Based on international literature, preliminary experiences in a three-country West African research programme, and on the disappointing impact of agricultural research on African farm innovation, the current paper argues that institutional change demands rethinking the pathways to innovation so as to acknowledge the role of rules, distribution of power and wealth, interaction and positions. The time is opportune: climate change, food insecurity, high food prices and concomitant riots are turning national food production into a political issue also for African leaders.
This publication provides a collection of papers, commentaries, expert opinions and reflections on state-of-the-art innovation systems thinking and approaches in agriculture. It is the direct output of a CTA and WUR/CoS-SIS collaboration which had its genesis in an expert consultation on ‘Innovation Systems: Towards Effective Strategies in support of Smallholder Farmers’.
This study considers what lessons might be learned from the cassava value chain in the context of CTA’s interest in the potentials of: digital financial services for agriculture, such as mobile payments for farmers’ products; other payment streams for financial inclusion of farmer; index based insurance services; digital services to support access to loans and credits. This research provides a comprehensive market study of cash usage behavioural practices and financial literacy among cassava farmers in Ghana and Nigeria.
E‐KOKARI is an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform, developed in Niger, which enables farmers, breeders and buyers to access information, advice, warnings and market prices in the field of agriculture and livestock. When a user dials a short number from his phone he can access a voice menu in the main local languages (French, Hausa and Zarma) of the country, which guides him/her according to his/her needs. A prototype was developed and tested during a period of 10 months in the course of 2017, but the practice still needs to be implemented and evaluated in the field.
Este trabajo busca generar conocimiento sobre el efecto de la Assesoria Técnica subsidiada por el INDAP en la propensión a innovar y en la productividad agrícola de pequeños productores. Se utilizan datos recientes de una encuesta realizada a usuarios de INDAP en el 2016 y se proponen métodos analíticos adecuados a la naturaleza de los datos. El artículo contiene seis secciones. La introducción, seguida de un capítulo de revisión de la bibliografía. Luego un capítulo donde se discute el enfoque metodológico de análisis a utilizar.
Ante los inmensos retos institucionales que plantea la construcción de un nuevo sistema de extensionismo en México, el proceso de diseño de políticas públicas correspondiente requiere de esfuerzos multidisciplinarios, combinados con ejercicios de reflexión que rebasen el ámbito nacional para nutrirse de las experiencias, aprendizajes y propuestas creativas provenientes de otros horizontes.
El presente trabajo analiza los programas más emblemáticos de Asistencia Técnica y Extensión Rural (ATER) del Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería, Acuacultura y Pesca (MAGAP) en miras a su orientación a la innovación y a un Sistema de Innovación Agrícola (SIA).
This synthesis report presents the outputs of the workshop organised by CTA at its headquarters in Wageningen, The Netherlands, 15-17 July 2008. The outputs are presented in two main parts, each corresponding to one of the workshop objectives, and ends with a section on the way forward as suggested by the workshop participants. It also includes a first attempt to come to a consolidated generic framework on AIS performance indicators, based on the outputs of the different working groups.
This paper builds on experiences from the Research Into Use programme in South Asia that tried to up-scale promising research outputs into wider use. The experience suggests that while facilitating access to technology is important in putting research into use, it has value only when it is bundled together with other innovation-management tasks such as: developing networks, organising producers, communicating research needs, mediating conflicts, facilitating access to inputs and output services, convening innovation platforms, and advocating for policy change and other negotiated changes in
This research project aims to build ACP capacity to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the local science, technology and innovation system in the agricultural sector.