There have been repeated calls for a ‘new professionalism’ for carrying out agricultural research for development since the 1990s. At the centre of these calls is a recognition that for agricultural research to support the capacities required to face global patterns of change and their implications on rural livelihoods, requires a more systemic, learning focused and reflexive practice that bridges epistemologies and methodologies.
Technology and innovation are important in addressing complex problems in the agricultural sector in many developing communities. However, ways and mechanisms to integrate them in the agricultural sector are still a challenge due to the lack of clear pathways and trajectories. Value chains are seen as a strong policy instrument to increase profitability in the agricultural sector; there is also debate around whether value chains can be a potential option to organize technology and innovation trajectories in agriculture.
Networks and partnerships are commonly-used tools to foster knowledge sharing between actors and organisations in the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS), but in Europe the policy emphasis on including users, such as farmers and foresters, is relatively recent. This paper assesses user involvement in a diverse set of European Union (EU)-funded and non-EU (formal and informal) multi-actor partnerships. This research used a common methodology to review several forms of multi-actor partnerships involving users and other actors.
Este estudio identifica factores que inciden en la adopción de tecnología e innovación productiva en la producción vitivinícola familiar ubicada en el Oasis Este de Mendoza. Se abordan realidades territoriales desde perspectivas cualitativas con productores entre 10 y 70 ha. Se indaga respecto de las visiones de nuevas tecnologías, como cambios organizacionales, de sistemas de conducción y de estrategias de diversificación para mejorar la actividad.
El objetivo de este trabajo fue identificar, analizar y sintetizar las problemáticas que afectan la adopción innovaciones de riego en el Alto Valle del Río Negro y Neuquén y realizar un aporte a la gestión colectiva de la innovación. El riego como eje de investigación se fundamenta en que los actores consultados consideran que el estado y gestión del sistema de riego y drenaje y la eficiencia de los métodos de riego, son relevantes para el desarrollo y sustentabilidad de la actividad frutícola en la región.
Este trabajo describe la experiencia de cinco años de trabajo con cooperativas, asociaciones y comunidades Mapuche. Este trabajo describe las estratégias empleadas por los productores para desarrollar canales de comercialización que así lograron aprovechar los buenos precios de la lana para capitalizarse.
The farmer field school (FFS) concept has been widely adopted, and such schools have the reputation of strengthening farmers’ capacity to innovate. Although their impact has been studied widely, what is involved in their scaling and in their becoming an integral part of agricultural innovation systems has been studied much less. In the case of the Sustainable Tree Crops Programme in Cameroon, we investigate how a public–private partnership (PPP) did not lead to satisfactory widespread scaling in the cocoa innovation system.
The paper explores the strength of social networks in the agricultural innovation systems (AISs) in Ghana and the effect of AISs on adoption of improved farm technology. The paper uses social network analysis (SNA) tools to identify, map and analyze the AISs and the two-stage Heckman selection model. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods allows testing the differential effects of social networks on technology adoption in the Ghananian Plantain Sector
In this paper, it is explored the strategic role of Multi-stakeholder processes (MSP) in agricultural innovations and how ithas impacted livelihood assets’(LAs) capital dynamics ofstakeholders in platforms in West Africa.The authors demonstrate how LA capitalsand socio-economic dynamics induced by MSP can enhancecassava production efficiency but also create opportunities andchallenges that influence platform dynamics and impacts. We usea multistage sampling procedure and sustainable livelihoodmodel (e.g.
The purpose of this article is to assess the inclusivity of on-farm demonstration across Europe, in relation to age, gender, and geographical location of participants. The paper is based on a survey of 1162 on-farm demonstrators (farmers and organisations) and three supraregional workshops. Overall, on farm-demonstrations were found to be engaging young(er) farmers who are at a career stage of being able to implement long-term innovations. However, across Europe demonstrations were primarily attended by men.