Organizational determinant of technological innovation in food agriculture and impacts on sustainable development

Abstract

The food security challenges faced by populations in sub-Saharan Africa and the fact that extensive production systems are reaching their limits in the food-producing agricultural chain have increased the need to accelerate technological innovation toward the ecological intensification of agricultural production systems. Here, a review of the research conducted on plantain bananas (Musa paradisiaca) in Cameroon since 1988 revealed how institutional innovation has enabled the hybridization of different research forms—such as fundamental, systems, and action research—and reinforced the organizational innovation required for technical change. We found that impact evaluation underlined the complementarity between the increases in productivity and income in rural areas, as well as the production of human and social capital and the protection of forest resources.