NEWS:

27 Feb, 2016


MSU student Lindsay Strong and LUANAR student Tchiywe Thandiwe Moyo make observations in Tsoka market.
The Global Center for Food Systems Innovation recently pioneered an effort to teach students how to help better feed the world.

The Frugal Innovation Practicum targeted students and faculty from Lilongwe University of Agriculture & Natural Resources in Malawi and from Michigan State University in the United States.

The students represented fields as diverse as nursing, social science, political theory and agribusiness management.

Stephanie White, a researcher at Michigan State University’s Global Center for Food Systems Innovation developed the Frugal Innovation Practicum together with LUANAR faculty after studying urban legume retailers in Malawi.

The experiential service-learning opportunity allowed the students to engage directly with market vendors and local officials as they sought frugal solutions to difficult problems.

According to White, The practicum is designed to explore how students of different disciplines tackle problems challenging real people, It is an experiential learning opportunity were they are collaborating on real-life situations, and also being able to draw from their own distinct backgrounds to problem solving.

The students took five weeks of online coursework to gain background in informal markets, food security and other issues. The students and faculty members from both universities also had interactive online discussions on various issues affecting the market system.

During two weeks of the practicum, the students interviewed people working in urban markets. They were split into teams, each assigned to one of four different markets including; Tsoka market, Central market ,Area 47 market and Area 25 market. In each of these markets the students identified challenges facing vendors and opportunities that exists within the market.

Mexford Mulumpwa, student participant, wrote in the course blog that he wants to use the skills he learned in this practicum where he works at LUANAR’s Senga Bay Fisheries Research Center.“I marveled at how the vendors were cooperative,” Mulumpwa wrote. “The strategies our faculty members guided us with, really worked for us. I enjoyed each one of them.”

At the end of the practicum the student came up with policy briefs highlighting the challenges vendors are facing and provided possible innovative solutions to the identified challenges which the students presented to the Lilongwe city council.

The practicum is the first of its kind for both universities and is expected to continue every year, White hopes to resume the program next year with an increased emphasis on learning about the Malawian culture and communication styles.“The challenge will be figuring out how to pay for it on a yearly basis,” she said.

The preparation for the second practicum is currently is underway at Lilongwe University of agriculture and Natural Resources and is being led by Jessica Kamphanje of LUANAR.

Following the success of the practicum, The Global Center for Food Systems under the center’s Translational Scholar Corps has produced a documentary depicting the students experience's during the practicum, the documentary has already been shown at the Michigan university and is accessible online.




To watch The frugal Innovations Practicum Documentary ,following the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOjWBCASI3M

by Christie Kang'ombe