Innovations for building resilience in food systems

In collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture, we are identifying innovations for building resilience in food systems. This research project is funded by the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture. The research period is from January 2016 to December 2017.

Objectives

To adapt and apply the FAO SHARP tool with farmers in Burkina Faso and Switzerland
To assess the resilience of farming systems using SHARP
To identify innovations for building resilience in the case study locations
To teach master students at ETH Zurich about food system resilience

Activities

Field work in Burkina Faso and Switzerland, master theses
Lectures at ETH Zurich, including study trips to FAO in Rome
Workshop to share research results, experiences and policy implications

Expected outcome

It is expected that the adaptation and application of the FAO SHARP tool will create synergies with other ongoing activities on “how to assess resilience in food systems”. It will also provide a step forward on “how to build resilience in food systems through innovations”. Finally, it should contribute to the development of a talent pool of future young professionals who can contribute to food system resilience building activities in Switzerland and abroad.

Workshop: "Innovations on Building Resilience in Food Systems"

A workshop was held on 18th May 2017 with stakeholders from Switzerland to discuss about what innovations are that can build resilience in food systems. The project report can be found Downloadhere (PDF, 1.5 MB).

Farmer workshops to assess and discuss resilience, Canton of Vaud

Two series of workshops were conducted in Canton of Vaud with 84 farmers from all regions of the Canton to assess and discuss farm system resilience. Causes for low resilience and opportunities for triggering innovations to reach higher farm system resilience were identified. The workshop report can be found Downloadhere (PDF, 339 KB).