The farmer field school (FFS) concept has been widely adopted, and such schools have the reputation of strengthening farmers’ capacity to innovate. Although their impact has been studied widely, what is involved in their scaling and in their becoming an integral part of agricultural innovation systems has been studied much less. In the case of the Sustainable Tree Crops Programme in Cameroon, we investigate how a public–private partnership (PPP) did not lead to satisfactory widespread scaling in the cocoa innovation system.
The complex balance between innovation and conservation regarding animal genetic resources makes it difficult to find mutually accepted improvement pathways between breeders, government agencies, and research and education institutions. This study maps stakeholder viewpoints on cattle genetic improvement in Niger using the Q method. Fifty-three statements derived from expert opinions and focus group interviews were ranked by 22 respondents along a seven-grade scale expressing their degree of approval.
The paper explores the strength of social networks in the agricultural innovation systems (AISs) in Ghana and the effect of AISs on adoption of improved farm technology. The paper uses social network analysis (SNA) tools to identify, map and analyze the AISs and the two-stage Heckman selection model. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods allows testing the differential effects of social networks on technology adoption in the Ghananian Plantain Sector
Au Bénin, le soja connaît un accroissement de la production ces dernières années grâce au développement d’in-novations technologiques, organisationnelles et institutionnelles. Mais ces innovations susceptibles d’accroître la productivité, la compétitivité et la viabilité des exploitations agricoles ne sont pas adoptées à grande échelle dans au centre du Bénin. La présente étude a effectué une analyse de la mise en œuvre des systèmes d’innovation de soja au Centre-Bénin pour induire des changements dans les comportements des acteurs et dans les systèmes de production.
Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) have been playing an increasing role in interventions aiming to generate and scale innovations in agricultural systems. However, the contribution of MSPs in achieving innovations and scaling has been varied, and many factors have been reported to be important for their performance. This paper aims to provide evidence on the contribution of MSPs to innovation and scaling by focusing on three developing country cases in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda.
Agricultural innovation happens at different scales and through different streams. In the absence of a common global research agenda, decisions on which innovations are brought to existence, and through which methods, are taken with insufficient view on how innovation affects social relations, the environment, and future food production. Mostly, innovations are considered from the standpoint of economic efficiency, particularly in relationship to creating jobs for technology-exporting countries.
This study aims to analyze the evolution of Brazilian agricultural production from the 1960s to now and summarizes some of the main findings from the historical view of Brazilian agriculture development. The arguments should rest here on how technical change and the national system of innovations have built an institutional environment to boost the agricultural sector, particularly in the past few decades. It is not easy to describe the path of Brazilian agricultural development , but organizing some important historical facts can help creating a full picture.
This book aims to identify the characteristics of innovative farmers and suggests policy strategies to encourage agricultural innovations. The analysis shows that agricultural innovations are taking place in Turkey and various public and private stakeholders contribute to the development and adoption of innovation in agriculture. Agricultural enterprises and cooperatives, clusters of innovation, non-governmental organizations, research institutes, government, and international institutions play an important part in the collaborative effort to create and disseminate innovation.
Innovation is often presented as one of the main catalysts for more sustainable and inclusive development. In the agricultural and food sectors, innovation is characterized not only by specificities arising from its relationship to nature, but also from the wide diversity of its stakeholders, ranging from farmers to consumers, and including intermediaries such as the research community and advisory services. Innovation emerges from interactions between these actors, who mobilize resources and produce knowledge in collaborative mechanisms in orderto generate changes.
The analysis of the concept of resilience in supply chain management studies mostly focuses on the downstream side of the value chain and tacitly assumes an unlimited supply of raw materials. This assumption is unreasonable for agricultural value chains, as upstream disruptions clearly have a material impact on the availability of raw materials, and indeed, are a common source of supply problems. This paper aims to present a framework for the operationalisation of the concept of socioecological resilience in agricultural value chains that incorporates upstream activities.