Our Impact

Since 2006, a series of four RIPAT pilot projects has worked with more than 2,000 farmers

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our impact

An agricultural intervention like RIPAT is mainly of interest for policy makers, donors and implementing organizations once it has proved capable of making positive changes in the lives of its target population.

  • RIPAT aimed at increasing food security and alleviating poverty through a sustainable and lasting change in the agricultural systems of small-scale farmers. Five years after the introduction of the first RIPAT project it is safe to say that it has, to a reasonable extent, succeeded in doing so

  • Analyses of research data based on interviews with almost 2000 household’s show that, on average, households which have participated in RIPAT -compared to similar households which have not - are significantly more likely

Fact
Analyses of research data based on interviews with almost 2000 household’s show that, on average, households which have participated in RIPAT -compared to similar households which have not - are significantly more likely
  • To be cultivating the improved crops or breeding the improved livestock varieties promoted in the ‘basket of options’. The most popular option being the new banana varieties, adopted by more than 60% of RIPAT farmers;
  • to be food secure in the lean season, where RIPAT farmers are 25 percentage points less likely to experience hunger;
  • to be eating meat and eggs on a weekly basis;
  • To have well-nourished young children. There is a 27 percentage point reduction in stunted growth among these youngsters.

The analyses did not reveal any impact on poverty indicators. However, the effects on the food security and nutritional status of the households participating in RIPAT 1 are very substantial– and even more importantly, there are clear indications that RIPA This brought about a sustainable and lasting change. The analyses are based on interviews undertaken almost five years after project commencement and more than one year after project closure. Thus, although RIPAT is no ‘quick fix’, it has potential for being a longer term and sustainable solution to food insecurity among the vast number of small scale farmers in the Global South.

Wariombora Msele: “Now we have a better life”

When Wariombora joined a RIPAT group back in 2006 she lived with her family in a small hut. Now she greets visitors in front of her new house constructed with bricks and iron sheet roof. She has also built a pit latrine. Wariombora explains that the house has been paid for by the surplus she gained from selling bananas, goat milk and chicken. Technologies that she adopted from the basket of options after being taught by the RIPAT extension staff how to practice the technologies. 

“First it took time to see the benefits from the new crops and techniques, but now we have a

Better life”, as she puts it. She explains that her family has gradually become more food secure allowing her to sell more agricultural products, giving her an increase in income and an opportunity to save money in the joint saving box that the group is keeping.(Waliombola Msele)

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How did this impact come about?

There are indications that the sustained adoption of technologies and the long term impact on food security and nutrition for the participating farmers are closely associated with teaching the farmers in a full basket of relevant and efficient technology options. At the same time the RIPAT approach gives the farmer a genuine choice regarding which of these options to adopt on their own farm and to what extent, according to each farmer’s needs and resources

Apart from the element of choice, the fact that each farmer belongs to a strong farmers ‘group has contributed to an increased sense of empowerment among the farmers –especially among female farmers. It has also increased the farmers' bargaining with more

Knowledge about and a say in agricultural matters. 70% of the RIPAT 1 farmers stated that they were still group members more than one year after the end of the project and 13 of the original 16 groups were still active.

Finally, the research repeatedly stress that apart from RECODA being dedicated to their work, the organizational management structure around RIPAT is another reason for these achievements. That is, a management structure Which entails both joint experimental learning in groups, a pragmatic combination of traditional and participatory extension approaches, and a strong focus on integrating both local needs, resources and conditions of small-scale farmers as well as involving local governmental authorities into the intervention Design.

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