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Table 9: Facilitating and inhibiting factors and key interventions that enabled innovation
Area
Policy
Institutions
Infrastructure
Market
Support
services
Factors effecting innovation
Facilitating
Inhibiting
Enabling public Restrictive policies
policies and
regulations
Existence and Stakeholders act in isolation
interaction of
stakeholder groups
Public sector provision
of basic infrastructure
Effective input supply
systems
Market opportunities
Market competition
Effective extension
capability and capacity
Effective research
capability and capacity
Supportive funding
mechanisms
Donor support for
local priorities
Inadequate roads,
communication and power
Non-availability or high cost of
inputs relative to output prices
Undeveloped or no market
demand
Monopolistic inefficiencies
and corrupt practices
Lack of knowledge and
information
Lack of appropriate research
Lack of innovative funding
mechanisms
Inadequate funding
Key interventions made
Deregulation of markets, ensuring
competition with appropriate standards
Export parity pricing
Building and supporting partnerships
including capacity building
Encouraging cooperation, building trust
and common vision, joint planning and
implementation with agreed roles
Ensuring that infrastructure development
meets the need for market development
Involving the private sector and ensuring
market driven approaches
Seeking opportunities to add value along
market chains
Public and private sector maintenance of
competition and standards
Improving access to information,
knowledge and training
Ensuring farmer involvement in setting
research agendas and participation in
implementation and evaluation
Facilitating collaborative learning
Building local ownership with
backstopping
Ensuring credit meets the needs of the
agricultural sector
Increased support of agricultural
development initiatives
Key factors contributing to success
The case studies demonstrated that successful multiple stakeholder approaches were
dependent on a wide range of facilitating or inhibiting factors and interventions that enabled
innovation and improved the productivity of farming systems. These factors were characterised
in the same broad category areas identifying case study context, namely: policy, institutions,
infrastructure, market and support services (Table 9).
Clearly, enabling public policies and regulations are paramount. Deregulation of markets
whilst ensuring competition and compliance with minimum standards whether for internal or
export markets often laid a solid foundation for enabling innovation. However, the existence or
creation of a network of research, training and development stakeholder groups drawn from
both public and private sectors was a pre-requisite. Such groups need to have the capacity
and be able and willing to interact and work together in an environment that encourages
98 Agricultural Innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa