At the end of 2018, five professionals from Embrapa spent three weeks in the state of Mbale, in Uganda. The group applied capacity-building and participatory training guidelines that offer a set of tools that allow the integration of knowledge on soil quality and management from family farmers and from agricultural extension technician to the technical knowledge generated by Soil Science and agricultural research. Such guidelines are named Participatory Integration of Knowledge on Soil Quality Indicators (Integração Participativa de Conhecimentos sobre Indicadores de Qualidade do Solo, InPaC-S), developed by the Embrapa scientists Heitor Coutinho (in memoriam) and Carlos Medeiros, alongside Edmundo Barrios, a professional from the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF-Kenya) currently ceded to FAO. “On top of the participatory aspect, we worked on the technical part while being very focused on the reality of those 30 farmers in Uganda, on the availability of what they have in terms of soil and crops”, the researcher from Embrapa Soils (Rio de Janeiro, RJ) Ana Turetta describes the experience. “That is the great motivation behind this technological innovation: understanding how farmers' traditional knowledge can be reflected in technical indicators and vice versa”, Turetta adds. Participatory approach that strengthens family farming Two workshops in partnership with Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) and ICRAF were organized. First workshop counted on the participation of researchers, university professors and technicians, “we worked their specialization into the InPaC-S methodology”, Turetta says. In the second workshop, the professionals previously trained were the instructors, multiplying the methodology for farmers and agricultural extension technicians. “The smallholders did not have enough knowledge of suitable agricultural practices, while the extension professionals had not been exposed to land use change dynamics, resulting in a disconnection between the two groups”, points David Lelei, ICRAF researcher. “Thus being, InPaC-S played a fundamental role in the training of technicians who will teach farmers how to better understand the parameters of soil quality and improve soil fertility in order to increase grain production”. Lelei had two previous experiences with the InPaC-S: in Tanzania in 2012 and in Kenya, in 2016. Family farmers are drawn by InPaC-S' easiness of use and relatability to their challenges. The success of the farmers' participation was due to their involvement from the start of the activities. “The Brazilian team was welcomed and family farmers' engagement was strong. We were worried about the excess of days mobilized for the training, five, but the smallholders engaged in the activities, which surprised us, as in Brazil it is difficult to mobilize [that many people] for more than two days”, reveals Luciano Mattos, a researcher from Embrapa Cerrados (Planaltina, DF) who was part of the group in Uganda. Luciano also underscores the similarities between Brazil and the African country. “Yes, they are very much alike, as maize is intercropped with beans and cassava in rotation with other crops, community organization, good reception, and a historical process of oppression and non-prioritisation in the economic life of their countries”. Response to the exodus from the fields The knowledge and the local family production experience have received increasing attention in recent years as a source of useful options for the sustainable management of natural resources, as well as the interest in strengthening farmers' decision-making capacity regarding agroecological transition aimed at sustainable agriculture. These were some of the reasons that drove Edmundo Barrios to invest in the creating the methodology. “InPaC-S was elaborated as a response to the accelerated loss of farmer knowledge and experience due to the migration of the young and the adults to cities, and the decease of the elderly that are in the rural zones. The methodology tackles this challenge by developing an approach that protects local knowledge on soils and soil management, as it is integrated with scientific knowledge and used as tool to support family farmer decision making”. In Uganda, the methodology made family farmers more acquainted with soil quality indicators. The idea of restoring soil fertility in order to increase grain production was also an important factor to attract participants. Such engagement led NARO to have positive expectations about the workdays. “We hope that farmers put the need to manage soil fertility as a priority factor to increase production, and that they also start to accept mineral fertilizers. In a near future, we expect that trainees spread their knowledge thanks to a multiplying effect”, Hillary Agaba, NARO's director of research, confidently asserts. “It was rewarding to see the level of involvement of the Ugandan group, the director of research and a good part of NARO's team were with us all the time. We hope to break with this paternal/colonial pattern that still often permeates relationships with Africans. There was a positive work environment, a rich exchange, discussion from equal to equal, without imposing magical solutions that would resolve the life of the local population”, Ana Turetta says. Like any methodology, InPaC-S is in constant evolution, and Luciano Mattos sees room for some changes. “The methodology could be simplified as part of the adaptation to the local context and the target audience allowing the length of their application to be reduced. It is also necessary to organize processes of scientific validation of said empirical indicators and thus allow the assessment of their usefulness in different types of soil”. Participatory design of experimental area and demonstration unit The area used for cultivation in the African country has medium to low agricultural potential. “It is a transition region, between the highlands with a lot of rain and the plains with little precipitation. Soil fertility also ranges from medium to low”, describes Hillary Agaba. They set up an experiment and a demonstration unit, where maize was intercropped with beans, according to the custom of local farmers, who actively participated by bringing their knowledge, raising problems and what would be important to evaluate. “The experiment had seven treatments in four blocks, and each experimental unit had 4.5 x 4.5m, which amounts to a total of 567m2, and another 100m2 area with velvet beans. The whole soil preparation and sowing processes were manually performed”, stresses the researcher from Embrapa Soils, Etelvino Novotny, who led the process. As they are short-cycle crops, the plants are already big and should be harvested in two months. The community itself can use the area for university and school visits, for instance. The Embrapa team in Uganda also included the researcher from Embrapa Temperate Agriculture (Pelotas, RS) - and one of the authors of the methodology - Carlos Medeiros and the researcher from Embrapa Soils Joyce Monteiro. History The methodology was applied and contextualized in ecoregional workshops in five Brazilian biomes (Amazon Rainforest - Pará, Cerrados - Minas Gerais, Atlantic Rainforest - Santa Catarina, Caatinga - Paraíba, and Pantanal - Mato Grosso do Sul), from 2008 to 2011, in a work funded by Embrapa's contribution to CGIAR. In Africa, besides Uganda, the InPaC-S was trialled in Mozambique, Ethiopia and Rwanda. It was presented for the first time in 2001, by Edmundo Barrios, in Rio de Janeiro, during the III International Conference on Land Degradation. The work drew the attention of the Embrapa Soils scientist Heitor Coutinho. From then on, the two started a partnership that has brought Barrios to Rio de Janeiro, as a visiting researcher in the Embrapa Soils between 2007 and 2009. In 2012, some of InPaC-S' principles were adopted in Mozambique, and they were very well assessed by the Agricultural Innovation MKTPlace, an international initiative supported by partners such as the World Bank and FAO to promote South-South collaboration and join professionals and institutions to develop research projects for development. The success in Mozambique led the methodology to be included in M-BoSs - an international initiative supported by institutions like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Kingdom Department of International Development (DFID), and the Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa (FARA), which is designed to strengthen and deepen cooperation between African and Brazilian institutions, strengthening our international presence in that continent. The M-BoSs then decided to take the methodology to Ghana and Tanzania. To date, the InPaC-S methodology instructed 286 trainers of trainers in Brazil and in five countries in Africa, 52 of whom were Embrapa researchers, and involving 521 farmers in the activities associated with the methodology. “Another interesting aspect is that, as it is a practice built participatorily, in the two future workshops in Tanzania, for instance, farmers' soil limitations can be totally different and require equally different experimental area and demonstration unit”, Ana Turetta reports. “Meaning to bring a fixed formula and impose it, saying that it is the right thing to do, is of no use. There is no such thing in this project. Everything is built around the problems systematically raised through InPaC-S' methodological tools, as well as the means to overcome them and have better soil management, to increase resilience in the systems. Increasing resilience entails increasing food security and access to food, which are very serious questions in countries with a very high level of vulnerability such as Uganda”, Ana Turetta concludes. Near future The integration with NARO in Uganda originated a cooperation between the institution and the Hunger Project, a world no-for-profit initiative that works towards the eradication of hunger. The project with the InPaC-S was the catalyser of this initiative. The InPaC-S methodology can be downloaded from http://www.worldagroforestry.org/downloads/Publications/PDFS/B17293.pdf (first edition – Portuguese, 2011) http://www.worldagroforestry.org/downloads/Publications/PDFS/B17459.pdf (second edition – English, 2012) Translation: Mariana Medeiros