This publication contains twelve modules which cover a selection of major reform measures in agricultural extension being promulgated and implemented internationally, such as linking farmers to markets, making advisory services more demand-driven, promoting pluralistic advisory systems, and enhancing the role of advisory services within agricultural innovation systems.
In the context of an exponential rise in access to information in the last two decades, this special issue explores when and how information might be harnessed to improve governance and public service delivery in rural areas. Information is a critical component of government and citizens’ decision-making; therefore, improvements in its availability and reliability stand to benefit many dimensions of governance, including service delivery.
Following the food price crisis in 2008, African governments implemented policies aiming at crowding in investment in rice value chain upgrading to help domestic rice compete with imports. This study assess the state of rice value chain upgrading in West Africa by reviewing evidence on rice millers’ investment in semi-industrial and industrial milling technologies, contract farming and vertical integration during the post-crisis period 2009–2019. We find that upgrading is more dynamic in countries with high rice production and import bills and limited comparative advantage in demand.
Agriculture remains the mainstay of Indian economy and major source of livelihood of rural household, predominantly by small and marginal farmers, and securing the food and nutritional security. This paper describes the reality of small and marginal farmers in India. These farmers face several problems of credit, input supply, proper linkage with market as so on. Women farmers are lagging behind in adopting the drudgery reduction technologies followed by health and nutrition of farm families.
In an endeavor to promote agricultural innovation, the Government of India introduced two pieces of legislation: (i) the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001, which provide for the registration of traditional crop varieties as farmers' varieties, and for the sharing of benefits when those varieties are incorporated into new commercial varieties; and (ii) the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act 1999, which provides for the registration of indications to promote the marketing of goods which derive their quality and characteristics from th
The EU rural development policy has addressed challenges related to climate change in agriculture by introducing public voluntary schemes, which financially support the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices. Several factors, most of which are non-financial ones, drive adoption and continuation of these schemes by farmers. Despite the importance of these factors, only a few studies explore their role in the European context. This paper contributes to filling this gap from a twofold perspective.
Understanding eco-innovation is an essential endeavor to achieve global sustainable development. In this sense, further research on implementation is needed to expand knowledge beyond current boundaries. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this debate by conducting an original multidimensional analysis using Spanish agri-food sector data. The empirical methodology applies a combination of descriptive statistics, cluster analysis and the chi-squared test.
The purpose of the article is to study the scientific and applied principles of the development of commercialization of innovations in the agro-industrial sector in Ukraine as a direction of support of its leadership positions in the world market of agro-industrial products. As a result of theoretical generalization and comparison of the views of leading scientists, the author‘s approach to the determination of the essence of commercialization of innovations has been substantiated.
While global demand for eggs is increasing, concerns are being raised about the environmental, economic and social impact of egg production. Efforts to address these sustainability concerns can, however, result in trade-offs. To enhance a transparent debate about future options and limitations in the egg sector, insight is needed in environmental, economic and social sustainability challenges as well as in potential trade-offs involved in addressing these challenges.
The aim of this paper is to characterise the innovativeness of individual farms in the Łódź region. Based on a domestic and foreign literature study, the most frequently used variables connected with farms (namely, the type of agricultural activity, economic size and VAT settlement system) were selected. The analysis of selected variables that characterise the innovative activity of the researched entities was carried out using the basic measures of structural analysis and interdependence of phenomena.