This report focuses on the potential and opportunities for smallholder commercialization in Zambia. The paper discusses the framework for Zambia's smallholder commercialization strategy, the current state of smallholder agriculture in Zambia, key issues, support from agribusiness to smallholders, and development of potential and opportunities for smallholder commercialization. The paper concludes with three strategy areas: how to strengthen existing market mechanisms, reform of sectoral policies, and investments in public infrastructure.
This guide is the second in a series of documents designed to support agencies implementing participatory agroenterprise development program operating within defined geographical areas.
Este documento tiene por objeto promover el fortalecimiento de los/as pequeños/as productores/as en la dinamización de las cadenas agroalimentarias y así generar mayores impactos en la lucha contra la pobreza.
Este documento contiene una descripción resumida de la participación de Catholic Relief Services en la Alianza de Aprendizaje de Centroamérica, el proceso que se desarrolló en esta primera fase de funcionamiento y los principales resultados alcanzados, así como las lecciones aprendidas, las limitantes y las dificultades enfrentadas
In recent years the there has been an increasing recognition of the potential of the innovation systems concept to provide new ways of making more effective use of agricultural research and improve its impact on socially desirable outcomes. This paper documents the experiences of a group of researchers in India who experimented with this framework and tried to operationalise its principles in project design. The paper comments on some of the implications of using this approach and the challenges it presents for implementers of agricultural research projects in developing countries.
The IFAD Innovation Strategy does not set new objectives for staff, but rather defines what is needed to create an innovation-friendly environment and to support staff in achieving the expected results.To strengthen its innovative capabilities and become a better catalyst of pro-poor innovation, IFAD will focus on four clusters of activities: (i) Building capabilities and understanding of challenges requiring innovation; (ii) Nurturing partnerships and facilitating an innovation network; (iii) Embedding rigorous innovation processes and the related risk management into IFAD’s core business
This book is the re-titled third edition of the widely used Agricultural Extension (van den Ban & Hawkins, 1988, 1996). Building on the previous editions,Communication for Rural Innovation maintains and adapts the insights and conceptual models of value today, while reflecting many new ideas, angles and modes of thinking concerning how agricultural extension is taught and carried through today.
This paper was prepared to present at the Farmer First Revisited: 20 Years On conference at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK, December, 2007. Its focus is the challenge of strengthening agricultural innovation systems. The paper prefaces this discussion by reflecting on an apparent paradox. While agricultural innovation has never been better studied and understood, many of our ideas about innovation have failed to fundamentally change the institutional and policy setting of public and private investment intended to promote innovation for development.
Au Brésil, la diffusion du modèle de gestion intégrée des ressources en eau varie fortement selon l’environnement socio-territorial. Le Sud présente un dynamisme certain s’appuyant sur des initiatives locales. Les acteurs locaux sont organisés en comité de bassin et développent des actions pour améliorer la gestion des ressources. Dans le Nordeste, la marche vers ces nouveaux modes de gestion paraît difficile tant les inerties sociales et culturelles freinent un partage réel du pouvoir, des ressources et des coûts.
This review aims to introduce the institutional and policy oriented literature on technological innovation into the context of post harvest engineering. The focus is how rigorous quality and food safety standards in cross-border agricultural and horticultural trade influence technological change up stream in the agri-food chain. The review presents a selection of literature that considers technological innovation as a process, with a specific focus on the enabling and constraining institutional conditions found in developing countries.