This Fall 2015, InnovATE teamed up with Agrilinks, a knowledge-sharing portal for food security and agriculture professionals, to put the spotlight on agricultural education and training (AET). In October, our collaboration was initiated with a blog series introducing AET as a concept and showing why it is so important. Learn more about the significance, methods and benefits of AET in our blog posts on the Agrilinks site via the links below:

• Ending Poverty and Hunger through Strengthening Agricultural Education and Training: The agriculture value chain is often the backbone of developing economies. Unfortunately, AET systems have not kept pace with employment opportunities and there is a limited supply of properly trained agricultural professionals in developing economies. Learn why Local Human and Institution Capacity Development (HICD) is key for eliminating these skill gaps in developing work-forces.
• Agricultural Education and Training Must Be Local and Demand-Driven: Due to the growing diversity of agriculture markets, members of the global supply chain must be active learners and adaptive workers to keep up as the market climates change. Read how to improve local, demand-driven development based on InnovATE’s “learn, design, train” theory of change.

Young women at work in a Malian processing plant-employed in the agricultural value chain.

Our partnership with Agrilinks focuses on the system of agricultural education and training. See our second installment of the blog series focused on Gender in AET and read the Agrilinks summary: How Can Agricultural Education and Training Better Reach Women?