Food insecurity and the weak position of smallholders in food value chains are key challenges in many low- and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to increase food security and make agricultural value chains more inclusive, donors, governments and researchers increasingly stimulate partnerships between multiple actors, in which knowledge exchange, joint learning and knowledge co-creation play a central role in reducing the time lag between research findings and their translation into practical outcomes.
This report summarizes studies conducted in a framework of TAP-AIS project implemented by FAO’s Research and Extension Unit, and funded by the European Union as a component of the European Union initiative on “Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture” (DeSIRA).
In recent years, the agricultural industry has been experiencing an ever-increasing application of information and communication technologies globally. This new revolution has been touted to impact efficiency and productivity in the agricultural extension services within the agriculture sector. Notwithstanding this, empirical research need to be carried out amongst its users in the sector to ascertain these assertions.
The study was conducted in Thakurgaon sadar Upazila to determine farmers’ perception of the extent and factors of ICTs effectiveness in transferring farming information. A total of 250 people who were already been taken services from different ICT center was selected as sample respondents following a random sampling technique. Primary data were collected using a predesigned interview schedule.
Technology and innovation are important in addressing complex problems in the agricultural sector in many developing communities. However, ways and mechanisms to integrate them in the agricultural sector are still a challenge due to the lack of clear pathways and trajectories. Value chains are seen as a strong policy instrument to increase profitability in the agricultural sector; there is also debate around whether value chains can be a potential option to organize technology and innovation trajectories in agriculture.
The Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) was established in the year 1963 by former President Dr. Cheddi Jagan. It became a state corporation in 1964 offering the Diploma in Agriculture and the Certificate in Agriculture Programmes, and graduated the first batch of 15 students in 1966. Agricultural diversification has become an important mechanism for economic growth by providing opportunities that facilitate technological advancement and demand driven government policy.
Plants are susceptive to various diseases in their growing phases. Early detection of diseases in plants is one of themost challenging problems in agriculture. If the diseases are not identified in the early stages, then they may ad-versely affect the total yield, resulting in a decrease in the farmers' profits. To overcome this problem, many re-searchers have presented different state-of-the-art systems based on Deep Learning and Machine Learningapproaches. However, most of these systems either use millions of training parameters or have low classificationaccuracies.
This article presents lessons from the rich adoption literature for the nascent research on adaptation. Individuals' adoption choices are affected by profit and risk considerations and by credit and biophysical constraints. New technologies spread gradually, reflecting heterogeneity among potential adopters, processes of learning and technological improvement, and policies and institutions. Adaptation is the response of economic agents and societies to major shocks. We distinguish between reactive and proactive adaptation.
The Government of Burkina Faso embraced innovation in agriculture many years ago, thus CDAIS could build on solid foundations. Six innovation niche partnerships were selected, each working on very different types of innovations, technically, socially or organisationally, and facing contrasting challenges for capacity development.
In Nepal, the Plantwise programme, in collaboration with International Development Enterprises (iDE), has established networks of locally owned plant clinics, run by community business facilitators (CBFs) trained as plant doctors, who provide practical plant health advice. This study examines how gender is integrated into this programme in three purposively selected study districts. It presents the experiences of farmers, the challenges they faced in accessing plant health services through a gender and social inclusion lens.