Enhancing Agricultural Innovation: How to Go Beyond the Strengthening of Research Systems

Agricultural development depends to a great extent on how successfully knowledge is generated and applied. Investments in knowledge - especially in the form of science and technology have featured prominently and consistently in most strategies to promote sustainable and equitable agricultural development at the national level. As the context of agricultural development has changed, ideas of what constitutes innovation have changed, and so have approaches for investing in it. Strengthened research systems may increase the supply of new knowledge and new technologies, but they may not necessarily improve the capacity for innovation throughout the agricultural sector. The concept of an innovation system has guided this more holistic approach to planning knowledge production and use. This paper uses this concept to develop a framework for guiding diagnosis of innovation capacity and for planning interventions. The innovation systems concept focuses not merely on the science suppliers but on the totality and interaction of actors involved in innovation. It extends beyond the creation of knowledge to encompass the factors affecting demand for and use of new and existing knowledge in novel and useful ways. The question then is whether the principles and insights arising from the innovation systems concept and the perspective on innovation capacity development it implies can be converted into operational tools for policies and projects that address the practical challenges of agricultural development and sustained economic growth. This paper attempts to answer that question. Chapter one presents why assess the value of the innovation systems perspective? The innovation systems concept is discussed in chapter two, especially with regard to its potential value for agricultural development interventions. Chapter three describes the methodology for the study, further discusses the rationale for selecting each case study, and summarizes results of each study. Chapter four, a comparative analysis of the eight studies highlights differences in the evolution of the eight cases and identifies potential sources of these differences. The main findings from the case studies are used in chapter five to derive lessons on what drives innovation and the generic interventions that promote the capacity to innovate. The comparative analysis of the case studies is used to develop an intervention framework in chapter six. Chapter seven recapitulates the main conclusions from the case studies, revisits the utility of the analytical framework for understanding agricultural innovation, and also revisits the value of the intervention framework for identifying activities in support of agricultural innovation.