This project report from Wageningen UR (as a contribution to the CGIAR Humid Tropics research program) examines critical issues for reflection when designing and implementing research for development in innovation platforms’. The current document therefore aims to increase awareness about the complexity of research in innovation. The underlying idea is that innovation platforms can facilitate institutional changes and support system innovations through increased interaction, negotiation and learning between stakeholders, including (new) roles of research(ers).  

Over the past quarter century, Vietnam’s agricultural sector has made enormous progress. Vietnam’s performance in terms of agricultural yields, output, and exports, however, has been more impressive than its gains in efficiency, farmer welfare, and product quality. Vietnamese agriculture now sits at a turning point. The agricultural sector now faces growing domestic competition - from cities, industry, and services - for labor, land, and water. Rising labor costs are beginning to inhibit the sector’s ability to compete globally as a low cost producer of bulk undifferentiated commodities.

This report seeks to understand the successes, challenges and opportunities of Cambodia’s agricultural transformation over the past decade to derive lessons and insights on how to maintain future agricultural growth, and particularly on the government’s role in facilitating it. It is prepared per the request of the Supreme National Economic Council and the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries and is based on the primary farm data surveys from 2005 and 2013, and the secondary data from various sources.

This is the first investment climate assessment (ICA) for Myanmar. The main objectives of this ICA are to: (i) provide an up-to-date and fact-based analysis of the business environment for the government and other stakeholders in Myanmar to help prioritize and contextualize the reform agenda, and (ii) to offer a baseline for future assessments of progress in terms of the investment climate reform agenda. As requested by the government, the Myanmar ICA will directly support the ongoing reform program.

Botswana has been one of the worlds fastest growing economies over the past 50 years, allowing the country to move from being among the poorest to upper middle income status - this has had the effect of pulling the majority of the population out of poverty. While Botswana is rightly praised for its management of resource wealth, it is apparent that the high levels of investment by government (in health, education, and infrastructure) are not delivering quality outcomes, making it increasingly difficult to meet the objectives of growth, diversification, and poverty elimination.

An innovation platform is a space for learning and change. It is a group of individuals (who often represent organizations) with different backgrounds and interests: farmers, traders, food processors, researchers, government officials etc. The members come together to diagnose problems, identify opportunities and find ways to achieve their goals. They may design and implement activities as a platform, or coordinate activities by individual members. This brief explains what innovation platforms are and how they work, and it describes some of their advantages and limitations.

This is a chapter of the book Innovation Platforms for Agricultural Development edited by Iddo Dror, Jean-Joseph Cadilhon, Marc Schut, Michael Misiko and Shreya Maheshwari.

The chapter is a part of the book Innovation platforms for agricultural development edited by Iddo Dror, Jean-Joseph Cadilhon, Marc Schut, Michael Misiko and Shreya Maheshwari. It introduces the background for the setting up of innovation platforms (IPs), initiation and function of the three IPs in Ethiopian highlands, innovation fund to support fodder development, the role of different actors in scaling up, outcomes and impact of the intervention, and lessons learned.

The presentation was given in January 2009 and introduced why a new approach for livestock development for poverty alleviation was desirable, innovation, innovation systems and value chains, building of innovation platforms, learning-oriented monitoring and evaluation, and scaling up and out.

This brief evaluates the needs in order to Albania develop a competitive Fruit and Vegetable market.The fruit and vegetable sector represents 20 percent of Albanian agriculture but contributes 36 percent of its exports and this share is expected to increase. The note posits an idea that as the domestic market for many of these products is saturated, Albanian fruits and vegetables have been gaining ground in the Western Balkans and are well positioned to make headway in the EU-28 market as well.