El presente documento es elaborado en el marco del diseño de una Agenda de Extensión Rural Latinoamericana que contribuya a un desarrollo inclusivo. En esta etapa la Red Latinoamericana y del Caribe para Servicios de Extensión Rural, constituida en Noviembre del 2010, ha priorizado el trabajo en 4 temas relevantes siendo “La Extensión como parte de un sistema de innovación”, uno de ellos.
El presente trabajo aborda un tema de importancia estratégica para el sector rural como es la agricultura familiar.
Este libro presenta ocho estudios de caso que se cuestionan sobre un particular asunto: qué elementos caracterizan a las dinámicas económicas y políticas en los territorios donde se observa un crecimiento económico y buenos resultados sociales, esto es, una disminución de la pobreza y de la desigualdad. El análisis de estos casos demuestra dos cosas. En primer lugar, que la interpretación y capacidad de acción de los actores inciden en los resultados económicos y sociales.
En síntesis, el presente documento tiene un carácter marcadamente exploratorio. Por lo tanto, el objetivo es modesto pues no se pretende medir o evaluar los efectos, sino identificarlos y describirlos en la medida que los actores del proceso los signifiquen como tales. Esto permitirá, a futuro, estudios más profundos sobre la base de una mejor compresión de las lógicas intrínsecas de los procesos de innovación. El documento está organizado en cuatro apartados. El primero resume las aproximaciones conceptuales relevantes sobre el tema.
Apple production in South Tyrol is a true illustration of a vibrant agricultural innovation system.
This report explores the role of rural networks in enhancing innovation processes, questioning the features of the agricultural/rural networks could enhance farmers’ ability to co-innovate in cooperation with other actors. The prospect of this investigation is also to provide interesting and significant experiences that constitute examples for the ‘European Innovation Partnership’ by increasing farmers’ capacities to create, test, implement and evaluate innovations in cooperation with other rural actors.
The report synthesises the research conducted under the PRO AKIS project for the topic "Designing, implementing and maintaining agricultural/rural networks to enhance farmers’ ability to innovate in cooperation with other rural actors".
This report presents the main results of the EU-funded IN-SIGHT project ‘Strengthening Innovation Processes for Growth and Development’. The authors sketched out a conceptual framework and knowledge base for a more effective European policy on innovation in agriculture and rural areas. Both conceptual framework and knowledge base are consistent with the new European agenda for agricultural and rural policy and sensitive to the diversity of the European agricultural and rural systems.
Organic farming is recognized as one source for innovation helping agriculture to develop sustainably. However, the understanding of innovation in agriculture is characterized by technical optimism, relying mainly on new inputs and technologies originating from research. The paper uses the alternative framework of innovation systems describing innovation as the outcome of stakeholder interaction and examples from the SOLID (Sustainable Organic Low-Input Dairying) project to discuss the role of farmers, researchers and knowledge exchange for innovation.
According to the literature on regime transition, niches are sources of innovation that may lead to the transformation of the dominant regime, if processes at other level of the system – the landscape and the mainstream regime - are supportive. A focus on actors involved in the transition process and the analysis of their specific role in knowledge networks can help assessing the robustness of a specific niche and its growth potential. Knowledge systems, and in particular the dynamics of local and expert knowledge, have in fact a key role in innovation models.