This learning module on Applying innovation system concept in agricultural research for development has been prepared to serve as a tool in achieving the objective of strengthening the capacity of project staff and other researchers and actors who are believed to have a key role to play in ushering in market-led agricultural transformation. This includes national, regional, international and private sector agricultural researchers, university lecturers, and others engaged in biophysical as well as social science research.
Decision support systems (DSS) have long been used in research, service provision and extension. Despite the diversity of technological applications in which past agricultural DSS canvass, there has been relatively little information on either the functional aspects of DSS designed for economic decisions in irrigated cropping, or the human and social factors influencing the adoption of knowledge from such DSS.
The prevalence of “grass-fed” labeled food products on the market has increased in recent years, often commanding a premium price. To date, the majority of methods used for the authentication of grass-fed source products are driven by auditing and inspection of farm records. As such, the ability to verify grass-fed source claims to ensure consumer confidence will be important in the future. Mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy is widely used in the dairy industry as a rapid method for the routine monitoring of individual herd milk composition and quality.
The paper presents an efficient approach for the modelling of wire robots kinematic and dynamics considering the effects of structural elasticity. Using the simulation and animation system several potential applications in agriculture have been simulated and analysed. The paper discusses possible robot configurations, system dynamic constraints and limits, as well as reachable performance for typical large-span wire robot applications in agriculture.
El presente artículo analiza la forma como se desarrolla el cambio en los campos organizacionales a partir del emprendimiento institucional en el caso de la industria cafetera colombiana desde una perspectiva teórico-conceptual.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) financed the second Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project (CHARMP2), in areas where poverty is most severe among indigenous peoples in the highlands of the Cordillera Region in northern Philippines. The aim is to reduce poverty and improve the livelihoods of indigenous peoples living in farming communities in the mountainous project area. The indigenous peoples consist of many tribes whose main economic activity is agriculture.
India is witnessing dwindling gains from agriculture for the smallholder farmers because of high cost of inputs, changing climate impacting production, fluctuating market prices of outputs, and weak delivery of services at the last mile. The value share of farmers in the commodity supply chain needs to be increased to ensure that farming remains a remunerative livelihood option. There has to be a wider acceptance of the fact that the country needs partnerships among multiple players with complementary knowledge and expertise for its agricultural development.
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.
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.
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.