RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

PELUM realises the essential role that research plays in promoting sustainable community development. We are involved in identifying innovations and documenting them for a wider audience. Through this programme we encourage local innovators by sharing their experiences with others in the region. By documenting successful experiences we hope to assist to enhance the capacities of old members and help upcoming organisations. At another more strategic level, PELUM believes and promotes strong partnerships between the various actors in making research more responsive to the needs of small scale farming communities. By making research more participatory and enabling small scale farmers influence research agenda, research assumes greater ability to resolve the problem of poverty. Our main thrust is to promote participatory research and experimentation which involves farmers and grassroots communities. In 2000 we carried out case studies of successful seed programmes in three countries.

In view of the wealth of underutilised research results and replication of efforts and mistakes, resulting in waste of resources, PELUM aims to play the role of coordinating research by creating, maintaining and making accessible information about past, current and future research in Pelum.  Through learning and networking, we also encourage members of the network to tap into the expertise and experience of other members that are stronger and more specialised in R and D.

The Research and Development component has been boosted with the coming in of our Development Worker sponsored by our partner Misereor in Germany.  The Development worker will in 2007 visit various countries where PELUM works to document various research activities being undertaken.  This information will thus be widely disseminated using various information channels that PELUM uses including this website.  

Some partners in research and development:

1.  GRAIN

2.  Sub Saharan Africa NGO consortium

• A follow up of an NGO meeting convened by GFAR in 2004 in Mexico

• Meeting aimed at establishing an international NGO consortium to be launched in 2006.

• It was agreed to support the NGOs in Africa to establish their own NGO consortium

At 3rd general assembly of FARA held from 6-12th June 2005 in Entebbe-Uganda, PELUM, through its Secretary General, Joseph Ssuuna, became an elected member of the committee for the SADC region.

3.  Crop post-Harvest Programme Southern Africa (CPHPSA)

PELUM Association in conjunction with  (CPHPSA) implemented a project in on Crop Post Harvest Technolgy in Zambia and Kenya which facilitated the farmers and researchers to meet and discuss issues in Crop Post Harvest Technologies.  A lot of lessons were learnt through this project and it is hoped that these lessons will be carried forward if and when the project is up scaled in the region.

4. The Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG)/Practical Action

PELUM Association have been working together to ensure that the voice of the small-scale farmer is held in the region and the world over.  It has done a number of researches  that have shown that the EU  does not really address the concerns and problems of poor people in outlying areas. 

5. PROLINNOVA

Two of our CWGs ( PELUM Tanzania and Uganda) are actively part of  an NGO-led initiative to build a global learning network on promoting local innovation in ecologically oriented agriculture and natural resource management (EA/NARM).

Click on this link for details�

6. HDRA