The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) is dedicated to empowering women across a spectrum of roles, such as farmers, entrepreneurs, students and researchers. The ARC’s aquaculture unit is managed by a woman and 70% of her staff members are women. She is an honorary Researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand where she mentors and supervises 70% female MSc and PhD students. The initiative gives women from underserved groups, including those with disabilities and those living in rural areas particular attention. ARC use a focused six-step Continuous and Innovation (CI&I) approach to maximize the effect of research and development in aquaculture, aquaponics and fisheries.
The CI & I is a process which enables individuals in teams to focus their thinking and actions on a regular and frequent basis in order to improve their performance by enhancing their practices, processes, systems, products and/or services.
The approach uses a framework that focuses on profit and productivity to evaluate farming methods and businesses in order to establish a common mental model of goals and an outcome focus. From the framework (figure 2) farmers can effectively learn that “efficient production is a factor of management, health, nutrition, genetics and marketing”. As evidenced by ARC’s high-value fish and vegetable partnership model focused innovations may be a potent tool for promoting resilience and equal opportunity for women in the agri-food sector.