Rural extension plays a significant and irreplaceable role in an innovation system that creates, designs, validates, and promotes new ideas, solutions, technologies, and forms of management focused on the resolution of problems and satisfaction of the needs of farmers and rural inhabitants and the organizations that represent them. In view of the above, this document presents proposals for making rural extension a key part of innovation systems focused on rural territorial development.
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.
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 report provides a synthesis of all findings and information generated through a “stocktaking” process that involved a desk study of Prolinnova documents and evaluation reports, a questionnaire to 40 staff members of international organizations in agricultural research and development (ARD), self-assessment by the Country Platforms (CPs) and backstopping visits to five CPs. In 2014, the Prolinnova network saw a need to re-strategise in a changing context, and started this process by reviewing the activities it had undertaken and assessing its own functioning.
In order to realize the potential of agricultural innovation in family farming, national priorities of sustainably increasing food production and productivity, and reducing hunger and poverty, require rural knowledge institutions to be stronger and communication processes to be improved. This brief synthesizes the focus of FAO’s research and extension branch on transforming agricultural innovation systems of member countries.
Colombia produces more sugar per month on one hectare of land than any other country. This privilege is due to the productivity of sugar cane grown in the Cauca River valley, where 14 processing plants operate nearly year-round to produce sugar, honey, bioethanol, and electrical energy. The cane is supplied by 2750 growers, owners of 75 percent of the 240 000 hecatres planted, and by the sugar mills themselves (25 percent of the area). The sugar cane chain provides more than 286 000 direct and indirect jobs.
Las problemáticas de las empresas familiares trascienden fronteras, escalas, entornos y rubros. Dentro del sector agropecuario, las empresas familiares representan en 80 por ciento de las unidades productivas que hacen al desarrollo económico de Argentina y Uruguay. Esta iniciativa forma una comunidad virtual donde el público objetivo son los propietarios, socios, fundadores, asesores, gerentes, potenciales sucesores y toda persona interesada en los temas relativos a la empresa familiar, sin distinción de género o edad, del sector agropecuario de estos países.
Colombia produce más azúcar por mes en una hectárea de tierra que cualquier otro país. El privilegio se debe a la productividad de la caña de azúcar cultivada en el valle del río Cauca, donde 14 plantas procesadoras operan casi todo el año para producir azúcares, mieles, bioetanol y energía eléctrica. La caña es suministrada por 2750 proveedores, propietarios del 75 por ciento de las 240 000 hectáreas sembradas, y por los mismos ingenios o centrales azucareras (25 por ciento del área).
The problems of family businesses transcend borders, scales, environments, and areas. Within the agricultural sector, family businesses represent 80 percent of the productive units that contribute to the economic development of Argentina and Uruguay. This initiative forms a virtual community where the target audience is the owners, partners, founders, advisors, managers, potential successors, and anyone interested in issues related to the family businesses, without distinction of gender or age, in the agricultural sector of these countries.
The creative process that leads to farmers’ innovations is rarely studied or described precisely in agricultural sciences. For academic scientists, obvious limitations of farmers’ experiments are e.g. precision, reliability, robustness, accuracy, validity or the correct analysis of cause and effect. Nevertheless, we propose that ‘farmers’ experiments’ underpin innovations that keep organic farming locally tuned for sustainability and adaptable to changing economic, social and ecological conditions.