Your search found 4 records
1 Tran, T. A.; Nguyen, T. H.; Vo, T. T. 2019. Adaptation to flood and salinity environments in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: empirical analysis of farmer-led innovations. Agricultural Water Management, 216:89-97. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2019.01.020]
Flooding ; Salinity ; Salt water intrusion ; Adaptation ; Strategies ; Farmer participation ; Innovation systems ; Water management ; Agricultural practices ; Policies ; Rural communities ; Case studies / Vietnam / Mekong Delta / Phu Thanh B Commune / Phu Xuan Commune / Thoi Hung Commune / Long Phu Commune / Dai Ngai Commune
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049198)
(3.21 MB)
Agriculture is exposed to climatic impacts, especially in developing countries. Adaptation is the predominant practice that farming communities undertake to deal with these climate-induced challenges. While significant attention has been devoted to farmers’ adaptation strategies, little is known about how innovative practices are associated with the improvement of rural livelihoods. To address this gap, the paper attempts to investigate how farmers lead the process of rural innovations that constitute successful forms of adaptation to address the mixed impacts of dyke policies and climate change in two distinct agro-ecological zones (i.e. flooding and salinity) in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD). Drawing on qualitative information collected from focus group discussions and interviews across the case studies, the paper argues that farmers are the key innovation actors who contribute to improving rural farming and water management practices. The study suggests that the evolution of farmer-led innovations is mainly attributed to the operation of various informal learning networks that provide important platforms for the generation and diffusion of effective innovative practices across farming communities. It also highlights how farmers contribute their innovative knowledge to local adaptation policies. From the policy perspective, this study sees the development of rural innovation systems as the best practices of farmers’ adaptation, which needs to be scaled out to better support agricultural water management in the delta.
2 International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 2021. Adaptive scaling to achieve system transformation in One CGIAR. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 8p.
Food systems ; Innovation systems ; Scaling ; Institutional development ; CGIAR ; Frameworks ; Strategies ; Multi-stakeholder processes ; Partnerships ; Collaboration ; Private sector ; Farmer-led irrigation ; Innovation scaling
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050492)
(2.91 MB)
3 Chinseu, E. L.; Dougill, A. J.; Stringer, L. C. 2022. Strengthening conservation agriculture innovation systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: lessons from a stakeholder analysis. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 20(1):17-30. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14735903.2021.1911511]
Conservation agriculture ; Innovation systems ; Stakeholder analysis ; Climate-smart agriculture ; Farming systems ; Agricultural research for development ; Sustainable intensification ; Land management ; Policies ; Government ; Non-governmental organizations ; Donors ; Collaboration / Africa South of Sahara / Malawi
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050921)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14735903.2021.1911511
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050921.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050921.pdf
(2.33 MB) (2.33 MB)
Complexity of African agrarian systems necessitates that agricultural research and development transition to agricultural innovation system [AIS] approaches. While AIS perspectives are embraced across sub-Saharan Africa, engagement of stakeholders in agricultural research and development processes as espoused in AIS paradigm remains limited. This paper aims to analyze key stakeholders in the AIS in Malawi using the case of Conservation Agriculture [CA]. We analyze roles, organizational capacity and collaboration of stakeholders in Malawi’s CA innovation system. Although Government has the most extensive role, NGOs dominate the national CA agenda, while smallholder farmers remain passive recipients of CA interventions. Many CA promoters lack technical and financial capacity, and pursue limited collaboration, which diminish prospects of inclusive stakeholder engagement. While insufficient resources lead to inadequate technical support to smallholders, the limited collaboration hinders integration of programmes, multiple sources of innovation and knowledge required to foster social learning and sustainability of CA. Our findings indicate a need to: (1) strengthen understanding of AIS approaches among CA innovation system stakeholders; (2) build stronger partnerships in CA research and development by strengthening stakeholder platforms and social processes; (3) strengthen collaboration advisory mechanisms to facilitate knowledge-sharing, resource mobilization and joint programme implementation with strengthened feedback loops.
4 Ensor, J.; de Bruin, A. 2022. The role of learning in farmer-led innovation. Agricultural Systems, 197:103356. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2021.103356]
Farmers ; Social aspects ; Learning ; Innovation systems ; Stakeholders ; Collaboration ; Agricultural innovation ; Sustainability ; Policies ; Case studies / England / Scotland / Scottish Borders
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050939)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X21003097/pdfft?md5=daa115ecd66387e65db9cd3d3c15b5c7&pid=1-s2.0-S0308521X21003097-main.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050939.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050939.pdf
(0.95 MB) (976 KB)
CONTEXT: Farmer-led innovation brings farmers together with other stakeholders in a collaborative endeavour that recognises multiple forms of expertise. Critical engagement with mainstream models of agricultural science and technology (AST) development has drawn attention to the isolation of farmers as technology adopters within a compartmentalised model of AST development and dissemination. Academic, government and non-governmental actors and organisations are increasingly supporting facilitated processes in which farmers, scientists and engineers develop new knowledge, learning together about the nature of the problems being faced and the potential of different solution pathways.
OBJECTIVE: Despite the centrality of learning to farmer-led innovation, its role has yet to be systematically explored. In response, this paper looks to understand the forms of learning and their contribution to farmer-led innovation during a three-year action-research project involving two groups of farmers from northern England and the Scottish Borders in the UK.
METHODS: A researcher-facilitator convened a structured process of twenty meetings that together created opportunities for interaction, deliberation and re-framing of problems and solutions among groups of farmers, a university-based engineer, and wider stakeholders. Multiple qualitative methods were used to build understanding of the different farming contexts and to explore the issues the farmers wanted to work on. Meeting transcripts and fieldnotes were subject to thematic analysis, informed by the analytical framework of cognitive, normative and relational learning derived from the social learning literature.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive, normative and relational learning were found to be mutually interdependent and equally significant, building iteratively rather than linearly: the farmers and engineer assessed new information and reappraised existing situations; they did so informed by and informing a shift in understanding of their goals for new technology; and in so doing they relied on and developed the trust and confidence needed to acknowledge or challenge each other's perspectives. By orientating the group engagement process around the space to explore and challenge histories and contexts of AST, and by drawing on social learning principles to facilitate interaction between the different expertise of farmers and between farmers and engineers, learning emerged that interleaved technology co-design with incremental refinement of the shared norms and values embedded in the process itself.
SIGNIFICANCE: A focus on learning helps deepen understanding of key mechanisms and processes that define and deliver innovation, and the findings suggest that priorities for farmer-led innovation process design should focus on modalities that open up spaces to negotiate both the purpose and products of innovation.
OBJECTIVE: Despite the centrality of learning to farmer-led innovation, its role has yet to be systematically explored. In response, this paper looks to understand the forms of learning and their contribution to farmer-led innovation during a three-year action-research project involving two groups of farmers from northern England and the Scottish Borders in the UK.
METHODS: A researcher-facilitator convened a structured process of twenty meetings that together created opportunities for interaction, deliberation and re-framing of problems and solutions among groups of farmers, a university-based engineer, and wider stakeholders. Multiple qualitative methods were used to build understanding of the different farming contexts and to explore the issues the farmers wanted to work on. Meeting transcripts and fieldnotes were subject to thematic analysis, informed by the analytical framework of cognitive, normative and relational learning derived from the social learning literature.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive, normative and relational learning were found to be mutually interdependent and equally significant, building iteratively rather than linearly: the farmers and engineer assessed new information and reappraised existing situations; they did so informed by and informing a shift in understanding of their goals for new technology; and in so doing they relied on and developed the trust and confidence needed to acknowledge or challenge each other's perspectives. By orientating the group engagement process around the space to explore and challenge histories and contexts of AST, and by drawing on social learning principles to facilitate interaction between the different expertise of farmers and between farmers and engineers, learning emerged that interleaved technology co-design with incremental refinement of the shared norms and values embedded in the process itself.
SIGNIFICANCE: A focus on learning helps deepen understanding of key mechanisms and processes that define and deliver innovation, and the findings suggest that priorities for farmer-led innovation process design should focus on modalities that open up spaces to negotiate both the purpose and products of innovation.
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