On 6 February, PARI hosted a National Policy Roundtable in Benin, hosted by the Institute National des Recherches Agricoles du Bénin (INRAB) in Cotonou, Benin. The event served to resent preliminary PARI research findings of relevance to key stakeholders engaged in national innovation processes, ground-truth the findings with local expertise and receive guidance on further research and jointly identify policy implications of the research, especially scope for promising innovations that would serve agricultural development, jobs and food security.

The team from AGROEP first presented the their research on the geographical targeting of innovation investments in Benin. Participants then delved into innovation opportunities in specific value chains of relevance to the local economy which are also supported through the Green Innovation Centres funded by the German government, including ruminants, soy and rice. The team from TUM rounded up the series of talks by presenting prelminary insights from their reserach project in Benin on the feasibility and impacts of personalized nutrition advice in Africa. The meeting closed with a panel Discussion on “Reflections on Outcomes & Future PARI Agenda”.

The event took place on the side-lines of the PARI Annual Meeting & Development of PARI 2.0.