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The Parklands Applied Research Institute (PARI) serves as a development portal linking scientists and technical service providers (including national extension and NARS, donor and NGO support) with rural communities through a highly organized and motivated network of community-based organizations. The goal of PARI is to provide build and augment the knowledge base regarding the interaction of cultivated, wild and semi-domesticated plant biodiversity within agricultural and Agroforestry systems, linking promising innovations to a strong foundation of traditional knowledge and technologies. PARI provides a technical and institutional framework in support of:
Based on the farms of over 10,000 participant farmers in the districts of Pader, Lira, Gulu, Kitgum, Abim, Amuria and Katakwi, the Parklands Applied Research Institute is a collaborative effort of a partnership between national and global specialists in integrated conservation and development through sustainable management of indigenous plant biodiversity. Problem Statement From 2002 until recently, the rural communities of northern Uganda were forcibly displaced from their farms and rural communities by a brutal insurgency. With the return of relative peace, communities are trying to return to their ancestral lands, but more than half of the returnees are under 18 years of age, without any practical understanding of farming practices and productivity, nor traditional farming practices (including animal traction) and the diversity and relative strengths of local varieties of staple foods and other important crops. Compounding the effects of this disruption and displacement of rural communities, a disproportionate number of the elderly have not survived the war years, suffering from the crowded and unhealthy climate of the IDP camps. As a result, the elders of many communities - bearers of traditional technical knowledge and technologies - have become fewer, and those surviving less likely to take on an active role in the reconstruction of rural communities. Thus, the essential skills and understanding of an ancient farming system have been greatly diminished in an accelerated example of ‘cultural erosion,’ which has proven problematic to task of rebuilding a productive northern Uganda. The Parklands Applied Research Institute
(PARI): User-Driven Innovation The design of PARI is innovative as an ‘on-farm’ research station addressing the needs and ideas of over 10,000 farmers in an initial seven districts of northern Uganda, including a diversity of local cultures and traditional knowledge. PARI is uniquely situated in northern Uganda, as its partner institutions have built durable and long-term relations with these rural community stakeholders (including local government), which provide an invaluable source of social capital as well as a ‘delivery structure’ for targeting development impacts to a large number of beneficiaries, covering a majority of the households in each community of operation. PARI is based on principles of respect for local communities and resources, recognizing that farmers are fundamentally innovators and applied researchers as well as investors, and that local solutions are often the most appropriate to local problems. In practical terms, local technologies for post-harvest processing and storage of agricultural and natural products have been proven very effective at maintaining product quality, and any efforts at innovation or improvement should start with reference to the technical strengths of locally-available materials and expertise, reinforcing rather than replacing traditional technologies. PARI provides science-based technical support to the diffusion of targeted, low-cost interventions which have proven to be effective in the specific context of northern Uganda, including provision of inputs and basic technical training in production, post-harvest processing and storage, and will link producer groups to internal and external markets in order to augment rather than diminish household food security. Beyond reinforcement of local resources, bringing farmers together through (pre-existing) community-based structures has proven an effective means of generating scientific data on productivity and diversity which can be translated into tangible economic benefits for local farmers, both in the short-term and on a more long-term sustainable basis. Through its integrated approach, using applied research as a development tool, PARI links thousands of local farmers to innovation and opportunity, while supporting the preservation and generational diffusion of indigenous technologies and genetic resources of local agro-ecological biodiversity. PARI Stakeholders and Beneficiaries PARI provides science-based technical support to the diffusion of targeted, low-cost interventions which have proven to be effective in the specific context of northern Uganda, including provision of inputs and basic technical training in production, post-harvest processing and storage, and will link producer groups to internal and external markets in order to augment rather than diminish household food security. The objectively verifiable indicators of these interventions will be increased productivity for rural producers, including increased returns from value added to local products, allowing stakeholder re-investment into a range of productive assets and rural enterprises. During 2008, the Parklands Applied Research Institute (PARI) will serve over 10,000 farmers (65% women) in seven initial districts of northern Uganda (Lira, Pader, Kitgum, Gulu, Abim, Amuria and Katakwi). With support over a 60-month period, PARI could be expanded to cover between 25,000 and 50,000 farmers in the above districts plus Amuru, Apac, Dokolo, Otuke, Moyo, Adjumani, Arua, Nebbi and Kaberamaido.
Whereas the actual number of districts covered increases with time and decentralization, PARI provides structural framework across northern Uganda, minimizing the redundancy of efforts and helping local government to contextualize its efforts with a significant multiplier effect. As PARI is an local, national and regional institution, it will provide a long-term platform for the engagement of all appropriate entities in support of its long-term objectives; benefits will not be lost or set back according to a ‘project’ time-frame, but will be vested in its partner institutions and local communities over the long term. Whereas the immediate objective must be to facilitate the reconstruction of the productivity of northern Uganda for the primary benefit of rural communities and future generations, the ultimate goal of PARI the generation of local and global public goods including genetic property rights to be vested in local communities of northern Uganda, and other locally-sustainable innovations which develop local value chains for agricultural and natural products, adding value at the primary producer level. Anticipated Results PARI will provide a technical and institutional framework to address the productivity constraints of local farmers, obtaining objectively verifiable impacts to the incomes, assets and food security of over 10,000 farmers during the first two years, and up to 50,000 by 2014 with sufficient support. The objectively verifiable indicators of these interventions will be increased productivity for rural producers, including increased returns from value added to local products, allowing stakeholder re-investment into a range of productive assets and rural enterprises. PARI provides science-based technical support to a geographically dispersed set of highly organized groups of rural producers of a wide range of agricultural and natural products, facilitating the exchange of technical and market information and opportunities between participating groups and the private sector. PARI supports farmer innovation as well as preservation of indigenous technical knowledge, enabling local communities to ‘scale up’ locally-appropriate technical and management solutions to the landscape level across northern Uganda. Over the long term, preservation of indigenous lines of cultivars from centers of origin and diversity may be one of the most effective forms of food security ‘insurance’ against climate change. Locally managed over millennia, these agro-ecological genetic resources reinforce local (and national) self-reliance and productivity in an uncertain future. - - - - - - - The Parklands Applied Research Institute is a
collaborative effort of a partnership between national and global
specialists in integrated conservation and development through
sustainable management of indigenous plant biodiversity. Cooperative Office for Voluntary Organisations
of Uganda The Northern Uganda Shea Processors Association
(NUSPA) Makerere University, Kampala Department of Forestry and Nature Conservation Department of Agriculture Department of Food Science and Technology with technical support from The National Agricultural Research Organisation
(NARO) For more information, please contact:
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