for development will be used:
- A web 2.0 approach will enable the editing of multimedia information in French and English, to create a network of collaborators and a funding platform dedicated to support and finance rural developers.
- Space imagery and communication will enhance the preparation, management and deployment of the solutions (identification of land, use of improved agriculture, monitoring of activities...).

• Link With Climate Change

  Open

  Climate change is one of the four main issues the Centre will be focusing on.

• Objectives

  Open

  The Centre aims to be an open place for collaboration benefiting the rural population. Its office will be located in Grand Bassam within the national platform of information communication technologies and biotechnologies. Its activities will be focused on climate change, vital resources, sustainable energy and ICT for development. Its aim is to propose knowledge that is necessary in contributing to socioeconomic analysis, business visioning & development, and policy development.
  
  The Centre will be a place for research & development, which will co-design and conduct pilot projects including their commercial validation. The Centre will then act as a business development support to rural populations by developing commercial activities. We, as the Centre's promoters, expect to assemble and promote the necessary knowledge, metrics and equipment for rural innovation, and a complete project development solution for rural stakeholders. Knowledge and technologies developed must be accessible to rural populations; the business models proposed must be attainable and sustainable.
  
  We hope to deliver proven tools for rural development that could initiate new income generating activities (agriculture, rural energy supply, etc.), while creating an added value cycle within rural communities. The introduction of new activities will require identifying rural players to be involved, and promoting their economic organization while taking into consideration the prevalent economic framework.
  
  We have identified a 2.500-hectare farm in the centre of Côte d'Ivoire that could be the principal research and demonstration site. Bombed during the war, it will require rehabilitation. The geographical localization is perfect: it borders the Sahel and the tropical climate zone. Access to water is provided by two nearby rivers that allow potential future work on fisheries and embankments. We have already implemented a small-scale antenna in Tiébélé - Burkina Faso, close to a rainfall barrage; which due to its severe conditions validates the benefits of the research, while demonstrating our willingness to contribute to building regional capacity.

• Work plan

  Open

  To be developed

• Schedule

  Open

  To be developed

• Technical and Scientific Approach & Methods Proposed

  Open

  1.Programs
  
  Our programs aim to intersect with climate change, vital resources and sustainable energy. Other criteria have been used, such as the simplicity of execution for rural populations, their quick impact in answering to these challenges, the degree of innovation, and their potential to be executed in the Centre and North of Côte d'Ivoire, Mali or Burkina Faso. Indeed, the Centre has been designed with a West African regional vision that also includes English-speaking countries like Liberia or Ghana. This vision led us to also start a small antenna in Tiébélé, Burkina Faso, and to publish all the Centre's work and results in the French and English languages.
  
  The programs will not be undertaken on a stand-alone basis. Several players have already started similar activities in Mali, Burkina or even Tanzania. Therefore one of the first activities would involve learning from the experience of the Mali Folkcenter, Kakute Tanzania, Burkina Centre of Forestry Seeds, and conduct activities that will add value to their achievements.
  
  The Centre will also enter into collaboration with international organisations or research centres that are interested in similar activities in order to co-design with them the work that will be undertaken. In this field, we are targeting to work with Wageningen University from Holland, the French Institute of research for Development, the Brazilian EMBRAPA, etc. National players will be solicited, like the Ivorian National Bureau for technical Study and Development, the National Agency for Rural Development.
  
  The first programs are:
  
  o Jatropha Curcas, to be planted in semi arid areas for immediate carbon storage, production of non edible bio fuel, organic fertilizing, organic pesticides, and soap;
  
  o Moringa Oleifera, to be planted in semi arid areas for immediate carbon storage, nutrimental complements, oil, water purification, organic fertilizing, organic pesticides, and soap;
  
  o Biochar, a charcoal obtained from agricultural waste via pyrolysis, will offer carbon reduction when used as a combustible, and carbon sequestration when used to enhance soil productivity.
  
  2.Platforms
  
  We have elaborated a phased and scalable project, assembling different platforms, in order to facilitate the Centre's launch and ensure its durability.
  
  o Learning platform: the centre will be a learning tool aimed at assembling and promoting the necessary expertise to cultivate, transform and distribute Jatropha and Moringa, over a cycle starting from the nursery up to the reseller stall. Biochar and the System of Rice Intensification will need the same educational approach, to ensure that the trainees appropriately perceive their implementation and benefits.
  
  o Demonstration platform: demonstration is necessary to ensure the adoption of the best practices by the trainees. It will validate the skills acquired, their strength and accessibility, the quality of the goods produced and the opportunity to sell them. The profitability of these activities is both an educational and an economic requirement; it constitutes a preamble to the launch of new income-generating activities.
  
  o Commercial research platform: the introduction of agro-industrial practices and new services requires an analysis of the socioeconomic context in which they will be incorporated, and the modelling of their organization and implementation.
  
  o Agricultural research platform: Jatropha cultivation is quite young. Research must warrant the crop's profitability: species improvement, pruning and harvesting to optimize the farmer's time budget, and Jatropha behaviour in high yield fields or with intercrops, etc.
  
  o Energy and CDM research platform: this component of the Centre will offer the opportunity to build up sustainable energy potential.
  
  3.Collaboration
  
  ICT constitutes an important part of our initiative. We believe a quick way to reach an innovative mode of conception and development on a worldwide and mass basis is the implementation of a digital networked environment enabling international collaboration: instant messaging, chat rooms, open source programming, peer-to-peer, etc.
  
  4.Space applications
  
  o Space communications: whatever the tremendous growth of GSM, internet access remains challenging in African rural areas. Satellite communication will be used for providing internet access allowing to download and upload information to the world wide web. This will permit to create a digital workshop for internet publication and collaboration in a rural framework.
  
  o Space imagery will be used to identify a project's location, status, land usage, existing infrastructure, water resources, soil structure and other geographical data. A first assessment will determine the location's suitability. Once the feasibility is confirmed, space information will be used for evaluation, planning and monitoring. Then, the imagery will provide the project developers, sponsors and collaborators with a timely feedback of its execution.

• Results

  Open

  Effects:
  - Introduction of Jatropha Curcas L culture and of Moringa Oleifera on impoverished soils,
  - Introduction of Biochar and elaboration of replicable (robust and permanent) economic models;
  - Introduction of new information technologies in rural areas, incl. space applications and innovative practices;
  - Improvements of agricultural productivity through the introduction of fertilizing techniques, organic pesticides, new planning and prevision tools;
  - Improvements of livestock production and agro-pastoral conflict reduction;
  - Fight against, prevention and adaptation of rural communities in response to climate;
  - Adaptation et improvement of aquaculture production, restoration of deteriorated bodies of water;
  - Creation of new income generating activities (agricultural, pastoral and cultural);
  - A re-stimulated local economy, improved living and working conditions for populations, reinforced social cohesion.
  
  Results:
  - 1 National and West African coordinating bureau in Grand Bassam, on the premises of the Mahatma Gandhi technological park (Free Zone for Biotechnologies and New Information Technologies);
  - 1 Main Centre, rehabilitated and operational on 2.500 hectares (ha) at the crossroads of the Sub Sudanese / North Baoulean (V Baoulé) climate zones, in an agro-ecological zone of forest transition;
  - 1 Small antenna in Tiébélé Corabie, Burkina Faso 22/23
  - 1 Small network of 50 surface tests to reproduce the pilot projects, deployed according to the graduated readings of the pluviometer in the zones where cotton growing is cost effective, offering comparative studies of the field;
  - 1 National collaborative network, pan African and international support of new information communication technologies, satellite communications and space imagery;
  - Programs for research and rural innovation, promotion and education, in situ and itinerant, support for the pilot projects and the 4 themes of the CIR development (climate change, food and energy security, information technology);
  - Production and distribution of i) bio diesel, soap, fertilizers and pesticides from Jatropha, ii) nutritional supplements, fertilizers and flocculants from Moringa, iii) biomass transformed into Biochar, generating activities for social reintegration and permanent economic stability;
  - Production and distribution of goods and services related to food, agriculture, energy and cultivation within the framework of the program elaborated around the activities related to Jatropha / Moringa / Biochar;
  - Elaboration and development of rural projects, improvement of energy and food conditions, community rehabilitation to encourage harmony and stability;
  
  Over the course of the project, the proposition will be to provide work for a minimum of a hundred persons, including young people and women.

• Deliverables

  Open

  To be developed

• Use of Satellite Imagery and GIS Solutions

  Open

  To be developed

• Local Actions

  Open

  During Phase 1 (Validation study), three work packages have been identified, and matched with the corresponding people to conduct each of the work packages:
  
  a. Work Package One will be dedicated to validating the farm rehabilitation proposition, defining the first areas where the initial activities will be started, designing the work to be done to rehabilitate the lands for cultivation, improve energy access, water management and Internet connection. This work package will also validate the costing for equipment to be acquired for initial activities, the number of people to be recruited, the exact chronology of all the activities proposed in this document, etc.
  
  b. Work Package Two will validate the scope of work to be achieved for Jatropha, Moringa and Biochar. All the activities from farm preparation to market penetration will be covered, including the social, economic and environmental aspects, without neglecting the gender issue. The purpose will be to quantify, with experienced people, the activities for Jatropha, Moringa and Biochar, taking into consideration the need to start with up-to-date knowledge. This will require visiting centres like the Mali Folkcenter, determining the framework of collaboration, and confirming their availability and the conditions for their contribution to the initial phase of creation.
  
  c.Work Package Three will be dedicated to creating the website of the Centre, and an identity that will be coherent with rural African realities, while proposing a new vision of Africa to the worldwide collaborators with whom we would like to be connected with. A new generation of Africans, increasingly part of an international community, has been trained in international high schools and has worldwide experience: we are eager to present a new vision of our continent and the potential for its development. This work package will include the implementation of the first collaborative website, to be based on an open-source Content Management System platform utilising Joomla. The design of this website must be attractive to an international audience that would contribute to its activities, while presenting a modern vision of Africa.
  
  During Phase 2 (Preparation & promotion), the first months will be dedicated to prepare the lands and nurseries, procure the equipment necessary to ensure planting of all vegetal material no later than July.
  
  a. This phase will include the research of fifty small rural farmers that would agree to reproduce very small scale trials for Jatropha, Moringa and Biochar, the results of which will be compared with the trials performed within the Centre and will teach us about the adoption by rural farmers. Some Jatropha demonstration will also be performed in rural areas, using seeds from existing trees, to demonstrate the bioenergy potential. These small trials and demonstrations will be the first promotion activities to be undertaken, with the aim of gauging farmers' interests. In all cases, the objective will be to have a participative 'bottom-up' approach, involving all relevant players as early as possible, in order to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each party.
  
  b. A lot of attention will be given to education and awareness building, before commencing a project, especially when the benefits are not immediately obvious. It will be important to ensure that farmers have accurate information about the benefits for each activity. This is more important for Jatropha, to the extent that it will take at least three years for the plant to reach maturity and produce a harvestable yield, and at least 5 years to reach maximum economic yields. In Côte d'Ivoire, numerous farmers have been misinformed that one hectare of Jatropha will produce 25 tons the first year: their disillusionment will be significant, above all when there is nearly no equipment ready for using Jatropha oil and no market for selling the seeds. Bridging a three to five year income gap will be a concern for most farmers, especially when profit margins are low or uncertain. This will be used as an argument to promote intercropping and live fencing that will contribute to limit monoculture and prevent endangering food security.
  
  Phase 3 (Validation and diffusion) will permit to enter into the collaborative aspect of the Internet strategy. During Phase 2, the use of the Internet will be mainly dedicated to publication of the activities performed, and of documents relating to Jatropha, Moringa and Biochar in a Wikipedia form allowing collaborators to improve the quality of the publication. We believe the achievements of Phase 2 and the willingness to publish transparent information will encourage collaborators to join the efforts of the Centre. In addition, we expect to have identified rural project developers that would be able to post their project on the Centre's website, calling for peer-to-peer collaboration and/or micro-investment. The Centre will support these developers in their project development, including availability of space imagery that will permit identifying their project location.
  
  Once the collaborative platform and the micro-funding platform are in place, together with appropriate investment body support, we believe that all elements will be ready for the first trials of a rural Internet based development approach. By the end of year 2010 we hope the Centre to be able to implement all its missions, including training and demonstration.
  We expect the Centre's achievements to support promotion of a bio-energy policy coherent with food security; CDM projects adoptions in West Africa, and accompany West African decision makers in their contribution to UNFCCC's post-2012 climate policy.

• Miscellaneous information / interesting details on project

  Open

  We believe the Centre's success factors to be:
  
  - A strong support from national players, UN & World Bank agencies, and international partners,
  - Scientific objectivity of the programs will insure the implementation of a network of competencies;
  - Financial integrity, thanks to rigorous accounting practices and publication of financial reports;
  - ICT, to ensure publication and collaboration, while bypassing poor infrastructure in rural locations.
  
  The network of competencies and collaboration with UN agencies will offer the benefits of a
  return of experience without "reinventing the wheel".
  
  We would like to start with the "state of the art" in each of our programs, thanks to the information collected from partners, and expect to quickly reach a critical mass for co-designing our own trials and reproducing others in order to obtain valuable comparative studies.
  
  Therefore, all elements of the value chain for each program will be ready at the same time, allowing us to promptly diffuse knowledge and support rural sustainable projects generating new incomes.
  
  We believe the sole solution to see rural populations join the efforts in climate change mitigation and to boost answers to the food and energy crisis to be the demonstration of proven benefits for their day to day living and the possibility to earn new incomes.

• Region Name

  Open
  2.500-hectare farm in the centre of Côte d'Ivoire bordering the Sahel and the tropical climate zone.

• Partners involved in project

  Open
  a. World Bank, AfDB, FAO, UNDP, UNEP, IFAD, UNIDO, West African Bank for Development.b. Ivorian National Bureau for technical Study and Development, National Agency for Rural development, Industrial Promotion Services West Africa, Union Bank of Africa.c. Pronatura international, Planet Action, Winrock, Mali Folkcenter, French Agency for environment and Energy, Kakute Tanzania, Burkina Centre of Forestry Seeds, Wageningen University from Holland, French Institute of research for Development, Brazilian EMBRAPA, etc.