Articles
Rethinking investment in agricultural innovation - Link September 2009 news bulletin
The balance of debates about innovation systems ideas in agricultural and rural development seems to have shifted from conceptualisation and historical analysis to planning and practice. National and international development agencies are now grappling with the need to rethink their investments in line with this new perspective. In this month’s LINK LOOK, Andy Hall, Jeroen Dijkman and Rasheed Sulaiman suggest ten priority topics where rethinking is needed and where there seems to be enough experience to provide advice.
15/10/2009
Enhancing innovation between scientific and indigenous knowledge: pioneer NGOs in India
Until recently, little attention has been paid to local innovation capacity as well as management practices and institutions developed by communities and other local actors based on their traditional knowledge. This paper doesn't focus on the results of scientific research into innovation systems, but rather on how local communities, in a network of supportive partnerships, draw knowledge for others, combine it with their own knowledge and then innovate in their local practices. Innovation, as discussed in this article, is the capacity of local stakeholders to play an active role in innovative knowledge creation in order to enhance local health practices and further environmental conservation. In this article, the innovative processes through which this capacity is created and reinforced will be defined as a process of "ethnomedicine capacity". The case study analyzed highlights examples of innovation systems in a developmental context. They demonstrate that networks comprised of several actors from different levels can synergistically forge linkages between local knowledge and formal sciences and generate positive and negative impacts. The positive impact is the revitalization of perceived traditions while the negative impacts pertain to the transformation of these traditions into health commodities controlled by new elites, due to unequal power relations. Authors: M.-C. Torri & J. Laplante, Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine October 2009, 5:29
20/11/2009
Stimulating innovation in urban agriculture
Urban farming systems are in constant development as urban farmers adapt their existing practices or come up with new ones, yet are rarely given formal support for their innovations. This issue of looks at how urban farmers can be supported in their efforts to improve their livelihoods. The issue is a collaborative effort of the RUAF, the Prolinnova (Promoting Local Innovation) network and Urban Harvest, an initiative of CGIAR and draws on experiences of urban farming from around the world. Some articles merely promote innovations, while others discuss ways to stimulate the innovation capacity of the farmers themselves. Titles include the following: Promoting Local Innovation in Rural Agriculture: experience and lessons for urban settings ; Innovative Wastewater Recycling in an Indian Village: linking the rural with the urban ; Innovations in Greenhouse Rainwater Harvesting system in Beijing, China ; Cleaning, Greening and Feeding Cities: Local initiatives in recycling waste in Kampala, Uganda ; Urban Agriculture in Msunduzi Municipality, South Africa ; Innovations in Producer-Market Linkages: Urban field schools and organic markets in Lima ; Urban Agriculture as Social Justice Change Agent and Economic Engine ; Innovations in Urban Livestock Keeping in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Author: R. van Veenhuizen (ed.), RUAF Urban Agriculture Magazine No. 19, 2008
8/12/2009
How to get innovation system work in agriculture and rural development? Reflection on methodological issues
Following paradigm shifts in 1980s that resulted from relentless efforts made by a few informed social scientists in the early 20th century, some lead international organizations, NGOs, and national research and extension organizations came to pronounce innovation system in agriculture and rural development. These are, in fact, results of decades of intellectual dialogues among scientists in general and social scientists in particular as to what methodological routes should be followed in pursuit of science and science for development. The majors taken in this regard received increasing importance with the realization that more than fifty years of development assistance, especially in the developing world, did not adequately curve down poverty and its multiple consequences, notably, environmental degradation. In spite of encouraging efforts underway the world over by different agencies to promote what is named as a sustainable development through people’s participation, achievements made so far seems to be far below the extent of responses required to cope up with multi-faceted challenges at hand. Moreover, there are still conceptual and methodological gaps that are adversely affecting the common intentions geared towards making a difference in poverty alleviation and reducing environmental degradation, among others. There is still substantial adherence to technology transfer while the intention is innovation system. For some, even using the term innovation seems to be a major shift in their approach. In my view, one of the major gaps in this respect is lack of shared understanding of methodological issues by scientists and development practitioners, both from social and natural sciences streams. This paper, therefore, attempts to shed some light on these issues and propose ways to get innovation system approach work better in agriculture and rural development. Author: T. Beshah (Post doctoral scientist at ILRI, India), Conference paper APPRI 2008 International Workshop, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, October 2008
8/12/2009
Promoting Agricultural Innovation Systems Approach: The Way Forward
Investments in knowledge systems have featured consistently in most strategies to promote sustainable agricultural development at the national level. The World Bank alone has invested more than 2.5 billion USD into agricultural R&D and advisory services over the past 20 years. Many of these investments have resulted in very high returns and pro-poor growth. We have also been fairly successful in strengthening research systems and increasing available knowledge but they have not necessarily resulted in greater use of knowledge and innovation (Rajalahti et al. 2005). Farmer productivity is still often constrained by lack of appropriate technology or access to technology, inputs, services and credit, and by farmers’ inability to bear risks. In addition, farmers’ information and skills gap constrains the adoption of available technologies and management practices or reduces their technical efficiency when adopted (WDR 2008). To address these challenges, we have gradually shifted from strengthening research systems and knowledge transfer towards building innovation capacity, enhancing use of knowledge and creating social and economic change.
30/06/2009
Innovation Systems in Agriculture and Rural Development
Much has been written on innovation systems (IS), especially in industrialized economies, and recently in developing countries contexts (Muchie et al., 2003; Hall 2005; Spielman et al., 2006; World Bank 2007). However, with few exceptions (e.g., Hall 2005; Hall et al., 2007; World Bank 2007), literature on IS does not adequately explain how system thinking enhances innovation or how IS can be initiated and facilitated. Another gap is the fact that “innovation” itself is promoted rather than its embeddedness within a system that in turn operates within certain institutional and policy contexts. Even though there is consensus on the importance of innovation for economic development, the systemic mechanism through which it can be enhanced is not given equal attention. These and other grey areas limit the promotion of the concept of IS, and in a worst case raises suspicion on its value addition for research and development.
30/06/2009
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