An impact assessment of IITA’s
benchmark area approach
Boru Douthwaite, Doyle Baker, Stephan Weise, Jim Gockowski,
Victor M. Manyong, and J.D.H. Keatinge
iAn impact assessment of IITA’s
benchmark area approach
1 2 2Boru Douthwaite , Doyle Baker*, Stephan Weise , Jim Gockowski ,
1 #Victor M. Manyong , and J.D.H. Keatinge
1International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria
*FAO, Rome, Italy
2IITA, Yaoundé, Cameroon
#ICRISAT, Patancheru, India
NB: This is a shortened version of the paper “IITA’s Benchmark Area Approach:
Putting INRM into practice” which has been accepted for publication in a journal
special issue.
Abstract
Here we evaluate the IITA Benchmark Area Approach (BAA), which is
being used to deliver general improvements to rural livelihoods in sub-Saharan
Africa. The approach began evolving just nine years ago so a formal ex-post
impact assessment is not yet appropriate. Hence, we evaluated the approach by
comparing it against existing “best practice.” We first established that existing
“best practice” in developing sustainable improvements to complex agricultural
systems is represented by integrated natural resource management (INRM)
and current thinking in farming systems research (FSR). We then derived nine
“best practice” criteria and evaluated the BAA against them, finding that the
approach is delivering, or has the potential to deliver, on all nine. Hence the
BAA is an important process innovation.
The IITA BAA is a way ...
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