This paper (Part I) present a case study of work conducted by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) to adapt network mapping techniques to a rural and developing country context. It reports on work in Colombia to develop a prototype network diagnosis tool for use by service providers who work to strengthen small rural groups. It is complemented by a further paper in this issue by Louise Clark (Part II) which presents work to develop a network diagnosis tool for stakeholders involved in agricultural supply chains in Bolivia.
Esta publicación da cuenta de los aprendizajes de los diversos procesos asociativos de dichas experiencias de la agricultura familiar, la caracterización de aspectos organizativos, jurídicos, productivos, de comercialización y agregado de valor de las asociaciones, como así también de la construcción de redes público privadas para su gestación y consolidación.
Este octavo manual profundiza el tema de las bases jurídicas y los factores que inciden en la gestión asociativa, y consta de tres módulos y dieciocho unidades didácticas.
El propósito de esta guía es contribuir al desarrollo de las capacidades funcionales entre individuos y organizaciones que apoyan la innovación en América Latina. En la guía se ha utilizado el marco común para el desarrollo de capacidades promovido por la Plataforma de Agricultura Tropical (TAP, por sus siglas en inglés), con el fin de identificar y reforzar las capacidades funcionales clave en organizaciones e individuos.
This paper presents a case study of the work carried out by CIAT to facilitate the creation of a community of practice, using Dgroups and taking advantage of this virtual space to apply a qualitative monitoring technique called Most Significant Change. The experience reported here mixed key ingredients to create and facilitate a community of practice to facilitate knowledge sharing and communication flow among 14 learning and knowledge sharing centres in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The three system CGIAR research programs on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics, Dryland Systems and Aquatic Agricultural Systems have included “capacity to innovate” as an intermediate development outcome in their respective theories of change. The wording of the intermediate development outcome is “increased systems capacity to innovate and contribute to improved livelihoods of low-income agricultural communities.” This note captures the CGIAR's collective thinking about this intermediate development outcome from a systems perspective to clarify it and inspire other programs.
This paper describes the learning selection approach to enabling innovation that capitalizes on the complexity of social systems at different scales of analysis. The first part of the paper describes the approach and how it can be used to guide the early stages of setting up a “grassroots” innovation process. The second part of the paper looks at how the learn selection model can be used “top-down” to guide research investments to trigger large-scale systemic change.
There have been repeated calls for a ‘new professionalism’ for carrying out agricultural research for development since the 1990s. At the centre of these calls is a recognition that for agricultural research to support the capacities required to face global patterns of change and their implications on rural livelihoods, requires a more systemic, learning focused and reflexive practice that bridges epistemologies and methodologies.
Este estudio forma parte de un conjunto de esfuerzos que realiza el Proyecto IICA-Red SICTA-Cooperación Suiza, por actualizar el conocimiento del estado actual de las cadenas de maíz blanco y frijol en la región. De esta manera se ofrece una herramienta para una mejor comprensión de las dinámicas y condiciones existentes de los actores, las iniciativas en marcha y los problemas, para orientar a soluciones prácticas en sintonía con la realidad.
Mexico is considered the geographic center of origin of the Agave genus. The "maquey pulquero" (Agave mapisaga and A. salmiana) is produced and used in central mexico to make a traditional fermented beverage known as pulque, which has been made and consumed since pre-Hispanic times and is still a form of subsistence for rural families.