Following the remarkable success of performance testing in the commercial sector, the Agricultural Research Council's Animal Improvement Institute (ARC–AII) initiated a beef cattle performance testing scheme for smallholder farmers in 1996. The scheme, which became known as Kaonafatsho ya Dikgomo (Sotho for animal improvement), has been running well in the Northern and North West Provinces and is set to spread gradually to the rest of the country.
This paper develops a quantitative, graph-theoretic method for analysing systems of institutions. With an application to the agricultural innovation system of Azerbaijan, the method is illustrated in detail. An assessment of existing institutional linkages in the system suggests that efforts should be placed on the development of intermediary institutions to facilitate quick and effective flow of knowledge between the public and the private components of the system.
The paper explores the implications of rural livelihood diversity for agricultural innovation policies. It summarises literature on the nature of rural poverty, with particular emphasis on the relative roles of farm and non-farm income. It also reviews the various roles, direct and indirect, that agricultural innovation can play in rural poverty reduction. Finally, it uses an agricultural knowledge and information systems (AKIS) perspective to argue for a differentiated approach to targeting agricultural innovations, based on an analysis of rural assets.
In times of market liberalization and structural adjustment, the agricultural sectors of developing countries face profound changes. To seize new market opportunities, farmers need to innovate. In order to innovate, farmers need new technologies and information on how to access and manage them, as well as better support services for the delivery of inputs and knowledge, and better infrastructure for delivering produce to the market.
La présente note commence par indiquer brièvement en quoi une politique de la concurrence est importante pour les économies en développement et en transition. Elle aborde ensuite certains éléments essentiels de l’établissement d’une culture de la concurrence. Idéalement, ce processus devrait tout d’abord consister en une « évaluation des besoins » dans différents domaines, qui permettra probablement de dresser une liste de mesures à hiérarchiser et à prendre.
The private sector dominates biotechnology research in industrialized countries, but there are major market failures in developing countries in accessing the new tools and technologies. The public sector, national and international, will have to play a major role in filling this gap. This paper provides an overview of options that countries of different sizes and capacities can employ to gain access to the research tools and technologies that they need to address issues of relevance to poor producers and consumers.
In India, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) are considered as the most preferred institutional mechanism for enhancing productivity and income of farmers. This is based on the resounding success of a few farmer collectives that have aggregated their produce to realise better incomes. However, when efforts were made to scale up this interesting model across the country, several challenges emerged.
La innovación se implementa en un entorno de objetivos de desarrollo productivo a través de un sistema que incluye incentivos, tecnología y redes público-privadas. El objetivo principal de este estudio es analizar la innovación en los agronegocios de El Oro y determinar cómo incide en la competitividad del sector agropecuario. La metodología utilizada en este estudio es descriptiva y documental, con carácter científico, además está enmarcada bajo el enfoque cuantitativo.
In the face of the climate emergency, around 140 countries, which emit close to 90% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, are planning to reduce their emissions to as close to zero as possible (known as net zero) in the upcoming decades. Around a third of these are low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the countries most affected by climate change. So how can countries in the Global South achieve a socially-just transition? One key element is innovation, and potentially mission-oriented innovation.