Partnership brokering is needed to work out new ways of organising food systems that treat agricultural smallholders as a resource and opportunity rather than a problem or distraction. This is because food systems are demanding innovation in the way they are organised. This is a matter of transforming stakeholders into partners in order to reconfigure food systems to operate differently, rather than just operate more efficiently. Fundamental systemic changes are needed as our contemporary food system is failing to deliver the food we increasingly demand.
The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Grain Legumes (Legume Innovation Lab; LIL), supports ten multi-disciplinary collaborative research and institutional capacity strengthening subcontracted projects working in 13 Feed the Future countries in Africa and Central America and the Caribbean involving scientists at 10 US universities, 3 USDA/ARS research centers, and 23 developing country national agriculture research systems and universities.
The overarching mission of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Peanut Productivity & Mycotoxin Control (PMIL) is to apply leading innovative US science to improve peanut production and use, raise nutrition awareness and increase food safety in developing countries. PMIL aims to integrate two major themes – peanut production and mycotoxin research – under one roof as part of a value chain approach.
The Scaling Agricultural Innovations Workshop gathered scaling experts from a range of organizations and agriculture sectors to share their experiences and ideas on the findings and lessons learned from five case studies (hybrid maize in Zambia, irrigated rice in Senegal, Purdue Improved Crop Storage bags in Kenya, agricultural machinery services in Bangladesh, and Kuroiler chickens in Uganda).
This report is divided in three studies about the Agricultural Innovations, Innovation Platforms and Innovation Investiment in Zambia.
The Guidance Note on Operationalization provides a brief recap of the conceptual underpinnings and principles of the TAP Common Framework as well as a more detailed guide to operationalization of the proposed dual pathways approach. It offers also a strategy for monitoring and evaluation as well as a toolbox of select tools that may be useful at the different stages of the CD for AIS cycle.
The Conceptual Background provides an in-depth analysis of the conceptual underpinnings and principles of the TAP Common Framework. It is also available in French and Spanish.
This chapter outlines the role of a well-functioning agricultural innovation system in ensuring good use of public funds, and higher responsiveness to the needs of ‘innovation consumers’ through improved collaboration between public and private participants, including across national borders. A well-functioning agricultural innovation system is key to improving the economic, environmental and social performance of the food and agriculture sector.
Agricultural education, research, and extension can contribute substantially to reducing rural poverty in the developing world. However, evidence suggests that their contributions are falling short in Sub-Saharan Africa. The entry of new actors, technologies, and market forces, when combined with new economic and demographic pressures, suggests the need for more innovative and less linear approaches to promoting a technological transformation of smallholder agriculture.
This paper, using Thailand as a case study, aims at understanding the national innovation system (NIS) in developing countries which are less successful in technological catching-up. In contrast to developed countries, the development level of Thailand’s NIS does not link to its economic structural development level. As Thailand moves from agricultural to an increasingly industrial economy, its NIS remains weak and fragmented. The mismatch between the two affected Thailand’s competitiveness and partially contributed to the recent economic crisis.