13 – 17 June 2022
In June 2022, Prof. Charles Spillane and Dr Kieran Fitzpatrick travelled for LEGDEV related activities. Prof. Spillane engaged in an AgriFood Entrepreneurship Workshop in Uganda, while Dr Fitzpatrick visiting project partners in Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Prof. Charles Spillane attended a 5-day Workshop in Kampala, Uganda on the topic of “Strengthening Agribusiness Incubation Ecosystems in Africa”, which was co-organized by African Union, FAO, African Agribusiness Incubators Network (AAIN), the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), Agripreneurship Alliance, and Sustainable Food Systems Ireland (SFSI). The workshop brought government, NGOs, farmers organisations, research organisations and accelerator/incubators together from five African countries to jointly plan a capacity development program to Strengthening Agribusiness Incubation Ecosystems in Africa. The workshop was extremely relevant to LEG4DEV activities on Legume-derived enterprises and bioeconomies for more resilient bioeconomies. The initiative discussed at the workshop focuses on five countries in SSA, with two of those being countries in which LEG4DEV is working: Malawi and Zambia.
20 – 21 June 2022
LEG4DEV’s most recent hire, Dr Kieran Fitzpatrick (LEG4DEV Project Manager), met with key team members at Wageningen University and Research (WUR) for discussions and planning regarding WUR’s activities within the LEG4DEV Project. He listened and responded to presentations by doctoral researchers, Thomas Delaune and Mukoma Kilakila, on their respective research activities within LEG4DEV, which are focused on the southern highlands of Tanzania. These LEG4DEV research activities build on a previous research project in the area, TAMASA, and help to facilitate the scaling of legume-maize crop rotations through digital applications that channel Management Based Advice (MBA) to smallholder farmers.
In addition, Dr Fitzpatrick met with senior academic staff in WUR, such as Dr Jens Andersson one of LEG4DEV’s co-investigators, and Helena Posthumus, the facilitator of the DeSIRA Lift programme, which assists in supporting all of the research projects funded by the European Commission’s DeSIRA funding programme.
“My LEG4DEV visit to the Netherlands partners helped familiarise me with, not only Thomas and Mukoma’s PhD research on LEG4DEV and how it will complement the other members of the LEG4DEV doctoral cohort, but also the project’s strategic significance for research in agriculture, both in Africa and Europe. Probably most significantly, it allowed me an opportunity to ‘break bread’ with our team members in Wageningen and foster relationships in person. These relationships are crucial in a project that, by necessity, revolves so regularly around virtual, time-bound meetings, and will I feel be significant in helping us implement LEG4DEV as effectively as possible.”
Dr. Fitzpatrick
Blog by Kieran Fitzpatrick, Isabel McLaughlin, Charles Spillane