A farmers’ organization is formed and registered in Bac Kan for the marketing of bo khai vegetable and 3 groups are formed in Hai Duong for sticky rice marketing. Training in India includes the making of cashew syrup and karvanda pickles.

CoDI participated in the PROLINNOVA Innovation Asia-Pacific Symposium and showcased its Monitoring, Impact and Learning component. Baseline surveys in Vietnam are completed. Training events take place in Vietnam for plant propagation and nursery management.

Baseline surveys in Vietnam are under way interviewing over 400 households. Training activities are ongoing in the implementation sites in India and Vietnam.

The WII team visits Vietnam to train the field investigators on data collection and data management systems.

Carlos Barahona from Reading Univeristy visits Delhi, to assist in the finalisation of the Monitoring, Impact and Learning aspects of the project with the team from Winrock International India, and project manager Hannah Jaenicke. Work begins on the assessment of project initiation activities in preparation for the first annual report.

Alastair Orr from the Research into Use programme visits Sri Lanka and India to evaluate the project via discussions with the project manager, and visits to some of the project sites in India with project partners from BAIF. A skype meeting was also arranged with Winrock International India. The report gives a favourable view of initial project activities and plans, highlighting the need to records and analyse lessons learnt.

December 2008 - Household and Retail surveys are conducted in Vietnam to assess activities and opinions of producers and traders of the selected crops, ‘Bo khai’ indigenous vegetable, aromatic rice, longan and pomelo fruits. Farmer training was carried in India and Vietnam. Frances Kimmins, Director of the Research into Use programme, visits Winrock International India to discuss project activities, in particular the Monitoring, Impact and Learning aspects.

November 2008 - This website dedicated to the CoDI project is released. It aims to spread the knowledge and experience gained from developing underutilised crops in India and Vietnam to a broader audience, both within these countries, and to elsewhere in Asia and the world. It is hoped that it could also act as a platform for sharing, allowing others to contact the project team for more information if required, and/or offer their own inputs. The website is only in an introductory phase, as the project itself is only four months old but it will grow in parallel with the rural enterprises in reports on, as the innovative systems of Food Processing Parks, Community Germplasm Orchards, Village Crop Fairs and Annual Knowledge Fairs are put into operation.

October 2008 – The first stakeholder workshops are held in India and Vietnam, and project activities on the ground begin in earnest, including the establishing of the Food Processing Parks and Community Germplasm Orchards.

September 2008 – The first quarterly report is submitted, detailing the work to date, publications produced, and plans for the coming 6 months. Winrock International India participated in a workshop on Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning on 26 September, with IUCN India and the University of Cambridge, UK, attended by donors, state programme managers and NGOs. A presentation of the approach being used in the CoDI project was given.

August 2008 – The project inception workshop is held in Hanoi, Vietnam, and is deemed a great success by all participants.

July 2008 – The CoDI project officially begins, based on the agreed and accepted full proposal.

June 2008 – RIU ran a planning workshop for all their 13 Asia projects in Bangkok, Thailand.

February 2008 – The full CoDI proposal was submitted, though further revisions were requested.

January 2008 – All partners attended a CoDI planning workshop in Pune, India.

November 2007 – The CoDI concept note was accepted and the full proposal began to be developed.

September 2007 – The CoDI project concept note was submitted.

August 2007 – The Coalition to Diversify Income from Underused Crops was formed.