Agricultural innovation in low-income tropical countries contributes to a more effective and sustainable use of natural resources and reduces hunger and poverty through economic development in rural areas. Yet, despite numerous recent public and private initiatives to develop capacities for agricultural innovation, such initiatives are often not well aligned with national efforts to revive existing Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS).
African agriculture is currently at a crossroads, at which persistent food shortages are compounded by threats from climate change. But, as this book argues, Africa can feed itself in a generation and help contribute to global food security. To achieve this Africa has to define agriculture as a force in economic growth by: advancing scientific and technological research; investing in infrastructure; fostering higher technical training; and creating regional markets.
This report explores the role of rural networks in enhancing innovation processes, questioning the features of the agricultural/rural networks could enhance farmers’ ability to co-innovate in cooperation with other actors. The prospect of this investigation is also to provide interesting and significant experiences that constitute examples for the ‘European Innovation Partnership’ by increasing farmers’ capacities to create, test, implement and evaluate innovations in cooperation with other rural actors.
This paper illustrates already practiced models and strategies of high impact innovations around the world with particular respect to India. The shown examples of innovative businesses were selected based on four criteria reflecting their innovative character. Firstly, innovations need to fulfil a value for the life of people which exceeds the mere use of the product. Secondly, it requires good quality products or service for an affordable price even for lower income groups.
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.
Every year, farmers in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from unacceptable levels of crop loss as a result of plant health problems, threatening their food security, income and livelihoods. This working paper shares lessons from Plantwise, an initiative to improve smallholder farmers’ access to plant health services in Uganda so that they can improve their yields, increase their incomes and improve their food security and livelihoods. The working paper presents lessons from almost ten years of experiences in implementing plant clinics in Uganda.
In 2010 the Brazilian Government established a goal to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by agriculture from 36.1 up to 38.9% in ten years (2010 -2020). To contribute for reaching part of this purpose in Tocantins State, Embrapa and other research and extension services partners have been conducting a project of technology transference on sustainable agricultural practices, including integrated crop-livestock-forestry (ICLF), since 2012.
Cet article analyse les conditions d’accès aux connaissances dans l’univers des politiques publiques agricoles et leurs conséquences en termes de verrouillage technologique sur des solutions techniques dépendantes de l’usage de pesticides. À partir de l’identification des réseaux d’action publique impliqués dans le développement de l’Agriculture de conservation (AC), il montre une situation d’inégalité entre acteurs pour l’accès aux ressources permettant de développer des techniques innovantes.
Les recommandations de cet atelier sont organisées en trois parties. La première propose un état des lieux des interactions qu’entretient l’agriculture familiale avec les acteurs du système alimentaire mondial. La seconde relate les principaux débats et controverses ayant structuré l’atelier. La troisième explore Le rôle de la recherche dans l’évolution de l’agriculture familiale en tant qu’élément du système alimentaire ?
Les recommandations de cet atelier sont organisées en trois parties. La première propose un état des lieux des interactions qu’entretient l’agriculture familiale avec les acteurs du système alimentaire mondial. La seconde relate les principaux débats et controverses ayant structuré l’atelier. La troisième explore Le rôle de la recherche dans l’évolution de l’agriculture familiale en tant qu’élément du système alimentaire ?