The USAID Feed the Future Mozambique Agricultural Innovations Activity (FTF Inova) is a five-year project that seeks to increase equitable growth and incomes in the agriculture sector in Mozambique by increasing the competitiveness of selected value chains, expanding the number of enterprises that can compete and upgrade their products and services in selected markets, and improving relationships and linkages between those firms and other market participants throughout the value chains.
This report covers the first four months of implementation, corresponding to the period February 22–June 30, of the USAID Feed the Future Mozambique Agricultural Innovations Activity. During this period, key and non-key personnel were mobilized and procurement and office start-up activities were carried out.
The overarching mission of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Peanut Productivity & Mycotoxin Control (PMIL) is to apply leading innovative US science to improve peanut production and use, raise nutrition awareness and increase food safety in developing countries. PMIL aims to integrate two major themes – peanut production and mycotoxin research – under one roof as part of a value chain approach.
The Feed the Future Mozambique Agricultural Innovations Activity (FTF Inova) made good progress on its interventions during quarter (Q) 2 of fiscal year (FY) 2019, facilitating the introduction and adaptation of a number of innovations with an increasing portfolio of partners. Testing of established probes continued, accompanied by the first set of learning, while new probes also emerged.
This study describes the evolving context and organisational linkages in the agricultural innovation system of Azerbaijan and suggests ways to promote effective organisational ties for the development, distribution and use of new or improved information and knowledge related to agriculture. Graph-theoretic principles and concepts are employed to assess the existing organisational linkages vital for agricultural innovations.
In Mexico there are public programs that promote the improvement of the technical and productive conditions of the agriculture sector through organisations such as Produce Foundation Puebla (FUPPUE). This organisation has implemented diverse mechanisms oriented to promoting farmers' technological and productive capabilities. However in some cases when the FUPPUE leaves them, farmers' capabilities and performance decrease within a short period of time.
This paper identifies market failures that limit agricultural R&D for Africa and other resource-poor environments, and proposes a way to complement existing institutions with cash prizes for the dissemination of successful new technologies adopted by low-income farmers. The proposed prize institution would use agronomic experiments and farm surveys to document the value of innovations after their initial diffusion, and offer payments in proportion to estimated social benefits in target regions.
The agricultural innovation system can be strengthened by increasing the learning capacity of research and field organisations. Participatory methods were developed to study three dimensions of the capacity of such organisations in Nicaragua to access and analyse information, highly correlated to learning capacity – the individual routines of their professionals, the formal procedures of the organisation and the organisation's use of collaborative projects to strengthen core operations.
This paper discusses the challenges and determinants of agro-operations and innovation initiatives in developing countries. With particular reference to the Caribbean region, available country statistics and data are analysed. A generic model of collaborative innovation for agriculture that stresses collaboration among the stakeholders (government, knowledge institutions, public and private firms and others) is described.
Public–private partnerships that aim at the development of innovations have gained increasing attention from governments, public research and private companies, because they enable partners to draw from complementary resources and profit from synergy and joint learning. This article develops arguments for when partnerships should form and compares them with experiences in real partnership cases in Latin America.