The Global Innovation Index (GII) aims to capture the multi-dimensional facets of innovation by providing a rich database of detailed metrics for 127 economies, which represent 92.5% of the world’s population and 97.6% of global GDP. As Ban Ki-moon, the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, noted at the UN Economic and Social Council in 2013, the GII is a ‘unique tool for refining innovation policies . . . for providing an accurate picture on the role of science, technology and innovation in sustainable development’.
The GII 2017 marks the 10th edition of the GII, providing data and insights gleaned from tracking innovation across the globe for more than a decade. The GII was created to measure and understand which economies and regions respond best to the challenges of innovation, and has helped to shape the innovation agendas of nations since 2007. For more than 10 years, the agriculture and food sector has faced growing global demand and increased competition for limited natural resources. Within the agricultural and food systems, innovation is indispensable to achieving sustainable productivity growth; this innovation must be a priority and include organizational change, cooperation along the value chain, public and private investment in R&D, adaptation and adoption of new innovations, and education. A review of how innovation and technology trends and the enabling environments in which these systems operate and evolve will be essential to the success of this endeavour, creating an urgent need for improved metrics and indicators. The analysis in this year’s edition, The Global Innovation Index 2017: Innovation Feeding the World, is dedicated to this theme, paving the way for improved strategies and policy making to foster innovation in food systems.
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This report includes the article on innovation systems "The Potential of a Global Diagnostic Tool for Agricultural Innovation Systems" , by Christian Grovermann, Samy Gaiji, Karin Nichterlein, Abdoulaye Saley Moussa, Sónia Dias, Andrea Sonnino, and Delgermaa Chuluunbaatar.
The global food supply is increasingly facing disruptions from extreme heat and storms. It is also a major contributor to climate change, responsible for one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.This tension is why agriculture innovation is increasingly being elevated in international climate discussions.
At present, agriculture provides enough food for the world's 8 billion people, although many do not have adequate access. But to feed a global population of 10 billion in 2050, croplands would need to expand by 660 000 to 1.2 million square miles (171 million to 301 million hectare) relative to 2010. That would lead to more deforestation, which contributes to climate change. Further, some practices widely relied on to produce sufficient food, such as using synthetic fertilizers, also contribute to climate change.
Simply eliminating deforestation and these practices without alternative solutions would decrease the world's food supply and farmer's incomes. Fortunately, innovations are emerging that can help.
Agriculture is a vital sector that will feed a projected global population of 9.5 billion by 2050. Smallholder farmers produce more than 70 percent of the world's food. Globally, there are approximately 570 million smallholder farmers, who own less than two hectares of land. However, smallholders in most developing countries face challenges such as access to finance and insurance, unfair wages, access to agricultural resources and lack of market access.
In this context, improving the productivity, yield and nutritional content of food produced by smallholder farmers is critical. Agritech, empowered by artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things and drones has the potential to deliver a significant impact across the agriculture sector.
Empowering technologies can make agriculture more agile, data-driven, efficient and focus on farmers' well-being and income. While acknowledging the potential agritech holds, there is a need for a systematic and collaborative approach.
Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and transitioning the planet to an equitable climate and nature-positive future by 2050 will require systemic shifts in how food is produced and consumed.
With the current realities of the food systems, the fusion of innovation with purpose becomes not just a choice but a necessity.
Taking a solutions approach, new leaders are emerging in food systems, offering technologies and innovative models of engagement. The potential for innovation is game-changing – from digital services, climate-smart technologies, biologicals, artificial intelligence, earth observation, novel foods, precision nutrition and others.
The World Economic Forum's UpLink and Food Innovation Hubs Global Initiative platforms aim to drive cooperation and a global movement to deliver on the promise of innovation to the more than 8 billion people depending on sustainable and resilient food systems.
India's smallholding farmers face significant challenges. They struggle with erratic weather and the impacts of climate change, pest infestations, and declining yields. Financially constrained, many are trapped by high-interest loans from local lenders. Post-harvest, issues such as crop wastage, logistics, and market access can add their troubles, with up to 40 percent of produce lost. Market fluctuations and the inability to meet quality standards further exacerbate their struggles.
In response to these challenges, the World Economic Forum's Artificial Intelligence for Agriculture Innovation (AI4AI) initiative is stepping in to support India's agricultural transformation by driving the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies for agricultural advancements. Led by the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) India, this initiative brings together government, academia and business representatives to develop and implement innovative solutions in the agriculture sector.
Food security is a critical challenge – the World Bank includes it among the eight global challenges to be addressed at scale in 2024. Climate shocks, economic instability and geopolitics have significantly impacted crop yields and food supply chains.
A fundamental shift in the way we produce and consume food is necessary. Technology and innovations are powerful enablers and catalysts of change. When coupled with the right collaboraion models and investments, these innovations could make food systems one of the most hopeful solutions on climate action, improving water security, reducing equity and nourishing all.
The United Nations predicts that we need to increase food production globally by 70 percent to feed 9.6 billion people by 2050. But at the same time, given the climate crisis, we need to significantly reduce the use of energy, water, and land needed to produce food and lower its carbon footprint. In other words, we must figure out how to produce and distribute more food using fewer resources and emissions. We must learn to do farming better with less.
Frugal innovation is a disruptive strategy that aims to do better with less, that is to create simple but effective solutions that deliver more economic and social value while using fewer resources and polluting less. By adopting a frugal mindset, food scientists, technologists, and entrepreneurs can develop affordable and sustainable solutions to make global agrifood value chains more productive and climate friendly.
This research delves into the underlying impacts of farmers' innovative entrepreneurship on agricultural and rural economic development in China, adopting a dynamic and spatio-temporal perspective. The study utilizes panel data encompassing 30 provinces (cities and autonomous regions) from 2015 to 2020, with a systematic consideration of diversified spatial weight matrices. The empirical findings reveal that the spatial distribution of rural innovative entrepreneurship demonstrates a characterisitic of low-low agglomeration, accompanied by evident positive spatial spillover effects and radiation-driving effects, especially in regions with similar urbanization levels. Additionally, the study identifies heterogeneous effects across regions with different grain production patterns and household income levels. Ultimately, the research underscores the significance of deeply integrating farmers' innovation and entrepreneurship and provides empirical evidence to support the necessity of adopting differentiated and specialized incentive measures for rural entrepreneurship amid the context of the new economic normal.
Africa–Europe Cooperation and Digital Transformation explores the opportunities and challenges for cooperation between Africa and Europe in the digital sphere.
Digitalisation and digital technologies are not only essential for building competitive and dynamic economies; they transform societies, pose immense challenges for policymakers, and increasingly play a pivotal role in global power relations. Digital transformations have had catalytic effects on African and European governance, economies, and societies, and will continue to do so. The COVID-19 pandemic has already accelerated the penetration of digital tools all over the globe and is likely to be perceived as a critical juncture in how and to what purpose the world accepts and uses new and emerging technologies. This book offers a holistic analysis of how Africa and Europe can manage and harness digital transformation as partners in a globalised world. The authors shed light on issues ranging from economic growth, youth employment, and gender, to regulatory frameworks, business environments, entrepreneurship, and interest-driven power politics. They add much-needed perspectives to the debates that shape the two continents’ digital transformation and innovation environments.
This book will interest practitioners working in the areas of innovation, digital technologies, and digital entrepreneurship, as well as students and scholars of international relations. It will also be relevant for policymakers, regulators, decision-makers, and leaders in Africa and Europe.
Accurate and timely crop mapping is crucial for environment assessment, food security and agricultural production. However, for the areas with high landscape heterogeneity and frequent cloudy and rainy weather, the insufficient high-quality satellite images limit the accuracy of crop classification. The recently launched Chinese GF-6 wide field-of-view camera (WFV) with a revisit cycle of 4-day and spatial resolution of 16-meter shows great potential for agricultural monitoring. In this study, Qianjiang City characterized by complex agricultural landscapes was selected as the research area to assess the potential of GF-6 data in identifying crop types. Firstly, the pairwise and global separability were calculated to analyze the effect of different spectral-temporal features of GF-6 images on crop classification. A total of 255 spectral-temporal features derived from 15 GF-6 tiles were then used to perform random forest classification. Furthermore, the classification results were evaluated based on 671 field samples and then compared the accuracy between GF-6 data and Sentinel-2 or Landsat-8 data. In addition, the earliest identifiable time of crop types was also determined by iteratively using all available GF-6 data during each time period. The results suggested that the overall accuracy (OA) of all available GF-6 images was 91.55%, which was significantly higher than that of Landsat-8 data (OA = 85.97%) and was slightly lower than that of Sentinel-2 data (OA = 93.10%). The newly added red-edge bands (0.69 ∼ 0.73 μm, 0.73 ∼ 0.77 μm) and their derivative vegetation indices were important spectral features, and the period from mid-March to early-April was the best temporal window for crop identification in our research area. Moreover, late July was the earliest crop identifiable time with overall accuracy of 90% for the first time of the year. These results indicated the great potential of GF-6 images for classifying crop types in the areas with complex cropping system and fragmented agricultural landscapes, particularly when integrating other satellite data with comparable spatial resolution (e.g. Chinese GF-1 data and Sentinel-2 data).
The digital transformation in agriculture introduces new challenges in terms of data, knowledge and technology adoption due to critical interoperability issues, and also challenges regarding the identification of the most suitable data sources to be exploited and the information models that must be used. DEMETER (Building an Interoperable, Data-Driven, Innovative and Sustainable European Agri-Food Sector) addresses these challenges by providing an overarching solution that integrates various heterogeneous hardware and software resources (e.g., devices, networks, platforms) and enables the seamless sharing of data and knowledge throughout the agri-food chain. This paper introduces the main concepts of DEMETER and its reference architecture to address the data sharing and interoperability needs of farmers, which is validated via two rounds of 20 large-scale pilots along the DEMETER lifecycle. This paper elaborates on the two pilots carried out in region of Murcia in Spain, which target the arable crops sector and demonstrate the benefits of the deployed DEMETER reference architecture.
The spatial and temporal variability of soil properties (fluid composition, structure, and water content) and hydrogeological properties employed for sustainable precision agriculture can be obtained from geoelectrical resistivity methods. For sustainable precision agricultural practices, site-specific information is paramount, especially during the planting season. An integrated one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) electrical resistivity survey have been adopted to characterize the subsoil parameters and delineate the aquifer unit of large farm areas, especially in precision agricultural practices. Also, contamination assessment reveals the soil quality status of farmlands. This study aims to determine the site-specific soil parameters of a commercial farm in Omu-Aran, Northcentral, Nigeria. The subsoil features from the geoelectrical resistivity surveys indicate 3 to 4 distinctive lithology to a depth of 43.4 m into the subsurface of the farm. The ID (Vertical Electrical Sounding) and 2D resistivity inversion models results have revealed the heterogeneity nature of the topsoil, also known as the stone zone comprising of reworked clayey soil and sandy gravelly soil, the weathered/saprolite zone (gravelly sandy/sandy soil), the fractured basement and the fresh basement rock. Contamination factor (Cf), pollution load index (PLI) and Nemerow integrated pollution index (NIPI) were used to assess the contamination index on the farmland. Toxic elements such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lead, manganese, nickel, and zinc have low to moderate contamination in the farm. The depth of investigation (≤3m) covers the upper root zone of significant crops grown in the area. The findings can assess soil contamination, delineate basement features, subsoil variability, soil profiling, and determine the subsoil hydrological properties.
Food insecurity remains a major challenge to rural households in Eastern Ethiopia. To improve food and nutrition security of vulnerable households in eastern Ethiopia, several agricultural technologies have been scaled-up by Haramaya University for more than six decades. However, the impact of these technologies on household nutritional outcomes was not systematically studied. This study examined the impact of selected agricultural technologies on household food and nutrition security. Cross-sectional data were generated from 248 randomly selected rural households. Of these, 52% were non-users of improved agricultural technologies disseminated by the university while the remaining 48% sample respondents were users. The data generated from the field were analyzed using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) procedure and descriptive statistics. Results from the econometric analysis result show that households that adopted agricultural technologies had, on average, 8.97 higher Food Consumption Score (FCS) and 1.22 higher Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) compared to those not using improved technologies. This shows that households adopting agricultural technologies are more likely to have higher food security compared to non-users. This suggests that promotion of improved agricultural technologies in the study area can enhance household food and nutrition security.
China is characterized as ‘a large country with many smallholder farmers’ whose participation in modern agriculture is key to the country’s modern agriculture development. Promoting smallholder farmers’ adoption of modern agricultural production technology is one effective way to improve the capabilities of smallholder farmers. This paper aims to explore the impact of Internet use on the adoption of agricultural production technology by smallholder farmers based on a survey of 1 449 smallholders across 14 provinces in China. The results suggest that Internet use can significantly promote technology adoption, with the probability of adopting new crop varieties, water-saving irrigation technology and straw-returning technology increasing by 0.200, 0.157 and 0.155, respectively. Furthermore, the effect of Internet use is found to be heterogeneous with a greater effect on smallholder farmers having low education levels, limited training, and high incomes. To increase agricultural production technology adoption by smallholders, rural Internet infrastructure and Internet use promotion should be the focus for the Chinese government.
The potential beneficial and harmful social impacts generated by the introduction of novel technologies, in general, and those concerning nutrient recovery and the improvement of nutrient efficiency in agriculture, in particular, have received little attention, as shown in the literature. This study investigated the current social impacts of agricultural practices in Belgium, Germany and Spain, and the potential social impacts of novel technologies introduced in agriculture to reduce nutrient losses. Based on 65 indicators used in the PSILCA database, the greatest impacts in the baselines are related to fair salaries, biomass consumption, industrial water depletion and public sector corruption. The potential social impacts of the technologies were assessed using 17 midpoint indicators that have a potential to affect social endpoints. The potential benefits of novel agricultural technologies were the creation of more attractive jobs in agriculture, and a better and healthier environment for local communities, workers and society. However, their harmful effects mainly related to workers and local community health, due to the substances used in the technologies and the potential gases emitted. Given the current lack of Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) studies on novel technologies in agriculture, this study is the first to use the PSILCA database to assess different technologies for nutrient recovery in agriculture in an initial and prospective assessment of their potential social impacts. Further work is required for a site-specific assessment of the technologies when a higher level of social adaptation is achieved.
Climate smart agriculture (CSA) technologies are innovations meant to reduce the risks in agricultural production among smallholder farmers. Among the factors that influence farmer adoption of agricultural technologies are farmers' risk attitudes and household livelihood diversification. This study, focused on determining how farmers' risk attitudes and household livelihood diversification influenced the adoption of CSA technologies in the Nyando basin. The study utilized primary data from 122 households from two administrative regions of Kisumu and Kericho counties in Kenya. The study employed the multivariate probit (MVP) and ordered probit (OP) models and descriptive statistics in data analysis using Stata 14.0. Results from the study indicated that farmers’ risk attitudes had a significant negative influence in the adoption of terraces, ridges and bunds as well as the intensity of adoption of given CSA technologies. Household livelihood diversification had a significant negative influence in the adoption of stress tolerant livestock but did not have a significant effect on the intensity of adoption of given CSA technologies. The study recommends that relevant stakeholders should introduce an appropriate agricultural index insurance product to Nyando basin farmers to encourage the broader adoption of CSA technologies.
There are growing expectations that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications could help improve on-farm yields amongst smallholder farmers in developing countries, and consequently, food and nutrition security. However, few studies have quantified the actual contribution of ICT applications on farmers’ yields, and these studies predominantly focused on crop production. We assessed the potential of ICT applications to close milk yield gaps among small- and medium scale dairy cattle farmers in Africa. First, we developed a theoretical framework summarizing biophysical and socio-economic constraints that foster milk yield gaps and discussed which constraints can be addressed using ICT applications. Second, using a case study of a feeding advice application for dairy cattle pre-tested with farmers in rural Kenya, we analyzed how much stand-alone the application could contribute to close dairy cattle milk yield gaps. Our findings suggest that ICT applications could help address some existing biophysical and socio-economic constraints fostering milk yield gaps, including data collection for breeding programs, feeding management advice, and facilitating access to markets and capital. Our stand-alone ICT application closed yield gaps by 2 % to 6 % on representative farms. Several factors may explain the limited actual contribution of selected ICT applications to reduce existing milk yield gaps, including the quality of the input data and models used in ICT applications, and more structural constraints that cannot be addressed by digital tools. Therefore, although ICT applications could help address constraints to achieving higher milk yields on dairy farms, a significant contribution to improve yields may only be achieved when conditions surrounding their use are adequate.
Despite significant work to enhance women’s empowerment in agriculture, women remain marginalized across the globe. This includes gender gaps in agricultural extension and advisory service implementation that can lead to inequitable resource and knowledge access by farmers, specifically women. However, gender does not exist in isolation, it is place and time specific. This study investigated the impact of gender and geography on smallholder farmer access to and agency over resources/knowledge. The overarching question we explored was the role that extension providers might play in building farmer adaptive capacity and gender equity. To do so, a mixed-methods approach was used to develop a new multidimensional index from participant responses to 352 surveys and 44 focus groups. The index has four domains that represent farmer’s access to resources, leadership opportunities, household power, and time allocation; it is called the Local Agricultural Potential Index or L-API. The index was applied to a case study setting in rural Liberia due to its designation as a USAID-Feed the future country, and national investment in gender equality and poverty alleviation through agricultural development. Statistical and spatial analysis results indicate that women in Liberia, on average, have lower access to information and communication technology, leadership opportunities, and credit; as well, when compared to their male counter parts, less agency to make decisions at home and in the community. Further, a surprising spatial finding was that rurality did not have a diminishing impact on access. We concluded that the L-API is one example of a process and the resulting tool, informed by locally relevant indicators, to help improve farmer access to and agency over extension services. The L-API is meant to provide a baseline tool to be tailored in different locations based on local needs and can be used as a measure for adaptive capacity.
Cotton, a major crop worldwide, is harvested in mechanized production systems once at the end of the growing season. To facilitate harvest and maximize fiber quality, the plants are typically defoliated when about 60% of the cotton bolls are open. Due to non-uniform maturation, the bolls that have opened early expose their fiber to weather until harvest, commonly for weeks, degrading fiber quality. Furthermore, high capacity harvesting machines are heavy, potentially compacting the soil that in turn reduces hydraulic conductivity in the wheel tracks and reducing yield. Robotic harvesting with smaller machines brings about the possibility of multiple harvests during the growing season while enabling them to pick the seed cotton soon after the boll opens, preserving fiber quality. Smaller machines would also be less likely to substantially compact the soil. Therefore, research has been conducted to enumerate and address multiple challenges associated with the design of a robotic cotton harvester. The particular focus of the research reported herein was on the design of a robotic end-effector for picking seed cotton from the open boll of a non-defoliated cotton plant. Various design concepts were considered, and some were built as prototypes and experimentally assessed. The design was selected as optimal was: a three-finger, moving pinned belt, underactuated end-effector. A refined prototype of the end-effector was indoor tested on a robotic platform with a computer-controlled three-degree-of-freedom manipulator. The end-effector could pick 66-85% of the seed cotton from a boll with a picking time of 4 s for a simple and less efficient system to 18 s for a controlled-movement and more efficient system. Further implications of this study will include adding a depth sensor on the robot to detect and localize cotton bolls and manipulate arm autonomously.
Economic pressures continue to mount on modern-day livestock farmers, forcing them to increase herds sizes in order to be commercially viable. The natural consequence of this is to drive the farmer and the animal further apart. However, closer attention to the animal not only positively impacts animal welfare and health but can also increase the capacity of the farmer to achieve a more sustainable production. State-of-the-art precision livestock farming (PLF) technology is one such means of bringing the animals closer to the farmer in the facing of expanding systems. Contrary to some current opinions, it can offer an alternative philosophy to ‘farming by numbers’. This review addresses the key technology-oriented approaches to monitor animals and demonstrates how image and sound analyses can be used to build ‘digital representations’ of animals by giving an overview of some of the core concepts of PLF tool development and value discovery during PLF implementation. The key to developing such a representation is by measuring important behaviours and events in the livestock buildings. The application of image and sound can realise more advanced applications and has enormous potential in the industry. In the end, the importance lies in the accuracy of the developed PLF applications in the commercial farming system as this will also make the farmer embrace the technological development and ensure progress within the PLF field in favour of the livestock animals and their well-being.
Digitalisation is an integral part of modern agriculture. Several digital technologies are available for different animal species and form the basis for precision livestock farming. However, there is a lack of clarity as to which digital technologies are currently used in agricultural practice. Thus, this work aims to present for the first time the status quo in Swiss livestock farming as an example of a highly developed, small-scale and diverse structured agriculture. In this context, the article focuses on the adoption of electronic sensors and measuring devices, electronic controls and electronic data-processing options and the usage of robotics in ruminant farming, namely, for dairy cattle, dairy goats, suckler cows, beef cattle and meat-sheep. Furthermore, the use of electronic ear tags for pigs and the smartphone usage for barn monitoring on poultry farms was assessed. To better understand the adoption process, farm and farmer’s characteristics associated with the adoption of (1) implemented and (2) new digital technologies in ruminant farming were assessed using regression analyses, which is classified at a 10% adoption hurdle. The results showed clear differences in the adoption rates between different agricultural enterprises, with both types of digital technologies tending to be used the most in dairy farming. Easy-to-use sensors and measuring devices such as those integrated in the milking parlour were more widespread than data processing technologies such as those used for disease detection. The husbandry system further determined the use of digital technologies, with the result that farmers with tie stall barns were less likely to use digital technologies than farmers with loose housing systems. Additional studies of farmers’ determinants and prospects of implementation can help identify barriers in the adoption of digital technologies.
CONTEXT: Adoption and diffusion of digital farming technologies are expected to help transform current agricultural systems towards sustainability. To enable and steer transformation we need to understand the mechanisms of adoption and diffusion holistically. Our current understanding is mainly informed by empirical farm-level adoption studies and by agent-based models simulating systemic diffusion mechanisms. These two approaches are weakly integrated.
OBJECTIVE: Our objective is to build an empirically grounded conceptual framework for adoption and diffusion of digital farming technologies by synthesizing literature on these alternative approaches.
METHODS: We review 32 empirical farm-level studies on the adoption of precision and digital farming technologies and 27 agent-based models on the diffusion of agricultural innovations. Empirical findings are synthesized in terms of significance and partially standardized coefficients, and diffusion studies are categorized by their approaches and theoretical frameworks.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: We show that farm-level studies focus on farm and operator characteristics but pay less attention to attributes of technology, interactions, institutional and psychological factors. Agent-based models, despite their usefulness for representing system interaction, only loosely connect with empirical farm-level findings. Based on the identified gaps, we develop a conceptual framework integrating farm-level evidence on adoption with a systemic perspective on technology diffusion.
The prevalence of “grass-fed” labeled food products on the market has increased in recent years, often commanding a premium price. To date, the majority of methods used for the authentication of grass-fed source products are driven by auditing and inspection of farm records. As such, the ability to verify grass-fed source claims to ensure consumer confidence will be important in the future. Mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy is widely used in the dairy industry as a rapid method for the routine monitoring of individual herd milk composition and quality. Further harnessing the data from individual spectra offers a promising and readily implementable strategy to authenticate the milk source at both farm and processor levels. Herein, a comprehensive comparison of the robustness, specificity, and accuracy of 11 machine-learning statistical analysis methods were tested for the discrimination of grass-fed versus non-grass-fed milks based on the MIR spectra of 4,320 milk samples collected from cows on pasture or indoor total mixed ration–based feeding systems over a 3-yr period. Linear discriminant analysis and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were demonstrated to offer the greatest level of accuracy for the prediction of cow diet from MIR spectra. Parsimonious strategies for the selection of the most discriminating wavelengths within the spectra are also highlighted.
Decision support systems (DSS) have long been used in research, service provision and extension. Despite the diversity of technological applications in which past agricultural DSS canvass, there has been relatively little information on either the functional aspects of DSS designed for economic decisions in irrigated cropping, or the human and social factors influencing the adoption of knowledge from such DSS. The objectives of the study were to (1) review the functionality and target end-users of economic DSS for irrigated cropping systems, (2) document the extent to which these DSS account for and visualise uncertainty in DSS outputs, (3) examine tactical or strategic decisions able to be explored in DSS (with irrigation infrastructure being a key strategic decision), and (4) explore the human and social factors influencing adoption of DSS heuristics. This study showed that development of previous DSS has often occurred as a result of a technology push instead of end-user pull, which has meant that previous DSS have been generated in a top-down fashion rather than being demand-driven by end-user needs. We found that few DSS enable analysis of both tactical and strategic decisions, and that few DSS account for uncertainty in their outputs. We uncover a surprising lack of documented end-user feedback on economic DSS for irrigated cropping, such as end-user satisfaction with DSS functionality or future intentions to use the technology, as well as a lack of DSS application outside regions in which they were originally developed. Declining adoption of DSS does not necessarily imply declining adoption of DSS heuristics; in fact, declining DSS uptake may indicate that knowledge and heuristics extended by the DSS has been successful, obviating the need for use of the DSS per se. Future DSS could be improved through the use of demand-driven participatory approaches more aligned with user needs, with more training to build human capacity including understanding uncertainty and ability to contrast tactical and strategic decisions using multiple economic, environmental and social metrics.
Undoubtedly, high demands for food from the world-wide growing population are impacting the environment and putting many pressures on agricultural productivity. Agriculture 4.0, as the fourth evolution in the farming technology, puts forward four essential requirements: increasing productivity, allocating resources reasonably, adapting to climate change, and avoiding food waste. As advanced information systems and Internet technologies are adopted in Agriculture 4.0, enormous farming data, such as meteorological information, soil conditions, marketing demands, and land uses, can be collected, analyzed, and processed for assisting farmers in making appropriate decisions and obtaining higher profits. Therefore, agricultural decision support systems for Agriculture 4.0 has become a very attractive topic for the research community. The objective of this paper aims at exploring the upcoming challenges of employing agricultural decision support systems in Agriculture 4.0. Future researchers may improve the decision support systems by overcoming these detected challenges. In this paper, the systematic literature review technique is used to survey thirteen representative decision support systems, including their applications for agricultural mission planning, water resources management, climate change adaptation, and food waste control. Each decision support system is analyzed under a systematic manner. A comprehensive evaluation is conducted from the aspects of interoperability, scalability, accessibility, usability, etc. Based on the evaluation result, upcoming challenges are detected and summarized, suggesting the development trends and demonstrating potential improvements for future research.
Based on GIS technologies, a decision support system (GIDSS) has been developed to remediate agricultural lands in the Bryansk region (Russia) contaminated by 137Cs after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. GIDSS is a multilevel system consisting of basic, information and computational layers. GIDSS allows justifying a targeted approach for the remediation of agricultural lands belonging to agricultural enterprises for the production that meets the established radiological requirements for the content of radionuclides. Evaluation of the effectiveness of alternative remediation technologies and the selection of optimal measures were carried out at the level of elementary plots using radiological criteria. The introduction of GIDSS will enable agricultural producers in the south-western districts of the Bryansk region to conduct radiation-safe agro-industrial production in radioactively contaminated areas, which will help improve the socio-economic situation of the region and return it to normal living conditions.
The problems of agricultural development for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are considered. The features of modeling business processes in agriculture are analyzed. A financial decision support system is proposed to increase sustainability and reduce risks in the development of agricultural SMEs. The software modules are based on TEO-INVEST. The developed financial decision support system takes into account the specifics of business processes in agriculture: duration of the production cycle exceeding the planning period, accounting for complex processing technology, the use of financial leasing for the purchase of agricultural machinery, etc.
Improvements in the sustainability of agricultural production depend essentially on advances in the efficient use of nitrogen. Precision farming promises solutions in this respect. Variable rate technologies allow the right quantities of fertilizer to be applied at the right place. This helps to both maintain yields and avoid nitrogen losses. However, these technologies are still not widely adopted, especially in small-scale farming systems. Recent developments in sensing technologies, like drones or satellites, open up new opportunities for variable rate technologies. In this paper, we develop a bio-economic modelling framework to assess the usefulness of different sensing approaches in variable rate fertilization to measure environmental heterogeneity at field level, ranging from satellite imagery to drones and handheld N-sensors. We assess the utility of these sensing technologies and quantify the effects on yields, nitrogen input and associated net returns using wheat production in Switzerland as our case study. Our results show that net profits increase when a high-resolution technology is applied to fields which exhibit higher spatial heterogeneity of soil conditions and lower spatial autocorrelation of different soil types. However, even with a high degree of spatial heterogeneity within a field, both the overall utility of variable rate fertilization and the absolute differences in the net returns between the technologies remain low. Our results suggest that the additional cost of using a drone that provides the highest resolution should not exceed 4.5 CHF/ha compared to the use of a standard N-sensor or satellite imagery. Thus, the adoption of variable rate technologies depends essentially on the additional economic and environmental effects they generate. Therefore, it might be necessary to implement specific policy measures, such as taxes on nitrogen in combination with subsidies. Moreover, specific technology providers, such as contractors, may play a vital role in technology uptake since the economic benefits might only play out at larger spatial levels.
In creating a usable Information System (IS), the quality of information is crucial for making the right decisions. Although, many Information Quality (IQ) features have been identified in a broader context, only certain IQ features would become applicable for each domain from the usability perspective. This study focuses on a theoretical analysis to identify the IQ features which would be significant to produce a usable agricultural information system with respect to the developing countries. Accuracy, Credibility, Context-specific, Completeness and Timeliness are identified as the essential features of the IQ for IS in agriculture which was substantiated through the preliminary analysis of user reviews on the agriculture mobile applications.
Agricultural transformation is one of the important factors of rural planning and sustainable land management. There are natural and man-made reasons of this transformation, which brings both positive and negative impacts on the physical environment, food security, and human livelihoods. This study aims to explore a case of land use conversion from traditional agricultural land to the man-made wetland for fisheries in Rajshahi, Bangladesh. The conversion might be a result of purposeful land use and land cover changes to continue agricultural production for the market demands. A hybrid model of logistic regression and water index has been used to investigate the dynamics of LULC (Land Use Land Cover) changes. Moderate-resolution multi-temporal Landsat imageries of 2000, 2010, and 2020 have been used for visual interpretation and quantitative analysis. During the study period of 20 years, wetlands for entrepreneurial pond culture were remarkably increased, while agricultural land and vegetation experienced a decreasing trend. It is predicted that wetlands are going to be further increased by diminishing agricultural land and vegetation until 2030. Despite the fact of suitable data unavailability, this study also shows that the remote sensing approach provides a powerful tool for analysing and monitoring spatiotemporal agricultural transformation. Moreover, the empirical findings of land use modelling might be useful for agricultural planning and decision-making in rural Bangladesh.
Agricultural expansion areas in the Egyptian deserts are one of the main governmental inputs that increased during the last decade. Evaluation of such agricultural lands helps decision makers in strategic planning of future projects. The present review paper highlights recent research studies conducted to evaluate some of the newly agricultural expansion areas in the Egyptian deserts using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) integrated with Remote Sensing technologies considering the main evaluation criteria and constraints. Moreover, various examples of agricultural expansion areas in the Western Desert are highlighted. Field observations, sampling, laboratory analyses, remote sensing and GIS are the most common tools used in the presented case studies. This review article supports the future governmental plans for protecting the wealth of cultivated lands and limits the illegal infringements on these lands that will accordingly protect other lands, planned to be used for urban expansion.
This paper examines the impact of mobile phones on farmers’ marketing decisions and prices they receive based on household- and village-level information collected from rural Ethiopia. It explains the reason for the weak impact of mobile phones observed in this study as well as in previous studies in Africa. We argue that even though many farmers participate in information searching, the number of farmers who use mobile phones for information searching is very small. The reason for such low use of mobile phones for information searching seems to be lack of relevant information that can be accessed through mobile phones.
The evolution of mobile phone applications has opened up a platform for easy and real time dissemination and exchange of agricultural information among agricultural extension officers, farmers, agricultural institutions and non-governmental institutions. This study examined attitude, knowledge and constraint associated with the use of mobile phone apps by farmers in North West region of Nigeria. A descriptive survey design was adopted; data collection tool was pre-tested and administered as interview schedule to randomly sampled farmers. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation. The findings showed that farmers have positive attitude towards mobile phone applications, and knowledgeable of simple phone operation techniques. The constraints to the use of mobile phone applications are high cost of phones, poor network, poor power supply, high cost of airtime and complexity in operating phones. This study recommends training and re-retraining of farmers and extension agents on the use of mobile phone apps for effective information sharing among farmers in the region.
Plants are susceptive to various diseases in their growing phases. Early detection of diseases in plants is one of themost challenging problems in agriculture. If the diseases are not identified in the early stages, then they may ad-versely affect the total yield, resulting in a decrease in the farmers' profits. To overcome this problem, many re-searchers have presented different state-of-the-art systems based on Deep Learning and Machine Learningapproaches. However, most of these systems either use millions of training parameters or have low classificationaccuracies. This paper proposes a novel hybrid model based on Convolutional Autoencoder (CAE) network andConvolutional Neural Network (CNN) for automatic plant disease detection. To the best of our knowledge, a hy-brid system based on CAE and CNN to detect plant diseases automatically has not been proposed in any state-of-the-art systems present in the literature. In this work, the proposed hybrid model is applied to detect BacterialSpot disease present in peach plants using their leaf images, however, it can be used for any plant disease detec-tion. The experiments performed in this paper use a publicly available dataset named PlantVillage to get the leafimages of peach plants. The proposed system achieves 99.35% training accuracy and 98.38% testing accuracyusing only 9,914 training parameters. The proposed hybrid model requires lesser number of training parametersas compared to other approaches existing in the literature. This, in turn, significantly decreases the time requiredto train the model for automatic plant disease detection and the time required to identify the disease in plantsusing the trained model.
Individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds are increasingly engaging in research and development in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The main activities, although still nascent, are coalescing around three core activities: innovation, policy, and capacity building. Within agriculture, which is the focus of this paper, AI is working with converging technologies, particularly data optimization, to add value along the entire agricultural value chain, including procurement, farm automation, and market access. Our key takeaway is that, despite the promising opportunities for development, there are actual and potential challenges that African countries need to consider in deciding whether to scale up or down the application of AI in agriculture. Input from African innovators, policymakers, and academics is essential to ensure that AI solutions are aligned with African needs and priorities. This paper proposes questions that can be used to form a road map to inform research and development in this area.
Ensuring food security in developing countries is highly challenging due to low productivity of the agriculture sector, degradation of natural resources, high post farming losses, less or no value addition, and high population growth. Researchers are striving to adopt newer technologies to enhance supply to narrow the food demand gap. Nanotechnology is one of the promising technologies that could improve agricultural productivity via nano fertilizers, use of efficient herbicides and pesticides, soil feature regulation, wastewater management, and pathogen detection. It is equally beneficial for industrial food processing with enhanced food production with excellent market value, elevated nutritional and sensing property, improved safety, and better antimicrobial protection. Nanotechnology can also reduce post-farming losses by increasing the shelf life with the aid of nanoparticles. However, further investigation is required to solve the safety and health risks associated with the technology.
Two major agricultural transformations are currently being promoted worldwide: digitalisation and ecologisation, that include different practices such as organic farming and sustainable intensification. In literature and in societal debates, these two transformations are sometimes described as antagonistic and sometimes as convergent but are rarely studied together. Using an innovation system approach, this paper discusses how diverse ecologisation pathways grasp digitalisation in the French agricultural sector; and do not discriminate against organic farming. Based on interviews with key representatives of conventional agriculture, organic agriculture and organisations that promote or develop digital agriculture, we explore how these actors perceive and participate in digital development in agriculture. We show that although all the actors are interested and involved in digital development, behind this apparent convergence, organic and conventional actors perceive neither the same benefits nor the same risks and consequently do not implement the same innovation processes. We conclude that digitalisation has different meanings depending on the actors’ paradigm, but that digital actors fail to perceive these differences. This difference in perception should be taken into account if digital development is to benefit all kinds of agriculture and not discriminate against organic farming and more widely, against agroecology.
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. This paper contributes to this debate by exploring the question of how value chain interactions are organized for producing, transferring and using knowledge in the Rwandan agricultural sector. Interviews with relevant value chain actors and a review of reports and scientific literature were used to explore this question. Empirical findings show that value chain structural organization can be an entry point to mainstream technology and innovation. However, this requires building synergies and complementarities among actors. Interactive learning among value chain actors is imperative, with the use of both scientific and indigenous knowledge. Linking value chains to innovation systems is one option to explore for maximizing the potential of value chains in integrating technology and innovation in the agricultural sector.
The building of sustainable innovation capabilities in Africa requires an innovation system capable of producing, disseminating and using new knowledge. This paper assesses the process of constructing the National Innovation System (NIS) in Rwanda. It is posited that consensus on and acceptance of the concept of NIS among stakeholders is crucial in the early process of constructing an efficient and dynamic innovation system. Primary empirical data are presented for the case of Rwanda and analyzed in a regional context. The study shows that the NIS concept is generally being integrated and utilized in the process of building sustainable innovation capabilities in Rwanda. In particular, Rwanda exhibits promising progress in the process of establishing and reinforcing infrastructures and institutions as well as policies to promote innovation. However, there are still challenges associated with low research capacity, low level of interactions among stakeholders, limited financial resources as well as lack of coordination framework, all of which contribute to hampering the building up of sustainable innovation capabilities.
Evaluation provides effective feedback for development plans and programs. In this respect, it is of utmost importance to ensure that the outputs of agricultural extension and education projects are compatible with the ones expected. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to evaluate agricultural extension model sites approach from actors’ perspectives and to analyze their gaps via the context, input, process, and product (CIPP) evaluation model. The study was quantitative, applied, survey-based, and causal-comparative in terms of nature, purpose, methodology, and type of research, respectively. The samples included 150 main and follower farmers from a total number of 40 model sites and 37 subject-matter experts selected using the random and purposive sampling methods, respectively. The results of the gap analysis indicated that the largest negative gap between the views of the experts and the farmers was associated with the input evaluation stage and the smallest gap was related to the site re-engineering. Accordingly, much more attention should be paid to building and maintaining the trust of farmers during the early stages of planning for and implementation of agricultural extension model sites.
In recent years, the agricultural industry has been experiencing an ever-increasing application of information and communication technologies globally. This new revolution has been touted to impact efficiency and productivity in the agricultural extension services within the agriculture sector. Notwithstanding this, empirical research need to be carried out amongst its users in the sector to ascertain these assertions. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to assess the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) among agricultural extension workers and its implications on extension service delivery. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 153 field extension workers, and a structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. The data obtained were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics software version 22. The study revealed that agricultural extension officers use ICT for personal communication, but not mainly for extension activities. It was recommended that the agricultural extension services provide intensive ICT training for the agricultural extension workers to enhance ICT incorporation into extension advisory service.
The importance of extension services in helping smallholder farmers to address the many challenges of agricultural production cannot be over-emphasized. However, relatively few studies have been conducted that investigate how the capacities of agricultural extension agents can be built to more effectively assist smallholder farmers in managing climate risks and impacts. As climate change is a key threat to smallholder food production, addressing this issue is increasingly important. This paper aims to identify how agricultural extension agents in Ghana can better support smallholder farmers in navigating and addressing the effects of climate change on food production.
The privatization of agricultural advisory and extension services in many countries and the associated pluralism of service providers has renewed interest in farmers’ use of fee-for-service advisors. Understanding farmers’ use of advisory services is important, given the role such services are expected to play in helping farmers address critical environmental and sustainability challenges. This paper aims to identify factors associated with farmers’ use of fee-for service advisors and bring fresh conceptualization to this topic. Drawing on concepts from service ecosystems in agricultural innovation and using the theory of planned behavior to define a plausible directed acyclic graph, we conducted a cross-sectional study of 1003 Australian farmers and their use of fee-for service advisors, analyzing data using generalized ordinal logistic regression models. We defined three categories: farmers who used fee-for-service advisors as their main source of advice (‘main source'), farmers who used them but did not consider them their main source of advice (‘non-main source’), and farmers who did not use them (‘non-user’). The factors most strongly associated with use of fee-for-service advisors (both as 'main source' and 'non-main source') were: the farm being in a growth/expanding business stage; behavioral beliefs that paying for advice provides control and helps identify new opportunities in farming; endorsement of paying for advice from others in the farm business and farmer peers; attitudes relating to the benefit and value for money from advice; and perceived behavioral control related to confidence in accessing advice. These findings can inform strategies to enable use of fee-for-service advisors. For example, they highlight the need to increase the social acceptance of paying for advice and to assist advisors to better articulate the value of their services in terms that farmers view as important. Currently, mechanisms for professionalizing and certifying advisory services are a focus for policy makers in enabling farmers’ use of advisors. Our findings indicate that these mechanisms on their own would not necessarily lead to greater use of fee-for-service advice, because use is also based on several social and attitudinal factors in addition to perception of quality. Greater emphasis on the social and attitudinal factors found in this study is required when developing strategies to enable the use of fee-for-service advisors.
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. Demonstrations led by public and privately funded advisory services appear to attract primarily male farmers, thus reinforcing gendered patterns of participation in European agriculture. The location of advisory services and research institutes in high profitability locales disproportionately privileges farmers located there. More targeted efforts are required to ensure the participation of farmers who are female, older and located in less productive regions. The paper draws attention to the lack of inclusivity of on-farm demonstration, developing a conceptual framework based on Lukes’ three faces of power.
Increasing attention is being given to evaluating the impact of advisory services in terms of their effectiveness in providing farmers with knowledge and networks for innovation as well as understanding the factors that influence this effectiveness (Prager et al, 2017). The demand and uptake of advisory services is one factor and Klerkx et al (2017) comment on the variation in farmers’ demand and the influences of variables such as farm size, asset status and education as well as stability or turbulence in the regulatory environment. Some research has started to look at the quality of the service provided by advisors and debates in the literature have paid some attention to the new skills and profiles to be developed by agricultural advisors (Faure et al, 2012) including the importance of credibility and relational trust in the advisor - farmer relationship (Sutherland et al, 2013). Despite general agreement on the importance of social expertise, there are still wide differences in the conceptual understanding of the advisory relationship and how trust and confidence work to provide opportunities for information acquisition and knowledge exchange. Ingram (2008) has shown that farmers can be proactive or reactive in their relationship with advisors and how this relationship may be steered by either party or be more equal. The relationship between advisors and the farmers with whom they work is often one of the most influential in the transfer of knowledge and learning (Kuehne et al., 2015) yet it remains something of an enigma, often more art than science. Despite the diversity in public and private advisory service providers, there is increasing attention being given to the professional formation and continuing professional development of extension professionals (Gorman, 2018). The ProAKIS project called for the introduction and development of certification and accreditation schemes with could establish or strengthen the profession of agricultural advisor with curricula that include methodological emphasis as well as technical know-how. CECRA (European Certificate for Consultants in Rural Areas) is an example of an accreditation scheme for advisors that is focusing on such communication and methodological competencies.
According to the literature on regime transition, niches are sources of innovation that may lead to the transformation of the dominant regime, if processes at other level of the system – the landscape and the mainstream regime - are supportive. A focus on actors involved in the transition process and the analysis of their specific role in knowledge networks can help assessing the robustness of a specific niche and its growth potential. Knowledge systems, and in particular the dynamics of local and expert knowledge, have in fact a key role in innovation models. Different trajectories characterize the transition process, leading to different results: from co-optation and gain in efficiency of the mainstream regime to its radical transformation. Our assumption is that leading actors in the farms' knowledge networks will influence a specific transition trajectory,
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. We build a detailed understanding of the key dimensions and dynamics involved and the wider lessons that might be learned regarding complex scaling processes in the context of agricultural innovation systems. Original interview data and document analysis inform the case study. A specific analytical approach was used to structure the broad-based exploration of the qualitative dataset
Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) approach, arise as tool for better understanding dynamics and complexity of agricultural innovation. The objective of this article is present a framework for AIS capability development, taking as a scientific reference, emerging economy countries experiences. A multi-dimensional methodology of literature review and content analysis is implemented, supported in bibliometric and data mining techniques. The development of capacities in the context of agricultural innovation systems is mediated by the existence of links between actors, which enable social learning processes through networking. AIS, as an approach for the improvement of innovation capacities, emerge in developed countries, with consolidated institutional capacities and constitute an opportunity for the strengthening of the agricultural sector in countries with emerging economies. The analysis of networks, the non-linear perspective of the innovation process and the initiation of research, training, policy and intermediation are the main common themes between AIS and capability building
This paper collects and examines the experiences of the leaders of the U.S. North Central Region’s entire set of farm link services, including both active and closed programs. The research question explored is, what do farm link program leaders view as best practices in serving the needs of farm seekers and farm owners who do not have a family successor, and what do their recommendations suggest for investment and policy going forward?
The present study was designed with the following objectives: i) to evaluate selected stress-tolerant maize hybrids developed by CIMMYT in eastern Africa under farmers’ conditions; ii) to identify farmers’ selection criteria in evaluating and selecting maize hybrids; iii) to let farmers evaluate the varieties and score them for the identified criteria and overall. In a novel approach, we also compared the importance of the different criteria, as stated by farmers, with the importance as revealed by regressing the overall evaluation score on the scores for the individual criteria, interpreting the coefficients as a weight or level of importance
Traditional approaches addressing hunger, typically based on agricultural development, are deemed insufficient alone to address the problem and attention is now being directed to food value chains, although experience is currently limited. To assess the state of science and identify knowledge gaps, an integrative review of the broad topic of value chains and diet quality was undertaken, with particular focus on interventions and their related impact pathways. Interventions were classified according to their primary orientation: to increase the availability, accessibility, or desirability of nutritious food. This paper identified 24 separate interventions associated with 10 different impact pathways, demonstrating the numerous entry points and large potential for value chain interventions to influence diet quality. However, case study evidence regarding effectiveness remains scant. Most studies addressed individual nutrient-rich commodities that could address a nutritional deficiency in the community of interest. Rarely was overall diet quality assessed, and future studies could benefit from taking a wider perspective of dietary patterns and food substitutions. The value chain analytical approach was deemed valuable due to its consumer orientation that seeks to understand how food products are used and what motivates their choice. The systems perspective is also important as it considers the roles of actors involved in food production, distribution, marketing, and regulation
This paper investigates the effect of Plant Variety Protection (PVP) regulation on the governance of agri-food value chains (AFVC) with a small-scale survey of kiwi producers in Italy. We found that AFVC trading-protected (club) plant varieties are more likely to exhibit captive governance forms than those trading the free varieties. Nevertheless, the producers of club kiwis achieve higher returns from their investments and bear less risk than others. Because of the high demand for the club fruits, the breeders must give farmers highly profitable contract terms in order to elicit the production and to promote the adoption of the new cultivar. As a consequence, farmers are capturing a share of the value of innovation, even if the breeders have a strong protection. The long-run sustainability of this win-win agreement between breeders and farmers might be jeopardized should the demand for the new varieties fall
Sustainability is becoming a pivotal guide for driving the governance strategies of value chains. Sustainable policy should have as its objective the perpetuation of production models over time to maintain its environmental, economic and social dimensions. Therefore, measuring the sustainability of a production system is fundamental to deepening the understanding of ongoing trends, considering the pressure exerted by agricultural policies, market dynamics and innovations introduced in the production system. The purpose of this paper is to present a holistic framework for assessing the sustainability of food quality schemes (FQS), including the role of both stakeholders within the value chain, and the territorial dimension. This paper discusses the use of dimensional indicators and proposes synthetic indexes to provide an overall picture of the evolution of sustainability of a specific production system. Particularly, the evolution of sustainability in the Parmigiano Reggiano Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) production system is evaluated over the period 2000-2018. It is assumed that its evolution is due to the effect of 20 years of innovations which have impacted on product quality, value chain performance and rural development, modifying the sustainability of the whole production system
The worldwide importance of crop production is undisputed due to its function for basic nutrition of billions of people. Yet, the emergence of global forces implies severe consequences for the organization of crop value chains. These forces particularly include processes of liberalization and deregulation, the dominance of large retail groups as well as ever-changing consumer demands, leading to continuous reconfigurations of crop value chains. Based on a literature review, this paper aims at thematically ‘organizing’ and differentiating the key findings of relevant empirical studies on global crop value chains, with a particular focus on South-North relations. Thereby, current shifts and challenges are identified and analysed with special attention paid to spatio-relational dimensions. The spatial perspective is important since crop value chains both shape and are shaped by specific geographical settings which is, among others, considered in the growing literature on food geographies. Overall, the sudy could extract three strands of literature on global crop value chains: the integration of smallholders; the role of food standards; and the effect of ‘hidden’ dynamics. These issues especially reveal the interdependencies between the Global South and the Global North as a crucial feature of contemporary crop production and distribution systems. These are A further outcome of the literature analysis is the derivation of suggestions regarding future research and areas of needed progress
Innovative approaches are needed to shift towards more sustainable, equitable and healthy agri-food systems. Building on the increasing recognition of the relevance of traditional agroecological knowledge (TAeK) in sustainable food systems, this paper aims to describe innovative agri-food initiatives and explore how the use and valorization of TAeK may transform conventional agri-food systems. It employs a case-study approach in Spain, where we conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 representatives of alternative agri-food initiatives. Was founded that, to promote sustainable agri-food systems, TAeK has to span from farm-to-fork. Innovative agroecological practices and knowledge help to safeguard biocultural diversity, while gastronomic knowledge among consumers on how to process and prepare local varieties and species is crucial for the implementation of shorter value chains. This study discuss how TAeK enhances the success of conventional systems of innovation, challenging dominant epistemological frameworks. By scaling deep (changing values), scaling out (dissemination, reproduction) and scaling up (changing institutions), the agri-food initiatives may act on leverage points to enable broader transformation of the Spanish agri-food system
The citrus industry is very important for Pakistan as it is the 4th most important export commodity. There are two product flows in the citrus value chain, one is more traditional with abundant intermediaries, in which contractors, commission agents and wholesalers are the main stakeholders, and the other is export-oriented with processors and exporters (P&Es) as the main stakeholders. It has been noticed that growers are not using ICT extensively at the production stage. Logit analysis has proved that education significantly has influenced ICT use while age has a negative impact on ICT use at the production stage. Mobile usage is quite common at the production stage and intermediary trade; however, the use of the internet is very limited as the majority of intermediaries have lower education. Moreover, both mobile phones and internet are used to a significant extent along the export oriented flow. The results have indicated that there is a vast digital divide among value chain players. Processors and exporters are high ICT users followed by growers and intermediaries. In order to develop an effective information system, all the stakeholders in the chain need to have a certain level of knowledge and expertise of ICT use to improve information use efficiency. This study presents a whole picture of ICT use along the citrus value chain as well as challenges faced by different stakeholders. It also provides suggestions for policymakers to establish an ICT-based information system and enhance ICT adoption at each stage, especially production and intermediary trade, which can further increase growers’ market participation and improve market efficiency
evelopment projects on interventions to reduce postharvest losses (PHL) are often implemented largely independently of the specific context and without sufficient adaptation to the needs of people who are supposed to use them. An approach is needed for the design and implementation of specific, locally owned interventions in development projects. This approach is based on Participatory Development and includes Living Lab and World Cafés. We applied the approach in a case study on reducing PHL in tomato value chains in Nigeria. The approach consists of nine steps. After scoping the sector, selected value chain stakeholders (case: farmers, transporters, traders, retailers) were gathered in Living Lab workshops. In the workshop, participants analyzed the product, information, and monetary flows in their own value chain, identified causes for PHL, and selected potential interventions to reduce these (case: plastic crates instead of raffia baskets to transport tomatoes). Selected interventions were implemented, tested, and monitored in pilot projects with the workshop participants. This was followed by an evaluation workshop. At the end of the case study, 89% of participants bought crates to keep using them in their value chain
Poverty is prevalent and widespread in rural Tanzania, where agriculture is the main activity. The government is making significant public investments intended to speed the growth of agriculture as a means to accelerate inclusive economic growth. In line with public investments, the government is promoting public–private partnerships by encouraging the use of improved agricultural innovations and linking farmers to markets, seeking to increase their yields and income. However, there is a paucity of empirical evidence using multipliers analysis about the extent of how gains in agricultural productivity and market linkages for farmers in rural areas help improve the economy at the household level. This paper assesses the welfare effects of the sunflower value chain for a rural economy in Tanzania using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for the selected village, which has a high potential for sunflower. Findings highlight the use of the CGE model, first, for analyzing and understanding the economic sectors at a village level. Second, the effects of various upgrading strategies promoted for improving rural farming communities by the government and non-governmental development partners at the micro-scale are analyzed and potential agricultural commodity value chains identified. The multiplier analysis provided insights regarding the potential of sunflower crops for the village economy
The rapid expansion of modern food retail encapsulated in the so-called ‘supermarket revolution’ is often portrayed as a pivotal driving force in the modernization of agri-food systems in the Global South. Based on fieldwork conducted on horticulture value chains in West Java and South Sulawesi, this paper explores this phenomenon and the concerted efforts that government and corporate actors undertake with regard to agri-food value chain interventions and market modernization in Indonesia. The paper argues that after more than 15 years of ‘supermarket revolution’ in Indonesia, traditional food retail appears not to be in complete demise, but rather adaptive and resilient to its modern competitors. The analysis of local manifestations of supermarket-led agricultural development suggests that traditional markets can offer certain advantages for farmers over supermarket-driven value chains. The paper further identifies and discusses two areas that have so far been neglected by research and policymaking and which warrant further investigation: (i) the simultaneous transformations in traditional food value chains and their relation to modern markets, and (ii) the social and environmental performances of modern vis-à-vis traditional food value chains
Although agricultural value chain resilience is a crucial component to food security and sustainable food systems in developing countries, it has received little attention. This paper synthesizes knowledge from the social-ecological systems (SES), supply chain management, and value chain development literature to make three contributions to this research gap. First, it is conceptualized the agricultural value chain resilience and relate it to overall food system resilience. Second, it is identified seven principles that are hypothesized to contribute to SES resilience, relate them to supply chain management theory, and discuss their application in agricultural value chains. A key insight is that the appropriateness of these principles are important to assess on a case-by-case basis, and depend in part on trade-offs between resilience and other dimensions of value chain performance. Third, the paper integrates two common tools, the Resilience Alliance’s assessment framework and value chain analysis techniques, to outline an adaptable participatory approach for assessing the resilience of agricultural value chains in developing countries. The objectives of the approach are to cultivate a chain-wide awareness for past and potential disturbances that could affect food security and other essential services provided by the value chain, and to identify upgrades that can build resilience against these key disturbances
Based on farmer and value chain actor interviews, this comparative study of five emerging dairy clusters elaborates on the upgrading of farming systems, value chains, and context shapes transformations from semi-subsistent to market-oriented dairy farming. The main results show unequal cluster upgrading along two intensification dimensions: dairy feeding system and cash cropping. Intensive dairy is competing with other high-value cash crop options that resource-endowed farmers specialize in, given conducive support service arrangements and context conditions. A large number of drivers and co-dependencies between technical, value chain, and institutional upgrading build up to system jumps. Transformation may take decades when market and context conditions remain sub-optimal. Clusters can be expected to move further along initial intensification pathways, unless actors consciously redirect course. The main theoretical implications for debate about cluster upgrading are that co-dependencies between farming system, market, and context factors determine upgrading outcomes; the implications for the debate about intensification pathways are that they need to consider differences in farmer resource endowments, path dependency, concurrency, and upgrading investments. Sustainability issues for consideration include enabling a larger proportion of resource-poor farmers to participate in markets; enabling private input and service provision models; attention for food safety; and climate smartness
This paper uniquely focuses on rapidly-developing domestic value chains in Africa’s emerging bioeconomy. It uses a comparative case study approach of a public and private cassava outgrower scheme in Ghana to investigate which contract farming arrangements are sustainable for both farmers and agribusiness firms. A complementary combination of qualitative and quantitative methods is employed to assess the sustainability of these institutional arrangements. The results indicate that ad hoc or opportunistic investments that only address smallholders’ marketing challenges are not sufficient to ensure mutually beneficial and sustainable schemes. The results suggest that firms’ capacity and commitment to design contracts with embedded support services for outgrowers is essential to smallholder participation and the long-term viability of these arrangements. Public-private partnerships in outgrower schemes can present a viable option that harnesses the strengths of both sectors and overcomes their institutional weaknesses
The Global Value Chain (GVC) approach has emerged as a novel methodological device for analysing economic globalization and international trade. The suitability of the chain metaphor and strategies for moving up the ladder of GVCs (“upgrade”) is widely echoed in international development agencies and public agencies in the Global South. Most of the existing GVC studies focus on new forms of firm-to-firm relationships and the role of lead firms and chain governance in defining upgrading opportunities. This paper examines the role of the state and local institutional initiatives in promoting upgrading in agricultural GVCs originating in rural areas of the Global South. The paper draws on research conducted in the South Indian smallholder tea sector. The paper argues that successful forms of state-led chain interventions not only contribute to upgrading of the smallholder-brought leaf factory strand of the GVC originating in the South Indian tea sector, but might also result in increasing bifurcation of smallholders integrated into high-margin markets through prominent bought leaf factories and a mass of “others” outside this tightly coordinated strand of the tea value chain
There is a blossoming of voluntary certification initiatives for sustainable agro-food products and production processes. With these certification initiatives come traceability in supply chains, to guarantee the sustainability of the products consumed. No systematic analysis exists of traceability systems for sustainability in agro-food supply chains. Hence, the purpose of this article is to analyze the prevalence of four different traceability systems to guarantee sustainability; to identify the factors that determine the kind of traceability systems applied in particular supply chains; and to assess what the emergence of economic and market logics in traceability mean for sustainability
With a large proportion of sub-Saharan African countries’ GDP still heavily reliant on agriculture, global trends in agri-food business are having an increasing impact on African countries. South Africa, a leader in agribusiness on the continent, has a well-established agri-food sector that is facing increasing pressure from various social and environmental sources. This paper uses interview data with corporate executives from South African food businesses to explore how they are adapting to the dual pressures of environmental change and globalisation. It shows that companies now have to adapt to macro-trends both within and outside the formal food sector and how this in turn has repercussions for building sustainable farming systems—both small and large-scale. It concludes with the recognition that building a sustainable food system is a complex process involving a diversity of actors, however changes are already being seen. Businesses have strategically recognised the need to align the economic bottom line with social and environmental factors, but real sustainability will only happen when all stakeholders are included in food governance
Rice is one of the most important food crops in sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change, variability, and economic globalization threatens to disrupt rice value chains across the subcontinent, undermining their important role in economic development, food security, and poverty reduction. This paper maps existing research on the vulnerability of rice value chains, synthesizes the evidence and the risks posed by climate change and economic globalization, and discusses agriculture and rural development policies and their relevance for the vulnerability of rice value chains in sub-Saharan Africa. Important avenues for future research are identified. These include the impacts of multiple, simultaneous pressures on rice value chains, the effects of climate change and variability on parts of the value chain other than production, and the forms and extent to which different development policies hinder or enhance the resilience of rice value chains in the face of climatic and other pressures
Valuation of nature (biodiversity: BD) and in particular ecosystem services (ESS) are important prerequisites for the design of cultural landscapes as well as in agricultural policy and the generation of BD as public interest. Designs should be built on valuation and valuation is usually seen as market assignment of prices. Yet, there is a problem with market failure. BD and ESS can be characterized as public goods, both being non-rival and non-exclusive, thus demanding public provision. Largely due to public pressure, nature provision and planning has received increased attention. Especially as a means to create values i.e. in conservation projects and specifically to add value and income to farmers’ value chains. Governments seek to promote BD and landscape provision by farmers, but money is scarce. Planners frequently do not know what the public wants and contingent valuation results are often regarded as insufficient because of missing vehicles of payment. There is scope for a more workable coordination process (institutional innovation) between interests in nature provision projects (being oriented at BD and corresponding ESS) and willingness to pay WTP (for foods related to nature). It is the objective to show that value chains of food products which are strongly related to nature and landscapes are a venue to go under multi-functionality for BD. The issue addressed is to offer a BD which creates WTP in value chains and serves as source of finance for BD provision. Hereby, the public is represented by an ecological management.
This paper will primarily provide an analytical framework which merges public good provision theory with farm behavior modelling as well as draws on modeling of bargaining as solutions from social power theory. Provision is set by valuing through BD management and foods contain ESS by which the value chain improves at private good markets. Food is marketed through a special value chain and consumers help to finance public management of ESS. We distinguish the process of public preference formation from those of individual formation and can reckon a concept of social power. 1. An introduction to preference detection highlights the need for a public approach. 2. Interest group preferences are modeled. 3. A manager will be entitled to charge fees to beneficiaries and guarantee compensations. 4. Bargaining for BD indicating ESS is outlined
The Fiji Islands, like many small Pacific island nations, are thought to incur high rates of postharvest loss. Little work has been undertaken to quantify the amount of loss within Pacific horticultural value chains, or identify the key determinants. This study sought to quantify postharvest loss within Fijian smallholder tomato value chains and to examine the relative importance of current on-farm practices as possible contributors to this loss. A semi-structured survey of 115 smallholder tomato farmers in Sigatoka Valley and eastern Viti Levu was undertaken, covering socio-economic and demographic parameters, production and postharvest handling practice, and postharvest loss based on farmer recall
This study reviews the available literature on processed non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in order to comprehensively identify relevant factors enabling or constraining their potential to contribute to rural development. Background and Objectives: NTFPs, such as wild foods, medicinal plants, and raw materials for handicrafts, make significant contributions to rural livelihoods. NTFPs can help fulfil households’ subsistence and consumption needs, serve as a safety-net in times of crises, and provide cash income. In particular, the processing of NTFPs has often been suggested to positively influence sustainable economic development in rural areas. However, despite rising interest and recognition of the potential contributions of such industries as key sources of employment and their strategic role in overall growth strategies of developing countries, many NTFP processing enterprises remain in the informal sector and an in-depth understanding of the underlying factors is lacking. This review aims to identify enabling and constraining factors affecting NTFP processing enterprises
Latin America has historically been a vanguard of agroecology. In Nicaragua, an agroecological transition is occurring, with three decades of building a groundswell based on the farmer-to-farmer movement and the recent institutionalization of agroecology in national law. Yet, problems remain with agroecology’s diffusion. We introduce the Technological Innovation Systems approach to examine systemic barriers to the agroecological transition and cycles of blockages caused by barriers’ interactions. Based on qualitative data from north-central Nicaragua, this paper finds the main barriers hindering the agroecological transition include weak guidance of the search for agroecology, insufficient capacities and quantities of resources, and lacking market development. Beyond the Nicaragua case, the analysis points at the importance of using socio-technical systems analysis to better understand and address the root causes behind issues blocking national agroecological transitions
This paper systematically reviews the evidence on what capacities the state requires to leverage agriculture for nutrition in fragile contexts, maintaining a focus on state in South Asia (especially India). It uses the framework of what the state ought to do (in terms of pathways), can do (in relation to parts of the enabling environment it is able to deliver) and is willing to do (addressing constraints in terms of political choices). The results of the search were sorted into three further themes: capacity of the state to intervene systemically and intersectorally; engage with participatory and locally relevant understandings of agriculture-nutrition linkages, and to create, maintain and engage in formal spaces for dialogue
The shift to industrial agriculture in Europe brought along a range of environmental and social externalities. This led policy makers, researchers and civil servants to consider and explore the potential of diversified farming systems (DFS) to address current problems in agriculture. However, because of multiple obstacles adoption of these DFS by farmers is not obvious. In this study we investigate the case of agroforestry (AF) systems in Flanders, where a government incentive scheme initiated in 2011, did not lead to the expected uptake of AF systems by farmers. To understand this implementation gap and the role of the different relevant actors herein, we used the Agricultural Innovation System concept ensuring an integrative and holistic analysis. Through 25 interviews, 2 focus groups and document analysis, a set of qualitative data was gathered and analyzed. This revealed five sets of challenges, which are of a technical, financial, legal, organizational and social nature. For each of these challenges development pathways were formulated to further upscale AF adoption. Although they should be substantiated and fine-tuned through further research, they put forward the importance of (1) investing in research to improve the compatibility and labor productivity of AF systems, (2) engaging private and societal actors in niche markets for agroecological products, (3) developing a full-fledged legal landscape and an effective incentive program, (4) using different communication and education channels to familiarize actors with agroecological practices, and (5) strengthening the dialogue between influential groups
Digital agriculture is likely to transform productive processes both on- and off- farm, as well as the broader social and institutional context using digital technologies. It is largely unknown how agricultural knowledge providing organisations, such as advisors and science organisations, understand and respond to digital agriculture. The concept of ‘organisational identity’ is used to describe both initial understandings of, and emerging responses, to digital agriculture, which together show how organisations ‘digi-grasp’, i.e. make sense of and enact digitalisation in their organisations. The understanding is described using aspects of identity change (i.e. the nature, pace, source and context of digital agriculture), while the responses are outlined through the various attributes of organisational identity (i.e. capabilities, practices, services, clients, partners, purpose and values). This study explore this question in the context of New Zealand through 29 semi-structured interviews with different types of agricultural knowledge providers, including farm advisors, science organisations, as well as technology providers. The findings show that digitalisation is often understood as farm-centric, despite being considered disruptive both on- and off-farm. These understandings influence an organisation’s digitalisation responses to digital agriculture. The responses were often ad-hoc, starting with adapting organisational capabilities, practices and services as their clients and partners require, rather than a strategic approach allowing for more flexibility of roles and processes and changing business models. The ad-hoc approach appears to be a response to uncertainty as digital agriculture is in early stages of development
As digitalisation transforms agriculture, the implications of cumulative innovation processes are essential to consider in order to mitigate risk and capitalise on opportunities. One project that involves imagining the future of the sector and aims to develop the necessary tools and infrastructure is the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Digiscape Future Science Platform (FSP). This paper explores the policy framework encompassing these technologies and elucidates considerations for future governance in Australia and beyond. Conceptually, we draw on Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) theorisation in the context of implications of digital technological development on policy. Methodologically, we utilise multi-level exploratory interviews with Digiscape FSP and prawn aquaculture value chain stakeholders. We argue society is at a critical point in time when the implications of digital agriculture need to be considered at broader regime and landscape levels. Questions around data privacy and ownership are prevalent in agricultural settings, although appropriate institutional guidance is lacking. Three propositions are made as a result of the analysis of scoping research involving innovation community stakeholders
Agriculture Innovation System (AIS) thinking and approaches are largely perceived as a sine-qua-non for the design and implementation of effective and sustainable agriculture development programmes. AIS has gained popularity in the agriculture innovation literature and has been embedded in policy documents of agriculture sector institutions in many countries. However, there is much less evidence of AIS thinking influencing the behaviours of research and extension institutions and staff ‘on the ground’. An important research gap is the need to better understand the attitudes and beliefs of extension and research professionals regarding AIS and that drive behaviours. Sierra Leone, like most developing countries, has embraced the use of AIS (at least in theory) as evident in policy documents of government institutions – the leading innovation system actors in the country. This study uses the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to assess the cognitive foundation of agricultural research scientists and extension professionals' intention to use the AIS approach related to rice innovation (the country's staple food crop)
The rise of new powers in development has generated much debate on the extent to which South–South Cooperation (SSC) constitutes a new paradigm of development more relevant to African needs or a disguise for a new form of imperialism. This paper critically examines the rise of Chinese and Brazilian technical and economic cooperation in African agriculture with two cases drawn from Ghana and Mozambique. Using a historical framework, policy documents, case studies, and an analysis of the political economy of agrarian development, this paper trace the role of agricultural development in the relations of China and Brazil in Africa, and the extents to which recent developments in agribusiness and structural neoliberal reforms of African economies have influenced Brazilian and Chinese contemporary engagements with African agriculture. We examine the extent to which the different policy frameworks, political interests in agriculture, and institutional frameworks influence and impede the outcomes of Chinese and Brazilian development intents
In this paper, introduction presents the problem statement. The second chapter gives a brief description of the Smart Farming system. The third chapter provides an overview of ontologies. The fourth chapter describes implementation of the knowledge base in the Smart Farming system. The fifth chapter presents the main functions of the ontology editor for working with the knowledge base. Conclusions and prospects of further development of knowledge base in crop production are also given
Agricultural research for development has made important contributions to poverty reduction and food security over the last 40 years. Nevertheless, it is likely that both the speed of global change and its impacts on natural and socio-economic systems are being under-estimated. Coupled with the moral imperative to justify the use of public resources for which there are multiple, competing claims, research for development needs to become more effective and efficient in terms of contributing towards longer-term development goals. Currently there is considerable debate about the ways in which this may be achieved. In this paper is described an approach based on theory of change. This includes a monitoring, evaluation and learning system that combines indicators of progress in research along with indicators of change aimed at understanding the factors that enable or inhibit the behavioural changes that can bring about development impacts
We assess a new method for assessing AC at a sectoral level and operationalize AC measurement based on an SLA to assess the ability of the European agricultural sector to adapt to extreme droughts. We create a set of indicators which highlight areas of high or low AC, forecast to estimated times the world will reach 2° of warming using Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) and Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios to drive AC indicator projections based on a fixed effects model.
In this paper, the authors describe the adaptation and validation of a project-level WEAI (or pro-WEAI) that agricultural development projects can use to identify key areas of women’s (and men’s) disempowerment, design appropriate strategies to address identified deficiencies, and monitor project outcomes related to women’s empowerment. The 12 pro-WEAI indicators are mapped to three domains: intrinsic agency (power within), instrumental agency (power to), and collective agency (power with). A gender parity index compares the empowerment scores of men and women in the same household. The authors describe the development of pro-WEAI, including: (1) pro-WEAI’s distinctiveness from other versions of the WEAI; (2) the process of piloting pro-WEAI in 13 agricultural development projects during the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project, phase 2 (GAAP2); (3) analysis of quantitative data from the GAAP2 projects, including intrahousehold patterns of empowerment/disempowerment; and (4) a summary of the findings from the qualitative work exploring concepts of women’s empowerment in the project sites. The paper concludes with a discussion of lessons learned from pro-WEAI and possibilities for further development of empowerment metrics
Many smallholder farmers in developing countries grow multiple crop species on their farms, maintaining de facto crop diversity. Rarely do agricultural development strategies consider this crop diversity as an entry point for fostering agricultural innovation. This paper presents a case study, from an agricultural research-for-development project in northern Ghana, which examines the relationship between crop diversity and self-consumption of food crops, and cash income from crops sold by smallholder farmers in the target areas. By testing the presence and direction of these relationships, it is possible to assess whether smallholder farmers may benefit more from a diversification or a specialization agricultural development strategy for improving their livelihoods. Based on a household survey of 637 randomly selected households, we calculated crop diversity as well as its contribution to self-consumption (measured as imputed monetary value) and to cash income for each household. With these data we estimated a system of three simultaneous equations
This paper details the analytical framework used for developing a nested understanding of systemic innovation capacity in an AIS. The paper then introduces the two case studies, along with the data and methods of analysis, followed by a presentation of the results as timelines of configurations of capabilities at different levels of the AIS. The case studies indicate that systemic innovation capacity constitutes configuring capabilities and resources at different levels of the AIS to leverage positive project path dependencies and break negative path dependencies due to historical capability configurations. Both case studies also simultaneously exploited existing innovation capabilities and resources, as well as using adaptive capability for exploring and creating new capability configurations to respond to emerging circumstances. We conclude with reflections and implications for theory and practice, arguing that innovation projects should have so-called strategic ambidexterity to combine exploiting existing and exploring new networks to access, combine, create, or disconnect capabilities
The Australian story of farmer innovation in Conservation Agriculture reveals a complex interplay of policy, economics, science, and farming. Farmer experimentation with Conservation Agriculture began in the 1960's and has continued to this day where around 80%-90% of Australia's 23.5 million hectares of winter crops are now grown using Conservation Agriculture principles. This remarkable achievement is the result of both sustained investment in agricultural research and development and farmer innovation. Australian economic settings and science policies have encouraged and facilitated farmer participation in the Conservation Agricultural innovation system. Australian farmers have embraced Conservation Agriculture because it has met their needs, maintaining productivity and profitability in the face of declining terms of trade, and sustainably intensifying production with enhanced environmental outcomes. Drawing on individual farmer case studies, the specific strengths of farmer innovation are identified and the enabling conditions necessary for farmer innovation to flourish are discussed.
Social learning processes can be the basis of a method of agricultural innovation that involves expert and empirical knowledge. In this sense, the objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness and sustainability of an innovation process, understood as social learning, in a group of small farmers in the southern highlands of Peru. Innovative proposals and its permanence three years after the process finished were evaluated. It was observed that innovation processes generated are maintained over time; however, new innovations are not subsequently generated
Transfer of knowledge through expatriate nationals (TOKTEN) initiative is a UNDP technical assistance modality that aims at human resource capacity building in countries that suffer from brain-drain. One of the main constraints that impede maximum contribution of human resource development programs towards sustainable development is lack of gender-sensitivity. TOKTEN initiative is believed to overcome this constraint. Thus, this paper will examine this thesis in the Sudanese setting. Data were collected from 46 trainees who attended a training workshop arranged through TOKTEN initiative. t-Test was used to examine the difference in the level of knowledge of the male and female trainees about the different concepts and topics under consideration before and after the workshop
The Government of Pakistan has adopted a policy of providing agricultural extension services to promote agricultural production by disseminating appropriate knowledge and technologies to farmers. Consistent with this national policy, farmers in Balochistan have been provided with extension services by the provincial Department of Agriculture through their extension officials working with the District of Agricultural Extension Department. This study collected information from a questionnaire survey covering 200 date palm farm households, group discussions, and surveys of key informants in the Panjgur District of Balochistan. Contrary to the policy of providing extension following the participatory approach, the extension in the study area was provided through the age-old top-down approach, with particular field-level extension officials not having much knowledge with regard to addressing date palm specific production problems
This study aimed to identify the perceptions of farmer community towards the electronic media and relationship between different demographic characteristics of respondents with the use of electronic communication of TV and radio, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), a province of Pakistan. Random sampling technique was used for selecting 183 respondents. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and Chi-square
The present research aimed at investigating the effect of communication channels on the economic success of early profitable and entrepreneur small and medium enterprises in the agricultural sector. It was an applied research in which the descriptive-survey method was used. The research sample included 356 founders of entrepreneur small and medium enterprises (at the time of conducting the research) in the Markazi province, Iran, among which 100 founders were selected according to the Cochran formulation using the stratified random sampling method. A questionnaire was used as the research tool and its validity was confirmed as the face validity by a group of teachers and experts
The purpose of this research was to investigate factors influencing agricultural personnel and consultants’ attitude and behavioral intention to use precision agricultural technologies. The survey research and multistage random sampling were used to collect data from 183 agricultural consultants in Agricultural Engineering and Technical Consulting Services Companies in Iran
The General objective of the present study was to examine the present situation of food security in regard to agricultural production and consumption. Specific objectives are to identify and analyze (1) the modern resource efficient agricultural technologies, (2) their possible contribution in achieving food security with available resources, and (3) the potential contribution of agricultural extension and education for sustainable farming in the Kingdom. The role of extension agents is critical to promote the innovative technologies as well as creating awareness among farming community to implement the guidelines to meet the country dietary needs. This paper suggests substitute expertise and methodologies that can be engaged by Saudi Arabia under prevalent situation, which can be helpful to expand national food fabrication to achieve food security in the Kingdom
Understanding spatial patterns of land use and land cover is essential for studies addressing biodiversity, climate change and environmental modeling as well as for the design and monitoring of land use policies. The aim of this study was to create a detailed map of land use land cover of the deforested areas of the Brazilian Legal Amazon up to 2008. Deforestation data from and uses were mapped with Landsat-5/TM images analysed with techniques, such as linear spectral mixture model, threshold slicing and visual interpretation, aided by temporal information extracted from NDVI MODIS time series. The result is a high spatial resolution of land use and land cover map of the entire Brazilian Legal Amazon for the year 2008 and corresponding calculation of area occupied by different land use classes. The results showed that the four classes of Pasture covered 62% of the deforested areas of the Brazilian Legal Amazon, followed by Secondary Vegetation with 21%. The area occupied by Annual Agriculture covered less than 5% of deforested areas; the remaining areas were distributed among six other land use classes. The maps generated from this project - called TerraClass - are available at INPE's website (https://www.inpe.br/cra/projetos_pesquisas/terraclass2008.php)
Traditional shifting cultivation in the Amazon region has caused negative environmental and social effects due to the use of fire. This type of agriculture has been criticized because it results in emission of large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and a loss of soil productive potential. Since 1991, Project SHIFT-Tipitamba has researched this type of agriculture and, in a subsequent phase, attempted to propose solutions that could be adopted in northeastern Pará, a region of ancient colonization in Amazon and highly anthropized based on an exclusively slash-and-burn agricultural system for more than 100 years. This paper presents some results obtained over two decades of research on these agricultural systems and proposes a method for the recovery or maintenance of the productive potential of these areas based on sequential agroforestry with secondary vegetation management and chop-and-mulch land preparation.
International partnership to carry out collaborative research and development programs has been implemented for a long time. However, with globalization, the economic, social, political and cultural diversity of interacting partners reached levels where this variety of collaborators often has shown some weaknesses in issues like governance. Strong and sound partnerships must be manageable in order to ensure the achievement of the set objectives. Embrapa, as a Brazilian public agricultural research and development institution that coordinates the Brazilian National Agricultural Research System (NARS), has acquired some experience in strengthening the inter-institutional relationship across continents. Recently, Embrapa was involved in a new research program focusing participatory and adaptive research to improve the production and marketability of small ruminants in arid areas of Latin America. The program is supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and coordinated by a CGIAR-Center - the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The program was started at the end of 2003 with the participation of two countries, Brazil and Mexico. Brazil is being represented by Embrapa and Mexico by the National Research Institute for Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock (INIFAP). The program has a Steering Committee, where all involved institutions have a representative member, including the donor (IFAD) and research institutions (CGIAR/ICARDA, Embrapa for Brazil and INIFAP for Mexico). The so far obtained results show the viability of international collaborative research programs to improve fund raising and to optimize the use of available human resources.
This document consists of the proceedings of the 4th Internation Symposium-cum-Workshop Red Cientifica Alemania Lationamericana (RECALL) on International Scientific Cooperation in Higher Education: Participation, Partnership and Perspectives healt in Talca, Chile, Nov. 28 to Dec., 4, 2005.
Over the past decades, Brazilian agriculture has played an important role in the international market, in response to growing global demand for products, services and food security. This achievement was in a large extent powered by the ability to generate knowledge and the actions promoted by science and technology institutes. This article aims to describe the model of knowledge generation in agriculture, assuming that the knowledge cycle is responsible for the capture, identification, selection and share of informal and formal information, through practices in the workplace and outside it, in personal and institutional networks. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this research deals with a multi-case study on three Brazilian science and technology institutes dedicated to agricultural research. Using both, qualitative and quantitative approaches, and collecting data through semistructured interviews applied to seniors researchers, as well as questionnaires answered by 410 scientists holding masters and doctoral degrees in natural sciences. Results indicate the existence of a knowledge generation model in agriculture research focused innovation, whose process starts from capturing ideas on how to solve a problem using the technological competence developed, through formal research projects.
Small-scale farmers in the Brazilian Amazon collectively hold tenure over more than 12 million ha of permanent forest reserves, as required by the Forest Code. The trade-off between forest conservation and other land uses entails opportunity costs for them and for the country, which have not been sufficiently studied. We assessed the potential income generated by multiple use forest management for farmers and compared it to the income potentially derived from six other agricultural land uses. Income from the forest was from (i) logging, carried out by a logging company in partnership with farmers? associations; and (ii) harvesting the seeds of Carapa guianensis (local name andiroba) for the production of oil. We then compared the income generated by multiple-use forest management with the income from different types of agrarian systems. According to our calculations in this study, the mean annual economic benefits from multiple forest use are the same as the least productive agrarian system, but only 25% of the annual income generated by the most productive system. Although the income generated by logging may be considered low when calculated on an annual basis and compared to incomes generated by agriculture, the one-time payment after logging is significant (US$5,800 to US$33,508) and could be used to implement more intensive and productive cropping systems such as planting black pepper. The income from forest management could also be used to establish permanent fields in deforested areas for highly productive annual crops using conservation agriculture techniques. These techniques are alternatives to the traditional land use based on periodic clearing of the forest. Nevertheless, the shift in current practices towards adoption of more sustainable conservation agriculture techniques will also require the technical and legal support of the State to help small farmers apply these alternatives, which aim to integrate forest management in sustainable agricultural production systems.
Precision agriculture (PA) is growing considerably in Brazil. However, there is a lack of information regarding to PA adoption and use in the country. This study sought to: (i) investigate the perception of growers and service dealership about PA technologies; (ii) identify constraints to PA adoption; (iii) obtain information that might be useful to motivate producers and agronomists to use PA technologies in the crop production systems. A web-based survey approach method was used to collect data from farmers and services dealership involved with PA in several crop production regions of Brazil. We found that the growth of PA was linked to the agronomic and economic gains observed in the field; however, in some situations, the producers still can not measure the real PA impact in producer system. Economic aspects coupled with the difficulty to use of software and equipment proportioned by the lack of technical training of field teams, may be the main factors limiting the PA expansion in many producing regions of Brazil. Precision agriculture work carried out by dealership in Brazil is quite recent. The most services offered is gridding soil sampling, field mapping for lime and fertilizer application at variable rate. Many producers already have PA equipment loaded on their machines, but little explored, also restricting to fertilizers and lime application. Looking at the currently existing technologies and services offered by dealership, the PA use in Brazil could be better exploited, and therefore, a more rational use of non-renewable resources.
How to measure biodiversity? One of the possibilities is to use DNA. The mention of DNA can hint evolution, but this question is much more complicated and beyond the proposition of a biodiversity measure. The reasons stated for use DNA instead of other possible molecules could be that it is stable and responsible for the transmission of traits to future generations. But another reason is simple that it is suitable for measures. First, due to universality among all living things. Second, because it is a big molecule, constituted by variations of just four bases, making it easy to make a great number of sequence comparisons and used it on biodiversity measures. When individuals to be compared are similar, a greater number of comparisons have to be made to obtain a quantification of the differences among them. Conservation biology is not concerned only with the extinction of species, but also with diversity within species or subspecies, where accurate measures of diversity may be required. A third reason is that a good amount of methodologies is already developed to study its nature. DNA markers when used to study biodiversity are frequently designed for a great number of comparisons of similarities or differences among individuals, groups of individuals, or populations. DNA is the code for protein synthesis, but in most of the studies DNA markers are considered exclusively for comparison, which may not to be linked or recognized to be linked with any trait or adaptability of the individual. There are lots of kinds of markers, and one important thought to have in mind is that there is not a best one among them, but the choice should consider the species to be studied and the objective of the diversity analysis.
Le développement de l'agriculture organique au Brésil prend des formes multiples. Au travers de leur expérience de l'AO, dans une communauté proche de trois métropoles, de petits maraîchers d'Ibiúna (São Paulo) créent des entités collectives et expérimentent de nouvelles pratiques sociales. À partir d'entretiens et d'observations sur le terrain, nous montrons comment ces minifundios se sont, ou ont été, organisés pour développer l'AO dans un même territoire Nous identifions quatre formes sociales d'organisation, leurs dynamiques, leurs valeurs et leurs inter-relations. Nous discutons des éléments susceptibles de sécuriser leur reproduction sociale et de soutenir de nouvelles voies de développement.
The "Technological Innovation Act", promulgated in Brazil in 2004, represents the main legal framework implemented to promote technological innovation and to delineate a favorable scenario for scientific development in Brazil. It regulates specially the relationship between Scientific and Technological Institutions (STI) - such as universities and public research institutes - and private companies in Brazil. Among other things, the law determines that each STI should compose a Technological Innovation Center (NIT, as its acronym in Portuguese) to act as an interface of the STI and its markets. These centers are equivalent to what is internationally called Technology Transfer Office and have as main responsibility to transfer the knowledge and inventions generated at Public Research Institutes (PRI) to private sector.This paper describes and provides some reflections upon the experience of three NIT, located in the State of São Paulo (Brazil): Innovation Agency of University of Campinas (Inova/ Unicamp); Innovation Agency of Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and Embrapa Informatics of Agriculture. The analysis was focused on the following issues: history, legal structure and organizational model, mission and activities, relationships and results.
This paper is part of the Proceedings for the 9th Research Workshop on Institutions and Organizations – RWIO Center for Organization Studies – CORS, which took place on October 13-14th, 2014.
Family farms are by far the most numerous component of the agricultural sector in the Brazilian Amazon. However socially vital for the development of the region, these small landholdings' agricultural and cattle ranching activities frequently overdraw and degrade natural resources, threatening important ecosystem services. Predominant agricultural practices have been marked by shifting cultivation, with intense use of fire and low productivity, causing high rate of destruction of natural forests. These current production patterns have not been able to alleviate poverty in many local communities, calling for changes in land use planning and agricultural management strategies toward more sustainable practices. Agroambiente is a research network from Embrapa and collaborators committed to investigate alternative agricultural practices for the maintenance of ecosystems services in the Brazilian Amazon. The network was firstly created to offer scientific support to a Government Program for ecosystem services compensation to family farmers (Proambiente Program), but has been expanding its scope to integrate social and environmental scientists focusing their studies mainly on: factors influencing provision of environmental services; methods for assessing ecosystem health status; management practices with lower impact on the environment; land use changes and market-based mechanisms for poverty alleviation through ecosystem services. Current research activities and their respective methodologies are: 1) Links between social perspectives and agricultural management decisions, carried out by interviews with land owners; 2) Search and validation of innovative production systems applied by farmers assessing inputs and productivity rates in different management conditions; 3) Construction of indices for assessment of ecosystem health in rural establishments through the development of an evaluation system (Ecocert- Proambiente); 4) Management alternatives for fire risk and accidental burnings abatement; 5) Evaluation of land use/land cover dynamics based on Landsat TM images and land use histories by interviews with the farmers; 6) Evaluation of carbon sequestration potential by estimating carbon stocks in different compartments of secondary forests; and 6) Appraisal of available market-based mechanisms for carbon schemes. Some rural communities have already been involved in sustainable agriculture practices such as agroforestry systems and fair trade (e.g. south western Brazilian Amazon). Production systems adopting no-till and no-fire may have initially lower productivity than traditional systems, but some viable management alternatives have been found. The Ecocert-Proambiente system was developed and validated with 62 indicators that covered social, economic, environmental and property management aspects. Avoided deforestation and maintenance of secondary forests were more feasible alternatives in terms of cost-benefit than the CDM negotiations from the establishment of agroforestry systems. Considering this scenario, estimatives in secondary forests of Pará state indicated aboveground biomass varying from 22 to 247 Mg ha-1. Altogether, these results are important to guide public policies in Brazil towards environmental conservation and social benefits in the Amazon.
Findings from a survey on sources of income and land allocation outcomes of 578 households from 26 communities with diverse ethnic composition at distinct environmental settings in Ucayali (Peruvian Amazon) are used to contrast livelihood strategies featuring high forest and high agriculture dependency, examining whether agricultural intensification can be linked to lower deforestation. A typology of households based on their land use allocation profile was used to assess current and cumulative cleared land. Recently cleared areas by households oriented to perennials, semi-perennials and pastures were similar to those focusing on annual crops. Multiple class comparisons provided evidence that land use intensification is not associated to land sparing. Near 40% of the households＇ annual income was derived from forests, followed by agriculture (25%), wages (17%) and livestock (11%). Income structure was used to determine high dependency on forests and on agriculture, featured by respectively 24% and 17% of the households, while 10% relied mostly on wages and/or businesses and half of them had a balanced income structure. Results indicate different expressions of the criticality of forest products, highlighting livelihood strategies based on the integration of income sources. Moreover, the study shows that despite the relevance of forest products, mestizo and indigenous livelihoods heavily depend on agriculture. Policy interventions aimed at environmental conservation and economic development will only be successful when strengthening the integration between agriculture and forest use featured by different social groups in the Amazon.
Transgenic maize was approved in Brazil in 2008/2009. In 2012, it occupied 73% of the country maize growing area. This high adoption rate confirms studies indicating that technology use has been the major driving force in Brazilian agriculture. Maize seed market in the world has been a concentrated sector. Although, when this sector is associated with transgenesis, this concentration increases sharply. In one side, there is the idea that companies can benefit from gains of scale and complementarities to maximize their efficiency in research and development (R&D). On the other side, this concentration may allow the exercise of market power by dominant companies. The objective of this study is to analyze the impacts of the adoption of transgenic technology in the arrangements of maize breeding programs and seed production sector in Brazil. A critical analysis of the situation of the breeding programs that do not have this technology is made.
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. Along with this structural transformation in the primary sector, the industry and service sectors directly linked to agriculture also became two of the world's biggest and most competitive. Furthermore, as food production increased at higher rates than food demand over time. food prices decreased. These gains in consumer surplus took place due partially to lower income for Brazilian farmers.
Automation of essential processes in agriculture is becoming widespread, especially when fast action is required. However, some processes that could greatly benefit from some degree of automation have such difficult characteristics, that even small improvements pose a great challenge. This is the case of fish disease diagnosis, a problem of great economic, social and ecological interest. Difficult problems like this often require a interdisciplinary approach to be tackled properly, as multifaceted issues can greatly benefit from the inclusion of different perspectives. In this context, this paper presents the most recent advances in research subjects such as expert systems applied to fish disease diagnosis, computer vision applied to aquaculture, and image-based disease diagnosis applied to agriculture, and discusses how those advances may be combined to support future developments towards more effective diagnosis tools. The paper finishes suggesting a possible solution to increase the degree of automation of fish disease diagnosis tools.
Some of the most promising and at the same time some of the most challenging areas of future food production are found in the savannas of South America. Integrating cropping, livestock, and forestry in these regions can increase the eco-efficiency of agricultural production. This chapter presents a case study of an integrated crop, livestock, and forestry system in Brazil. The study area is in Goiás State in the Cerrado region, a vast savanna covering almost one quarter of Brazil's land area. About half of the area suited to agriculture in the Cerrrado is under cultivated pasture, but much of this is degraded as a result of overgrazing. The systems studied in this report include different arrangements to test productivity, profitability and sustainability of eucalyptus, crops, and pastures. Findings demonstrated that integrated crop, livestock, and forestry systems are economically and technically feasible in the Cerrados. In addition to producing food of high biological value (meat and milk), cultivated pasture provides other important environmental benefits, including long-term ground cover, carbon fixation, increases in soil organic matter content; and reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases.
There is increasing evidence that public organizations dedicated exclusively to research and development (R&D) in agribusiness need systematic management tools to incorporate the uncertainties and complexities of technological and nontechnological factors of external environments in its long-term strategic plans. The major issues are: What will be the agribusiness science and technology (S&T) needs be in the future? How to prepare in order to meet these needs? Both Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Embrapa), attached to the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed a comprehensive strategic and operational planning process in order to answer these key questions in the 1990s. The main objective of this article is to present a comparative and preliminary analysis of concepts, methodologies, and processes utilized, and some results obtained by these public organizations.
One of the most important challenges for the researchers in the 21st Century is related to global heating and climate change that can have as consequence the intensification of natural hazards. Another problem of changes in the Earth's climate is its impact in the agriculture production. In this scenario, application of statistical models as well as development of new methods become very important to aid in the analyses of climate from ground-based stations and outputs of forecasting models. Additionally, remote sensing images have been used to improve the monitoring of crop yields. In this context we propose a new technique to identify extreme values in climate time series and to correlate climate and remote sensing data in order to improve agricultural monitoring. Accordingly, this paper presents a new unsupervised algorithm, called CLIPSMiner (CLImate PatternS Miner) that works on multiple time series of continuous data, identifying relevant patterns or extreme ones according to a relevance factor, which can be tuned by the user. Results show that CLIPSMiner detects, as expected, patterns that are known in climatology, indicating the correctness and feasibility of the proposed algorithm. Moreover, patterns detected using the highest relevance factor is coincident with extreme phenomena. Furthermore, series correlations detected by the algorithm show a relation between agroclimatic and vegetation indices, which confirms the agrometeorologists' expectations.
Georeferenced data are a key factor in many decision-making systems. However, their interpretation is user and context dependent so that, for each situation, data analysts have to interpret them, a time-consuming task. One approach to alleviate this task, is the use of semantic annotations to store the produced information. Annotating data is however hard to perform and prone to errors, especially when executed manually. This difficulty increases with the amount of data to annotate. Moreover, annotation requires multidisciplinary collaboration of researchers, with access to heterogeneous and distributed data sources and scientific computations. This paper illustrates our solution to approach this problem by means of a case study in agriculture. It shows how our implementation of a framework to automate the annotation of geospatial data can be used to process real data from remote sensing images and other official Brazilian data sources.
In the Amazon, slash and burn is the most common technique used by American-Indians, small farmers and even big ranches to transform forests into rural landscapes. The basis of food subsistence for diverse populations (rice, corn and bean), slash and burn is also a must for the plantation of cocoa, coffee, palms and pastures. The Amazonian rural landscape is currently dominated by pastures, occupying around 80 % of the deforested surface. Even if the nature of the plantation varies according to location, height, soil type and local traditions, slash and burn remains relatively the same in all regions. Agro-ecological intensification and the integration of livestock and agriculture is 2-3 decades old. Different alternatives have been tested, particularly the introduction of leguminous (covering the land or forming trees) to improve the soil and to build a bank of proteins for cattle. New techniques for the recuperation of pasture lands have become widely popular among ranches. The introduction of one or two annual plantations between two pasture areas allows reestablishing fertility through the injection of nitrates and, as a result, increases the pasture's productivity. However, being relatively high-cost because of its demand in terms of mechanization and inputs, this technique is almost unaffordable for small Amazonian farmers.
Providing food and other products to a growing human population while safeguarding natural ecosystems and the provision of their services is a significant scientific, social and political challenge. With food demand likely to double over the next four decades, anthropization is already driving climate change and is the principal force behind species extinction, among other environmental impacts. The sustainable intensification of production on current agricultural lands has been suggested as a key solution to the competition for land between agriculture and natural ecosystems. However, few investigations have shown the extent to which these lands can meet projected demands while considering biophysical constraints. Here we investigate the improved use of existing agricultural lands and present insights into avoiding future competition for land. We focus on Brazil, a country projected to experience the largest increase in agricultural production over the next four decades and the richest nation in terrestrial carbon and biodiversity. Using various models and climatic datasets, we produced the first estimate of the carrying capacity of Brazil's 115 million hectares of cultivated pasturelands. We then investigated if the improved use of cultivated pasturelands would free enough land for the expansion of meat, crops, wood and biofuel, respecting biophysical constraints (i.e., terrain, climate) and including climate change impacts. We found that the current productivity of Brazilian cultivated pasturelands is 32-34% of its potential and that increasing productivity to 49-52% of the potential would suffice to meet demands for meat, crops, wood products and biofuels until at least 2040, without further conversion of natural ecosystems. As a result up to 14.3 Gt CO2 Eq could be mitigated. The fact that the country poised to undergo the largest expansion of agricultural production over the coming decades can do so without further conversion of natural habitats provokes the question whether the same can be true in other regional contexts and, ultimately, at the global scale.
Brazilian agriculture is facing another expansion cycle to the Cerrado region, more specific in the Northeast. The first agriculture expansion cycle to the Midwest was in seventies encouraged and developed by Brazilian Government with farmers from southern and southeast Brazil, which were traditional small farmers with some experience, low budget and a remarkable determination. All of these efforts after 20 years resulted in an outstanding development of a part of the country with economy based on agribusiness (soybean, corn, cotton, livestock, poultry, swine, etc.). In late nineties, another cycle initiated in the Cerrado Northeastern region known as MATOPIBA (acronyms of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia states). Bahia and Maranhão were more pronounced and became very strong over time. Recently, basically in the last 5 years Tocantins and Piauí states started to increase agricultural production in high rates, reaching in Tocantins state a 30% increase of crop area per year and 34 % increase of total grain production per year and soybean is the major crop. Most of technologies developed in other Cerrado regions are not well adapted to MATOPIBA and a technology transfer is necessary to address conservation agriculture principles to farmers, agronomists, consultants and extension agents.
The increasing demand for agricultural commodities is a major cause of tropical deforestation. However, pressure is increasing for greater sustainability of commodity value chains. This includes the demand to establish new crop plantations and pasture areas on already deforested land so that new forest clearing for agriculture is minimized. Where tree crops are planted as part of agroforestry systems on deforested land, this amounts to a form of re-agro-forestation which can generate environmental benefits in addition to crop production. Here, we discuss a case where agroforestry systems based on cocoa (Theobroma cacao) are being established on crop and pasture land in the south of Pará state, Brazilian Amazon. The adoption of cocoa by farmers and ranchers of the region is stimulated by the coincidence of (1) favorable prospects for cocoa on the national and international markets including the expectation of a global cocoa supply gap; (2) environmental policies obliging land owners to reforest excess cleared land with native trees, with agroforests based on the native cocoa tree being an economically attractive option; and (3) biophysical conditions (especially soil fertility) favorable for growing cocoa in part of the region. We show that in the state of Pará at least 1.26 million hectares of naturally high-fertility soils in deforested areas outside legally protected and indigenous lands are potentially suitable for cocoa production with low agrochemical inputs, sufficient to make a significant contribution to closing the predicted supply gap. Their actual suitability depends on their state of degradation after years of pasture use and the availability of technologies and finance to convert them into tree crop agroforests. We discuss the significant environmental benefits of pasture re-agro-forestation with cocoa-based systems, including reduced emissions of up to 135 Mg of carbon per hectare compared to the historically common scenario of planting cocoa after forest clearing. We identify important research questions related to the scaling up of this practice and the maximization of its environmental benefits. We conclude that the coincidence of the afore-mentioned factors could drive a re-agro-forestation frontier in this part of the Amazon, with potential for positive outcomes in terms of commodity production while generating social and environmental benefits.
In Pium, Tocantins state, Brazil, in 2012 Embrapa developed a technology transference project in partnership with the state?s rural extension service for the consolidation of low carbon emissions agriculture. The goal was to recover the degraded grasslands of the Trigueira farm (49°1'37.44"W and 10°24'58.84"S) with low cost using a crop-livestock system.
In 2010 the Brazilian Government established a goal to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by agriculture from 36.1 up to 38.9% in ten years (2010 -2020). To contribute for reaching part of this purpose in Tocantins State, Embrapa and other research and extension services partners have been conducting a project of technology transference on sustainable agricultural practices, including integrated crop-livestock-forestry (ICLF), since 2012.
Large-scale agriculture is increasing in anthropogenically modified areas in the Amazon Basin. Crops such as soybean, maize, oil palm, and others are being introduced to supply the world demand for food and energy. However, the current challenge is to enhance the sustainability of these areas by increasing efficiency of production chains and to improve environmental services. The Amazon Basin has experienced a paradigm shift away from the traditional slash-and-burn agricultural practices, which offers decision makers the opportunity to make innovative interventions to enhance the productivity in previously degraded areas by using trees to ecological advantage. This study describes a successful experiment integrating the production of soybean and paricá (Glycine max L. and Schizolobium amazonicum) based on previous research that indicated potential topoclimatic zones for planting paricá in the Brazilian state of Pará. The authors concluded that innovative interventions are important to show local farmers that it is possible to adapt an agroforest system to large-scale production, thus changing the Amazon.
This text analyses the development of organic farming in Brazil. It shows the great variability of social models of organic production recognised by Brazilian Law: organic, agroecological, ecological or biodynamic agriculture, permaculture etc.. It depicts how the political and social concerns in the spheres of family farming and environment caused the reorganisation of production systems, in the agricultural practices and n the new relationships with the market and with natural resources. Based on interviews with farmers and stakeholders involved in the development of various organic systems,the authors qualified the related models of production as well as the related social and cultural values.They also present some aspects of the historical roots of this agroecological movement and the way family farmers adapt to the new challenges of ecological production.
This report shows some initial results about the research project entitled GlobalOrg, on a Brazilian case study, investigating the sustainability of tropical fruit organic farming in a global food chains perspective. It was performed an analysis about the production strategies of certified units of a familiar smalholders cooperative from Itápolis-SP-Brazil. In this analysis it was verified the application of sustainability principles recommended by the ecological based agriculture, focused on the agrobiodiversity, material recycling and the social-economic aspects from the agroecology conversion process. The research occurs through the complementarities provided by a combination of sociological and agronomic research methods, it means, qualitative interviews and questionnaire application with semi-structured questions. What was concluded is that the establishment of an economic relationship between the cooperative and a fair-trade international entity stimulates an interesting growing in the production diversity and also stimulates the application of different principles of ecological based agriculture. It indicates an important balance between the sustainability dimensions and demonstrates a visible attitude change in the natural resource exploration in this region.
This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a participatory approach which has been applied by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA) in aquaculture sector in Brazil.
This issue of Sustentabilidade em Debate brings together three studies that complement each other with the aim of answering the same question: can the adoption of good management practices for production, conservation of natural resources and working conditions be justified economically? In other words, is the adoption or pursuit of sustainability a good deal for farmers? This question stems from a mismatch between common sense and the experience of Sebrae-MG’s Educampo Program, Rabobank and Imaflora with a large number of farmers. As a rule, industry leaders argue that sustainability can be achieved as long as someone foots the bill. This statement embeds the assumption that sustainability is a cost or a competitive disadvantage. The experience of leading organizations in these studies shows otherwise. Farmers affected by programs that contribute to the implementation of sustainability initiatives have reported that investments in agricultural production based on best practices bring economic returns and make their businesses more profitable, competitive and resilient. To test whether this perception is actually true, SEBRAE, Rabobank and Imaflora joined researchers from ESALQ-USP and from the University of Oxford. Based on robust methods, the three studies analyzed large databases that contain information from dozens of farmers covered by programs designed to stimulate sustainability in several regions of Brazil either through the provision of credit, technical assistance or certification. This publication presents, in advance and in a simplified and summary form, studies in final stages of postgraduate research that will later be published in detailed academic format.
The promotion of land, soil and water conservation measures has been a widespread development in sub-Saharan Africa in a bid to tackle degradation and improve productivity. As a result, several governments have launched various campaigns on soil, land and water conservation measures. The aim of this study is to determine some of the factors that influence farmers’ awareness (knowledge) and adoption of land, soil and water conservation practices. Data for this study was collected from 312 households using a questionnaire survey in the Chinyanja Triangle of Southern Africa. The study sites were sampled from Tete province of Mozambique, central and southern regions of Malawi and eastern Province of Zambia. We used t-tests to classify adopters and non-adopters of soil, land and water conservation measures and binomial logit models to identify the factors that influence farmers’ knowledge of conservation measures and adoption of land productivity practices. The results show that the household head's age, education, agricultural advice reception and farmer group membership are critical in raising awareness. While the household head's age, education, agricultural advice reception, farmer group membership, pieces of land owned or used in production and land-to-man ratio influenced adoption decisions. The study, therefore, concludes that in order to improve land productivity in the Chinyanja Triangle, there is a need to consider farmers’ heterogeneity in terms of household head's age, level of education, extension services outreach, and socio-economic characteristics. This suggests that governments’ policies in the region should be aimed at improving farmers’ level of education, extension delivery that will target the elderly and the youth, land ownership, credit access, and social capital such as group formation.
The Climate Change and Social Learning (CCSL) Initiative is a cross-organisation group working to build a body of evidence on how social learning methodologies and approaches contribute towards development targets. Together with a select number of participating initiatives from a variety of organisations, we are working towards establishing a common monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework for new projects and programmes using a social learning-oriented approach. The aim is to more systematically collect evidence, analyse results and share learning on when and how research initiatives and beneficiaries may benefit from a social learning-oriented approach in the context of climate change adaptation and food security. This working paper presents an M&E framework consisting of a theory of change and 30 primary indicators across four key areas: iterative learning, capacity development, engagement, and challenging institutions. This framework will be accompanied by a forthcoming implementation guide for participating initiatives, as well as a strategy for peer assist, data collection and analysis by the CCSL Initiative.
CCAFS (through the International Livestock Research Institute and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society) and the Africa Climate Policy Center sponsored a workshop on ‘Strengthening Regional Capacity for Climate Services in Africa’, held on 27th October 2015 at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The workshop, which was associated with and reported to the fifth conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-V), aimed to initiate a collaborative effort to strengthen capacity, through African regional institutions, to support smallholder farmers with relevant climate services. The workshop brought together 17 participants including scientists and technical experts to learn from and build on examples of good practice in farmer-focused climate information and advisory services, and to share elements of good practice in food security contingency planning.
Discussions highlighted two key constraints to achieving the potential benefits of climate services for smallholder farming and pastoralist communities across Africa. The first is limited capacity to produce relevant climate information that is tailored to the needs of farmers, at a scale that is relevant to farm decision-making. The second is limited capacity to communicate climate-related information effectively, in a manner that farmers can incorporate into their decision-making. Organizations present at the workshop offer several promising innovations that have potential to overcome some of the critical gaps in the production and communication of climate-related information for farmers. Gaps in capacity to produce farmer-relevant climate information are closely linked to gaps in capacity to work with farming communities to communicate the information effectively and support its use. Financial investments and capacity-development efforts should address these gaps in parallel. National meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) have the mandate to produce weather and climate information; but institutions in the agriculture sector are generally better positioned to translate raw climate information into decision-relevant information and advisories, and to communicate that information with farmers. If climate services are to work for farmers, they must therefore be developed and implemented jointly by NMHS and agricultural technical institutions. This may require new institutional arrangements at the national level. Regional institutions, such as African Climate Policy Center (ACPC), IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC) and AGRHYMET Regional Center, are well positioned to assist national governments to strengthen climate services that can benefit smallholder farmers – at scale. The workshop provided an opportunity to advance discussions about collaboration toward strengthening climate services for agriculture in Africa, through regional organizations and processes.
This study assessed intermediate results of an investment intended to support climate change adaptation and resilience-building among farmers’ cooperatives in Rwanda. The assessment was based on a purposive sampling survey of farmers’ perspectives conducted in sites in 10 programme intervention districts of the country’s 30 districts. Assessed interventions included the enhancing of farmer-access, quality and utilization of climate information services; on-farm participatory trials of climate-smart crop and forage varieties; and climate-smart harvest and post-harvest support for infrastructural development at “HUBs” for shared post-harvest storage and marketing. Interventions included the capacity development among farmers’ organizations to access funding from commercial lending for integrating climate-smart features in warehouse construction and in other post-harvest infrastructure. Demonstration infrastructures were also constructed by a funding arrangement between the programme, local government structures and farmers’ organizations.
Farmers’ perspectives indicated appreciation of the value of and need for the (yet to be available) weather information. Farmers understood weather information that includes seasonal advisories to be of higher quality than daily weather forecasts. Farmer-scientist participatory on-farm trials were successful in identifying potato and maize varieties that met both climate-resilience and other farmer-defined criteria. However, the applied method for forage trails did not indicate satisfactory yield levels, nor did it generate farmer confidence. The assessment revealed resounding farmers’ approval for climate-smart infrastructure demonstrations. Misgivings were, however, indicated by farmers and their organizational leaders on the efficiency and effectiveness of the capacity development mechanism for commercial lending access to finance climate-smart requirements.
This article describes the experience of analyzing groups of Colombian fruit farmers’ capacity to collect information and their interest and ability to take advantage of the opportunities offered by information and communication technologies (ICTs). Three cycles were designed to understand the attitudes, skills, and current practices of fruit growers and to define the necessary conditions for effective information sharing. The three cycles involved individual farmers, farmer groups meeting face to face, and virtual meeting with farmer groups. The results contribute to the design of strategies for farmer engagement in the knowledge-sharing online platform of the AES-CE (Acronym in Spanish for Sharing Experiences for Site Specific Agriculture) project, designed to assist growers in improved decision making through sharing of multiple types of information from multiple sources. We find that farmers understand the usefulness of record keeping, but data collection is often imposed externally, and records are not generally used to better manage production. Farmers, overall, were positive towards information sharing and understand the benefits of using information from a wider environment, shared through an ICT platform, but shortage of skills in using these technologies is a serious limiting factor to expansion to a broader scale. We discuss future strategies that can be used to the design and implement ICT platforms which farmers can use to share information and improve their management.
With the rapid pace of climate change and its impact on food security and livelihoods, climate-smart agriculture is one strategy aiming to help farmers adopt more sustainable farming practices. This study looked at farmers’ adoption of agricultural innovations and the role of social networks in the process. Through interviews and observations, the authors (1) identified determinants and barriers affecting farmers’ adoption of agricultural innovations in My Loi Climate-Smart Village in northcentral Vietnam, and (2) explored how social learning and social networks contribute to farmers’ knowledge generation during innovation adoption. Results show that determinants and constraints for the adoption of agricultural innovation exist at multiple levels. The study presents evidence of the value of social networks for the adoption of innovation, identifies what constitutes promising social networks, and gives examples of institutional structures that influenced the adoption process. Recommendations for social learning networks and scaling of climate-smart agriculture innovations are provided.
The CCAFS (CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security) annual report for 2016 describes impact through policies and partnerships, capacity development and innovative communication, breakthrough science and innovation and integrating gender and youth. It features regional highlights and publications, and lists the people involved, financial summary, and our donors.
Many small-scale irrigation systems are characterized by low yields and deteriorating infrastructure. Interventions often erroneously focus on increasing yields and rehabilitating infrastructure. Small-scale irrigation systems have many of the characteristics of complex socio-ecological systems, with many different actors and numerous interconnected subsystems. However, the limited interaction between the different subsystems and their agents prevents learning and the emergence of more beneficial outcomes. This article reports on using Agricultural Innovation Platforms to create an environment in which irrigation scheme actors can engage, experiment, learn and build adaptive capacity to increase market-related offtake and move out of poverty.
Motivated by donor interest in innovative thinking on food security, the authors conducted an interdisciplinary, triangulation analysis of four divergent conceptual frameworks, each relevant to diagnosing food insecurity in developing countries. They found notable tensions as well as synergistic interactions between agroecology, agricultural innovation systems, social–ecological systems, and political ecology. Cross-framework interactions enhance our understanding of how sectoral and macro-economic development strategies impact on livelihoods, availability, and access. Re-invigorated, more profound dialog between divergent conceptual frameworks enables diagnosis of complex food insecurity problems, and context-specific interventions and innovations. Informed use of divergent approaches constitutes a new ambition for research and practice.
To meet multiple environmental objectives, integrated programming is becoming increasingly important for the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). Integration of multiple environmental, social and economic objectives also contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a timely and cost-effective way. However, integration is often not well defined. This report therefore focuses on identifying key aspects of integration and assessing their implementation in natural resources management projects. To that end, we draw on systems thinking literature, and carry out an analysis of a random sample of GEF integrated projects and in-depth case studies demonstrating lessons learned and good practice. We identify numerous challenges and opportunities of integrated approaches that need to be addressed in order to maximise the catalytic impact of the GEF during problem diagnosis, project design, implementation and governance. We highlight the need for projects to identify clearer system boundaries and main feedback mechanisms within those boundaries, in order to effectively address drivers of environmental change. We propose a theory of change for Integrated Natural Resources Management (INRM) projects, where short-term environmental and socio-economic benefits will first accrue at the local level. Implementation of improved INRM technologies and practices at the local level can be extended through spatial planning, strengthening of innovation systems, and financing and incentive mechanisms at the watershed and/or landscape/seascape level to sustain and enhance ecosystem services at larger scales and longer time spans. The evolving scientific understanding of factors influencing social, technical and institutional innovations and transitions towards sustainable management of natural resources should be harnessed and integrated into GEF’s influencing models and theory of change, and be coupled with updated approaches for learning, adaptive management and scaling up.
The Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel is and indipendent group of scientists that advises the Global Environment Facility (GEF). It comprises seven expert advisers supported by a Secretariat, which are together responsible for connecting the GEF to the most up to date, authoritative, and globally representative science. The STAP Chair reports to every GEF Council meeting, briefing Council members on the Panel’s work and emerging scientific and technical issues. Advice to Council includes writing primers, or leading in-depth analyses, on themes influencing the sustainability of the global environment and development. In addition, STAP reviews and/or co- authorships GEF Policy papers where there are significant scientific or technical issues.
Managers and policy makers have struggled to develop effective monitoring systems to track the evolution of research organizations. This paper presents the first components of a novel monitoring system for monitoring such organizations. These components can be used to generate detailed static pictures of the actual activities and partnerships of a large research program or organization, in other words, what the organization is actually doing, with whom, where, how and for what purpose. It can also identify whether new incentives or organizational structures have an immediate effect on the researchers’ activities. Once developed, the full system will be able to monitor the evolution of the organization’s activities and assess mid- and long-term effects of specific incentives. Essentially, the system asks individual researchers to list all the important collaborations they engaged in during the preceding 12 months and to provide some information about these collaborations. The data are then aggregated to describe the organization’s portfolio of activities and engagement with other actors in the innovation system
Increasingly, multi-stakeholder processes have been recognized as being necessary to the development of public policies seeking to promote systemic innovation in response to complex and multidimensional challenges, such as household food security, rural development, and environmental change. Saint Lucia, a small island developing state located in the Caribbean, has been grappling with a wide range of agriculture, food and nutrition security challenges with varying degrees of policy success. Recognizing the significance of the challenge, this paper explores the nature of the stakeholder interactions surrounding the development of Saint Lucia’s 2009–2015 National Agricultural Policy and considers some of the implications for food and agriculture-related policy outcomes. Results reveal a general lack of supportive conditions for effective multi-stakeholder processes, including low stakeholder participation levels, conflicting roles of different forms of social capital in the interactions between stakeholders, and missing “boundary” organizations capable of facilitating a transition towards more flexible and adaptive institutions, enhanced knowledge exchange and learning, and greater trust among stakeholders in the policy network. Future avenues for research and development are subsequently identified.
FAO has been promoting the use of ICTs in agriculture and has focused on ICT innovation for improving agricultural production and enhancing value chains. This publication is an effort to share success stories on the use of ICTs for agriculture and rural development. This publication showcases a few case studies where innovative use of emerging technologies together with capacity development has brought about rich dividends. Digital Green’s experiences in knowledge sharing among rural communities to Nano Ganesh’s innovative use of technology in switching on irrigation pumps have the potential to contribute significantly to the livelihoods of farming communities.
Technological innovations have driven economic development and improvement in living conditions throughout history. However, the majority of smallholder farmers in sub‐Saharan Africa have seldom adopted or used science‐based technological innovations. Consequently, several scholars have been persistently questioning the effectiveness of intervention models in smallholder agriculture. Following the agricultural innovation systems framework (AIS), this paper reviews a participatory framework known as the ‘Follow the Innovation’ (FTI) approach, which was developed in the research project ‘Economic and Ecological Restructuring of Land and Water Use in Khorezm’ (2001 ‐ 2012) and employed in an ongoing BiomassWeb project ‘Improving food security in Africa through increased system productivity of biomass‐based value webs’ (2013 ‐ 2018). The FTI approach claims that multi‐stakeholder interactions and the adaptation of ‘innovation packages’ or ‘plausible promises’ are crucial for innovation development. While appreciating the crucial role such packages play in agricultural development, the review at hand calls for a shift from defining agricultural innovation as a package or new technology to the consensus that it is an outcome of the collaborative or collegiate participation of multi‐stakeholders in planning and implementation processes, by generating and combining scientific and local perspectives on technical and non‐ technical changes over time and in space, and the reconfiguration or adaptation of embedded informal and formal institutions.
This study identifies entry points for innovation for sustainable intensification of agricultural systems. An agricultural innovation systems approach is used to provide a holistic image of (relations between) constraints faced by different stakeholder groups, the dimensions and causes of these constraints, and intervention levels, timeframes and types of innovations needed. The authors aim at showing that constraints for sustainable intensification of agricultural systems are mainly of economic and institutional nature.
This paper introduces Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Innovation Systems (RAAIS). RAAIS is a diagnostic tool that can guide the analysis of complex agricultural problems and innovation capacity of the agricultural system in which the complex agricultural problem is embedded. RAAIS focuses on the integrated analysis of different dimensions of problems (e.g. biophysical, technological, socio-cultural, economic, institutional and political), interactions across different levels (e.g. national, regional, local), and the constraints and interests of different stakeholder groups (farmers, government, researchers, etc.). Innovation capacity in the agricultural system is studied by analysing (1) constraints within the institutional, sectoral and technological subsystems of the agricultural system, and (2) the existence and performance of the agricultural innovation support system. RAAIS combines multiple qualitative and quantitative methods, and insider (stakeholders) and outsider (researchers) analyses which allow for critical triangulation and validation of the gathered data. Such an analysis can provide specific entry points for innovations to address the complex agricultural problem under study, and generic entry points for innovation related to strengthening the innovation capacity of agricultural system and the functioning of the agricultural innovation support system. The application of RAAIS to analyse parasitic weed problems in the rice sector, conducted in Tanzania and Benin, demonstrates the potential of the diagnostic tool and provides recommendations for its further development and use.
This report assesses trends in investments, human resource capacity, and research outputs in agricultural R&D -excluding the private (for-profit) sector- in LAC. It is an update of Stads and Beintema (2009), covering a more complete set of countries and focusing primarily on developments during 2006-2012/2013. The analysis draws largely from a set of country factsheets prepared by Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI), which is led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), using comprehensive datasets derived from primary surveys and additional secondary sources targeting close to 700 agencies in 27 LAC countries.
This paper introduces the Multilevel Stakeholder Influence Mapping (MSIM) tool, which aims to assist analysts in the study of power dynamics across levels within climate adaptation regimes. The tool is adapted from the Stakeholder Influence-Mapping tool (2005) of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). MSIM is a simple visual tool to examine and display the relative power/influence that different individuals and groups have over a focal issue—in this case, climate change adaptation of smallholder farmers. The tool can be applied individually or in groups, as often as desired, to capture multiple perspectives and also to act as an intermediary object facilitating expression of sensitive information. The multilevel adapted version of the tool was trialed with a cross-section of actors in Nepal’s agricultural climate change adaptation regime. The results of this pilot, the tool use guidelines, and triangulation with supporting methods, as well as forward-looking applications in climate adaptation are provided herein.
This training-of-trainers manual is designed to train you to be able to deliver a capacity enhancement workshop (CEW) to rural women on climate change and gender. It has been designed by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and is appropriate to the South Asian context.
The guide on Reflexive Monitoring in Action offers principles, practical guidelines as well as theory and tools. Additional tools, developed more recently, are provided separately. The guide and tools focus on three target groups: Reflexive monitors Consultants, innovation brokers and action researchers who are (or will be) handling the actual monitoring Innovation managers Project managers or innovation champions who feel responsible for the progress of the innovation process and the realisation of the system innovation ambition. Clients Policy officers, financiers and others who act as the commissioning party for system innovation initiatives.
This paper examines different practical methods for stakeholders to analyse power dynamics in multi-stakeholders processes (MSPs), taking into account the ambiguous and uncertain nature of complex adaptive systems. It reflects on an action learning programme which focused on 12 cases in Africa and Asia put forward by 6 Dutch development non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The authors facilitated this action learning programme in 2011-12, and supported a team of 12 local researchers who worked with stakeholders to better understand the dynamics of power in MSPs, and learn practical ways of dealing with power imbalances when dealing with, participating in or embarking on MSPs. The cases range from a Nigerian NGO coalition dealing with oil spills in Niger Delta, to gold mining negotiations in Ghana, to a seaweed value chain in Philippines, to land planning for palm oil in Indonesia. The ambition of this programme was to translate academic insights into easy-to-use packages, suitable for researchers and facilitators with limited academic experience. In trying to make this work, lessons were learned on how to ensure quality action learning across different cultural and sectoral backgrounds. Also, lessons on
developing capacity for action learning on power in MSPs are shared. Finally, the authors report insights on the process of synthesizing data from all 12 cases into generic and shared conclusions.
This facilitation guide was developed to support the training of scientists who are members of the CCAFS Working Group on impact pathways and M&E for results-based management. The group attended a highly participatory introductory training from 1-5th April 2014 in Segovia, Spain. The objectives of the workshop were: 1. To introduce working group members to outcome thinking; 2. To present elements of the CCAFS theory of change (TOC), impact pathway (IP) and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework; 3. To provide working group members with tools that will allow them to guide their units in completing their TOC/IP/M&E plan in a way that will allow for a consistent, harmonized product for all of CCAFS; 4. To establish a CCAFS working group on TOC/IP/M&E.
This manual is a resource and toolbox for NGO practitioners and programme designers interested in diagnostic and action research for gender sensitive and socially inclusive climate change programmes in the rural development context. It is meant to be an easy to use manual, increasing the research capacity, skills and knowledge of its users. Integrating gender and social differentiation frameworks should ideally begin from the start of the programme cycle and be coordinated throughout research, design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation phases. The data gathered using this toolbox supports this programme work. While the manual emphasizes participatory and qualitative approaches, many of the activities and tools can produce quantitative data. Each chapter features a bundle of research tools intended to be used sequentially. However, we know that each organization has its diverse needs. The chapters are in modular format so that teams can assemble their own research toolbox specific to their needs.
This volume is devided into three parts. The first part describes on-going
processes of change within, or aside, the socio-technical regime that we have
inherited from the modernisation and industrialisation process of agriculture,
which took part after the second world-war. The focus in this part is on studies
dealing with the issue of agro-ecological initiatives born in niches of organic
movement, which are questioning the mainstream regime of industrialised
agriculture.
A second part is called « Intervention and Design ». The four chapter in this
part describe how researchers participated in situations of change. These
studies use different approaches and methodologies, but first of all shed light
design, re-design or co-design in change processes in different situations. Trying
to facilitate projects that purposefully address sustainability transitions, these
chapters provide new insights in ways of doing research and producing scientific
knowledge that would not have been possible without such interventionist
research practices.
The final part is called « Innovation with Promise ». It contains four chapters
with case-studies of (socio-technical) innovations that hold a promise to induce a
transition towards a more sustainable agriculture. The emergence of novelties in various domeins of an existing field of practice (the political sphere, the food or
fibre value chains or the more local initiatives) calls for the capacity of collectives
to sustain discourses, scopes and transformative arrangements in long term
strategies. These chapters propose new frameworks and rationales to
understand the discourses, practices and performative promises of sustainability
transitions.
Relying entirely on survey information and personal exchanges with over 70 scientists from within the CGIAR network, this working paper attempts to achieve a better understanding of the scope of social learning related efforts undertaken in CGIAR and main issues of relevance to more current efforts, such as that planned by the CGIAR program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). A wide range of methods was identified, where groups of people learn in order to jointly arrive at solutions to pressing food security problems. This methodological diversity is considered a strength given that they represent the different contexts that the research community is responding to. Relying on experiential evidence from professionals within the CGIAR network, the working paper further explores if the reformed CGIAR and the new structural and programmatic setup offer improved prospects for the inclusion of social learning approaches in CCAFS. A range of working definitions of social learning – from the literature – is proposed to meet the special needs/context of scientists. The stocktaking exercise also attempts to identify what is needed to foster an enabling environment for social learning. Key propositions are derived from the findings of the stocktaking exercise. Relying on secondary information provided by respondents, case overviews of exemplary and mature examples of social learning from within CGIAR were developed with the purpose of highlighting that CGIAR does already have a tradition to build upon in future work. Finally, an illustrative listing of current CGIAR projects provided to support the stocktaking objectives of this effort.
The aim of this report is to provide a detailed review of documented social learning processes for climate changeand natural resource managementas described in peer-reviewed literature. Particular focus is on identifying (1) lessons and principles, (2) tools and approaches, (3) evaluation of social learning, as well as (4) concrete examples of impacts that social learning has contributed to. This paper has sought to contribute to reflections on the role that social learning might play and the impacts it might have in supporting decision making on climate change, agriculture and food security.
This publication, consisting of several modules, includes participatory research approaches for examining a wide range of questions regarding if and how farming practices are being modified to deal with a changing environment, and the constraints and opportunities these changes pose for both men and women. It also covers three main research priorities relating to the climate change, agricultural development and food security ‘nexus’: (1) facilitating farmer exchange visits and other approaches for sharing adaptation strategies in ‘climate analogue’ areas; (2) assessing how to facilitate the use of daily and seasonal weather forecasts for farmers and how to make access to forecasts more equitable; and (3) understanding and catalysing gender-sensitive, climate-smart agricultural practices. Research teams from Bangladesh, Ghana, and Uganda helped select and further develop a range of participatory approaches along with the CCAFS and FAO researcher/trainer team. Particular attention was paid to the sampling frame and training to help ensure the guiding questions were asked in the same way, and reported in the same format, in order to allow cross-site comparison of results. The teams tested the approaches in a pilot study that covered one CCAFS site within each of the three countries, and came together again shortly afterwards to report on the results of the field test and further improve and refine the training materials based upon their experiences. This paper reports on the results and lessons learned from this pilot test in the villages of Chandipur in Bangladesh, Kyengeza in Uganda, and Doggoh in Ghana.
