The report entitled ‘Innovation in the Irish Agri-food Sector’ was compiled by researchers from the University College of Dublin (UCD) following interviews with stakeholders from across the sector, and an analysis of data from Eurostat, the OECD, and the Teagasc National Farm Survey. The report also shows that the sector is strong in terms of research capacity, overall education levels, and favourable tax regimes to encourage business innovation. The report was launched at the international conference ‘Driving Innovation in the Irish Agri-Food System', held in June 2014 at the UCD.
This poster analyzes the status, challenges and opportunities of the Kyeni local innovation platform that was put up to sustainably evaluate, disseminate and hasten adoption of CA technologies involving maize/ legume cropping systems in eastern Kenya. Establishment and maintenance of IPs is one of the action oriented research approaches for technology transfer in the ACIAR funded Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project such as Kyeni Local Innovation Platform.
Innovation learning platforms have their roots in the agricultural innovation systems (AIS) approach. AIS emphasizes a systems view of agricultural innovations and conceptualizes an innovation system as all individuals and organizations that keep on interacting in producing and using knowledge and the institutional context of knowledge sharing and learning. Research creates knowledge and technology; but innovation process goes further to include putting that knowledge into use.
Poor farmers seldom benefit from new agricultural technologies. In response, research and extension approaches based on agricultural innovation systems are popular. Often agricultural research organisations are the network brokers, facilitating the emergence of the innovation system. Based on an analysis of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) initiative in Mexico, this viewpoint suggests that such organisations are more often suitable network brokers when the objective is the development and scaling out of a technology by itself.
Increasingly, multi-stakeholder processes have been recognized as being necessary to the development of public policies seeking to promote systemic innovation in response to complex and multidimensional challenges, such as household food security, rural development, and environmental change. Saint Lucia, a small island developing state located in the Caribbean, has been grappling with a wide range of agriculture, food and nutrition security challenges with varying degrees of policy success.
This is the proceedings of the international conference ‘Innovations in Organic Food System for Sustainable Production and Enhanced Ecosystem Services’. The proceedings are a compilation of peer-reviewed articles based on presentations of 18 speakers invited conference speakers and published as a Special Issue of the scientific journal ‘Sustainable Agriculture Research’ by the Canadian Centre of Science and Education.
This document on Good Practices in Extension Research and Evaluation is developed as a hands on reference manual to help young researchers, research students, and field extension functionaries in choosing the right research methods for conducting quality research and evaluation in extension. This manual has been compiled by the resource persons who participated in the Workshop on ‘Good
Mark Holderness, GFAR Executive Secretary, was invited as a moderator for the Network development meeting of the Eurasian Centre for Food Security (ECFS) in Moscow, Russian Federation, from 18 to 20 November 2013. Dr Holderness gave a keynote presentation titled "Shaping the future together: Transforming agricultural research, education, extension and enterprise for development" summarizing the rationale for the changes agreed in the GCARD Road Map and then taken up by the wide range of stakeholders delivering the GFAR Medium Term Plan.
This presentation is on integrating and linking Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IA4RD) with innovation. It includes examples of Innovation Platform (IPs) Framework & Models.
The paper discusses the role of advisory services within agricultural innovation systems; the importance of enhanced capacities for better performance at individual, organisational, and enabling environment level; the constraints and roles of actors at national, regional, and global level; and recommendations for action and partnerships to strengthen capacities and the role of advisory systems at all levels.