Land Soil Crop Information Hubs to support rural transformation and Climate Smart Agriculture in  
Ethiopia Kenya and Rwanda This project or initiative aims to develop sustainable land-soil-crop-information hubs in national agricultural research organizations to enhance the effectiveness of national Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) and contribute to rural transformation and Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) in East Africa? During the LSC-IS project we will 1) pilot and evaluate different strategical and operational approaches for LSC-IS hub design 2) gather lessons learnt in Ethiopia Kenya and Rwanda and 3) ensure that National Agricultural Research Centers can actively operate the LSC-hubs. This also requires that 4) LCS-hub users (individuals / organizations / enterprises) are familiar with data and services provided by the hubs through e.g. training and testing together. The 5) scaling and institutionalisation that we aim for should show that LSC-hub data are finally included in business plans (e.g. of farmers or agricultural input providers) but also in operational plans of national / regional / local authorities (for example for climate change research strategies or for designing the regional agricultural infrastructure network (storage/processing etc.) or rural development plans). Our Impact: 
Increased agricultural productivity and farm income especially for small-scale farmers based on climate resilient and sustainable food production in Ethiopia Kenya and Rwanda characterised by reduced greenhouse gas emissions from primary production systems.

Our immediate outcomes: 
1. A clear overview of the results, outcomes and lessons learnt and recommended steps to further optimise sector performance and resilience exists; These have been widely disseminated and enjoy a great visibility.

2. A (proven/tested) effective methodology and strategy for a LSC hub design trajectory based on lessons learned of clearly specifying demands / roles / responsibilities and capacity of actors exists and ownership has been made explicit.

3. LSC hub partners (i.e. producers and users of data) are familiar with LSC services; they are able to reflect on these services and are able to update LSC functions and operations.

4. LSC hubs are used at national level: They are complemented by a long-term viable business plan are able to provide up-to-date LSC data to users; LSC hubs started to play an active role in policy development and in CSA decision making at national level. 

5. LSC hubs are used at local level: They are complemented by a long-term viable business plan  are able to provide up-to-date LSC data to users. LSC hubs started to play an active role in policy development and in CSA decision making at local level and contribute to enhancing the performance of extension services and public and private sector advisors. 

Our overal aim: 
To develop sustainable land- soil- crop information hubs in national agricultural research organisations that facilitate the exchange of knowledge and information between farmers /  knowledge organisations / private sector / policy makers to optimise national Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems and contribute to rural transformation and Climate Smart Agriculture in East Africa. We do this for:  
Primarily small-scale farmers (male and female, and young farmers) and other (young) 'agripreneurs' (male/female). 

We do this with: 
preferably small scale farmers themselves but to ensure a systems change we focus particularly on the 'hub-hosts' and 'primary and secondary hub-users'. The hub-hosts are the National Agricultural Research Centres in Kenya Rwanda Ethiopia. Primary users (all operating at the local level) include 1) policy bodies 2) knowledge organizations and 3) development partners. Secondary stakeholders include stakeholders with a direct interaction with small-scale farmers e.g. mechanisms for incorporating LSC-hub services in regular extension services and landscape planning like management bodies and digital service providers. They include 1) local landscape and watershed planning and management bodies 2) local public rural extension 3) NGOs 4) farmer organizations and 5) private sector stakeholders.