IFAD’s “Moving Up Innovations to Scale” features “Community-Based Seed Systems: Improving Access to Quality Seeds

By Annette Tobias The IFAD book is a compilation of seven case studies that were identified for scaling up in the Philippines. As part of its pursuit to contribute to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has set accelerated targets for reducing rural poverty. Among other transformations, IFAD’s operational strategy has placed increased emphasis on “scaling up” of outcomes of projects to target the rural poor. IFAD’s past emphasis on rural innovation and learning has led to the emergence of many “good practices.” The challenge now is for CURE to deliver impact at wider scale.  CURE participated in the IFAD-organized writeshop from September 1-5, 2014, “Writeshop on Scaling-up Frameworks in Selected areas of IFAD Country Programme in the Philippines.” The writeshop aimed to equip IFAD loans and grants project personnel to fully develop their cases or models of learning that can be shared with other development workers. These are now published in a resource book, “Moving Up Innovations to Scale”, formally launched during the Knowledge and Learning Market and Policy Engagement (KLM-PE) on November 24-25, 2014 at the Bureau of Soils and Water Management, Quezon City, Philippines.  The IFAD book is a compilation of seven case studies that were identified for scaling up in the Philippines. These are,  IRRI-CURE activities on community-based seed systems Centro International Potato Center-Food Security Through Asian Roots and Tubers project (FoodSTART)-(CIPFoodSTART) World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)-Rewards For Use Of And Shared Investment In Pro-Poor Environmental Services (ICRAF-RuPES) Second Cordillera Highland Resource Management Project (CHARMP2), among others. CURE’s article on community-based seed systems talks about how farmers will be able to raise their productivity and ultimately increasing income from sale of seeds. The identified cases have potential operational considerations on mainstreaming the scaling up approach into the IFAD country programme, including both project design and supervision. The CURE experience in identifying and packaging cases for upscaling will be applied for the consortium partners, so they can further develop the culture of impact acceleration that will reach more farmers benefiting from CURE research activities.  Ms. Annette Tobias is an Assistant Scientist at International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Printed in CURE Matters Vol. 5 No. 1 May 2015. Page 24-25. Link to IFAD Asia: http://goo.gl/riqjLy