Approaches for setting-up multi-stakeholder platforms for agricultural research and development

In order to facilitate improved returns to research and development in African agriculture, the innovation systems approach which engenders the involvement of multiple stakeholders in its innovation pathway, has been proposed. Despite the potential of this approach, the understanding of its implementation and particularly of the process of setting up its multi-stakeholder platform is still largely lacking. Yet, this platform is critical to the success and sustainability of the operations of the platform. This article introduces the concept of Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) and the constituent Innovation Platform (IP) as a workable multistakeholders approach for sustainable agricultural research and development.