The African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) is a voluntary membership Pan-African not-for-profit organization. ACT brings together stakeholders and players who are dedicated to improving agricultural productivity through sustainable utilization of natural resources of land and water in Africa’s farming systems and committed to the principal of mutual collaboration, partnership and sharing of information/knowledge on sustainable Conservation Agriculture based farming systems and natural resources management, drawing on synergies and complementarities.
Under its first strategic focus area termed “Adoption and Scaling up of Conservation Agriculture”, the 2013-2022 ACT strategic Plan approved by the Board in February 2013 states that:
“Institutional scaling up that involves influencing higher level institutions is considered the most effective approach for scaling up agricultural knowledge and technologies. It is based on the recognition that actions are required from many institutions for effective adoption of technologies by target beneficiaries. In this context, scaling up is where efforts are made to communicate and share knowledge, especially the underlying principles with higher up institutions and to bring in other stakeholders such as manufacturers, policy makers and investors from community or local level, to national and even global level. Uptake, acceptance and internalization of technology at higher levels increase the chance that these institutions will support and invest in scaling it out”
In the endeavour to implement the strategic plan, the ACT Implementation Strategy for 2013-2017, promulgates (in article 6.2 of the Strategic Plan) that:
“In order to re-invent and position itself strategically, the Network shall develop and operationalize a mechanism for establishing flexible alliances and innovation platforms that allow the Network to form temporary teams with other organizations including farmers’ organizations and groups, research institutions, universities and the private sector and non-governmental organizations to solve priority conservation agriculture problems in specified periods. The formation of such temporary teams would ensure the availability of a critical mass of professionals with the right disciplinary mix to provide multidisciplinary solutions for priority conservation agriculture problems.”
This section/sub-menu present how ACT organizational membership is structured with a view to encourage or facilitate network interaction and collaboration, but also promote and enhance the purpose of its establishment. It provides the way forward in ACT scaling out vision in support of the ACT Board decisions highlighted above and in response to the ACT Membership Development, Retention and Reactivation needs.