Rural small holder farmer communities are not properly equipped to deal with the disruptions caused by increasingly unpredictable weather conditions to their farming schedules.  They are very vulnerable to these conditions because their processes are immensely reliant on rain water, regular dry and wet seasons and manual processes. 'Disconnected pools of expertise' Benue State has a wealth of local R&D expertise in the agriculture value chain. However there is minimal knowledge sharing between rural small holder farmers, the innovation ecosystem, academia and R&D communities.  (The combination of the factors above aggravate the inherent risks in agriculture where operational factors can wipe out crops on the field, and post-harvest losses of up to 50% still occur due to structural challenges. It would have been instructive for the Lab to learn how these same conditions impact the livelihoods and cultures of herder communities.) Livelihoods in the agriculture value chain are still the preferred option for many displaced small holder farmers in Benue State. Other occupations are seen as make-shit, temporary options. Many start farming at young ages in the rural areas areas and are reluctant 'to start all over again' to 'compete' with other people who have had decades to master other occupations.  We sensed the beginnings of a culture shift in residents of internally displaced camps towards skill acquisition. With many farmers unable to access land to farm and few transferable skills, 'farming isn't regarded as the ultimate career option, and many regret not having other skills. They are keen on ensuring their children have options.  It seems to us that to some degree the small holder farming  communities and nomadic herder communities are similar in how they live out their closely linked culture-occupations. Nomadic herders seem to live on the the fringes of settled communities, apparently trying to move and tend their cattle in much the same ways they have 'always done'. For most rural small holder farming communities, farming is as much a way of life as it is an occupation. Many processes are still manually executed, and know-how is passed down through generations. Some of this knowledge is now outdated. With uncertain weather conditions, diminishing stocks of farmland and grazing routes, increasing desertification in the Sahel and population growth, perhaps different ways of doing 'the same old things' are called for. Ways which are more responsive to the times we live in. 

https://app.mural.co/t/undpacceleratorlabsws23178/m/undpacceleratorlabsws23178/1666256487424/19890ba2737660446beba0b96f9e6230beee5026?sender=u6502fe615867c6e31fb60926  https://app.mural.co/t/undpacceleratorlabsws23178/m/undpacceleratorlabsws23178/1666256487422/62bdc5d01d8a24b9ed41fe25ce1c8fdf15a8ac78?sender=u6502fe615867c6e31fb60926 https://app.mural.co/t/undpacceleratorlabsws23178/m/undpacceleratorlabsws23178/1666256487425/15fe914043addeecc5a172346fc4c84e075e1d1b?sender=u6502fe615867c6e31fb60926

We encountered barriers accessing the Fulani herder communities due to concerns about security from the CO team. The Lab was unable to have a single engagement with these communities. We did not encounter them when we visited communities across the State or in the capital city, Makurdi and so could not get any insights from them on the situation in Benue. We feel this is a missed opportunity, but have proceeded with the insights from farmer communities. 

We wanted to engage people and communities directly impacted by the conflict and get their perspectives on issues. These data sources filled gaps about local grassroots perspectives on some of the project interventions that had been implemented by development partners including UNDP. They highlighted the impact of changing weather patterns in farmers livelihoods and how deeply these affected several parts of the farmers' work processes. We were also able to uncover many local resources for addressing key challenges the farming communities face which were not being used at all or even fully optimised, such as updated information about weather changes, farming practices and input etc. 

It was necessary to apply these innovation methods to tap into community knowledge systems, which are not as widely documented. By engaging a wide range of partners in unpacking these issues, we got different perspectives on these issues and were able to draw linkages between insights gained from our community engagements to their responses to interventions that were deployed.

Gender Advocacy and Justice Initiative - this CSO helped us reach out to their contacts within Fulani herder communities, but these engagements eventually did not take place due to security concerns.

Center for Food and Technology Research (CEFTER):  CEFTER was very helpful during both sensemaking and exploration phases, sharing their R&D initiatives, insights on agro practice in  rural communities, displacement patterns of conflict affected farming communities among others. 

Farmore: describes itself as an innovator in the Nigerian food system space. The Lab and BAI Hub, engaged Farmore to gain insights from their partnerships with rural small holder farming communities, on how these relationships had works, how knowledge transfers and risks were managed, where traditional techniques could be effectively deployed, the importance of trust in these relationships etc.                                            Intrio Synergy Ltd.; is another company we engaged during the exploration phase. They engage in R&D and contract farming with small holder rural farming communities in Benue. We learnt from their experiences in knowledge exchanges and business relationship management with these communities.  Tembekasua - we engaged Tembekasua on the opportunities in leveraging decentralised markets for rural small holder farmers. Access to markets is a critical challenge for many of these farmers. We want to test the efficiency of virtual market places in connecting these farmers to regional and international markets.  Benue Young Farmers Network & Various Local equipment fabricators: Members of these networks shared intelligence on how their value chains engaged small holder farmers, operational challenges they faced and their innovations. 

Benue State SDGs Office: This office supported the Lab's engagement of farmers in all the rural communities we visited, facilitating meetings with different networks, internally displaced persons, translation services and face time with public officials.  Ministry of Agriculture: The Director shared their own insights on the challenges faced by small holder farmers, strategies that could quickly improve their situations and contacts with various farming networks the Lab could collaborate with. This Ministry will be crucial to effecting policy changes.  Benue Agriculture and Rural Development Agency: We worked with this agency to understand how the State manages extension services in communities. Scale-up of successful experiments will require their support.  Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA): We engaged SEMA during exploration to get their insights on displacement trends in Benue. We discovered that SEMA coordinates climatic data from other agencies, and are now collaborating to use this data and their early warning emergency management platform in an experiment. Although this data is not being used to support agricultural practice, we believe it could be greatly impact livelihoods at community level.  Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) & Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA): These Federal Agencies generate data on climatic conditions, which are then shared with State Agencies. We engaged them in exploration to understand the range of their operations, if and how these could be tailored to be useful to the small holder farmers. 

The private sector partners were new and usual partners. The scale of their operations were smaller than what the UNDP is used to but their insights and knowledge of the local context were invaluable.  

The Lab was embedded in the UNDP Benue Mission Team for this challenge. The team shared their contacts and local resources with the Lab. We were charged to provide actionable intelligence on emerging challenges and opportunities in the local context. After sharing our insights and a  portfolio of experiments based on this, we were asked to start another learning cycle on internally displaced people in host communities. Security challenges prevented us from starting this in 2022. 

These factors supported the surfacing of local solutions such as the fabricator networks, agri-tech initiatives and emerging partnerships between the rural farming communities and relatively larger corporates.