The European Innovation Partnership for agricultural productivity and sustainability (EIP-AGRI), which can be perceived as a platform based on interaction among farmers, researchers, and advisors/extensionists, represents a useful tool for a better understanding of applied innovation processes.
Multi-actors networks are increasingly used by farmers to link between them and to be interactively connected with other partners, such as advisory organizations, local governments, universities, and non-farm organizations. Given the importance assigned to the agricultural innovation by EU resorting to the networking between the research chain actors and the farmers, a strong focus on enhancing the creation of learning and innovation networks is expected.
Although innovation is understood to encompass much more than R&D, science continues to be an essential ingredient. In particular translation, adaptation and ‘valorisation’ of research results, the responsiveness of research to users’ needs and improved access to results are all regarded as important in achieving a more sustainable European agriculture. These challenges can be addressed in a number of ways including increased collaboration, networking, transdisciplinary research and co-operation between researchers and practitioners.
This paper relates the European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) to be implemented by Operational Groups (OGs) in Basilicata. New relationships and regeneration produced a “bio-economic Cluster”, creating “smart” specialization and a system linking research, innovation and the enterprise world. The Cluster consolidated competence and knowledge in small and medium enterprises, including agriculture and forest farms and encouraged the dissemination and implementation of innovative products and processes.
This paper is aimed at raising the discussion on frameworks and practices to analyse and support of innovation processes of operational groups in rural development policy. The analysis highlights an increasing interest of the current evaluation and research practices on interactive innovation processes, collaborative learning and capacity development both at individual, collective and systems levels. Particularly, transformative-oriented frameworks have been developed in view of supporting capacity development in innovation systems
The study relies on the activities performed within EU funded Horizon 2020 project, AgriSpin (www.agrispin.eu), specifically for the case of Cilento Bio-district in Campania region, Italy. The methodology is centred on the “cross-visit method” developed within the AgriSpin Project, based on direct observation, interviews with relevant actors and analysis of grey literature.
As part of the EU funded AgriSpin project (www.agrispin.eu), which aimed at “creating space for innovations” in agriculture across Europe, this contribution addresses the above mentioned knowledge gaps by a. elaborating a generic typology appropriate to capture the variety of ISS, b. structuring selected innovations along the degree of technological change and coordination levels, and c.
Dairy farmers in the northern regions of New Zealand expressed widespread dissatisfaction with the performance and persistence of their pastures following drought conditions in 2007/08. Farmers were becoming disillusioned with the practice of renewing pasture as a means to introduce modern perennial ryegrass cultivars in their paddocks. This paper describes the formation and operation of an innovation network, consisting of private and public sector actors, that was formed in 2010 to improve the quality and consistency of advice provided to farmers.
The private sector’s presence in agricultural advisory services worldwide has been on the increase for over three decades. This trend has also been observed in the Mantaro Valley (Peru), in a context of dairy family farming. The objective of the communication is to analyse the modalities of advisory services privatization and assess the consequences of this privatization for the farmers and their livestock systems. Data were collected through input suppliers, different types of advisers and producers interviews.
This paper is an inquiry into the process of setting up a national, multi-stakeholder project collaboration aimed at stimulating the role of the private sector in the Australian agricultural extension and innovation systems.