Many countries are using innovation funds in the agricultural sector to support innovators and their links to public institutions, private entrepreneurs, and other actors, such as groups of rural producers. These funds create platforms for innovative activity by providing incentives for quality and collaboration. This report synthesizes experience with the two main innovation funds that the World Bank has used to fund agricultural innovation—competitive research grants and matching grants—and offers lessons and guidelines for designing and implementing them.
This presentation, prepared for the Workshop "Policies to Enhance Agricultural Innovation and Productivity: Focus on China" - held in Beijing (24 October 2013), illustrates the multiple benefits of agriculture innovation, the importance of the policy environment, the research and development main features and trends and the ways for fostering national AIS.
In this paper, results from a study on the use of improved coffee production technology schemes among smallholder coffee producers in three prominent coffee producing regions in Honduras are presented. The impact of various schemes (trajectories) in which different agents influence the producers’ decision to use new technologies was analyzed. In particular, there are differences in the influence of a) private coffee buying organizations and b) government and public development agencies on the innovation behavior of coffee growers.
The paper explores the implications of rural livelihood diversity for agricultural innovation policies. It summarises literature on the nature of rural poverty, with particular emphasis on the relative roles of farm and non-farm income. It also reviews the various roles, direct and indirect, that agricultural innovation can play in rural poverty reduction. Finally, it uses an agricultural knowledge and information systems (AKIS) perspective to argue for a differentiated approach to targeting agricultural innovations, based on an analysis of rural assets.
To respond to threats of climate change, Benin has joined the international community in the development and implementation of climate policies.
The DURAS Project, which ran from 2004 to 2008, established a truly pioneering means of integrating innovation from science with that from communities themselves. At the heart of DURAS has been its innovative competitive grants system. Following an original selection and evaluation process that placed a premium on multi-stakeholder partnerships, 12 projects were funded in Africa and Asia over a period of three years, each involving an array of disciplines and partners.
The sector review includes seven chapters and one annex. This first chapter is an overview of agriculture, irrigation and the purpose and content of this report. The second chapter provides a review of the Bank s own strategy and priorities for irrigation and drainage within its portfolio of investments, from the time of its 2004 Strategy until the present. It also includes a short summary of key lessons learned in this sector.
There is increasing evidence that public organizations dedicated exclusively to research and development (R&D) in agribusiness need systematic management tools to incorporate the uncertainties and complexities of technological and nontechnological factors of external environments in its long-term strategic plans. The major issues are: What will be the agribusiness science and technology (S&T) needs be in the future? How to prepare in order to meet these needs?
Transgenic maize was approved in Brazil in 2008/2009. In 2012, it occupied 73% of the country maize growing area. This high adoption rate confirms studies indicating that technology use has been the major driving force in Brazilian agriculture. Maize seed market in the world has been a concentrated sector. Although, when this sector is associated with transgenesis, this concentration increases sharply. In one side, there is the idea that companies can benefit from gains of scale and complementarities to maximize their efficiency in research and development (R&D).
Boll guard I & II were introduced in 2002 and 2006 by Mahyco Monsanto with Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, Govt. of India. Indian cotton farmers adopted Bt hybrid cotton between 2002-2013 reaching 92% of the cotton area and 95% of the production, replacing conventional hybrids/ varieties of all the species in both rainfed and irrigated conditions. Bt hybrid cotton was presumed to produce record highest average productivities in India and other major cotton growing countries also in 2007 and 2012 with a decline after 2008 due to excess rains. Farmers invested Rs.