Burkina Faso needs to utilize science and technology as tools for sustainable socioeconomic development, Filiga Michel Sawadogo, the country's minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, said at the inception workshop (25-26 April 2016) that kick-started the CDAIS project in Burkina Faso. Moreover, he underscored that innovation is an interactive process in which learning plays a crucial role.  

Referring to how CDAIS can help Burkina Faso modernize its agricultural sector, Sawadogo said that strengthening capacity development for agricultural innovation systems will allow the transition from an agricultural economy that relies on self-consumption to one is based on intensive farming. "The training of all the economic actors of an innovation system is an essential component in the implementation of technical change,” he added. In Burkina Faso 80 percent of the workforce is employed in the agricultural sector, which is accountable for 30 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP). 

CDAIS, or Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems, is a global initiative in support of more productive and sustainable agricultural sectors. Implemented by Agrinatura and FAO, and with financial assistance from the European Union, CDAIS has identified eight pilot countries for its implementation across the world with the objective of making Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) more efficient and sustainable in meeting the demands of farmers, agri-business and consumers.

The main partners of the CDAIS in Burkina Faso are CIRAD (a member of Agrinatura), the country's Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, and FAO. 

The CDAIS project will allow the validation at the national level of the Common Framework on CD for AIS developed under the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP). The other CDAIS pilot countries are Angola, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Laos and Rwanda. 

More information about CDAIS in Burkina Faso is available here.