Ce document présente la position de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture (FAO) et du Forum mondial pour le conseil rural (GFRAS) sur la place actuelle des services de vulgarisation et de conseil agricole et sur les chemins qu’elle devra suivre à l’avenir. Les résultats présentés dans le document sont destinés à mieux situer la vulgarisation compte tenu de l’avenir de la recherche agricole en faveur du développement.
This report is based on the outputs of a one week Exposure and Exchange Programme (EEP) in India hosted by the Self-employed Women’s Association (SEWA) with African women leaders of producer organizations from West and Central Africa. This report critically evaluates the SEWA model and draws conclusions relevant to African women producers organizations to better meet the challenges of raising Africa’s agricultural potential, improve incomes for small farmers, and ensure greater food security.
This paper traces the evolution of the innovation systems framework within the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa, and presents a conceptual framework for agricultural innovation systems. The difference between innovation ecology/ecosystems and intervention-based innovations systems is highlighted, given that these two concepts are used at different levels in promoting and sustaining agricultural innovations.
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.
This report, drawing on a rapid desk-based review, seeks to outline the potential role of Afican Advisory Services (AAS) in addressing climate change and explores how far AAS in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are able to respond to climatic and other pressures. Recommendations are outlined, indicating how AFAAS can help AAS to understand climate change better and become more ‘adaptive’ in their responses
This report is the result of a study that was carried out for the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS), to make an inventory of experiences with ‘market-oriented agricultural advisory services’ (MOAAS). Lessons learned have been drawn from the cases studied. These lessons are the basis for guidelines formulated for setting up market-oriented agricultural advisory services.
Les conventions locales peuvent être définies comme des accords légitimes négociés entre plusieurs parties prenantes (stakeholders) dans une perspective de régulation des ressources naturelles – en termes de contrôle, d’accès, d’appropriation, d’usage et d’exploitation – et de l’environnement. Au Sahel, bien qu’elles soient en vogue et jouissent davantage d’attention chez les décideurs, elles constituent des instruments encore peu exploités dans le contexte actuel de la décentralisation (Diallo, 2003).
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.
Sustainable intensification of smallholder farming is a serious option for satisfying 2050 global cereal requirements and alleviating persistent poverty. That option seems far off for Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) where technology-driven productivity growth has largely failed. The article revisits this issue from a number of angles: current approaches to enlisting SSA smallholders in agricultural development; the history of the phenomenal productivity growth in the USA, The Netherlands and Green Revolution Asia; and the current framework conditions for SSA productivity growth.
À l’occasion de l’année internationale des coopératives, le modèle coopératif est-il trop ou pas assez glorifié ? En pointant le rôle important des coopératives pour le développement social, ses valeurs de solidarité et d’autonomie, l’Assemblée générale des Nations unies a décidé de mettre cette forme de mutualisation à l’honneur en 2012. Mais quels critères permettent de classer les coopératives au-dessus d’autres formes associatives ? Et les manières d’élaborer et de concevoir les coopératives sont-elles identiques au Sud et au Nord ?