The building of sustainable innovation capabilities in Africa requires an innovation system capable of producing, disseminating and using new knowledge. This paper assesses the process of constructing the National Innovation System (NIS) in Rwanda. It is posited that consensus on and acceptance of the concept of NIS among stakeholders is crucial in the early process of constructing an efficient and dynamic innovation system. Primary empirical data are presented for the case of Rwanda and analyzed in a regional context.
A group of researchers and industry writers have constructed a narrative of technological triumph for Bt cotton in India, based on an empirical record of superior performance compared to conventional seed. Counterclaims of Bt cotton failure are attributed to mutually reinforcing interactions among non-governmental organisations which avoid rigorous comparisons. However, researchers and the biotechnology industry are also engaged in a similar authentication loop for generating, validating, and publicising such facts.
In this paper, is described the market and social forces which influence the emergence of social innovations through various processes. The authors then look into the evolutionary pathways for social innovations , to avoid inertia and spur initiatives to bridge the social gap in an inclusive manner through mobilization of youth in particular. The ecosystem for social open innovations provides scope for connecting corporations
Conflicts of interests have been hypothesized when agricultural advisory services are connected to agri-input businesses. However, these have not been examined using large sets of advisory service and grower data. We provide quantitative insights into dependencies between service, crop production, sustainability and the level of agri-input business-linkage of extension workers. This study analyzed 34,000+ prescription forms (recommendations) issued to growers in China, as well as grower interview data.
En este trabajo se analiza la configuración del Sistema de Innovación del Sector Agroalimentario Mexicano (SNIA). La información generada en un taller con especialistas nacionales se sistematizó para construir una matriz que contiene el listado de actores relevantes en el SNIA y sus relaciones e intensidad de las mismas. Para clasificar la información, se aplicaron escalas ordinales y se calcularon los indicadores de redes denominados densidad y centralidad de grado, utilizando el software Ucinet©; también se efectuó un análisis gráfico de redes, utilizando el software Net Draw©
Ce manuel du formateur sur l’évaluation des besoins en capacités a été produit dans le cadre du projet de développement des capacités pour les systèmes d’innovation agricole (CDAIS). Cela implique un partenariat mondial (Agrinatura, l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture [FAO] et des partenaires nationaux de huit pays pilotes) qui vise à renforcer la capacité des pays et des principales parties prenantes à innover dans des systèmes agricoles complexes, permettant ainsi d'améliorer les zones rurales. moyens de subsistance.
El objetivo de este texto es explicar los factores históricos del origen y desarrollo de los nodos productores de hortalizas en el noroeste de México. La hipótesis es que los nodos hortícolas, en específico los sinaloenses, son resultado de la sinergia dialéctica entre choques externos e internos, en la que se advierte que los primeros juegan un rol determinante en la evolución de las trayectorias de crecimiento de las zonas productoras. Para demostrar lo anterior se revisó la dinámica de las zonas hortícolas desde principios del siglo xx hasta la actualidad.
The integration of male and female smallholders in high-end value chains (e.g. those for tree crops like cocoa, oil palm, avocado, and mango), has been promoted throughout the global South as a strategy for poverty alleviation, economic growth, employment generation, gender equality, and improved wellbeing. More critical literature, however, questions the inclusiveness of farmers’ value chain engagement. Despite rapid mainstreaming of inclusiveness in policy discourse, remarkably little literature sheds light on the operationalization of the concept. This paper addresses this gap.
The aim of this document is to produce a state-of-the-art of the academic literature in order to identify theories and concepts available for: a) describing the structure, the dynamics and the functioning of agricultural advisory services; b) understanding how these services are embedded into national Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS), and into various agricultural and rural policies across the European Union (EU) countries; c) providing some conceptual elements to support the methodology for an inventory of agricultural advisory services in EU 27 countries (WP3 of the PR
This paper takes the viewpoint of a social scientist and looks at agricultural scientists' pathways for science impact. Awareness of these pathways is increasingly becoming part and parcel of the professionalism of the agricultural scientist, now that the pressure is on to mobilize smallholders and their productive resources for (global) food security and for reducing persistent rural poverty. Significant new thinking about pathways is emerging and it is useful to present some of this, even if it is not cut-and-dried.