Making Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) Work for Development in Tropical Countries

Philipp Aerni,Andrea Sonnino,Karin Nichterlein,Stephen Rudgard

doi:10.3390/su7010831

Abstract

Agricultural innovation in low-income tropical countries contributes to a more effective and sustainable use of natural resources and reduces hunger and poverty through economic development in rural areas. Yet, despite numerous recent public and private initiatives to develop capacities for agricultural innovation, such initiatives are often not well aligned with national efforts to revive existing Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS). In an effort to improve coordination and responsiveness of Capacity Development (CD) initiatives, the G20 Agriculture Ministers requested the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to lead the development of a Tropical Agricultural Platform (TAP), which is designed to improve coherence and coordination of CD for agricultural innovation in the tropics. This paper presents a summary of the results obtained from three regional needs assessments undertaken by TAP and its partners. The surveyed tropical regions were Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Central America. The findings reveal a mismatch in all three regions between the external supply of primarily individual CD and the actual demand for institutional CD. The misalignment might be addressed by strengthening south-south and triangular collaboration and by improving the institutional capacities that would render national AIS more demand-oriented and responsive to the needs of smallholders in domestic agriculture.

Highlights

Several reports and surveys on aspects of capacity development in tropical agriculture have recently been published [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8].There are five major findings that these reports have in common:(1) Current initiatives need to be better coordinated with national and regional policies to promote and sustain Capacity Development (CD) in agricultural innovation.(2) Overall national Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) in most low-income countries in tropical regions remain insufficiently connected to the local agricultural sector/economy
(4) CD in agricultural innovation often does not make reference to the policies and strategies related to National Innovation Systems (NIS) that cover all sectors of the economy [9,10]
The main objective of the regional needs assessments was to identify the needs in CD for agricultural innovation on the policy level, the institutional level and the individual level

Summary

Introduction

(1) Current initiatives need to be better coordinated with national and regional policies to promote and sustain CD in agricultural innovation. (2) Overall national AIS in most low-income countries in tropical regions remain insufficiently connected to the local agricultural sector/economy. This is reflected in research priorities, education and training, and in the competences of extension services, which remain all insufficiently aligned with the priorities of farmers, farm cooperatives and agribusiness. (4) CD in agricultural innovation often does not make reference to the policies and strategies related to National Innovation Systems (NIS) that cover all sectors of the economy [9,10]. Improvement in capacity development “to build the ability of countries to manage their own future”, lies at the heart of the Accra Agenda

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion