This paper examines the role of postsecondary agricultural education and training (AET) in sub-Saharan Africa in the context of the region’s agricultural innovation systems. Specifically, the paper looks at how AET in sub-Saharan Africa can contribute to agricultural development by strengthening innovative capacity, or the ability of individuals and organisations to introduce new products and processes that are socially or economically relevant, particularly with respect to smallholder farmers who represent the largest group of agricultural producers in the region.
In this paper, the authors review the conditions that have been undermining sustainable food and nutrition security in the Caribbean, focusing on issues of history, economy, and innovation. Building on this discussion, we then argue for a different approach to agricultural development in the Small Island Developing States of the CARICOM that draws primarily on socioecological resilience and agricultural innovation systems frameworks.
Farmers’ experiments can be defined as the autonomous activities of farmers to try or introduce something new at the farm, and include evaluation of success or failure with farmers’ own methods. Experiments enable farmers to adapt their farms to changing circumstances, build up local knowledge, and have resulted in countless agricultural innovations. Most research on the topic has been conducted in countries of the south.
In Mexico there are public programs that promote the improvement of the technical and productive conditions of the agriculture sector through organisations such as Produce Foundation Puebla (FUPPUE). This organisation has implemented diverse mechanisms oriented to promoting farmers' technological and productive capabilities. However in some cases when the FUPPUE leaves them, farmers' capabilities and performance decrease within a short period of time.
The biodiversity of food plants is vital for humanity's capacity to meet sustainability challenges. This goal requires the rigorous integration of plant, environmental, social and health sciences. It is coalescing around four thematic cornerstones that are both interdisciplinary and policy relevant.
The authors surveyed small-scale farmers in the Kenyan Rift Valley province (Narok and Nakuru districts) to describe constraints to, and changes in, livestock production and to assess the extent to which farmers have adopted new technologies promoted by extension services. In the arid areas of southern Narok, farmer's main constraints were drought and disease. Farmers in Nakuru district, situated in the fertile highlands of the Rift Valley, were also affected by disease but also lacked markets and capital.
Over the past decades, Brazilian agriculture has played an important role in the international market, in response to growing global demand for products, services and food security. This achievement was in a large extent powered by the ability to generate knowledge and the actions promoted by science and technology institutes.
Los servicios de extensión rural han contribuido al desarrollo agropecuario, sin embargo existe una brecha entre el conocimiento disponible y su adopción por parte de los agricultores, que dichos servicios no han logrado disminuir de manera sustancial. Por esta razón, el objetivo de este estudio fue analizar las tendencias de la investigación en extensión rural, que permitan identificar enfoques que contribuyan al planteamiento de recomendaciones para un servicio de extensión rural orientado al desarrollo de capacidades de autogestión de las comunidades rurales.
El objetivo de este trabajo fue identificar a los actores involucrados en sistema de innovación de los productores de maíz de la Región Centro de México, destacando el papel de los actores de soporte institucional en su adopción de innovaciones. Para ello, se entrevistaron 490 productores de maíz atendidos dentro del marco del programa MasAgro 2012, en los estados de Guerrero, Hidalgo, Puebla, Morelos, Estado de México y Tlaxcala. Se midió el grado de adopción de las innovaciones, y mediante la metodología de análisis de redes sociales se analizó la vinculación entre los actores.
The aim of this study was to identify the actors involved in the innovation system producers of corn Mexico Center Region, highlighting the role of the actors of institutional support in adoption of innovations. To do this, 490 corn producers served within the framework of MasAgro 2012 program, in the states of Guerrero, Hidalgo, Puebla, Morelos, State of Mexico and Tlaxcala were interviewed. The degree of adoption of innovations was measured, and using the methodology of social network analysis linking between actors analyzed.