Demanding Innovation

Researchers in ACP countries are facing a growing range of challenges. They are required to respond effectively to the demands of policy makers, private sector investors and donor agencies, farmers and other stakeholders in the agri-food chain. They are being asked to deliver research outputs that will improve agricultural productivity, food quality and food safety, in order to increase their countries? competitiveness in global markets, and contribute to food security, poverty alleviation and sustainable development. At the same time, researchers must be socially and ethically responsible and contribute to the advancement of science and technology. As the demands for accountability increase and the levels of funding diminish, researchers need to prioritize and strategize their responses.

Farmer innovations in Rwanda: Cassava scientists and farmers combine knowlegde

by Rose Njeru and Gervis Gashaka

African cassava mosaic disease (CMD) is caused by geminiviruses. The viruses are transmitted by whiteflies ( Bemisia tabci) and perpetuated by use of infected cuttings. Most of the landraces are susceptible to the disease causing agents. The most sustainable and cost effective management of CMD, has been to introduce improved cassava cultivars with varying levels of inbuilt mechanisms to resist the virus. Improved varieties are characterized by restriction of disease symptoms (manifestation). In collaboration with the farmers, Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Rwanda (ISAR) scientists are investigating appropriate practical approaches to manage CMD The high disease pressure and short supply of introduced varieties have been a challenge and has accelerated innovation by cassava farmers in Gahara sector, Kirehe district in Eastern province of Rwanda. 24/07/2007
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A framework for analysing ASTI systems in ACP countries

by Willem Heemskerk

In 2004, CTA commissioned UNU/INTECH to develop a methodological framework for analysing the Agricultural, Science, Technology and Innovation (ASTI) system in ACP countries. A revised analytical framework was approved by the Advisory Committee on S&T for ACP Agricultural and Rural Development in November 2005 and paved the way for the launch of four new case studies; two in Africa and one each in the Caribbean and Pacific regions, which will be completed in the second quarter of 2006. 05/06/2006
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Farmer innovation in Africa

by Chris Reij, Free University, Amsterdam

Farmer Innovation in Africa: A Source of Inspiration for Agricultural Development (2001) summarizes the findings of two regional programmes in Africa that supported farmer innovators and their innovations in eight countries representing a wide range of agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In these programmes, a farmer was considered an innovator if he or she tried out something that was new in the village without having been asked to do so by outsiders. This means that farmers who tested new crop varieties or other technologies on their fields at the request of researchers were not innovators. It also implied that an innovation in one region may have been a common practice elsewhere. The two programmes identified about 1000 farmer innovators and concluded that innovation is a fairly common phenomenon in regions where there is high population pressure on available natural resources. This is not surprising as farmers have to adapt to changes in rainfall, soils, demographics and markets, for example, in order to survive. Farmers with their 'backs against the wall' have no choice: innovate to improve their livelihoods, continue to live in poverty or leave the land and settle elsewhere. 15/12/2004
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