This training manual, which is based on a methodology developed by FAO’s Research and Extension Unit (OINR), presents a training course on assessing AIS consisting of eight modules.
Green Extension is an umbrella term used to describe rural advisory services which support the scaling up of sustainable agriculture. This encompasses a range of methods to promote various types of content. What these approaches have in common is a process of socio-ecological learning, i.e., supporting farmers to analyse local problems and opportunities, and test alternative practices under local conditions.
Agrifood systems generate significant benefits to society, including the food that nourishes us and jobs and livelihoods for over a billion people. However, their negative impacts due to unsustainable business-as-usual activities and practices are contributing to climate change, natural resource degradation and the unaffordability of healthy diets.
Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) and short organic supply chains have emerged as promising solutions for smallholder farmers to provide organic produce to nearby consumers. PGS is an institutional innovation that builds trust among producers, traders and consumers through a low-cost transparent and participatory certification mechanism. They have particularly gained a foothold among smallholder farmers in middle- income countries, where third-party certification costs are often unaffordable.
Holding a vision of Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE), and with a target of net-zero carbon emission by 2070, India plans to usher in a green industrial and economic transition through a movement with an environmentally conscious lifestyle. One of the credible options for a continuous, predictable, accessible and cost-free green energy source is solar power. In the agricultural sector, one of the key innovations in promoting solar irrigation was the initiation of the world's first ever Solar Cooperative - Dhundi Solar Energy Producers' Cooperative Society (DSEPCS) - in Gujarat, India.
In India, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) are considered as the most preferred institutional mechanism for enhancing productivity and income of farmers. This is based on the resounding success of a few farmer collectives that have aggregated their produce to realise better incomes. However, when efforts were made to scale up this interesting model across the country, several challenges emerged.
The Korea National University of Agriculture and Fisheries (KNUAF)'s innovative program is helping South Korea overcome issues relating to its ageing rural population while simultaneously developing elite human resources to establish and promote a highly competent agriculture sector. Since its inception, the KNUAF has been producing young highly competent professionals to manage its high tech agriculture either as entrepreneurs or farm managers.
Mission-oriented agricultural innovation systems (MAIS) are becoming more prevalent in view of tackling the challenges of agri-food systems transformation. In this perspective, we argue that the politics of MAIS requires more comprehensive and considerable attention in the field, given the contested and deeply normative nature of the direction of innovations in agri-food systems transformation. Literature from development studies, policy sciences, and transition studies is reviewed to inform the perspective.
This chapter describes the Swiss agricultural innovation system (AIS). It identifies the actors in agricultural innovation and their roles, describes the main trends in public investments in agricultural research and development (R&D), discusses the impact of agricultural policies on AIS, and describes initiatives to foster agri-food innovation. It also depicts institutional co-ordination between regional innovation systems (RIS) and the Federal Office for Agriculture’s (FOAG) advisory services at the canton level.
Meeting rising global demand for food and responding to changes such as climate change, globalization, and urbanization will thus require good policy, sustained investments, and innovation – not business as usual. Agricultural innovation enables the agriculture sector, farmers and rural entrepreneurs to adapt rapidly when challenges occur and to respond readily when new opportunities arise – for example in the fields of technology and markets.