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One Planet Workshop
A workshop arranged under a University of Edinburgh BBSRC Impact Accelerator Award
14-15 March 2017
ILRI Campus, Nairobi
Theme:
Broad theme will be "Earth observation and remote sensing in support of Climate Smart Agriculture". This will capitalize on UoE strengths in use of remote sensing/big data approaches to fill data gaps on GHG emissions, crop yields, yield gaps etc. We will also be consider biological processes at crop/livestock level. We will couple this with social science approaches to ground truth findings of technical work. In addition we will aim to ground research ideas with local realities including leaving space for non-research voices. Within the broad theme we will seek LMIC input into key questions that need to be answered in the area of climate smart agriculture. The workshop theme is expanded here.
Workshop Objectives:
1. To identify with partners key research questions around use of new sensing techniques to support climate smart agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa 2. To develop UK-Africa partnerships in the area of remote sensing and climate smart agriculture 3. To generate a series of GCRF-ready concept notes with strong impact potential
Notes:
Set of slides in PDF form outlining the narrative and main points from the meeting:
GCRF submission attributes
- science excellence/novelty
- genuine partnership
- translates science to impact in development
- problem focus (not just to generate 'understanding')
- Build (UK) capabilities on global issues
Partnership critical success factors
- fair resources distribution
- track record of cooperation
- proper/fair attribution
- demonstration of sustainability (post-project)
- credible management team
- equitable management responsibilities
- flexibility
- data sharing - transparency - open - follows international good practice
- transparent
- commitment
- novelty of partnership configuration
- inclusive/equal relationships
- realism on capacity
- small and fast steps
- mutual beneficial outcomes
- trust
- complementary strengths in task assignment
- mutual respect
- challenge assumptions
- co-reporting
- exchanges and cross-training
- conflict resolution mechanism
- appropriate geographical spread
- include partners across impact pathways
- visionary leadership
- multidisciplinarity
- good communications
Partnership pitfalls
- not feeding back to beneficiaries
- avoid dominating other partners
- inequality
- no contracts
- no contingency planning
- avoid people who cant/wont collaborate
- institutional politics
- not aligning management/legal processes
- no risk management
- write proposal before inviting partners
Feedback session:
On Wednesday afternoon the 'framework' and some building blocks were presented to plenary and to some guests.
Here the main points.
Sue Hartley Codesign Sustainability of equipment Data curation Translation of data –driven work to impacts on the ground Social acceptability of applications Many crop models already – what is value added of our modelling work. Early warning approaches using models to support disease prediction
Simon Blackmore CSA – do we have the indices/metrics to measure? Integration of multi-scale observations – not easy to bring things together Differences between N European agriculture and African agriculture – what compromises are needed for African agriculture Much about earth observation but there is also ground-truthing needed Decision support systems – don’t usually support decision making. What decisions do you want to support Potential of leapfrog technologies e.g. mobile phones. Farmer phones – phones equipped with extra sensors e.g. LIDAR, nose, multi-spectral
Polly Ericksen What is unique about using this set of standard tools for supporting climate smart agriculture – what is the unique selling point for climate smart agriculture?
Discussion USP is that these approaches need to be applied to intercropping, mixed crop-livestock farms of Africa Also, African farmers have thus far not really used data so much to inform decision making There are different types of farmers from rural poor right through to commercial farmers. Rural poor farmers cannot necessarily afford access to data so our target group might be commercial farmers. However it is not always farmers who need to use the data; it could be used by those who support farmers e.g. extension and agri-business.
Alistair McCormack’s additional notes
Feedback • Co-design – right from the start with partner – what data are we going to collect and how will we use it? • Sustainable deployment – a lot of pest and diseases tools are not taken up. Are they appropriate cost effective • Archiving of data, distilling the key things that will be useful. IP sharing • Deployment and uptake – how does it translate into positive interventions. Have practical on sight demonstrations/training? How will we reach farmers? • What drive products usage - socio-economic issues? Are tools appropriate? • Gazillion crop models – what will new models deliver that those don’t? e.g. early warning systems? How will models help with forecasting?
o What is Climate SMART agriculture? When you have loop coming back (output from farmer) need to determine if it’s contributing. o Finding techniques to integrating scales – solutions absent! o What are the difference between Northern and African agriculture? What compromises will you need to make for deploying UK/EU tools in Africa? o Decision support systems – usually don’t support decisions well. Usually they are just models, and don’t support a decision! Need to support decision – generating “crisper” information. o Do we not have any high-tech in Africa? Smart phones are a leap-frog technology. Can be used for ground truthing. Make a “smart phone” with tools for ground-truthing tools (nose, lidar, raspberry pi etc.). All data fed into Wiki/cloud. o Challenge in predicting uncertain futures?
Actions, next steps:
1. Brief write ups of the major challenges in each of the countries represented. Starting point could be African Alliance on Climate Smart Agriculture (Alfred flagged this). Works through NEPAD – could be fairly generic and we might need something more specific. Could set up space on the wiki to crowd source by country: challenges, examplars, partners, end-users. Geoff and Alan to develop template and Alan to solicit info.
2. Day one thematic areas e.g. productivity, ecosystem services, emissions, disease, sustainable intensification, capacities and uptake need a better write up – might be good to link this to the above challenges. Alan and Geoff to develop process. These need to be cross-linked to the country write-ups - to gve them focus.
3. Overall framework to be written up as narrative. Need to incorporate feedback from reviewers. Alan to draft something and send round to others to augment.
4. We also need write ups of the 5 component pieces.
- Enabling data and infrastructure - Julius
- Predictive modelling framework - Darren
- Toolkit – Amon and Bob
- User needs – Alan and Fiona
- CSA narrative – Bob
5. Rough notes from meeting will be developed by Peter and Alan and circulated early next week 6. Participant profiles – photos, hash tags, short paragraph. Alan to send round template 7. Feedback to BBSRC is also critical. 8. Funding opportunities – all to commit to looking for funding opportunities and sharing with the group.
9. Timelines:
- Report by 22 March
- CN by end 31 March
- Feedback to BBSRC by 22 March
10. Need to think beyond BBSRC and short-term calls. Need to think beyond this to future calls and think about whether One Planet should become a Community of Practice. Keep the candle burning.
Post-workshop narratives requested by e-mail immediately after the workshop
1. Participant profiles 2. Country Challenges
3. Building block pieces – 2 page write ups of group work. Leads in bold but please liaise with others who were in your group (by Mar 31)
- Enabling data and infrastructure – Julius Adewopo
- Predictive modelling framework – Darren Slevin
- Toolkit – Amon Murwirwa and Bob Rees
- Delivery systems – Geoffrey Banda and Mizeck Chagunda
- User needs and impact pathways – Fiona Borthwick, Alan Duncan and Geoff Banda
4. CSA narrative – Bob Rees, Lutz Merbold, Francesco Fava
Participant reflections from the meeting
- Level of dialogue and spawning of ideas was very useful
- Partnerships developed during workshop will be useful in the future
- Some bilateral linkages were developed outside the meeting
- Some participants learned from the process and also picked up lots of technical knowledge
- Interaction between early and late stage scientists was useful
- Might need to bring the “early career scientist” element back into things
Workshop Agenda:
| Day 1 – Tuesday 14 March | ||
| 7:30 | Pick up from hotel | |
| 8:15 | Welcomes – jointly with parallel ‘BecA/BBSRC workshop on Sustainable intensification of agricultural systems in sub-Saharan Africa’ | JVC Auditorium |
| 8:30 | Background to and aims of the workshops, including intro to Global Challenges Research Fund (jointly with ‘BecA/BBSRC workshop’ - Brian Harris, BBSRC | JVC Auditorium |
| 8:50 |
The challenges for agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (jointly with ‘BecA/BBSRC workshop’): - Experiences from the ASARECA region – Dr. Cyprian Ebong, Interim Executive Secretary, Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research In Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) - African farmers’ voice – Dr. Philip Kiriro, President of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation - Reflections on partnership working – Professor Mariana Rufino, Lancaster University - Panel Discussion (Chaired by: Prof Rudovic Kazwala) |
JVC Auditorium |
| 10:00 | Coffee break (jointly with ‘BecA/BBSRC workshop’) | |
| 10:30 | Welcome and opening remarks | Geoff Simm |
| 10:45 | Meeting objectives, agenda, process What the pre-discussions told us File:OnePlanet_Duncan.pptx File:OnePlanet_scope_synthesis.docx |
Alan Duncan |
| 11:00 | Setting the scene - Earth observation and remote sensing in support of Climate Smart Agriculture File:OnePlanet_Rees.pptx |
Bob Rees |
| 11:30 | Introductions – Who we are; why we are here | Peter Ballantyne / all |
| 12:00 | Introductions – Mapping interest clusters | Peter Ballantyne / all |
| 12:30 | GCRF ideas and opportunities – initial reflections | Plenary discussion |
| 13:00 | Lunch | |
| 14:00 | Inspiration: Very short presentations on specific promising ‘observing and sensing’ climate-smart tools and approaches (5 by 5’) * Dave Ross - tbc * Karen Halliday - Predictive plant approach * Lutz Merbold – Mazangira Centre * Fiona Borthwick – network sensitive interventions * Mizeck Chagunda – remote monitoring of dairy cows in Kenya File:OnePlanet_Ross.pdf File:OnePlanet_Halliday.pdf File:OnePlanet_Merbold.pptx File:OnePlanet_Chagunda.pptx |
|
| 14:30 | Making science partnerships work – critical success factors for future collaborations | |
| 15:00 | Break | |
| 15:30 | Interest clusters and work group forming – the questions and issues to work on; to develop concept notes | |
| 16:00 | Initial scoping and prioritizing themes for further work - Groups - Quick feedback and triage |
All, in groups |
| 17:20 | Recap and plans for day 2 | Alan Duncan / Peter Ballantyne |
| 17:30 | Networking reception (jointly with ‘BecA/BBSRC workshop’) | |
| 19:30 | Transport to hotel |
| Day 2 – Wednesday 14 March | ||
| 8:30 | Depart hotel | |
| 9:00 | Agenda for the day | |
| 9:15 | Inspiration: Very short presentations on specific promising ‘big data‘ based climate-smart tools and approaches (5 by 5’) * Darren Slevin – CARDAMOM model-data fusion approach for simulating crop yields. * Valerio Guiffrida - computer vision aspects and machine learning * Tim Arnold - Monitoring greenhouse gases for calculating emissions at the country scale * Francesco Fava – earth observation applications in Index-based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) * Tor-Gunnar Vagen File:OnePlanet_Slevin.pdf File:OnePlanet_Giuffrida.pdf File:OnePlanet_Arnold.pptx File:OnePlanet_Fava.pptx File:OnePlanet_Vagen.pptx |
|
| 9:45 | Identifying plans and products for Day 2 | |
| 10:15 | Initial work on products (small groups) - to generate initial structured outlines of concept notes | |
| 10:45 | Break | |
| 11:15 | work on products (small groups) | |
| 12:45 | Lunch | |
| 14:00 | work on products | |
| 15:00 | Discussion on scales | |
| 15:00 | Break | |
| 15:30 | Show and tell | |
| 16:30 | Wrap up and next steps/actions | Alan Duncan / Peter Ballantyne |
| 17:30 | Close | Geoff Simm |
Participants
| Name | Affiliation |
| Alan Duncan | ILRI |
| Alfred Kambwiri | Civil Society Agriculture Network, Malawi |
| Alistair McCormick | University of Edinburgh |
| Amon Murwirwa | University of Zimbabwe |
| Bob Rees | SRUC |
| Damaris Odeny | ICRISAT |
| Darren Slevin | University of Edinburgh |
| Dave Ross | Agri-EPI |
| Emmanuel Okogbenin | African Agricultural Technology Foundation |
| Felix Ngetich Kipchirchir | University of Embu |
| Fiona Borthwick | SRUC |
| Francesco Fava | ILRI |
| Frank Mnthambala | Agrosolutions, Malawi |
| Geoff Simm | University of Edinburgh |
| Geoffrey Banda | University of Edinburgh |
| Julius Adewopo | IITA |
| Karen Halliday | University of Edinburgh |
| Kevin Zowe Mganga | South Eastern Kenya University |
| Kindie Tesfaye | CIMMYT |
| Leonard Rusinamhodzi | CIMMYT |
| Lutz Merbold | ILRI |
| Matolo Nyamai | KALRO |
| Menas Wuta | University of Zimbabwe |
| Mike Njuguna | Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International |
| Mizeck Chagunda | SRUC |
| Patricia Mayuni | Department of Animal Health and Livestock Development, Malawi |
| Peter Ballantyne | ILRI |
| Peter Doerner | University of Edinburgh |
| Tim Arnold | UoE/NPL |
| Timothy Gondwe | Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) |
| Tor-Gunnar Vagen | ICRAF |
| Valerio Giuffrida | University of Edinburgh |
