International partnership to carry out collaborative research and development programs has been implemented for a long time. However, with globalization, the economic, social, political and cultural diversity of interacting partners reached levels where this variety of collaborators often has shown some weaknesses in issues like governance. Strong and sound partnerships must be manageable in order to ensure the achievement of the set objectives.
La seconde conférence triennale du Forum Global de la Recherche Agricole s’est tenue à Dakar, Sénégal du 22 au 24 mai 2003 (GFAR 2003). Le thème de la conférence était Recherche agricole et innovation rurale au service du développement durable. Le sujet de la conférence était de circonstance en raison de l’attention actuelle du monde sur les questions liées au développement durable et à la recherche en matière d’innovation des processus.
El tema de la Segunda Conferencia Trienal del Foro Global de Investigación Agropecuaria (GFAR) que se celebró en Dakar, Senegal, del 22 al 24 de mayo 2003 (GFAR 2003) versó sobre la Investigación Agrícola y la Innovación Rural en pro del Desarrollo Sostenible. Fue realmente un tema adecuado dado el objetivo global actual y la atención sobre los aspectos del desarrollo sostenible así como el aumento de interés por la investigación en los procesos innovadores.
This text analyses the development of organic farming in Brazil. It shows the great variability of social models of organic production recognised by Brazilian Law: organic, agroecological, ecological or biodynamic agriculture, permaculture etc.. It depicts how the political and social concerns in the spheres of family farming and environment caused the reorganisation of production systems, in the agricultural practices and n the new relationships with the market and with natural resources.
This regional workshop was designed to strengthen the capabilities of representatives of NIFUs for analyzing the situations of their NAIS, and to use their national experiences to identify strengths, weaknesses, and threats/challenges affecting seven key areas influencing development of NAIS, namely: (i) strategy/policy, (ii) institutional aspects, (iii) stakeholders, (iv) content, (v) people, (vi) infrastructure, and (vii) financial aspects. Possible solutions for the key weaknesses and threats /challenges were defined by participants.
These Proceedings report on the second International Conference of the Convergence of Sciences (CoS) programme in Elmina (2009). The first International Conference was four years earlier in the same location, where it was discussed how to follow up on the findings of the first CoS Programme phase (entitled CoS1 running from 2001 to 2006). The Conference was intended to introduce the focus on “innovation systems”, and how to enhance these systems for smallholder farmers’ development.
Georeferenced data are a key factor in many decision-making systems. However, their interpretation is user and context dependent so that, for each situation, data analysts have to interpret them, a time-consuming task. One approach to alleviate this task, is the use of semantic annotations to store the produced information. Annotating data is however hard to perform and prone to errors, especially when executed manually. This difficulty increases with the amount of data to annotate.
The Centre for Development Research (CDR), in collaboration with local partnership managed by the Bangladesh Agricultural University worked to establish a platform (i.e. a participatory rural video centre) that acts upon fostering rural women’s capacity for agricultural innovation in the north-west and north-east region of Bangladesh. In this paper, the authors elaborate principles of establishing the centre, and some evidences on Farmers’ Participatory Research (FPR) in the community.
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 angles: as a macrostructure that involves different functions and key organizations working on these functions, and as the composite of different innovation networks comprising individuals and local and national organizations.
Based on international literature, preliminary experiences in a three-country West African research programme, and on the disappointing impact of agricultural research on African farm innovation, the current paper argues that institutional change demands rethinking the pathways to innovation so as to acknowledge the role of rules, distribution of power and wealth, interaction and positions. The time is opportune: climate change, food insecurity, high food prices and concomitant riots are turning national food production into a political issue also for African leaders.