Innovating in a dynamic technical context - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 108

and economic consequences of adopting QSMAS; (2) identify technical and
socioeconomic factors governing adoption of QSMAS; and (3) foster scaling-
out of the practices into other parts of Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala. It
took its place in the longer-term trajectory of a self-propelled innovation
process (CPWF, 2012a). Work on QSMAS continues in other forms and with
other sources of funding.
Goats and fodder
In the dry Limpopo Basin, project Limpopo 3 worked on the problem of goat
deaths. Goats in Zimbabwe are largely produced by poor households in
marginal areas and goat sales are important in their livelihood strategies. In
local and national markets, there is unmet demand for goat meat, which in the
past has not been reflected in prices received by farmers. Moreover, animal
deaths exceed 20 percent per year, often due to lack of fodder in the dry
season. Animal quality was low and animals were often sold in distress sales
where a farmer will take whatever (low) price the buyer offers (van Rooyen
and Homann-Kee Tui, 2008; van Rooyen and Homann-Kee Tui, 2009).
Recent innovations have transformed this picture. Innovation platforms (see
Chapter 3) involving farmers, merchants, researchers and other stakeholders
promoted formal goat auctions on defined dates. The auctions were held in
pens designed for small animals and equipped with scales and small ramps.
Buyers competed and paid much more for animals of higher quality, with
prices received by farmers at times increased five- or sixfold. This motivated
farmers to improve goat management with housing, fencing, investment in
improved feed and fodder and in animal health. As auction pens have prolif-
erated, there are fewer goat deaths and fewer distress sales (van Rooyen, 2012).
The irony is that for many years prior to the auction system, researchers had
worked on alternative sources of dry-season fodder for goats, but farmers
showed little interest. With return to goat farming transformed and the value
of dry-season fodder greatly increased, farmers now invest their own resources
in dry-season fodder and seek research support.
CPWF only became involved in 2010 with the launch of the Limpopo
BDC. But innovation platforms and research on auction pens dated from 2005
through a series of projects funded by Germany, the EU and South African
Development Community. CPWF helped researchers work with farmers to
identify suitable sources of dry-season fodder that was now in demand. CPWF
supported and accelerated progress in an autonomous social process of
innovation with its own trajectory.
Permits and pumping
In West Bengal, smallholders have difficulty in accessing shallow groundwater
to intensify irrigated cropping. The difficulties were not technical but
bureaucratic and legal; farmers needed a government permit to obtain an