Farmer innovation diffusion (FID) in the developing world is not simply the adoption of an innovation made by farmers, but a process of communication and cooperation between farmers, governments, and other stakeholders. While increasing attention has been paid to farmer innovation, little is known about how farmers’ innovations are successfully diffused. To fill this gap, this paper aims to address the following questions: What conditions are necessary for farmers to participate in FID? How is a collaborative network built up between farmers and stakeholders for this purpose?
Agricultural innovation invariably involves a whole range of partnerships, alliances and network-like arrangements that connect together knowledge users, knowledge producers and others involved in enabling innovation in the market, policy and civil society arenas. There is now a very large conceptual and empirical literature that reveals agricultural innovation not as process of invention driven by research, but as a process of making novel use of ideas (old and new) with the specific intention of adding social, economic and/or environmental value.
Competing models of innovation informing agricultural extension, such as transfer of technology, participatory extension and technology development, and innovation systems have been proposed over the last decades. These approaches are often presented as antagonistic or even mutually exclusive. This article shows how practitioners in a rural innovation system draw on different aspects of all three models, while creating a distinct local practice and discourse. We revisit and deepen the critique of Vietnam’s “model” approach to upland rural development, voiced a decade ago in this journal.
The concept of an innovation platform is increasingly used in interventions inspired by agricultural innovation systems thinking, as a way of bringing stakeholders from a sector together to enable transformative change. An essential role on such innovation platforms is thought to be that of the ‘innovation champion’, but this role has so far not been unravelled.
This is one of a series of training modules developed following several workshops on agricultural innovation systems (AIS) and value chains development (VCD) organized for principle investigators of ASARECA’s programs in 2010 and 2011. The modules were compiled to assist in facilitating similar training that participant trainees may organize. The principle behind teaching and presenting the two concepts of innovation systems and VCD is based on the fact that they are strongly related, and there is opportunity for thinking and applying the two together in most agricultural programs.
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.
Depuis 2009, l'Union des groupements pour la commercialisation des produits agricoles de la Boucle du Mouhoun, au Burkina Faso, soutenue par ses partenaires techniques et financiers, a mis en place un service de conseil à l'exploitation familiale (CEF) pour ses membres. Ce service a pour objectif de favoriser l'apprentissage et la formation des agriculteurs en mettant l'accent sur la maîtrise de la gestion technico-économique de l'exploitation agricole, suivant quatre axes principaux : prévoir, mettre en oeuvre, analyser et évaluer.
The objective of this paper is to explore the extent to which systems approaches to innovation are reflected in the crop protection literature and how such approaches are used. A systematic literature review is conducted to study the relation between crop protection and systems approaches to innovation in 107 publications. The analysis of the crop protection literature demonstrates that only a small fraction is systems-oriented as compared to the bulk of publications with a technology-oriented approach.
Due to the development of knowledge society, there is increased demand for using knowledge management (KM) in an entrepreneurship as well as using information and communication technology (ICT). To achieve sustainable capacity it is necessary to promote KM and ICT in small, medium and microenterprises (SMME). KM is implemented successfully in the firms with large amount of employees. There are limited abilities to handle it for SMME. It is necessary to develop the model for implementation of KM for achieving sustainable capacity in SMME.
CABI’s Plantwise programme runs local plant clinics in 24 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America where trained ‘plant doctors’ provide on-the-spot diagnosis and advice for farmers who bring samples to the clinics. A database that records each consultation and shares knowledge across clinics and countries continually builds the ability of the programme to respond to farmers’ needs. The programme embodies key principles of an innovation systems approach.