This paper builds on experiences from the Research Into Use programme in South Asia that tried to up-scale promising research outputs into wider use. The experience suggests that while facilitating access to technology is important in putting research into use, it has value only when it is bundled together with other innovation-management tasks such as: developing networks, organising producers, communicating research needs, mediating conflicts, facilitating access to inputs and output services, convening innovation platforms, and advocating for policy change and other negotiated changes in practice and action. This has several implications for developing the capacity of extension and advisory services. First, the focus of capacity-building should shift from strengthening technical expertise to developing innovationmanagement expertise. Second, some of these skills and expertise can only be learned by actually doing them on the ground and therefore the approach to building capacity has to be designed in an action-research mode, involving experimentation, reflection and learning. Third, extension and advisory services need to be staffed with people with expertise in some of these tasks.
This paper takes a closer look at innovation systems, including the various actors involved, their interrelationships, and governance mechanisms. Innovation systems operate at different levels, in terms of structure, functioning, and performance at the national level, and from two different...
In this paper, presented at the 12th European IFSA Symposium (Workshop: "Generating spaces for innovation in agricultural and rural development") in 2016, the authors assess the integration of new entrants to small-scale farming into agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS), in...
Cette publication offre de nombreux exemples concrets détaillant différentes manières de réengager les jeunes dans le secteur agricole. Elle montre à quel point des programmes éducationnels sur mesure peuvent offrir aux jeunes les compétences et la perspicacité nécessaires pour se...
The report synthesises the research conducted under the PRO AKIS project for the topic "Designing, implementing and maintaining agricultural/rural networks to enhance farmers’ ability to innovate in cooperation with other rural actors". It includes a brief description of the five case...
The present case study investigated a policy-induced agricultural innovation network in Brandenburg. It focussed on three major questions: 1) What are features of the network that enhanced farmers’ ability to innovate in cooperation with other actors?; 2) What influencing factors encouraged the farmers’...