The policy environment for agricultural innovation in Lao PDR has never been better. Agricultural development is high on the agenda at the most senior levels of government, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry recently published a strategy framework that lays out multiple pathways for innovation. Based on the work to date, CDAIS National Innovation Facilitators are well positioned to continue shaping the agricultural innovation process long after the project ends.
The CDAIS project has been an accelerator of processes, with results that have spread from community to governmental levels. Those who have been involved consider that CDAIS was a key reason for these changes, having arrived as a springboard in 2015. Of the four partnerships in Honduras, these conversations explore the experiences of potato producers in La Esperanza, Intibucá, home to almost 70% of national potato production. Since 2015, much has changed for them: from a small group of growers, eight associations have become consolidated organisations.
The Government of Burkina Faso embraced innovation in agriculture many years ago, thus CDAIS could build on solid foundations. Six innovation niche partnerships were selected, each working on very different types of innovations, technically, socially or organisationally, and facing contrasting challenges for capacity development.
Agriculture provides the principle source of livelihood for more than 80% of its 170 million people, and is the backbone of the Bangladesh economy. The government acknowledges this in its strategy to 2041, with investment in research and extension. CDAIS began in 2015. At the outset, however, the need to also invest in strengthening functional capacities was not recognised by those used to the ‘traditional’ technology transfer model.
There was a need for change in agricultural development in Angola, and CDAIS has been appreciated. Results show positive outcomes in a number of areas, including the acceptance of the benefits of strengthening functional capacities across different levels. And, although it is still too early to see the full benefits of the approach, many involved said they would continue to apply it in their other activities. This story begins with views and experiences from rice growers and their partners, as an example of one of the three innovation niche partnerships in Angola.
A “farmers’ market” identifies a common area where farmers meet periodically to sell food products which do not need to be processed before consumption. Farmers’ markets have recently experienced steady growth mainly due to increasing demand for traditional foods and rising consumers’ interest towards locally produced food products. It is also the case that they provide transparency along the supply chain and decrease information asymmetries.
The integration of male and female smallholders in high-end value chains (e.g. those for tree crops like cocoa, oil palm, avocado, and mango), has been promoted throughout the global South as a strategy for poverty alleviation, economic growth, employment generation, gender equality, and improved wellbeing. More critical literature, however, questions the inclusiveness of farmers’ value chain engagement. Despite rapid mainstreaming of inclusiveness in policy discourse, remarkably little literature sheds light on the operationalization of the concept. This paper addresses this gap.
This publication presents a coherent Collaborative Framework for Food Systems Transformation (the FS Framework) that recommends key activities across the food system for accelerating the transition to sustainable food systems. The FS Framework is primarily intended for national or local government departments that are responsible for establishing institutions and designing and implementing policies at the local or national level to develop food systems in line with national objectives and goals.
A paradigm shift is needed to reposition the world’s AFS from being an important driver of environmental degradation to being a key contributor for the global transition to sustainability. Such a transformation can only happen through both generation of new knowledge and enhanced translation of knowledge into use. This achievement requires the generation of new knowledge and enhanced translation of knowledge into use, entailing considerable efforts in terms of research and innovation.
Looking at local learning capacity and systems of relations can help to understand the potential to develop innovation within a specific context. This work contributes to the definition of new actors who are developing innovation for sustainability in rural areas. The study focuses on the knowledge systems of farmers who are applying alternative breeding strategies: it uses a network approach to explore the knowledge system in which individual farmers are embedded in order to understand their specific relational features.