Annoucement: e-mail conference from 4 June to 1 July 2012 on "Ensuring the full participation of family farmers in agricultural innovation systems

4 June to 1 July 2012. FAO is hosting a moderated e-mail conference  on "Ensuring the full participation of family farmers in agricultural innovation systems: Key issues and case studies".

The UN General Assembly has declared 2014 to be the International Year of Family Farming and has invited FAO to facilitate implementation of the International Year, in collaboration with its partners. Among its initiatives for the International Year, FAO is planning to publish a major study on family farming and Agricultural innovation systems (AIS) in 2014 in the State of Food and Agriculture series, which is FAO’s major annual flagship publication.

Agricultural innovation systems are systems of individuals, organizations and enterprises that bring new products, processes and forms of organization into social and economic use to achieve food security, economic development and sustainable natural resource management. AIS include a multitude of potential actors, such as producer organizations, research organizations, extension and advisory services, universities and educational bodies, governments and civil society organizations, co-coordinating bodies, individual farmers and farm laborers, and the private sector (including traders, processors, supermarkets etc.).

The e-mail conference is open to everyone, is free and will be moderated.

The Background Document to this FAO e-mail conference is available here.

Meeting the needs of smallholder farming families also provides the central theme of the GCARD RoadMap, which sets out the systematic changes required to transform and strengthen innovation systems to better meet the needs of resource-poor smallholders around the world.  Results from the FAO e-mail consultation will help inform discussion in The Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD 2): “Foresight and partnership for innovation and impact on small-holder livelihoods” on practical actions underway and that are required to implement these systematic changes. The GCARD 2 will be organized in Punta del Este, Uruguay, 29 October – 1 November 2012, more information is available on the GFAR website.  The Pre-Registration for the GCARD 2012 Conference is now open.

Outcomes from the email consultation and the GCARD Conference will inform preparation of the major FAO study in 2014, as well as help to build cooperation around key forward-looking agendas and facilitate planning of joint actions among all AIS stakeholders to deliver large scale development outcomes.

22 March 2012. Brussels, European Commission Directorate General for Development and Cooperation - DG DEVCO. The Informal stakeholder consultation about Improving the quality and effectiveness of development cooperation with African agricultural knowledge organisation, provided the opportunity to launch the new report of the Montpellier Panel: Growth with resilience – opportunities for African Agriculture in 2012.

The Montpellier Panel is a panel of ten experts from the fields of agriculture, sustainable development, trade, policy, and global development chaired by Sir Gordon Conway of Imperial College London. The Panel is working together to make recommendations to enable better European government support of national and regional agricultural development and food security priorities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Growth with Resilience: Opportunities in African Agriculture

Download the report here 

Agricultural Innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa: experiences from multiple-stakeholder approaches

Agricultural innovation in sub-Saharan Africa: experiences from multiple-stakeholder approaches.
Adekunle AA, Ellis-Jones J, Ajibefun I, Nyikal RA, Bangali S, Fatunbi O and Ange A.
2012.
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Accra, Ghana
ISBN 978-9988-8373-2- 0 (print)
ISBN 978-9988-8373-2- 4 (pdf)
160 pages

The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) has promoted the integrated agriculture research for development (IAR4D) approach based on an innovation
systems framework. This brings together multiple actors along a commodity value chain to address challenges and identify opportunities to generate innovation. The approach creates a network of stakeholders or partners who are able to consider the technical, economic, social, institutional, and policy constraints in an environment. The network facilitates research and learning that not only generates new knowledge, products or technologies, but also ensures the use of research products.

The IAR4D approach is being tested at three pilot research sites across SSA: in Eastern and Central Africa around Lake Kivu (Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda); Southern Africa (Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe); and West Africa (Niger and Nigeria). This has involved the establishment of 36 stakeholder innovation platforms thus: creating functional linkages between farmers, the private sector, and service organizations; integrating productivity, natural resource management, markets and policy; establishing effective mechanisms for organizing and learning processes for farmers; and ensuring action research oriented toward problem-solving and impact. There are strong indications that IAR4D is an effective concept, applicable across a broad spectrum of agricultural systems.

This review examines the experiences of 21 case studies covering a wide range of African farming systems over broad geographic and historical landscapes. Each case study was reviewed by accessing and analysing existing data sources, published material and grey literature. It also involved important consultation with stakeholders in each country.

Inventory of African and European CSOs involved in agricultural research for development (ARD) in sub-Saharan Africa.

19 November 2011. Nairobi. An international consultation meeting was held to discuss the findings of the inventory of African and European CSOs involved in agricultural research for development (ARD) in sub-Saharan Africa. The meeting was attended by about 30 people from research institutions, NGOs and FOs.

The study identified the formal and informal linkages between CSOs and other stakeholders involved in ARD, as well as potentials and blockages in the ARD system to realising a greater participation of CSOs in prioritising, formulating and carrying out ARD. The study also looked into resource allocation for ARD in sub-Saharan Africa, and how and where and by whom the decisions for such allocation are made.

This study was planned to contribute to:

• Designing and implementing a consultative mechanism that allows various CSO representatives to participate meaningfully in African, European and international deliberations on ARD;
• Triggering the necessary change in direction of the ARD system toward a more demand-led, grounded and smallholder-focused research and innovation system; and
•  Stimulating greater resource flows to research involving small-scale farmers.

Next steps: 

• INSARD will finalise the “CSO-in-ARD” mapping study report and make it widely available. INSARD will develop a short strategy paper on possible CSO consultation and coordination mechanisms. 
• INSARD will develop a policy paper to provide a basis for engaging with the GCARD (Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development) roadmap, including issues of governance reforms and alternative approaches to ARD.
• INSARD will contribute to the regional consultations for GCARD in Africa and Europe in early 2012 by informing NGOs and FOs in these regions about the international ARD process, so that they understand how they can engage in ARD decision-making, in a similar way as was done during the time of the NGO Committee (NGOC) of the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research).

Resources:

Mapping EU-SSA Agricultural Research for Development, CSO Engagement and Resource-Allocation Processes, Mutizwa Mukute and Tafadzwa Marange, 7 December 2011, 77 pages.

INSARD Mapping Study Consultation Workshop on Coordination Mechanisms and Fund Flows in ARD. 19 November 2011. 20 pages

Agriculture innovation systems: An investment sourcebook

Forthcoming on February 17, 2012.
Agriculture and Rural Development Series
English; Paperback; 696 pages; 8.5x11
Published February 17, 2012 by World Bank
ISBN: 978-0-8213-8684-2; SKU: 18684
Price: $49.95
Book ordering information

The long-awaited agriculture innovation systems sourcebook is going to be published by the World Bank early in 2012.

According to some pre-materials, “the agricultural innovation system (AIS) approach has evolved from a concept into an entire subdiscipline, with principles of analysis and action, yet no detailed blueprint exists for making agricultural innovation happen at a given time, in a given place, for a given result. This sourcebook draws on the emerging principles of AIS analysis and action to help identify, design, and implement the investments, approaches, and complementary interventions that appear most likely to strengthen innovation system and promote agricultural innovation and equitable growth.”

It is “targeted to the key operational staff in international and regional development agencies and national governments who design and implement lending projects and to the practitioners who design thematic programs and technical assistance packages. The sourcebook is also an important resource for the research community and NGOs and may be a useful reference for the private sector, farmer organizations, and individuals with an interest in agricultural innovation.”

Key messages of the sourcebook are:

• Agricultural development depends on innovation. Innovation is a major source of improvedproductivity, competitiveness, and economic growth throughout advanced and emerging economies, and plays an important role in creating jobs, generating income, alleviating poverty, and driving social development.
• If farmers, agribusinesses, and even nations are to cope, compete, and thrive in the midstof changes in agriculture and economy, they must innovate continuously.
• Investments in science and technology are a key component of most strategies to improve and maintain agricultural productivity and innovate.
• Research, education, and extension investments are necessary components but have not been sufficient for agricultural innovation to occur. Other conditions and complementary interventions are needed.
• In addition to a strong capacity in RD, components of effective agricultural innovation are collective action and coordination, the exchange of knowledge among diverse actors, the skills, incentives and resources available to form partnerships and develop businesses, and enabling conditions that make it possible for actors to innovate. These conditions and complementary interventions have not been consistently addressed to date.
• Innovation and business development by different stakeholders does not occur without complementary investments to create a supportive environment. Enabling conditions in a given context depend on a (innovation) policy mix, innovation governance, a diverse set of regulatory matters and other investments with synergistic effects.
• The agricultural innovation system (AIS) investments must be context specific and respond to the stage of and vision for development in a particular country and agricultural sector. Given the resource limitations, investments need to be assessed, prioritized, sequenced, and tailored to the needs, challenges, and resources that are present.

THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURAL R&D WITHIN THE AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION SYSTEMS FRAMEWORK

This paper (40 pages) traces the evolution of the innovation systems framework within the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa, and presents a conceptual framework for agricultural innovation systems. The difference between innovation ecology/ecosystems and intervention-based innovations systems is highlighted, given that these two concepts are used at different levels in promoting and sustaining agricultural innovations. The role of open innovation, innovation platforms, and innovation intermediaries in catalyzing, enhancing, and facilitating the innovation process are discussed, as is the role of R&D in the innovation process.

The paper goes on to consider the interconnectedness of the innovation systems perspective and value-chain analysis in agricultural R&D processes, before summarizing the current status of agricultural R&D in Sub-Saharan Africa, lessons from past experience, and implications and key challenges confronting development practitioners in institutionalizing the agricultural innovation systems concept within the agricultural R&D in the region. Finally, some key conclusions and areas for investment are presented.

Related blog post:
AGRICULTURAL R&D: INVESTING IN AFRICA’S FUTURE

Exclusive interview at FARA GA2010 (2): His Excellency Sam Sesay, Minister of Agriculture Sierra Leone

24th of July 2010. FARA GA 2010. Interview with His Excellency Sam Sesay, Minister of Agriculture of Sierra Leone

The importance of incentives for SME involvement in agricultural innovation platforms


Transcript of the interview:

Are researchers development oriented?

Researchers are far behind the development oriented aspirations. They used to be mainly production only oriented. Today the agriculture production mode has move to the agricultural value chain mode, which is looking at the whole spectrum that will enhance agricultural development. The researchers have to move likely: to look at the agro processing, to look at the marketing.  And even inside the production mode they need to look at what kinds of local manure can be promoted, what kind of appropriate technology can they develop which are labor saving? Not much has been done on those areas within the production research mode.  Within the agricultural value chain mode there is far more that research needs to do in the current situation.

What are innovation platforms?

We have to promote innovation platforms. In the innovation platform we ask how can we put all stakeholders together: the farmers, the researchers, the policy makers, the business people. How can we engender a dialogue to make sure “we put orders towards the researchers”? To tell them “this is exactly what we need”. All the stakeholders should identify what they want to be able to take active part in the agricultural value chain. And this is the source of development and agricultural research delivery products. And research should be transparent: accountable for the resources that were invested in the form of the products they promised to deliver to the stakeholders.

How should research be organized?

In Sierra Leone we decided to take the commodity chain. Because we want to take those commodities where Sierra Leone has a comparative advantage as a country.  The territorial approach make us less efficient and less effective. Therefore rice has been identified as a comparative advantage, cassava, oil palm, fisheries and non-timber products.

Besides rice, around which commodities do stakeholders collaborate?

Already we are doing something in cassava. Cassava processing has gained momentum in Sierra Leone along the value chain. We now package “gari” which is one of the products of cassava. And our “gari” is finding its way to Guinea, to Liberia and to many other places, and they are packaged in different sizes, even in small sizes of 1 kg that every ordinary person can buy.

What are the incentives for private sector involvement?

First and foremost, we used to see agricultural development as the task of the government. Since the seventies and the early eighties, when the public sector was told to move away from the market and allow the private sector to compete, that has been a very sluggish process. Governments still feel they have the responsibility to feed the people, to educate the people. If that does not happen because the private sector is not there, they have the temptation to move in. In Sierra Leone we try to restrain ourselves by creating an enabling environment. And this is what we have done with agriculture in Sierra Leone by having an incentive package for private sector promotion.  We give waivers; we give tax holidays depending on the investment from five to ten years. Even for the land tenure issue the government steps in as a middle person. There are many incentives for the private sector so that they can take over economies. All booming sectors in Europe, America, etc are private sector driven. Government has only a regulatory and monitoring function.

For innovative partnerships to last you need a conducive environment?

Definitely! 

Review of the European Agricultural Development Assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa

The imperial College reviewed the European Agricultural Development Assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa (Report of May 2010).

This review seeks to create an online tool for better understanding European donor support for agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa. It is an initial attempt to map the activities, political and financial commitments of fourteen different European donors.

• The background and rationale introduces the thinking that influenced the development of this review.
• The information on each donor presented in this review is listed here
• The section on donor institutions and initiatives sets out the institutional landscape for each donor reviewed.
• The agricultural assistance data is an overview of donor commitments and disbursements on agricultural development to sub-Saharan Africa based on OECD-DAC data. A paper on this data can be accessed below and here.

Related:

On May 10th 2010, Imperial College and ONE hosted a joint workshop to discuss the challenges of measuring agricultural development assistance (see picture).

The Global Research Report – Africa

Africa's contribution to the global body of scientific research is very small and does little to benefit its own populations, according to a new report from Thomson Reuters. 

Like India and China, Africa suffers from a "hemorrhage of talent," the report said, with many of its best brains leaving to study abroad and failing to return. "The African diaspora provides powerful intellectual input to the research achievements of other countries, but returns less benefit to the countries of birth," Jonathan Adams, director of research evaluation at Thomson Reuters, said in a statement as the report was published. 


Adams and colleagues, who use a Thomson Reuters database to track scientific publications, found that three nations dominate Africa's research output -- with South Africa leading by a long way, ahead of Egypt in second place and then Nigeria. "Africa's overall volume of activity remains small, much smaller than is desirable if the potential contribution of its researchers is to be realized for the benefit of its populations," Adams said. 

The report found that part of the problem was down to a "chronic lack of investment in facilities for research and teaching" -- a deficit the authors said must be remedied. Adams said the reason behind this was not simply money: "The resources available in some African countries are substantial, but they are not being invested in the research base." 


In fields of research relevant to natural resources, however, the study found a relatively high representation of African research as a share of world publications. South Africa's 1.55 percent share of research in plant and animal science is the continent's biggest share in any field, it said, with this output surpassing Russia's 1.17 percent but well behind China's 5.42 percent share in the same field.


Reference:
APRIL 2010 The Global Research Report – Africa, JONATHAN ADAMS, CHRISTOPHER KING, DANIEL HOOK

Public-Private Partnerships to Develop and Spread New Agricultural Technologies in sub-Saharan Africa: New Thinking, Emerging Models

The Role of the US in Stimulating Public-Private Partnerships for African Agricultural Development

Video from the keynote of this event – Josette Lewis, USAID

Innovative public-private partnerships are emerging to meet the imperative of mobilizing new resources and developing new agricultural technologies throughout the value chain. Leaders from these sectors will discuss the importance of these alliances; the topics they address, the challenge of ensuring that results reach smallholder farmers, and the role of foundations and governments in stimulating partnerships for agricultural technology in sub-Saharan Africa.

Agricultural Productivity in Changing Rural Worlds

Feb 24, 2010. Rural worlds are changing rapidly. Information technology has shortened the distances from remote villages to urban centers but has also sharpened the contrasts in ways of life. 

This report emphasizes three ways that the United States can contribute to raising agricultural productivity in poor countries—investing in agricultural productivity from a longer-term, resource-based, farmer-centered perspective; revamping the way that technology is developed and diffused to better diagnose and solve the practical problems of rural people; and complementing investments in the “hard” infrastructure of markets (roads, rural electrification) with investments in “soft” infrastructure, including rules, regulations, policies, financial and market information systems that kick-start private-sector investments. 

The authors focus on sub-Saharan Africa, drawing on some experiences from Asia, to recommend such positive U.S. contributions as making greater use of natural resource management approaches, expanding innovative financial and market information services, and strengthening public 

Rigid models in which scientists develop technologies and state extension services deliver them to farmers should be replaced with those that foster partnerships among the multiple actors who can best finance and provide the services (including farmer associations, community-based organizations, private companies, nongovernmental organizations or NGOs, national and international research institutions). (page 2)

Agricultural Productivity in Changing Rural Worlds quotes in 2 extracts the FARA Inventory of Innovative Farmer Advisory Services (page 24 and page 26) 

Audio  

Audio: Agricultural Productivity in Changing Rural Worlds  

Feb 26, 2010. Johanna Nesseth Tuttle Vice President for Strategic Planning; Director, CSIS Global Food Security Project.speaks to Melinda Smale and Timothy Mahoney about their new paper Agricultural Productivity in Changing Rural Worlds, commissioned by the CSIS Global Food Security project.

Are multi stakeholder platforms sustainable?

Speaking in the margins of the December 2009 SLP meeting in Addis Ababa ( CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme), Alan Duncan (ILRI) introduces the DFID/IFAD-funded 'Fodder Adoption Project' based at ILRI. He outlines the approach followed in the project - trying to strike a balance between the technological and institutional angles. The project helps groups of stakeholders - farmers, private sector, dairy coops, the government - get together in 'innovation platforms' where they can develop joint actions that address livestock fodder problems. 


Initially the project went with a traditional approach, focusing on technologies. As the process evolved, other issues came in, more actors joined the platforms, and the technologies - growing improved fodder - acted more as a catalyst for people to come together to discuss a wide range of other issues (dairying, health, etc). Fodder proved to be a useful 'engine' for the group to identify a much wider range of issues to address - along the whole value chain. 


He explains that this type of work facilitating stakeholder platforms is "not trivial." But it is essential: "Technology is only one small part of the equation and really a lot of it is about human interactions and how organizations behave." He concludes: "We have lots of promising technologies, but in themselves they are not enough to bring about widespread change in livestock systems." 


Stakeholder platforms are:

• quite demanding in terms of resources and 
• there is a question of sustainability of the platform after the project. 
• Sustainable ways have to be looked into for the long term among prominent representatives of the innovation system.

Ranjitha Puskur (ILRI) explains how the current second phase of the project,  emerged from the realisation that the availability of technologies is not really the limiting factor, policy and institutional factors are the major bottlenecks. 


She briefly introduces the innovation systems approach that underpins the project: 

• Essentially, the aim is to form and facilitate a network of different actors in a chain or continuum of knowledge production and its use, mobilizing all their various resources and capacities to address a problem. 
• What outcomes and changes has she seen? At the farm level, farmers are changing their livestock feeding and management practices; there is an emerging demand for technologies, inputs and services that, ironically, were earlier promoted without success. "Farmers are seeing the need for knowledge and can articulate demands to service providers." 

She emphasizes that "getting a network of actors isn't an easy process, it takes time". 

• Different organizations with different interests and motives have to be brought around the table to contribute and benefit. 
• "It needs great facilitation skills and negotiating skills which are not very often core competences of researchers like us." 
• Beyond facilitation of this network formation, "we also see that linkages don't happen automatically" ... we need a facilitating or broker organisation to create them. In her project, they work through key partner organisations: "This works well, but they needed much support and mentoring from us." 

She concludes with two final observations:

• Policies are a very critical factor and it is important to engage policy makers from the outset, ensuring that we know what they really want, and that the evidence base is solid. 
• Traditional project management approaches don't seem to work in such projects: We need nimble financial management, and very responsive project management. "Very traditional logframes and M&E systems seem very inadequate."

Reference:

ILRI posting 22/02/2010 Moving from project mode to innovations systems thinking?

Announcement: The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa

The Agricultural Innovation in Africa (AIA) Project is inviting input on good practices for consideration for inclusion in the forthcoming study, The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa. The AIA project builds on the findings of the expert report Freedom to Innovate: Biotechnology in Africa’s Development prepared by the High Level African Panel on Modern Biotechnology of the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
The input can be in the form of references, written contributions (with proper citations), contracts or any other sources. All in contributions will be appropriately acknowledged in the final study. To facilitate the process there is a chapter outline for the study:

1. AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
2. TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT
3. ENABLING INFRASTRUCTURE
4. AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION SYSTEMS
5. HUMAN CAPACITY
6. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
7. REGIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEMS

Here is the link to download the Full Text of The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa (chapter outline for the study, 8 pages)

PAEPARD and innovative agricultural research partnerships between Africa and Europe

The Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development (Phase II) is to build joint African-European multi-stakeholder partnerships in agricultural research for development. PAEPARD II nurtures partnerships to increase the quantity and quality of joint proposals (leading to more funded initiatives).

François Stepman explains how PAEPARD is not only about aligning to African research priorities but foremost about facilitating innovative partnerships. He elaborates on what this innovation is about and gives two striking examples. The first is about the collaboration of researchers with the private sector: the food processing sector of traditional African food. The second example is about the collaboration with radios in Africa: the production of digital media files (audio and video) about innovative technologies and agricultural knowledge of farmers.

La Plate-forme pour le Partenariat Afrique-Europe de la recherche agricole pour le développement (Phase II) veut faciliter la création de multi-partenariats afro-européens pour la recherche en agriculture pour le développement. PAEPARD II favorise des partenariats novateurs afin d’accroître la quantité et la qualité des propositions conjointes (conduisant à davantage d'initiatives financées).

François Stepman explique qu’il ne s'agit pas uniquement d’un alignement aux priorités de la recherche africaine, mais avant tout d’une facilitation pour la formation de partenariats novateurs. Il démontre par deux exemples ce que peuvent être des partenariats innovateurs. La première concerne la collaboration de chercheurs avec le secteur privé: le secteur de la transformation alimentaire d’aliments traditionnels africains. Le deuxième exemple porte sur la collaboration avec les radios en Afrique: la production de fichiers numériques (audio et vidéo) sur les technologies innovantes et les connaissances traditionnelles des agriculteurs.

Related blog posts:

African Food Tradition Revisited by Research

Interview with Hans Herren on innovative partnerships

Hans Herren explains why it is urgent to create innovative partnerships for agricultural research in and with Africa following his presentation at the Second workshop of the Assessments/Projections/Foresights Seminar, held at CTA on 25th - 26th of February 2010. His example is www.infonet-biovision.org He admits the challenge is not so much a resistance towards multi stakeholder partnerships but its complexity to manage it and make sure communication between the different actors is effective.

Hans R. Herren (Switzerland/USA) is President of the Millennium Institute (MI) since May 2005. From 2004 to 2008 he co-chaired the International Assessment of Agricultural science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). Prior to joining MI, he was Director-General of the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi, Kenya. He also served as Director of the Africa Biological Control Center of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in Benin.

Related: Interview with Hans Herren about the International Assessment of Agricultural science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) (15th Brussels Development Briefing 9th December 2009 “From Global Food Crisis to Local Food Insecurity”.

Interview with Dr. Tabo on the possibilities to increase productivity

9 February 2010. Frankfurter Rundschau, 66. Jahrgang Nr. 33 R/S. Ramadjita Tabo is Assistant Director of "Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa. (FARA) 


Mr Tabo, why is it that the existing know-how hardly reaches the farmers?

Most African farmers can not read or write. Few have access to computers or to Internet. And since they are often not English nor French speakers they may need information in local languages. We might use local radio programs. Increasingly mobile phones also help to spread information quickly. 

What are the results of the agronomic Research in Africa which is already available or will be available in the near future? 

The NERICA rice has at least in West Africa already to good harvests. In West and East Africa we also have newly developed varieties of corn. They deliver in a short time high yields. I see great potential in Sorghum and millet. They are already well adapted to drought and high temperatures. But we still need much shorter growing seasons without much loss in production and yields. 

The next among the list of crops with great potential are the pulses like peanut and cow pea. They are fundamental components of African agricultural production. Biotechnology plays here an important role. I do not mean the genetic modification of organisms, but cell culture methods which can help us to have relatively quickly the desired properties to produce higher yields. Conventional Breeding takes often too long. 

Where have most of the African agricultural research scientists who work in African institutions been trained? 

Most have studied in Africa, but they can often only get higher degrees like Masters or Ph.D. in Europe or in in America. 

How can studies abroad integrate the transmission of African knowledge and practices in the African scientific and educational system?

The so-called sandwich scholarships programmes are helpful because the students study abroad but for the practical component they work in research stations in Africa, to collect data and perform measurements. 

What about the financing of research institutes?

This is really a problem. You can not work for the long term, as long as you depend on external donors. Projects may run three years, then end. But the farmers want to know how it continues. The states should see its scientific institutions as assets and invest in them. If you are not investing in agricultural sciences you will not solve Africa's problems.  I don't want to be controversial  but I think that often the political will lacks.

Reference: Interview: Sabine Suetterlin Frankfurter Rundschau, 66. Jahrgang Nr. 33 R/S.

Will a time of plenty for agricultural research help to feed the world?

6 January 2010. Hereafter follows a short summary of the latest issue of LINK - Learning, INnovation and Knowledge.

Much more than increased spending on agricultural research is required and that what is now needed is a prominent development investor that will champion the idea of research as an integrated part of a more broadly-conceived capacity for change.

A 2006 World Bank study of agricultural innovation processes and capacities concluded that:

Agricultural innovation is rarely driven by research and is usually opportunity-driven, with entrepreneurs (micro or corporate) responding to market opportunities and threats

• Underpinning the capacity of these entrepreneurs to innovate is the network in which they are embedded and which they use as a way of accessing knowledge, information and technology — information about the changing state of the market, about new technology and about expertise to address opportunities and threats
• Poorly-developed linkages among players with complementary information are the major constraints to innovation capacity and this is often related to long

A recent analysis by the International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI, of the circumstances under which agricultural research makes a difference, tacitly makes some broadly similar conclusions about the supporting (rather than leading) role of research in agricultural innovation.

How can partnerships and consortia arrangements be financed, since these are often transient and rarely legal entities? There certainly are things that can be invested in (see the September 2009 LINK LOOK, “Rethinking Investment in Agricultural Innovation”) and this includes things like sector coordinating bodies, farmers’ associations and other areas of institutional development that nurture networking and social capital formation. This is, however, a fragmented type of investment that has high administrative costs that are ill-suited to aid wholesalers.

RIU projects in Africa are experimenting with ways of strengthening innovation capacity by connecting up different pieces of the innovation systems in which they are working. The programme struggled initially to work out how to explore the research into use question. It is now starting to build evidence that suggests that rather than simply promoting researchproducts what is more valuable is linking the research process to activities led by entrepreneurs and other users of new ideas.

But while the contemporary views outlined above point to the need to view research as acomplementary tool to development activities, development practice still maintains firmadministrative and operational distinctions between the two. There are signs that some development investors can see that the problems of food security and coping with climate change require more than just research.

Reference: Will a time of plenty for agricultural research help to feed the world?

Related:
Multi-stakeholder processes for knowledge-based rural innovation
25 January 2010 - 30 April 2010
International Centre for development oriented Research in Agriculture - ICRA
This course is a professional capacity strengthening programme for enhancing performance in rural innovation.

Agribusiness and innovation systems in Africa

2 December 2009. World Bank. A new World Bank publication examines how agricultural innovation arises in four African countries - Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda - through the lens of agribusiness, public policies, and specific value chains for food staples, high value products, and livestock.

The volume is based on qualitative interviews with agribusiness representatives that were designed to shed light on their experiences on public policies that either enhance or impede innovation in Africa's agriculture sector.

Reference Agribusiness and innovation systems in Africa

Agricultural innovation in Africa: addressing climate-smart growth

2 December 2009 Belfer Center. The Belfer Center’s new Agricultural Innovation in Africa project will work to address the dual challenges of climate change and food shortages.

The project, directed by Harvard Kennedy School’s Professor of the Practice of International Development Calestous Juma, seeks to engage with policy-makers and focus information dissemination on efforts to align science and technology missions and operations with agricultural development goals in Africa's Regional Economic Communities.

Reference: Agricultural innovation in Africa: addressing climate-smart growth

ILRI Innovation platforms and networks

6 December 2009 IAALD. Peter Ballantyne recently interviewed three researchers about their research work on innovation systems:

Ranjitha Puskur (ILRI) on the DFID-funded Fodder Innovation Project

What outcomes and changes has she seen? At the farm level, farmers are changing their livestock feeding and management practices; there is an emerging demand for technologies, inputs and services that, ironically, were earlier promoted without success. "Farmers are seeing the need for knowledge and can articulate demands to service providers." She emphasizes that "getting a network of actors isn't an easy process, it takes time". Different organizations with different interests and motives have to be brought around the table to contribute and benefit.
"It needs great facilitation skills and negotiating skills which are not very often core competences of researchers like us."

Alan Duncan (ILRI) on the IFAD-funded Fodder Adoption Project. Speaking in the margins of the December 2009 SLP meeting in Addis Ababa, he introduces the IFAD-funded 'Fodder Adoption Project' based at ILRI.

He outlines the approach followed in the project - trying to strike a balance between the technological and institutional angles. The project helps groups of stakeholders - farmers, private sector, dairy coops, the government - get together in 'innovation platforms' where they can develop joint actions that address livestock fodder problems. Initially the project went with a traditional approach, focusing on technologies. As the process evolved, other issues came in, more actors joined the platforms, and the technologies - growing improved fodder - acted more as a catalyst for people to come together to discuss a wide range of other issues (dairying, health, etc).

Andre Van Rooyen (ICRISAT) on the “innovation platform” approach he uses to engage with smallholder farmers in Southern Africa.

Andre Van Rooyen (ICRISAT) outlines why ICRISAT is interested in this project: "Our interest in the slp project is to understand the main drivers behind increased use of crop residues and at what point will farmers begin to buy and sell them." He sees the project playing an important role to hep ICRISAT in Southern Africa position itself to better serve farmer needs in the future.

Reference: Innovation platforms and networks