Growing Change Together: Co-creating University–Farmer Learning Strategies for Climate-Adaptive Farming in Living Labs in India and Indonesia

This applied research takes place in two Living Labs on climate resilient agriculture and food systems in Baramati (India) and Kupang (Indonesia), where VHL works together with Baramati Agricultural College (BAC) and Politeknik Kupang (PK). In both regions, climate-adaptive innovations are developed with farmers and other partners, but most innovations remain limited to trial plots or with a small group of early adopters. Learning is now mainly organized through trainings and demonstrations, while there is still limited insight in how farmers themselves learn, experiment and decide, and how universities can better connect to this. The central practical question is: How can we learn together with farmers in ways that help more of them use climate-adaptive innovations in their daily farming, and in that way increase climate resilience? The research question translates this into: What learning strategies can collaborations between smallholder horticulture farmers and agricultural universities use to improve the scaling of climate adaptive innovations?
The project has two main outcomes: (1) a co-created learning strategy for collaborations between smallholder farmers and agricultural universities; and (2) embedding this learning strategy in the educational programs of BAC, PK and VHL. Work package 1 develops a learning strategy diagnostic and, together with farmers and staff, a shared learning agenda and learning strategy for two selected innovations. Work package 2 links this strategy to concrete courses, co-creates two educational product designs, formulates generic design principles and shares the results in three languages.
The project strengthens education (new learning competences and thesis work), research (basis for follow-up studies on transformative learning and scaling) and professional practice (a Learning Strategy and advisory report for coordinators, extension services and NGOs).