This book explains and explores how collaborations can be built and strengthened between African universities and farming communities to address real-world contemporary challenges.

Anthony Egeru is the Training and Community Development Manager at the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) Secretariat and is an Associate Professor at Makerere University, Uganda. His research focuses on stochastic environmental change processes and social systems, and he has facilitated community action research across 23 African countries.

Megan Lindow is a writer based in Cape Town, South Africa, whose work focuses on documenting complex processes of development and change in spaces of education, research, agriculture and food systems, climate change, gender equality and sustainable development across Africa and beyond. She holds an MA in journalism from Stanford University, USA, and an MPhil in Sustainable Development from Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Kay Muir Leresche is a former Professor of Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics at the University of Zimbabwe, Africa. After retiring, she chaired the RUFORUM Technical Committee from 2004 to 2017 and worked with many international development and research agencies. She is committed to supporting universities to catalyse the transformation of sustainable and inclusive agriculture in Africa.

Anthony Egeru, Patrick Okori and Megan Lindow

PART I Lessons and voices from the CARPs

1 Designing for relevance: a new orientation for research

Anthony Egeru, Megan Lindow and Patrick Okori

2 Building value chain innovation platforms with communities

Megan Lindow, Anthony Egeru and Kay Muir Leresche

3 Universities fit for purpose

Megan Lindow, Anthony Egeru and Kay Muir Leresche

4 Learning in motion

Megan Lindow, Anthony Egeru and Kay Muir Leresche

5 Change agents, ripple effects, wider impacts

Megan Lindow, Anthony Egeru and Kay Muir Leresche

6 Facilitating a student and community-centred, experiential approach to research and innovation

Nancy Mungai, Duncan Ongeng, Patience Mshenga and Megan Lindow

PART II The specific impacts of each of the fifteen Community Action Research Platform projects implemented 2016-2022

7 Enhancing agribusiness rice clusters and market linkages for food security and incomes in northern Uganda

Basil Mugonola, Apollo Kasharu, Jimmy Lamo and Daniel Ogwang

8 Enhancing safflower production and product development for food security and improving incomes of small-scale farmers in Botswana

Vallantino Emongor, Bamphiti Tiroesele and Onkgolotse Moatshe-Mashiqa

9 Sustainable commercial pineapple value chain system for increased yield and income, and improved livelihood of smallholder farmers in Central Region, Ghana

Festus Annor-Frempong

10 Empowerment and poverty reduction in rural coastal Kenya through the cassava value chain

Agnes Mwang'ombe, Samwel Onyango, D. C. Kilalo and P. Waswa

11 Unlocking opportunities in the cassava CARP value chain project in Nakuru County, Kenya

Richard M. S. Mulwa, Joseph W. Matofari, Joshua O. Ogendo, Peter F. Arama and Bockline O. Bebe

12 Seed potato production in Nakuru, Kenya: outcomes and implications of an active multi-stakeholder platform

Anthony Mwangi Kibe, Mariam Mwangi and Agnes Oywaya Nkurumwa

13 Inclusion of farmer communities in value chain development: a case of potato in South-western Uganda

Johnny Mugisha, Peter Wasswa, Napoléon Heri Bahati-Kajunju and Abel Atukwase

14 Enhancing pig production and marketing for smallholder farmers in northern Uganda

Elly Kurobuza Ndyomugyenyi, Tony Aliro and Walter Odongo

15 Building competitiveness for communal farmers through developing the wool value chain in the Free State Province of South Africa

Jan W. Swanepoel

16 Climate-smart agriculture: improving dryland crop yields and value addition through university-community partnership in Zimbabwe

Ronald Mandumbu, George Nyamadzawo, Wadzanayi Innocent Nyakudya, Agathar Kamota and Friday N. M. Kubiku

17 Enhancing community adaptation through climate-resilient agriculture: Encroacher bushes value chains initiative in Otjozondjupa Region, Namibia

Simon Angombe, Cecil Togarepi, John Mupangwa and Hikevali Ndinomuwa

18 The empowerment of women and youth: enhancing climate-smart productivity of vegetables and key livestock value chains, Sudan

Muna Mohamed Elhag, Tafaol E. Ali, Lubna M. Musa, Igbal E. I. Mohamed, Mutasim A. M. Elagab and Ali E. Eljack

19 Strengthening the beekeeping value chain in Western Kordofan State, Sudan

Ahmed Idris, Ali Mohamed, Asma Hamad, Ruhama Abdallh, Osman Khmis and Hana Mohammed

20 Improvement of indigenous coping strategies in famine-stricken Darfur, Sudan

Elhadi A. I. Elkhalil, H. A. H. Osman, A. E. M. Elzein, E. M. Mohammed and E. E. A. Ahmed

21 Scaling up African baobab food products valuation through enhancement of their safety and value chains for food and nutritional security in Benin, West-Africa

Achille E. Assogbadjo, A. Hounkpèvi, K. V. Salako, Flora J. Chadaré, R. Idohou, Rodrigue C. Gbèdomon and R. Glèlè Kakaï