The paper sets out the general concepts and principles of the Agricultural Innovation Systems approach, and its application to agricultural research and development, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. It is intended for those interested in applying new approaches to research with farmers, NGOs and the private sector that lead to developmental outcomes.
This chapter outlines the role of a well-functioning agricultural innovation system in ensuring good use of public funds, and higher responsiveness to the needs of ‘innovation consumers’ through improved collaboration between public and private participants, including across national borders. A well-functioning agricultural innovation system is key to improving the economic, environmental and social performance of the food and agriculture sector.
This chapter analyses the functioning of the Brazilian agricultural innovation system. It discusses the role of the different actors and describes governance mechanisms to define priorities and evaluate performance. It analyses trends in agricultural R&D expenditure and sources of funding, the role of intellectual property protection in fostering knowledge markets, and outlines mechanisms used to facilitate knowledge transfers, including collaboration at the national level and the adoption of innovation at the farm or firm level.
Brazilian agriculture is a success story. The country that until the 1960s systematically received food donations from abroad. and up to the 1980s was still a large food importer, had its agriculture profoundly changed. The traditional agriculture that prevailed in Brazil until the 1970s was progressively transformed in the following decades into a modern and highly competitive agriculture based on science.
Participatory approaches have been discussed as alternatives to and complementary elements of more conventional research on sustainable land use and rural development in upland areas of Southeast Asia. Following a brief overview of the history of participatory approaches (Sect. 9.1), this chapter discusses the potential and limitations of applying Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools to field research practice in Vietnam (Sect. 9.2) and of involving stakeholders in priority setting, modeling and environmental valuation in the Southeast Asian uplands (Sect. 9.3).
The present chapter outlines a descriptive analysis of the sorghum value chains across the globe, the identified major constraints of the sorghum value chain, the business service provisions, and suggested specific areas of interventions for upgradation of the value chain. Considering the VC of sorghum, it is very new and value addition is limited up to harvesting and marketing of whole sorghum grain.
This chapter analyses the access to and adequacy of formal sources in meeting the credit needs, particularly agricultural credit needs, of small farmers in India with the help of banking data, and data on the borrowing profiles of these households collected through the village surveys of the Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI).Three major institutions provide formal credit in the rural areas of India today: commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs), and credit cooperatives.
Development processes, economic growth and agricultural modernization affect women and men in different ways and have not been gender neutral. Women are highly involved in agriculture, but their contribution tends to be undervalued and overseen. Sustainable agricultural innovations may include trade-offs and negative side-effects for women and men, or different social groups, depending on the intervention type and local context. Promising solutions are often technology-focused and not necessarily developed with consideration of gender and social disparity aspects.
For farmers, the transition towards agroecology implies redesigning both their production system and their commercialisation system. To engage in this type of transition, they need to develop new knowledge on practices adapted to local conditions, which will involve new actors in their network. This chapter explores the role of actors’ networks in the agroecological transition of farmers, with a particular focus on farming practices and modes of commercialisation.
La cadena productiva incluye la tecnología y el saber-cómo utilizarla eficientemente (know-how). También existe la cadena de “suministro” que complementa la cadena productiva, donde se integra la actividad de los proveedores de materiales y servicios a la producción, la distribución de los productos o servicios terminados y su compra por los clientes. La cadena de suministro incluye la coordinación entre suministradores, intermediarios y clientes. En esencia, integra las actividades de suministro y demanda, dentro y fuera de las compañías.