Endogenous learning and innovation in African smallholder agriculture: lessons from Guinea-Bissau

Abstract

ABSTRACT Purpose To advance understanding about the way endogenous knowledge on mangrove swamp rice (MSR) farming is transmitted, reinvented and negotiated between generations and highlight the implications this has for R4D. Design/Methodology/Approach Long-term qualitative research using an ethnographic approach, technography and biographies of farmers. Findings The endogenous Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) is dynamic but faces shortcomings owing to socio-environmental changes. This highlights the relevance of knowledge exchanges from multiple sources, eroding the divide between endogenous and exogenous from the farmers’ point of view. For positive exogenously induced socio-technical change to occur, external actors must fully understand the conditions under which (a) endogenous knowledge is produced and reinvented and (b) endogenous innovations flow among farmers. This will then allow the co-production of innovations adapted to each specific agro-ecological, cultural and socio-economic context, leaving them to be further transformed and refashioned by smallholders to meet their individual ‘dispositions’ and generate the roots necessary for a strong AKIS. Practical implications This paper highlights the importance of locally embedded processes of learning and innovation, the better understanding of which can provide a more solid basis for the co-production of technologies and the establishment of an AKIS. Theoretical implications This paper improves understanding of socio-technological change in smallholder agriculture by focusing on endogenous processes of learning and innovation. Originality This paper advances the knowledge on endogenous processes of learning and socio-technical change in smallholder agriculture.