Bundled Climate Information Services (CIS) Baunndd Clelidm CaItSe a-Snmd aCrStA A Bgurisciunletussr e (CSA) BCuassinees sMs aCrakseets P lace event at the GHACOF in Mombasa, MarkeKt Pelnacyea e 2v3rd ent -a2t 5th the AGuHgAuCOstF 2022 In Mombasa, Kenya 2 3rd -25th August 2022) Livingstone Byandaga |Desire Kagabo| Mathieu Ouedrago |Zewdu Segele| Solomon Dawit| Wo rkshop report Livingstone Byandaga | Desire Kagabo | Mathieu Ouedraogo | Zewdu Segele | Solomon Dawit | Patrick Mvuyibwami | Yvonne Uwase Munyangeri December 2022 High lights 2 3 1 Selection of invitees Engagement methodology Why a market place event? Invitations to host a market stall All the market place hosts were given The marketplace was designed as an were based on practice, an opportunity to ‘market’ their stalls interactive and lively fair for innovators to experience and knowledge on to participants in plenary before the showcase their contributions in bundling bundling CIS and CSA in the stalls were opened through a 1- climate information services (CIS) and eastern and central Africa region. minute elevator pitch. A number of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) to a The marketplace exhibitors rounds of visits to each stall were regional and international audience and set showcased their innovations and arranged to ensure that participants the stage for learning. shared their experiences and had the chance to observe and lessons at a dedicated stand. engage in many collaborative conversations. 4 5 6 7 Challenges Impact and lessons learnt Delivery partners Key innovations Lack of sufficient funding Market place events are a good The event was jointly Great work is being achieved was a common vehicle for co-production and co- organised and facilitated by in digital bundling of CIS and denominator for all the creation of knowledge between ICPAC and the Alliance of CSA and this has resulted in innovations. There was also policy makers in governments and Bioversity and CIAT. better access to and an issue of language in most regional organisations, scientists in Through various discussions contextualising of CIS/CSA countries. Most of the apps research centres, international with the CIS team in CIAT, advisories. In addition, new are developed in English organisations and private sector AICCRA’s eastern and dissemination mechanisms, and the need to translate innovators. The exhibitors southern Africa cluster and such as through the content in various demonstrated how interventions in ICPAC, clear roles in the infotainments, were found dialects is a mammoth task increasing CIS/CSA access farmers organisation and funding of effective at increasing that requires huge is greatly increasing their yields. the event were established. understanding and use. resources. 2 Acronyms AGRHYMET : Centre Régional de Formation et d'Application en Agrométéorologie et Hydrologie Opérationnelle AICCRA: Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa APPROJUMAP: Association for the Promotion of the Partnership between People BNARI: Biotechnology and Nuclear Agricultural Research Institute CABI: Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences CCAFS: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security CGIAR: Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research CIAT: International Center for Tropical Agriculture CIS: climate information services CSA: climate-smart agriculture DACA: Digital AgroClimate Advisory FCDO: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office GHACOF: Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum ICPAC: IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Centre IGAD: Intergovernmental Authority on Development KALRO: Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organisation WISER: The Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa 4 S E C T I O N H E A D I N G H E R E Abstract demonstrated the ability of digital A market place event was jointly organised technologies to reach thousands of This and facilitated by ICPAC and the Alliance of event was the first of its kind in the history Bioversity and CIAT with the aim of of the regional climate outlook forums and identifying bundled climate information the move was highly commended by both services (CIS) and climate-smart the participants of the GHACOF and the agriculture (CSA) business models and exhibitors. The opportunity for the promoting them to policy makers and exhibitors to speak to the producers of implementers in the the CIS was very useful, by giving them a Intergovernmental Authority chance to explain the challenges they are on Development region. facing, especially as they aspired to make the business models sustainable. One The market place was thus designed as an main relevant challenge expressed was interactive and lively fair for innovators in the reliability and accuracy of forecasts. the region, who were strategically selected, based on practice, experience The innovators also found the event an and knowledge, to showcase their eye opener. There was a lot of exchange contribution in bundling CIS and c-a CSA from their peers and also feedback from to the audience of the Greater Horn of the visitors to their stalls to help them Africa Climate Outlook Forum (GHACOF) develop even better and more diversified 62 event that took place in Mombasa, content. Overall, the feedback received Kenya in August 2022. from the market place was very positive. With participation from non- Among the innovations displayed was the governmental organisations and the Digital AgroClimate Advisory (DACA) app, private sector, access to timely and which integrates location-specific climate accurate weather information can be information and crop characteristics, such increased. In turn, this can lead to as days to maturity and crop water increased understanding and use of CIS requirements, to generate location- and CSA in informed decision-making specific advisories as to when to plant and regarding agricultural activities and the which cultivar or variety to plant. The timing of field operations for thousands of same app has the capacity to use fish farmers. variety characteristics to provide advice on fish species and daily pond management decisions. The power of DACA was demonstrated by experiences from Uganda and Rwanda. Lersha, from Ethiopia, and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation demonstrated the ability of digital technologies to reach thousands of farmers through multiple channels including web-based services, SMS and other digital methodologies Lersha and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) AICCRA Market Place report5 1: Why a market place event? The idea of a market place is derived from Climate-smart agriculture is gaining much the field of business and inspired by Fyfe attention from researchers and business and Lightman (2007); the market place innovators. This is because agricultural described here was designed as an production is impacted by the social and interactive and lively fair for innovators to physical environment (Ulvenbald et al., showcase their contributions in bundling 2018). Evidence suggests a substantial climate information services (CIS) and connection between business and climate-smart agriculture (CSA) to a climate-related factors, necessitating the regional and international audience and bundling of CIS and CSA in order to to set the stage for learning. It was held increase the impact of financial during the Greater Horn of Africa Climate investments on the provision of climate Outlook Forum (GHACOF) 62 event, taking services (Larosa and Mysiak, 2020). place from 23-25 August 2022 in The GHACOF market place was aimed not Mombasa, Kenya, and aimed to create a only at the participants in the forum but safe space for GHACOF participants also for the benefit of passers-by, who GHACOF to interact with each other and were potential consumers of CIS and CSA with innovators from the private sector. advisories. T The exhibitors got a chance to share methodologies, tools and innovations among themselves and with scientists, policy makers and implementers from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development member countries. The exhibitors got a chance to share methodologies, tools and innovations among themselves and with scientists, policy makers and implementers from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development member Scientists and Innovators exchanging Views at Lersha stall countries. The interactions and The primary objective was to enhance feedback gained will enable the knowledge of and skills for effective innovators to find ways to develop new integration of CIS and CSA within the methodologies or tools, or packages of target countries of the Accelerating innovations, that offer new opportunities Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for or greater potential to achieve improved Africa (AICCRA) project in particular, but productivity, sustainability or equity than also in African countries more generally. 6 S E C T I O N H E A D I N G H E R E could have been achieved by any single innovation. The market place was also an opportunity to exchange with the donor community. Representatives of the WISER programme 1had an opportunity to showcase their funding opportunity that become available, focusing on co-production and regional integration. 1 The WISER programme aims to deliver regional levels, building resilience to the transformation in the generation and use of impacts of climate change. co-produced weather and climate services to support decision making at local, national, and AICCRA Market Place report7 2: Selection of positioned themselves as game changers in the climate information ecosystem. Invitees Invitations to host a market stall were based on practice, experience and The event also reached beyond those knowledge of bundling of CIS and CSA in institutions that are formal CCAFS the eastern and central Africa region partners by bringing onboard the private Invitees were strategically chosen to sector, aiming to bring together different ensure that the market place exhibitors initiatives and the work of multiple (or stall holders) had innovative products, institutions in a way that created tools or methodologies and were capable significant synergies. of showcasing their innovations, experiences and lessons at a dedicated stand. We invited organisations with diverse and innovative approaches from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda to showcase their work. However, only six organisations were able to take part (see section 4). . The team of market stall exhibitors Successful bundling of CIS and CSA requires the involvement of the private sector with scalable and sustainable business models. On the other hand, the sustainability of a business model depends on the beneficiaries having access to resources and being included in Approjumap explaining their dissemination decision-making (Rosenstock et al., 2020). approach Lack of inclusion and access to necessary resources and a lack of understanding of value pose challenges to business strategies. The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, under the CCAFS programme, has invested considerable effort in building partnerships both within and beyond CGIAR institutes. As a result, the Alliance has many traditional partners in the private sector, including local NGOs that have been supporting the organisation in scaling its research Lersha stand was more gender inclusive initiatives and products. These organisations and companies have 8 S E C T I O N H E A D I N G H E R E All the exhibitors were given an opportunity to ‘market’ their stalls to participants in plenary through a one- minute elevator pitch before the stalls were opened for visiting. This elevator pitch provided the key highlights of the innovations that the exhibitors had brought to GHACOF 62. More Information being provided on DACA 3: Engagement Methodology The market place event was a collective process that involved the following: Market place exhibitors were participants who shared their experiences and lessons on bundling of CIS and CSA at a dedicated Exhibitors doing the one Minute pitch stand. All stall holders shared their innovations in parallel with each other. and allowed participants to choose which stalls they would like to visit. The event was organised to allow a Visitors at the Caritas Rwanda stand number of rounds of visits to each stall, so that participants had the chance to observe and engage in collaborative conversations. Thus, the stall hosts had to share several times to different people during the visiting period. Each round lasted between 8 and 10 minutes, as directed by the facilitator. This 10-minutes time for each round by participants gave the exhibitors an opportunity to explain their service(s) and approach and also gather feedback on how to improve their services. AICCRA Market Place report9 Each stall received an average of 20 visitors, who were very inquisitive and shared their ideas on how best to improve the services provided. The explanations included the following main points:  the intervention logic and how to create value for smallholder farmers;  where smallholder farmers access climate information;  how users are involved in the interpretation of the information;  channels being used to communicate climate information;  how users are bundling climate information with CSA;  the impact on smallholder farmers and other relevant stakeholders;  challenges experienced and action taken by the different innovations;  lessons learnt throughout the journey. The market stall hosts manned their stalls the whole time. KALRO, Lersha and FCDO arranged to have helpers take responsibility for different rounds of visits, enabling them to visit other stalls for knowledge sharing and exchange. In order to capture the information exchanges that facilitated this report, different interviews were carried out; recorders were also used to capture the interviewees’ voices. 10 S E C T I O N H E A D I N G H E R E 4. Delivery Partners marketplace and facilitated their printing. ICPAC was responsible for the programme to ensure that the market place was part and parcel of the GHACOF 62 and also sent out the invitations and partly funded From February 2022, the the activity. The event would never have Alliance of Bioversity and been a success without our partners that CIAT started working with were willing to present their market stalls, regional actors ICPAC and ably sharing their innovations and AGRYHMET to design and promotional materials at the event (see implement a common annex to this report). The following approach to assessing organisations participated: Lersha from integrated opportunities for Ethiopia, iShamba and Kenya Agricultural scaling climate services and Livestock Research Organisation tailored to national level CSA (KALRO) from Kenya, Caritas Kibungo & priorities. The approach Attendants in the plenary during the One-minute Approjumap from Rwanda and FCDO. The leverages a common elevator pitch National Agriculture Research framework, shared Organisation (NARO) from Uganda was inputs, characterization able to send its materials but failed to of capacity and infrastructure and regional participate physically. knowledge exchange regarding best practices in CIS and CSA. Key issues discussed with the partners included the focus of the partnership, the objectives, expectations of each side regarding roles and responsibilities, the level of engagement and the type of collaboration to be entered into. Different collaborations were discussed, but finally the parties agreed on jointly organizing a market place on bundled CIS and CSA business cases during the Exhibitor from KALRO explaining the innovations at their organisation and the NARO’s work Regional Climate Outlook Forums. Due to some delays and the nature of agricultural seasons in west Africa, we were unable to organize an event with AGRYHMET but agreed with ICPAC to hold the market place during the GHACOF 62. As a joint venture, the Alliance provided technical expertise and worked with the market stallholders to prepare them for the event. ICPAC, on the other hand, Alliance and ICPAC staff at the Caritas stand concentrated on administrative issues to ensure the success of the event. Virtual meetings were organised between the Alliance, ICPAC and exhibitors. The CIS team at CIAT prepared and designed templates for promotional materials for the AICCRA Market Place report11 5. Key innovations The innovations at the market place fell Agriculture and Animal Resources Board under two major categories. The first were and a local radio station, Huguka. Radio innovative approaches to disseminating CIS technology is the easiest to use and radio and CSA advisories2. Within this category we coverage is the best, compared to other also considered two aspects: the issue of channels. Another channel that scored available information, its highly in terms of understanding, uptake packaging, accuracy and and use was face to face. Approjumap usability, and then the and Caritas revealed that, working channel being used in through the “Twigire Muhinzi” model, the communicating the CIS and CSA advisories were able to reach information to farming thousands of farmers. TV, web and mobile communities. platforms and applications, call centres The second category was and social media were alternative the apps that are used to channels of communication bundle the CIS and CSA to A Photo displaying Shamba Shape Up and produce actionable iShamba technologies A key innovation in the packaging of advisories. information was the infotainment formats used by iShamba and Shamba Shape Up Channels being used to with their gamification “Let it rain” communicate climate programme. Let it rain gamification information programme is a way of challenging farmers to guess the rain in a bid to reach From the different CIS and CSA interventions at the market place, it was a remote audience with agricultural advice evident that the primary channel for and ensure yields stay steady. This gamifies weather prediction to incentivize communicating CIS was the radio. CCAFS farmers uptake of localized agro- has always taken advantage of this channel and in Rwanda, for example, advisories and help crowdsource weather under the Climate Services for Agriculture information . project, CIAT introduced radio listeners clubs, through partnership with the Rwanda Meteorology Agency, the Rwanda 2 Depending on the weather forecasts, prepare the land, when to plant/sow and the farmers are usually given advisories choice of variety or cultivar to plant and depending onsets, total amount of seasonal other farm management decisions such rainfall and the length of the season. The how to plant, application of fertilizers and advisories would be on the timing of the herbicides and when to practice irrigation main agricultural activities such as when to 12 S E C T I O N H E A D I N G H E R E Bundling climate information with CSA Most of the innovations at the market place bundled climate information, crop characteristics and climate-smart agricultural advisories and provided these as a package to farmers, mainly through digital technologies that help farmers identify what crops and pasture to grow or livestock to keep on their farms. In some cases, these mobile technologies connect farmers to agricultural supply chains, allowing timely access to farm inputs and mechanization. AICCRA Market Place report13 6: Challenges Lack of sufficient funding was some places, there are cultural barriers to a common denominator for women’s participation in training all the innovations. Among programs that limit their access to the other challenges CIS/CSA advisories and, in turn, this results highlighted, the main one was in low adoption rates. language. Most of the apps developed are in English and In addition to the above, private sector translating their content to local languages is quite expensive, especially in countries with many dialects; in Kenya, for example, there are about 46. To overcome this language barrier a cascading approach to training is adopted, where master trainers are equipped with skills to train trainers who are then able to translate the messages into local dialects. In addition to the language barrier, there are high levels of digital illiteracy in farming communities, resulting in very high costs for training and dissemination. Furthermore, some innovations which are a Visitor at the market place having a one to one with a web- and mobile-based depend on stall host internet availability and access to smart phones, which are not available in many involvement in the provision of CIS is still rural areas. limited. Due to the apparent lack of accurate climate information, willingness Another challenge faced by innovators in to pay for CIS information is still low. This the CIS and CSA area is the accuracy of the makes it difficult to find a business model forecasts and associated advisories. The in which a private sector innovator sells its meteorological departments in the region services to another business. Most of the are still developing their infrastructure work is financed through either and human capacities to improve their government or donor funds. To promote modelling and forecasting abilities. As sustainable financing for CIS and CSA, such, agricultural value chain actors that there is a need to focus on developing have been misled in the past are still capacities of meteorology departments to sceptical about the forecasts and produce reliable and accurate forecasts. advisories given. This has resulted in another challenge − that of attitude. In 14 S E C T I O N H E A D I N G H E R E 7: Impact and lessons learnt was gathered from the market place event: learnt  increased sensitization is needed about the importance of climate Improved access to early and accurate information for different weather information has stakeholders; translated into increased  success stories and testimonies responsiveness and better should be documented and decision-making regarding shared to increase participation timing field operations for and attract implementing thousands of farmers. In partners; some cases, the consequent level of  lead farmers can bridge the digital increased yields is divide among smallholder farmers astonishing. Testimonies as well as fill the existing from the innovators allude agricultural extension gap; to the fact that trained  digital technologies enhance farmers using bundled CIS access to quality agro-weather, and CSA practices have climate and market information had their lives changed. For services; example, Ms. Shakira (in  bundling has strong potential to the photo) from the build momentum around Eastern province of innovative new approaches by Rwanda, shared the story Shakira, one of the key beneficiaries of the CIS lowering the cost, increasing the of her changed life due to use and enhancing the ability to the use of bundled CIA and leverage existing/popular CSA practices: “The first products year, I harvested 200 kilos of beans, which is almost  and to introduce new products; 10 times my previous harvest of 25 kilos!” “  multi-stakeholder approaches, such as the “Twigire Muhinzi” In the context of gender analysis, we see extension model in Rwanda, lead that the interventions try to ensure that to improved access and women will have equal access to understanding of climate innovations and their benefits. Shakira’s information services and their use experience is not unusual as most of the by farming communities; exhibitors indicated high percentages of women and youth among their  a digital platform backed by a well- beneficiaries. trained agent network improves access to real-time advisories; From the exchanges and experience of the different hosts the following list of lessons AICCRA Market Place report15  TV and SMS, when combined, have develop even better content, positive impacts on farmers’ especially on topics of the weather forecast and the Shamba Shape Up knowledge, attitude and practice; weather news items. The feedback we got from market place was  bundled CSA services, if well very positive and we look forward to packaged, have the ability and being involved more in the future potential to reduce risk for farmers during such events”. Martin Aketch from the effects of climate change. Following the market place, feedback was collected from the participants on the following day to reflect on the market place experience and individual participant experiences in climate services. The event had positive results for different participants in the GHACOF; for example. it was hailed as the first event in GHACOF where the private sector was given a chance to showcase its contributions towards solving farmers’ climate-related issues. Managers of the stalls received very Approjumap eagerly waiting for visitors. constructive and valid feedback from visitors. Networking with a few organizations, sharing experiences and learning from others were the major successes of the event. Great appreciation was given to the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT that worked very hard to invite private sector companies and organize the market place during GHACOF. The exhibitors had a chance to initiate conversations with ICPAC and WISER to strengthen the work FCDO staff with WISER funding opportunities for eastern, they do across the bundling of climate southern and west Africa. information with various agricultural services. In the process, the innovators were able to generate feedback for improving their service provision One of the exhibitors has this to say: “The event was an eye opener and got key learning experience to help us 16 S E C T I O N H E A D I N G H E R E Acknowledgment The authors are thankful for the financial support received from the World Bank that provided funding to the AICCRA project. We appreciate the positive and cordial partnership we had with ICPAC and the support from AICCRA–eastern and southern Africa Cluster leadership, without which we would not have managed to organize the market place event. We also thank our market place hosts Approjumap, Caritas Kibungo, Shamba Shape Up and iShamba, Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organisation, the National Agriculture Research Organisation and Lersha for the wonderful innovations they displayed at the event. AICCRA Market Place report17 References Fyfe, A., & Lightman, B. (Eds.) (2007). Science in the Marketplace: Nineteenth Century Sites and Experiences. University of Chicago Press. Larosa, F., & Mysiak, J. (2020). Business models for climate services: an analysis. Climate Services 17, 100111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cliser.2019.100111 Rosenstock, T. S., Lubberink, R., Gondwe, S., Manyise, T., & Dentoni, D. (2020). Inclusive and adaptive business models for climate-smart value creation. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 42, 76-81 Ulvenblad, P., Barth, H., Björklund, J. C., Hoveskog, M., Ulvenblad, P.-O., & Ståhl, J. (2018). Barriers to business model innovation in the agri-food industry: a systematic literature review. Outlook on Agriculture, 47(4), 308–314. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030727018811785 18 Appendix AICCRA Market Place report19 20 AICCRA Market Place report21 22 AICCRA Market Place report23 24 About the authors 1. Livingstone Byandaga (L.Byandaga@cgiar.org) is a Senior Research Associate - Climate Information Services-AICCRA, at the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). 2. Desire Mbarushimana Kagabo (D.Kagabo@cgiar.org) is a Scientist, Project Leader - Climate Information Services-AICCRA, at the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). 3. Mathieu Ouedraogo (m.ouedraogo@cgiar.org) is a Senior Scientist - Climate Information Services-AICCRA, at the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). 4. Zewdu Segele (Zewdu.Segele@igad.int) is a senior Climate Scientist at IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Centre (ICPAC) 5. Solomon Dawit (D.Solomon@cgiar.org) is the Regional AICCRA East Africa Cluster Leader - International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). 6. Yvonne Uwase Munyangeri (Y.Munyangeri@cgiar.org ) is a Research Associate - Climate Information Services-AICCRA, at the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). 7. Patrick Mvuyibwami (P.Mvuyibwami@cgiar.org ) is a Research Associate - Climate Information Services-AICCRA, at the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). AICCRA Market Place report25 Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR It is led by the Alliance of Bioversity Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) International and CIAT and supported is a project that helps deliver a by a grant from the International climate-smart African future driven Development Association (IDA) of the by science and innovation in World Bank. agriculture. Citation: Byandaga L, Kagabo MD, Ouedraogo M, Segele Z, Dawit S, Munyangeri UY, Mvuyibwami P, 2022. Bundled CIS and CSA Business Cases Market Place event at the GHACOF organized in Mombasa, Kenya 23rd -25th August 2022. Supported by: 26