Pendant des siècles, les agriculteurs, éleveurs, pêcheurs et sylviculteurs ont développé des systèmes agricoles diversifiés, adaptés à leurs conditions locales, en employant des techniques et des pratiques ingénieuses, éprouvées au fil du temps, afin de fournir un ensemble vital de services sociaux, culturels, écologiques et économiques à l'humanité. Ces «Systèmes ingénieux du patrimoine agricole mondial» (SIPAM) sont des paysages d'une beauté remarquable associant la biodiversité agricole à des écosystèmes résilients et à un précieux patrimoine culturel.
Ce document d’orientation reprend les enseignements tirés d’un examen approfondi des publications relatives aux systèmes d’innovation des petits exploitants agricoles et d’une consultation d’experts sur le même thème, organisée pendant deux jours à Genève par le Bureau Quaker auprès des Nations Unies (QUNO) en mai 2015.
El Catálogo latinoamericano de experiencias en agricultura familiar TEC 2018 presenta 31 soluciones innovadoras, que han logrado consolidarse como tecnologías sociales, o avanzan en tal dirección. Entendemos por tecnología social la innovación social estructurada por el conjunto de conocimientos, prácticas, métodos e instrumentos que han resuelto una problemática en una comunidad. Estas tecnologías que se caracterizan por su bajo costo, facilidad de aplicación y mínimo impacto ambiental, facilitan el proceso de apropiación por parte de otras comunidades.
In order to bring about sustainable transformation and business orientation into the Indian Agriculture sector, there have been schematic interventions to promote unique forms of social capital for farmers, called Farmer Producer organizations (FPOs). Many stakeholders, particularly NGOs, are involved in promoting and handholding these FPOs in a target-driven mode by promoting a large number of such institutions across the country.
Green Extension is an umbrella term used to describe rural advisory services which support the scaling up of sustainable agriculture. This encompasses a range of methods to promote various types of content. What these approaches have in common is a process of socio-ecological learning, i.e., supporting farmers to analyse local problems and opportunities, and test alternative practices under local conditions.
The creation of Competitive Research Grants (CRGs) is globally recognized as an institutional innovation for improving the effectiveness of agricultural research. Unlike block grants for research, CRGs are expected to bring in many top-quality proposals from a wide range of actors, selecting the best out of them and thus getting more value for money.
Holding a vision of Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE), and with a target of net-zero carbon emission by 2070, India plans to usher in a green industrial and economic transition through a movement with an environmentally conscious lifestyle. One of the credible options for a continuous, predictable, accessible and cost-free green energy source is solar power. In the agricultural sector, one of the key innovations in promoting solar irrigation was the initiation of the world's first ever Solar Cooperative - Dhundi Solar Energy Producers' Cooperative Society (DSEPCS) - in Gujarat, India.
In India, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) are considered as the most preferred institutional mechanism for enhancing productivity and income of farmers. This is based on the resounding success of a few farmer collectives that have aggregated their produce to realise better incomes. However, when efforts were made to scale up this interesting model across the country, several challenges emerged.
The Korea National University of Agriculture and Fisheries (KNUAF)'s innovative program is helping South Korea overcome issues relating to its ageing rural population while simultaneously developing elite human resources to establish and promote a highly competent agriculture sector. Since its inception, the KNUAF has been producing young highly competent professionals to manage its high tech agriculture either as entrepreneurs or farm managers.
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.