2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Scaling technologies – both physical technologies and improved practices - developed in the United States for smallholder horticulture farmers in developing countries can be challenging. Distance hinders stakeholder involvement during design. Remotely anticipating constraints on the feasibility and adoption of a technology can impede effectiveness. Without a network of in-country stakeholders, disseminating a viable technology is difficult. To bridge the gap between U.S.-based researchers and in-country stakeholders, the Horticulture Innovation Lab at the University of California, Davis established “Regional Centers.” The Regional Centers, housed within in-country universities, have pursued five core strategic goals: increase farmer knowledge of improved horticultural practices; test and disseminate regionally specific horticultural technologies; increase local adoption of horticultural technologies; improve the research and management capacity of host institutions; and, increase investments in and the number of entrepreneurs in horticulture. For eight years, Regional Centers at Zamorano University in Honduras and Kasetsart University in Thailand have evaluated, improved, and disseminated technologies generated by the Horticulture Innovation Lab’s worldwide projects. These Regional Centers have solidified themselves as horticulture hubs of expertise for their regions – Latin America and Southeast Asia. The Centers conduct trainings and test technologies intended for local smallholder farmers, government ministries, private entities, and NGOs both on-site and externally. The strategic partnerships that the Regional Centers have established ensure their sustainability and the scalability of both their impact and of technologies designed to improve smallholder farmers’ lives. The Regional Center at Kasetsart serves as Winrock’s Feed The Future Asia Innovative Farmers Activity (AIFA) regional Innovation Hub and provides expertise in horticulture technologies being scaled in Nepal and Bangladesh. The Regional Center at Zamorano established a satellite center in Colombia through the “FundaPanaca” project, collaborates with NGOs working in Central America, and conducts trainings for extensionists from government ministries in Honduras and El Salvador. The success of the Regional Center model has inspired other Horticulture Innovation Lab projects to establish similar centers. In Tanzania and Rwanda, projects initiated centers specializing in postharvest handling of horticulture crops. In Cambodia, two new centers focus on composting and safe vegetable handling. In Guinea, a youth-focused horticulture training center houses technologies related to production and postharvest handling which are utilized for trainings and adaptive research. In terms of achieving scale, building on-the-ground individual and institutional capacity, and adapting technologies for smallholder farmers, the Regional Center model has proved profoundly effective and will continue to be encouraged by the Horticulture Innovation Lab.