SEAD strengthens research & innovation capacities of the beneficiary institutions.
The SEAD/SEADWest Projects have supported trainers from Higher Learning institutions in a trajectory of four cycles of training in Research and Innovation techniques from 2017 up to date. This support has significantly equipped the teaching staff in developing their capacities which impacted not only the trainees but also the community around the institutions. The fifth cycle of training kicked off virtually with a first session from 18-22 January /2021. The training was facilitated by Prof Meine Pieter van Dijk from Maastricht School of Management.
The 24 selected teams proposed research & innovation topics circling around the challenges within the poultry, dairy, potato, horticulture and agritourism value chains. They were taken through the first steps of research methodologies and after this workshop research teams worked on the critical sections of their submitted templates during interactive sessions and were guided by the facilitator on how to commence their literature review and ensure the findings are properly applied in their proposal. All teams were supported to improve and/or develop their research design.
The second virtual workshop was conducted from 15-19 February and addressed all issues that have specific agri-science and/or water-science aspects. This second workshop helped the participants to be familiar with research methodologies, in particular aspects related to chapters 5-11 of ‘Research Methods for Business Students “Mark Saunders et al”. Participants in the workshop were also guided through interactive sessions, in reworking the critical sections of their submitted templates into comprehensive research/project proposals, discussed with the facilitators on how to improve their literature review and ensured that the findings of the review are properly applied in their proposals.
‘’I am happy to be part of this research journey, so far, we learnt a lot, from research methodology to developing our research design. I liked the fact that we are working in teams from different institutions, for instance, my team that is working on the effect of intercropping spices and brassica vegetables on Aphids control in Kivu Lake agro ecological zone is formed by people from five different institutions ( IPRC Karongi,IPRC Huye,RAB, IPRC Musanze and UR CAVM), bringing together skills and knowledge to implement the research project’’ Vianney Gasarasi; Instructor at IPRC Karongi.
During the five cycles of the Research and Innovation Fund, over 30 cross-institutional teams have been awarded research funds to explore a range of issues directly affecting farmers, cooperatives, and agribusinesses.
‘’As one of the beneficiaries of the research and intervention project from IPRC Huye, I appreciate this intervention and it has great impact in different dimensions. We had challenges (especially limited funds and expertise) that hindered us from not carrying out applied research projects. The (SEAD/ SEADWest) interventions have helped us to implement our research projects and ideas thoroughly and innovatively. I and my team worked on a research topic namely “Effect of intercropping cabbage with onion as pest control measure”. Working as a team helped us to learn from each other and share the results (knowledge and skills) from the research to our respective institutions specifically to students and cooperatives’’. Gervais Twizerimana; Head of Agricultural engineering department at IPRC Huye.
Source: SEAD
About SEADWest
The SEAD-West project is managed by Maastricht School of Management (MSM) and is strongly aligned to the currently running SEAD project under Nuffic NICHE. Where SEAD is focusing on the poultry, dairy, horticulture and potato value chains in the Northern, Eastern and Southern provinces, SEAD-West is contributing to food & nutrition security in Western province of Rwanda. The project will build new and strengthen existing partnerships to boost agricultural value chain development and ensures equal opportunities, labor market relevance and strengthening management of the chain actors for sustainability.
Orange Knowledge Programme
This project is part of the Orange Knowledge Programme (OKP) which is funded by the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed by Nuffic. For more information click here.
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