To cope and compete in this rapidly-changing world, organisations need to access and apply new knowledge. While explicit knowledge is important, what is often critical is an organisation’s ability to create, access, share and apply the tacit or un-codified knowledge that exists among its members, its network and the wider innovation system of which it is a part. This discussion paper explores the role of tacit knowledge in livestock sector innovation capacity though the case of Visakha Dairy, one of the most progressive producer-owned milk marketing companies in India.
This flyer expresses the idea that Agricultural knowledge, science and technology (AKST) cannot be achieved through business as usual and that nstitutions are needed that can drive efforts in the face of unprecedented challenges. The discussed key questions are: How have institutions shaped the development of AKST? What are their impacts on sustainable and equitable development? Which institutional arrangements have the greatest potential to drive and deliver sustainability and development goals?
The 2016 Global Agricultural Productivity Report advocates policies and innovations in five key areas to help the agriculture and food sectors manage uncertain seasons of fluctuating business cycles and climate change, while fostering competitiveness today and sustainable growth tomorrow.
In this paper, the authors review the conditions that have been undermining sustainable food and nutrition security in the Caribbean, focusing on issues of history, economy, and innovation. Building on this discussion, we then argue for a different approach to agricultural development in the Small Island Developing States of the CARICOM that draws primarily on socioecological resilience and agricultural innovation systems frameworks.
FAO has been promoting the use of ICTs in agriculture and has focused on ICT innovation for improving agricultural production and enhancing value chains. This publication is an effort to share success stories on the use of ICTs for agriculture and rural development. This publication showcases a few case studies where innovative use of emerging technologies together with capacity development has brought about rich dividends.
Farmers’ experiments can be defined as the autonomous activities of farmers to try or introduce something new at the farm, and include evaluation of success or failure with farmers’ own methods. Experiments enable farmers to adapt their farms to changing circumstances, build up local knowledge, and have resulted in countless agricultural innovations. Most research on the topic has been conducted in countries of the south.
The biodiversity of food plants is vital for humanity's capacity to meet sustainability challenges. This goal requires the rigorous integration of plant, environmental, social and health sciences. It is coalescing around four thematic cornerstones that are both interdisciplinary and policy relevant.
The authors surveyed small-scale farmers in the Kenyan Rift Valley province (Narok and Nakuru districts) to describe constraints to, and changes in, livestock production and to assess the extent to which farmers have adopted new technologies promoted by extension services. In the arid areas of southern Narok, farmer's main constraints were drought and disease. Farmers in Nakuru district, situated in the fertile highlands of the Rift Valley, were also affected by disease but also lacked markets and capital.
The poster was prepared for Tropentag 2012: Resilience of Agricultural Systems against Crises, Gottingen, Germany, 19-21 September 2012. It briefed the objective, approaches, achievements and lessons of the Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) project.
The Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project is funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada. The LIVES capacity development pillar seeks to strengthen innovation and the learning capacity of value chain actors and service providers to develop livestock and irrigation agriculture value chains. Using participatory processes to assess knowledge and skills gaps of value chain actors and service providers, it identifies capacity development interventions. Project staff then design and implement these interventions