Partnering with FIPS

FIPS Africa is the partner of choice for actors committed to transforming food security and building resilient markets in smallholder communities.

Small Farms, Big Futures

Research institution partnerships

FIPS collaborates with leading universities, research centres and CGIAR institutions to generate rigorous, farmer-centred evidence. We seek practical, inclusive, and scalable solutions that improve food security, soil health, climate resilience, and rural livelihoods across Sub-Saharan Africa.

With more than two decades of experience and a deep community footprint, FIPS offers partners an unparalleled platform to design, test, and scale innovations that work for smallholder farmers.

How we work with research institutions

  • Access to real farming systems at scale: Our extensive network of Village-based Advisors (VBAs), Farm Business Agents (FBAs), Farmer Research Networks (FRNs), and youth enterprises provides safe, ethical access to large and diverse farming populations enabling rapid recruitment and stratified sampling in authentic smallholder environments.
  • Testing and scaling platform: Our frugal, farmer-first extension model allows partners to pilot agronomic technologies, digital tools, soil health practices, climate-smart innovations, and market approaches in real farming conditions. We also work to scale proven solutions.
  • High-quality field implementation and data collection: Our field networks support high-quality enumerator services, behaviour-change trials, adoption studies, and participatory research. Our safeguarding and inclusion standards ensure ethical engagement with children, youth, women, and vulnerable groups.
  • Co-created, contextually relevant research designs: Partners benefit from co-designed methodologies that reflect the social, economic, and agro-ecological realities of African smallholder farmers. This results in accurate, locally grounded findings that are immediately applicable to farming communities.
  • Longitudinal insights: We develop unified metrics to track household resilience, income movement, food security, soil health, and technology adoption. Research partners can embed their studies within these systems to generate long-term evidence.
  • Pathways to policy and practice influence: Evidence generated through our partnerships informs our relationships with national governments and donors, guiding extension practice across multiple regions.
  • Ethical, trusted, community-embedded operations: We have built long-standing trust within farming communities through our robust safeguarding policies and transparent practices. This community-level accountability mechanism ensure all research activities meet the highest ethical standards.
  • Knowledge translation and communication support: We assist in transforming findings into films, briefs, infographics, farmer guides, and digital stories. This ensures that evidence is shared with policymakers, funders, practitioners, and the farming communities who stand to benefit the most.
0+
Years of research experience

FIPS provides research institutions with trusted access to real smallholder farming systems, enabling rigorous, ethical, and scalable research into frugal innovations.

0+
Research partnerships

FIPS provides an end-to-end research-to-scale platform — from co-designed studies and high-quality field data to impact tracking and policy influence — enabling partners to test innovations in real farming conditions and translate evidence into practical, scalable solutions.

Partner with FIPS to unlock smallholder markets






    This sends a message to the partnerships team – it is not a binding commitment.

    SMALL
    FARMS

    Big
    FUTURES

    Partner With Us