In the first year, the Horticulture Innovation Lab established a strong foundation for the locally-led, globally-supported program approach. Although activities experienced some lengthy start-up times in part due to challenges with contracting with local organizations or providing space for local organizations to prepare projects, the outcomes from this approach will have long-term positive effects. Beyond the initiation of two Critical Engagement Projects, the Regional Workshops helped the Horticulture Innovation Lab build up its network of local experts, gather input directly from those local experts, and

REGIONAL HORTICULTURE WORKSHOPS

Four Regional Horticulture Workshops were held in FY2022. The workshops were in Nepal, Ghana, Kenya, and Honduras, and participants throughout their respective regions were invited to provide expertise on gender equity, youth engagement, nutrition, and the horticulture sector. Through these workshops and accompanying surveys and literature reviews, the local organizations that hosted the workshops developed comprehensive assessment reports that established priorities and challenges in the region across biophysical and socioeconomic themes. These reports will be used by the Horticulture Innovation Lab to build requests for proposals (RFPs) for research that address challenges and opportunities as defined by local expertise.

REGIONAL HUB MANAGERS

The success of the workshops helped the Horticulture Innovation Lab in its process of selecting Regional Hub Managers. These Regional Hub Managers will play project management, financial management, monitoring and evaluation, and networking roles in four regions – Central America, East Africa, West Africa, and South Asia. The hosts of the workshops in Honduras, Kenya, and Ghana were Zamorano University, the International Center for Evaluation and Development, and the University of Ghana, respectively, and they were selected as the Regional Hub Managers for the Horticulture Innovation Lab. 

CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT PROJECTS

One Critical Engagement Project started on-the-ground research activities in FY2022. The project, led by Wageningen University and Research, will research the motivations in the informal horticulture market sector to adopt new technologies that can increase food safety and reduce postharvest losses. Specifically, the project will examine the usage and adoption of plastic crates in tomato value chains in Rwanda and Nigeria and determine barriers to adoption or opportunities to leverage to increase adoption. The research will examine two programs that have already started introducing plastic crates into the informal value chain. The second Critical Engagement Project went through a lengthy but beneficial competitive then co-collaborative process to develop a research program that will look at the socioeconomic and nutritional trade-offs in short and long value chains (short being one intermediary or less) and the socioeconomic and nutritional impacts that digital apps or information communication technologies (ICTs) have in those value chains. This research project will be led by Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and GROOTS Kenya and focus on six commodities in twelve districts in Kenya.

SCALING TECHNOLOGIES

The Horticulture Innovation Lab’s DryCard (a dryness indicator that can be used on any dried commodity) is now being sold by three new entrepreneurs in Kenya, Myanmar, and Nigeria. Additionally, testing and evaluation of two solar dryers developed by the Horticulture Innovation Lab occurred in Guinea and in Dominica by two U.S.-based graduate students conducting thesis research. A product of this research will be new and improved manuals for building and using the technologies. Finally, the Horticulture Innovation Lab has adopted the GenderUp scaling tool into its program and will utilize it to promote inclusive scaling.