INNOVATION PLATFORMS: EXPERIENCES WITH THEIR INSTITUTIONAL EMBEDDING IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT

SUMMARY Innovation Platforms (IPs) are seen as a promising vehicle to foster a paradigm shift in agricultural research for development (AR4D). By facilitating interaction, negotiation and collective action between farmers, researchers and other stakeholders, IPs can contribute to more integrated, systemic innovation that is essential for achieving agricultural development impacts. However, successful implementation of IPs requires institutional change within AR4D establishments. The objective of this paper is to reflect on the implementation and institutionalisation of IPs in present AR4D programmes. We use experiences from sub-Saharan Africa to demonstrate how the adoption and adaptation of IPs creates both opportunities and challenges that influence platform performance and impact. Niche-regime theory is used to understand challenges, and anticipate on how to deal with them. A key concern is whether IPs in AR4D challenge or reinforce existing technology-oriented agricultural innovation paradigms. For example, stakeholder representation, facilitation and institutional embedding determine to a large extent whether the IP can strengthen systemic capacity to innovate that can lead to real paradigm change, or are merely ‘old wine in new bottles’ and a continuation of ‘business as usual’. Institutional embedding of IPs and – more broadly – the transition from technology-oriented to system-oriented AR4D approaches requires structural changes in organisational mandates, incentives, procedures and funding, as well as investments in exchange of experiences, learning and capacity development.

[1]  S. Sherwood.  Learning from Carchi: agricultural modernisation and the production of decline , 2009 .

[2]  R. Mackay,et al.  Using evaluation to enhance institutional learning and change: recent experiences with agricultural research and development , 2003 .

[3]  J. Hellin,et al.  INCREASING THE IMPACTS OF PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH , 2008, Experimental Agriculture.

[4]  S. Biggs.  Farming systems research and rural poverty: Relationships between context and content☆ , 1995 .

[5]  Claire Lamine,et al.  Transition pathways towards a robust ecologization of agriculture and the need for system redesign. Cases from organic farming and IPM , 2011 .

[6]  D. Roep,et al.  Managing technical-institutional design processes: some strategic lessons from environmental co-operatives in the Netherlands , 2003 .

[7]  Frank W. Geels,et al.  Strategic niche management and sustainable innovation journeys: theory, findings, research agenda, and policy , 2008, Technol. Anal. Strateg. Manag..

[8]  J. Schot,et al.  Regime shifts to sustainability through processes of niche formation : the approach of strategic niche management , 1998 .

[9]  G. Thiele,et al.  What happened to participatory research at the International Potato Center? , 2001 .

[10]  Michael Gibbons,et al.  Introduction: `Mode 2' Revisited: The New Production of Knowledge , 2003 .

[11]  L. Klerkx,et al.  RAAIS: Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Innovation Systems (Part II). Integrated analysis of parasitic weed problems in rice in Tanzania , 2015 .

[12]  James Sumberg,et al.  Why agronomy in the developing world has become contentious , 2013 .

[13]  Adrian Smith,et al.  Translating Sustainabilities between Green Niches and Socio-Technical Regimes , 2007, Technol. Anal. Strateg. Manag..

[14]  Dirk Roep,et al.  Bridging incompatible regimes: how the formation of intermediary regimes drives system innovation , 2010 .

[15]  J. Hellin,et al.  Linking Agricultural Research with the Agribusiness Community from a Pro-Poor Perspective: the Importance of Human Capital Development , 2012 .

[16]  O. Ortiz,et al.  Organizational learning through participatory research: CIP and CARE in Peru , 2008 .

[17]  C. Leeuwis.  Capacity to innovate from a system CGIAR research program perspective , 2017 .

[18]  R. Birner,et al.  THE PROVISION OF VETERINARY SERVICES: WHO ARE THE INFLUENTIAL ACTORS AND WHAT ARE THE GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES? A CASE STUDY OF UGANDA , 2015, Experimental Agriculture.

[19]  R. Pyburn,et al.  One Finger Cannot Lift a Rock: Facilitating Innovation Platforms to Trigger Institutional Change in West Africa , 2012 .

[20]  Andreas Neef,et al.  Niche action and system harmonization for institutional change: Prospects for demand-driven agricultural extension in Vietnam , 2014 .

[21]  Dirk Roep,et al.  Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture: Processes of Co-evolution, Joint Reflection and Facilitation , 2015 .

[22]  Tanya Stathers,et al.  Innovation Africa : enriching farmers' livelihoods , 2008 .

[23]  P.G.H. Engel,et al.  Facilitating innovation : an action-oriented approach and participatory methodology to improve innovative social practice in agriculture , 1995 .

[24]  Laxmi Prasad Pant,et al.  Learning and Innovation Competence in Agricultural and Rural Development , 2012 .

[25]  L. Klerkx,et al.  Operationalizing inclusive innovation: lessons from innovation platforms in livestock value chains in India and Mozambique , 2014 .

[26]  S. Snapp,et al.  PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH ON LEGUME DIVERSIFICATION WITH MALAWIAN SMALLHOLDER FARMERS FOR IMPROVED HUMAN NUTRITION AND SOIL FERTILITY , 2007, Experimental Agriculture.

[27]  Laurens Klerkx,et al.  Evolution of systems approaches to agricultural innovation: concepts, analysis and interventions , 2012 .

[28]  N. Röling,et al.  An innovation systems approach to institutional change: Smallholder development in West Africa , 2012 .

[29]  Laurens Klerkx,et al.  Towards dynamic research configurations: A framework for reflection on the contribution of research to policy and innovation processes , 2014 .

[30]  Ruth Nettle,et al.  How Programme Teams Progress Agricultural Innovation in the Australian Dairy Industry , 2013 .

[31]  M. Altieri.  Pest-management technologies for peasants: a farming systems approach , 1984 .

[32]  A. O. Fatunbi,et al.  Approaches for Setting-up Multi-Stakeholder Platforms for Agricultural Research and Development , 2012 .

[33]  Cees Leeuwis,et al.  Reconceptualizing Participation for Sustainable Rural Development: Towards a Negotiation Approach , 2000 .

[34]  Cees Leeuwis,et al.  Anchoring of innovations: Assessing Dutch efforts to harvest energy from glasshouses , 2012 .

[35]  D. Roux,et al.  Framework for participative reflection on the accomplishment of transdisciplinary research programs , 2010 .

[36]  Laurens Klerkx,et al.  Looking at Agricultural Innovation Platforms through an Innovation Champion Lens , 2013 .

[37]  Fergus L. Sinclair,et al.  Scaling up agroforestry requires research ‘in’ rather than ‘for’ development , 2014 .

[38]  L. Klerkx,et al.  Co-managing public research in Australian fisheries through convergence–divergence processes , 2015 .

[39]  Cees Leeuwis,et al.  The need for reflexive evaluation approaches in development cooperation , 2015 .

[40]  J. Dessein,et al.  Using the rural web in dialogue with regional stakeholders , 2013 .

[41]  N. Röling,et al.  Institutional change towards sustainable agriculture in West Africa , 2014 .

[42]  Laurens Klerkx,et al.  Operationalizing Demand-Driven Agricultural Research: Institutional Influences in a Public and Private System of Research Planning in The Netherlands , 2009 .

[43]  Boelie Elzen,et al.  Stimulating transitions towards sustainable farming systems , 2012 .

[44]  C. Leeuwis,et al.  Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Innovation Systems (RAAIS) , 2016 .

[45]  Jonne Rodenburg,et al.  RAAIS: Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Innovation Systems (Part I). A diagnostic tool for integrated analysis of complex problems and innovation capacity , 2015 .

[46]  Marko P. Hekkert,et al.  Keeping sustainable innovation on a leash? Exploring incumbents’ institutional strategies , 2015 .

[47]  W. Neuman,et al.  Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches , 2002 .

[48]  L. Klerkx,et al.  Lessons on Transdisciplinary Research in a Co-Innovation Programme in the New Zealand Agricultural Sector , 2014 .

[49]  Andreas Neef,et al.  Stakeholder participation in agricultural research projects: a conceptual framework for reflection and decision-making , 2011 .

[50]  Andrew Hall,et al.  From measuring impact to learning institutional lessons: an innovation systems perspective on improving the management of international agricultural research , 2003 .

[51]  C. Leeuwis,et al.  Learning in the Social Wild: Encounters between Farmer Field Schools and Agricultural Science and Development in Ecuador , 2012 .

[52]  G. Hickey,et al.  Publicly funded research: A participative experience from the Chilean Native Forest Research Fund , 2013 .

[53]  K. Giller.  Can We Define the Term ‘Farming Systems’? A Question of Scale , 2013 .

[54]  V. Rasheed Sulaiman,et al.  Extension: Object of Reform, Engine for Innovation , 2009 .

[55]  Andrew Hall,et al.  Enhancing agricultural innovation : how to go beyond the strengthening of research systems , 2006 .

[56]  B. Leca,et al.  How actors change institutions: Towards a theory of institutional entrepreneurship , 2009 .

[57]  André Devaux,et al.  Collective action for market chain innovation in the Andes , 2009 .

[58]  S. Ayele,et al.  Enhancing innovation in livestock value chains through networks: Lessons from fodder innovation case studies in developing countries , 2012 .

[59]  Nicolas Faysse,et al.  Troubles on the way: An analysis of the challenges faced by multi-stakeholder platforms , 2006 .

[60]  W. Clark,et al.  Boundary work for sustainable development: Natural resource management at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[61]  J. Hagmann,et al.  Making innovation systems work in practice: experiences in integrating innovation, social learning and knowledge in innovation platforms , 2011 .

[62]  C. Leeuwis,et al.  TOWARDS A REGIME CHANGE IN THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SEED SUPPLY SYSTEM IN CHINA , 2012, Experimental Agriculture.

[63]  Putting Heads Together. , 1978 .

[64]  Andrew Hall,et al.  Capacity development for agricultural biotechnology in developing countries: an innovation systems view of what it is and how to develop it , 2005 .

[65]  G. V. D. Ven,et al.  Multi-actor governance of sustainable biofuels in developing countries: The case of Mozambique , 2014 .

[66]  A. Smith,et al.  Research Methodology: A Step-by-step Guide for Beginners , 2012 .

[67]  J. Guerra,et al.  Institutional Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Resources Management: Changing the rules of the game , 2003 .

[68]  Peter Frost,et al.  Competing Claims on Natural Resources: What Role for Science? , 2008 .

[69]  A. Devaux,et al.  Brokering innovation for sustainable development: The Papa Andina case. , 2010 .

[70]  Richard Whittington,et al.  Agency in national innovation systems: Institutional entrepreneurship and the professionalization of Taiwanese IT , 2011 .

[71]  Mariana Wongtschowski,et al.  Putting heads together : agricultural innovation platforms in practice , 2011 .

[72]  Douglas Horton,et al.  Disciplinary roots and branches of evaluation: Some lessons from agricultural research , 1998 .

[73]  Jonne Rodenburg,et al.  Systems approaches to innovation in crop protection. A systematic literature review , 2014 .

[74]  Amir Kassam,et al.  TOWARDS A REGIONAL APPROACH TO RESEARCH FOR THE CGIAR AND ITS PARTNERS , 2004, Experimental Agriculture.

[75]  J. Rotmans,et al.  The practice of transition management: Examples and lessons from four distinct cases , 2010 .

[76]  Laurens Klerkx,et al.  Unravelling the role of innovation platforms in supporting co-evolution of innovation: Contributions and tensions in a smallholder dairy development programme , 2013 .

[77]  Bernhard Truffer,et al.  The structuration of socio-technical regimes—Conceptual foundations from institutional theory , 2014 .

[78]  Michael Gibbons,et al.  Transfer sciences: management of distributed knowledge production , 1994 .

[79]  S. Biggs.  LEARNING FROM THE POSITIVE TO REDUCE RURAL POVERTY AND INCREASE SOCIAL JUSTICE: INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATIONS IN AGRICULTURAL AND NATURAL RESOURCES RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT , 2008, Experimental Agriculture.

[80]  D. Roep,et al.  Arranging public support to unfold collaborative modes of governance in rural areas , 2013 .

[81]  F. Geels.  From sectoral systems of innovation to socio-technical systems: Insights about dynamics and change from sociology and institutional theory , 2004 .

[82]  C. Hinrichs,et al.  Transitions to sustainability: a change in thinking about food systems change? , 2014 .

[83]  M. Lundy,et al.  Learning alliances : an approach for building multistakeholder innovation systems , 2005 .

[84]  E. Bulte,et al.  Do decentralized innovation systems promote agricultural technology adoption? Experimental evidence from Africa , 2014 .

[85]  E. Totin,et al.  Between Script and Improvisation: Institutional Conditions and Their Local Operation , 2014 .

[86]  D. Gibbon,et al.  Farming Systems Research into the 21st Century: The New Dynamic , 2012, Springer Netherlands.

[87]  P. Baret,et al.  How Agricultural Research Systems Shape a Technological Regime that Develops Genetic Engineering but Locks Out Agroecological Innovations , 2009 .

[88]  Delia Grace,et al.  Linking international agricultural research knowledge with action for sustainable development , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[89]  A. Neef,et al.  Adapting the innovation systems approach to agricultural development in Vietnam: challenges to the public extension service , 2013 .

[90]  Marc Barbier,et al.  System innovations, knowledge regimes, and design practices towards transitions for sustainable agriculture. , 2012 .

[91]  Laurens Klerkx,et al.  Critical issues for reflection when designing and implementing Research for Development in Innovation platforms , 2013 .

[92]  Laurens Klerkx,et al.  Agricultural Innovation Platforms in West Africa , 2014 .

[93]  C. Leeuwis,et al.  Adaptive management in agricultural innovation systems: The interactions between innovation networks and their environment , 2010 .

[94]  Boru Douthwaite,et al.  TRANSFORMING IMPACT ASSESSMENT: BEGINNING THE QUIET REVOLUTION OF INSTITUTIONAL LEARNING AND CHANGE , 2008, Experimental Agriculture.

[95]  A. Duncan,et al.  An analysis of power dynamics within innovation platforms for natural resource management , 2014 .

[96]  M. Zweekhorst,et al.  Understanding Constraints in the Dynamics of a Research Programme Intended as a Niche Innovation , 2013 .

[97]  Laurens Klerkx,et al.  Delegation of authority in research funding to networks: Experiences with a multiple goal boundary organization , 2008 .

[98]  Joyce Tait,et al.  Management of Pests and Pesticides , 1987 .

[99]  H. Bernard.  Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches , 1988 .

[100]  J. Sumberg,et al.  From Agricultural Research to ‘Product Development’ , 2013 .

[101]  L. Klerkx,et al.  Innovation grants to smallholder farmers: Revisiting the key assumptions in the impact pathways , 2015 .

[102]  C. Anthony Di Benedetto,et al.  Diffusion of Innovation , 2015 .

[103]  Marc Schut,et al.  Knowledge and innovation management in the policy debate on biofuel sustainability in Mozambique: what roles for researchers? , 2011 .