This paper has been prepared under the guidelines provided by the TAP Secretariat at the FAO, as a contribution to the G20 initiative TAP, which includes near 40 partners and is facilitated by FAO. Its purpose is to provide a Regional synthesis report on capacity needs assessment for agricultural innovation, with capacity gaps identified and analyzed, including recommendations to strengthen agricultural innovation systems (AIS) and draft policy recommendations to address the capacity gaps.
Traditional approaches to innovation systems policymaking and governance often focus exclusively on the central provision of services, regulations, fiscal measures, and subsidies.
The purposes of this course are to review the major reforms being considered internationally that aim to change the policy and institutional structure and operations of public sector agricultural extension systems, and to examine the advantages and disadvantages of each of these reforms as illustrated by the selected case studies. Aside from the introductory chapter, the course is organized into nine modules, which are conceived as part of a larger framework.
The agricultural innovation system can be strengthened by increasing the learning capacity of research and field organisations. Participatory methods were developed to study three dimensions of the capacity of such organisations in Nicaragua to access and analyse information, highly correlated to learning capacity – the individual routines of their professionals, the formal procedures of the organisation and the organisation's use of collaborative projects to strengthen core operations.
The present report is based on the authors' visits to Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua, during June-August 2004 in order to develop an initial understanding of innovation processes and identifying stakeholders working with national innovation processes. It also review the experiences of the invited Latin American participants in the 7th Global Conference of Competitiveness Institute (entitled "Building Innovative Clusters for Competitive Advantage") in September 2004 and finally presents suggestion for further activities.
Agriculture remains fundamental for Nicaragua from both a macroeconomic and social view. It is the largest sector of the Nicaraguan economy, and it remains the single biggest employer with around 30 percent of the labor force and including processed foods, like meat and sugar, agriculture accounts for around 40 percent of total exports value. Nicaragua appears to be gradually losing competitive edge of some of its key agricultural exports within the most important export markets.
El documento trata sobre las áreas de cultivo de frijol y maíz en Centroamérica y República Dominicana. Se abarcan también aspectos relacionados con su consumo, rendimiento, producción, tipo de productores, factores socioeconómicos y se hace uso de estadísticas para brindar la información respectiva.
Este documento describe la cadena de valor del la leche en Nicaragua. Describe los aspectos clave del sector lechero en Nicaragua, las zonas de producción, identifica los eslabones de la cadena de valor de la leche, los espacios de concertación y mecanismos de coordinación existente y al final apunta los retos para la cadena de valor de la leche en el país.
En el presente documento se sistematiza la experiencia generada por los aportes del proceso de sistematización participativo facilitado por el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) para el Programa de Gestión Rural Empresarial, Sanidad y Ambiente (PROGRESA) al fortalecimiento de la cadena de valor de hortalizas y frutas, donde no solo se consideraron factores comúnmente incluidos en proyectos de desarrollo agropecuario –como la inserción de nuevas tecnologías y la asistencia técnica–, sino que se involucraron componentes como el fortalecimiento organizativo, el enfoque de merc
Esta publicación es el resultado de un proceso de sistematización participativo facilitado por el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) para el proyecto “Alianza para la Creación de Oportunidades de Desarrollo Rural a través de Relaciones Agroempresariales” (ACORDAR, por sus siglas en inglés). Este informe de aprendizaje gira en torno a la construcción y el fortalecimiento de la cadena de valor del frijol en la zona norte de Nicaragua a través de estrategias innovadoras y se ha escrito con el objetivo de divulgar y compartir los resultados obtenidos para recibir retroalimentac