Policy on the Integration of the AgShare Method into
Postgraduate Programmes
Haramaya University College of Agriculture and Environmental Science (CAES)
Introduction
Haramaya University has gone through a series of transformations since its establishment as a higher
learning institution in 1952. The Mission of the University is to “produce competent graduates in
diverse fields of study, undertake rigorous, problem solving and cutting edge research, disseminate
knowledge and technologies, and provide demand-driven and transformative community services”.
Its goal is to evolve as an autonomous and independent graduate and research university with a
competitive national and international quality and relevance standards in its academic, research, and
community services endeavours.
The vision of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES), which was established in
1954, is to be a centre of excellence in teaching, research and community engagement in Agriculture,
Natural Resources Management and Environmental studies in Ethiopia and beyond through efficient
utilization of available resources. The mission of the College is to produce highly qualified
professionals in agriculture, natural resources management and environmental sciences through
rigorous theoretical and practical education and to develop and disseminate problem solving
agricultural production technologies through conducting demand-driven research in Ethiopia.
As part of implementing its mission, the CAES became a partner institution in the AgShare Project in
2013. The AgShare Project is the product of an ongoing partnership between the South African
Institute for Distance Education (Saide), the Regional Universities’ Forum for Capacity Building in
Agriculture (RUFORUM), Michigan State University, and Faculties of Agriculture at various African
universities.
At its core, the AgShare strategy is a research-based approach for the co-creation and release/sharing
of purposeful agricultural knowledge within and across stakeholder groups. Multiple-media Open
Educational Resources (OER) provide an appropriate strategy as OER are intended to be shared,
modified, and made freely available through learning networks.
The AgShare method incorporates the following elements:
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1) Field-based action research is carried out into farmers’ practices and needs by students, working
closely with their faculty supervisors. Research is participatory and involves relevant communitywide partners within respective value chains.
2) Students, faculty, and staff participate in capacity-building workshops in participatory action
research, pedagogical design, OER and media production skills.
3) Student work is published in three ways: as OER multimedia learning packages for incorporation
into degree programs; as information for farmers that is used for follow-up visits and extension
materials; as research in master’s and PhD theses and undergraduate student research.
4) The OER are released in appropriate formats and widely disseminated leading to recognition for
scholarship, teaching, research and extension.
AgShare methods have demonstrated positive impact on farmers, student researchers, faculty, and
students in the classroom. For example, they:
• Transform the way in which academics conceptualize their role as teachers and researchers by
validating community-based problems as research and collaborating with students and
stakeholders.
• Create relevant and effective student learning in the coursework component of the master’s
degree, enabling students to engage with local contexts and issues and not only abstract theory.
• Increase students’ capacity to conduct meaningful, high quality independent research which is
widely shared under an open licence and adds demonstrable research to the student’s resume.
• Contribute to the improvement of farmer practices that lead to improved quality and productivity,
and position them to begin moving away from subsistence farming.
• Produce high-quality, free, openly-licensed educational resources and research products for
customization and re-use that improve the quality of teaching through relevant case studies.
In so doing, AgShare has also exemplified a practical and unified method by means of which
universities can achieve the elusive goal of meeting their mission statements built on provision of
teaching, research, and community development. In 2013, the CAES piloted the AgShare method
within the Department of Agricultural Economics, and specifically the Collaborative Master’s
Programme in Agricultural and Applied Economics (CMAAE). The pilot project focused on three
modules: ‘Agricultural and Marketing and Price Analysis’, ‘Research Methods’, and Institutional and
Behavioural Economics’.
A similar pilot was implemented in the Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension
within CAES. The pilot was implemented under the Collaborative Master’s Programme in Agricultural
Information and Communication Management (AICM) and it focused on three modules, namely
‘Farming Systems and Rural Livelihoods’, ‘Knowledge Management’, and ‘Fundamentals of
Agricultural Information and Communication Management’.
Both pilots in the two Departments entailed action research by postgraduate students involving
farmers and feeding information back for the benefit of farmers. At the same time, the curriculum for
the programmes was enriched and made more relevant to local needs on the basis of research.
Importantly, the AgShare Method helps to give practical expression to the broader national objectives
of the Government of Ethiopia, in particular, its emphasis on production and widespread
dissemination of research is in support of the goal of the higher education priority programme of the
Ministry of Education, which is to:
Produce competent graduates who have appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes in diverse
fields of study; to produce research which promotes knowledge and technology transfer based
on national development and community needs; and to ensure that education and research
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promote the principles of freedom in exchange of views and opinions based on reason, and
democratic and multicultural values”. [Emphasis added]1
In addition, it serves to drive a core objective of the Second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II)
in the economic sector of agriculture and rural transformation, which is identified as a major source
of economic growth. The GTP II emphasizes ongoing development of smallholder agriculture, and
notes the importance of technology adoption2. The AgShare method explicitly supports these goals. It
is also well aligned with the objectives of the CASCAPE Project, which seeks to boost agricultural
production and enhance food security through participatory action research and collective innovation
through collaboration of stakeholders.
During the pilot phase, the CAES has determined that the AgShare Method is most successfully
integrated into postgraduate programmes. Through its emphasis on high quality field-based research,
the AgShare approach also provides a suitable platform through which gender can be integrated in
Africa’s agricultural research and development curriculum. Given this, the College has developed a
series of policy statements intended to facilitate this integration on a sustainable basis. These policy
positions are set out below.
Incorporation of AgShare Method into Postgraduate Agricultural
Programmes
The CAES is committed to incorporating the AgShare method systematically into all of its postgraduate
programmes over the next three to five years, in order to improve the quality of the student’s
educational experience and to make research products of Haramaya graduates more accessible across
agricultural value chains in Ethiopia. To achieve this, the following policy commitments are noted:
1) All students completing theses in fulfilment of their postgraduate programme assessment
requirements will be expected to produce a simplified version of their research findings that can
be widely distributed. These resources will be:
a) Designed with a specific broad target audience in mind, with the primary emphasis being on
smallholder farmers and agricultural extension workers;
b) Produced in a language that is suitable for the intended target audience;
c) Released in a format deemed most suitable for communication purposes by the student
(whether that be print, audio, or video) and taking into account financial constraints.
These products will be called ‘AgShare Resources’. Their primary purpose is to ensure that
postgraduate research in agriculture makes a direct and measurable contribution to the growth
and development of agriculture in Ethiopia.
2) The Assessment Policy and Postgraduate of the CAES will be updated to reflect that completion of
an AgShare resource is necessary to fulfil the requirements of postgraduate programmes, as and
when the AgShare method is introduced into programmes.
3) All students will be expected to release their final thesis and AgShare resource under a Creative
Commons Attribution licence (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Postgraduate
research contracts will be signed between the CAES and students to formalize and retain a record
of this requirement.
4) Wherever finances can be secured through university channels and special projects, the CAES will
establish dedicated places for ‘AgShare students’ in its postgraduate programmes. The purpose of
these positions will be to enable students to engage in research directly with farming
1
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Ministry of Education. 2015. Education Sector Development Program V (ESDP V
2015/16 - 2019/20). Final draft: 22 June 2015. p. 80.
2 The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. 2015. The Second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) (2015/162019/20) (Draft) National Planning Commission. Addis Ababa. p. 27.
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communities, in an effort to ensure that AgShare resources emerging from student research are
as relevant as possible to the needs of farming communities in Ethiopia.
Operationalizing the AgShare Method within the CAES
The CAES is already engaged in a wide range of activities that align with the AgShare method. In order
to consolidate this work and ensure future sustainability of the AgShare method within the College,
the following policy commitments are noted:
1) Building on the success of the pilot projects, the CAES is committed to systematic integration of
the AgShare method into all of its postgraduate programmes, in a phased approach.
2) All student research activities in CAES postgraduate programmes involving engagement with
farming/agricultural communities will be branded as AgShare research activities, in order to
emphasize the centrality of the method to postgraduate research within the College and to
provide a common approach to naming currently fragmented activities being implemented across
the College.
3) Individual student research topics will contribute to an integrated and coherent research focus on
areas of need identified or approved by senior academics.
4) Where it is feasible and affordable, the implementation plans of existing projects will be adjusted
to enable production of AgShare resources as a final output of research work being undertaken
by students. Students will thus be required to demonstrate ability to communicate research
findings to both academic and practice-oriented communities.
5) To the greatest extent possible, all new research projects undertaken by the CAES will include
production of high quality AgShare resources to broaden access to the agricultural research. They
will also make necessary financial provision for the development and production of these
resources (including research travel and media production costs).
6) The CAES will undertake to mobilize, from a wide range of internal and external sources,
supplementary funds to enable selected Haramaya students to produce high quality AgShare
resources to feed into the Ethiopian AgShare Network.
7) The Office of Vice President for Research Affairs undertakes to support innovative
graduate student research that focuses on solving problems of farmers while providing
learning opportunities for students.
Establishing a National AgShare Network in Ethiopia
Given the interest from Faculties of Agriculture in both Haramaya and Mekelle Universities in
sustaining the AgShare method and the strong emphasis in Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan
on economic growth (with agriculture identified as a key economic growth sector), there is merit in
converting this interest into a wider national Ethiopian AgShare Network. The purpose of this Network
will be to:
Ensure that the agriculture knowledge derived through the academic enterprise in Ethiopian
Faculties of Agriculture is prepared in formats/packages that are accessible and
understandable to all members of the agricultural value chain (and particularly small-scale
farmers and government agricultural extension workers) and shared online under open licences
that facilitate widespread distribution and adoption of this knowledge as a key strategy to
develop and grow Ethiopia’s agricultural sector.
This network might include, amongst others:
• All participating Faculties/Colleges of Agriculture;
• Ministry of Agriculture;
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Ministry of Education;
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR);
All Regional Institutes of Agricultural Research
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI);
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA);
Digital Green;
The CASCAPE Project;
Other key players as identified.
Given this, the following policy commitments are noted:
1) Together with other AgShare partners, as well as key stakeholders in agriculture and higher
education in Ethiopia, Haramaya University is committed to supporting the launch of an Ethiopian
AgShare Network to facilitate the creation and widespread dissemination of postgraduate
research on agriculture in Ethiopia.
2) In collaboration with other Faculties of Agriculture in Ethiopia, Haramaya University will launch a
portal to share relevant research products through a single common source as they are developed.
Ideally, this Repository will be constructed in partnership with existing continental repositories
already performing this function.
3) Working with its AgShare partners, the CAES will develop a longitudinal impact evaluation
methodology intended to measure the impact of academic knowledge production on agricultural
growth and development in Ethiopia.
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