agrl_innovations_in_ssa.pdf?utm_content=buffercb41d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Improving access to information, knowledge and training
• New knowledge from research is only one component required to encourage innovation
in agriculture. Improving access to information can create an effective demand for
research products. For instance, use of local radio programmes can compliment training,
knowledge sharing and other learning events. The involvement of suppliers, technical
experts, farmers, government and NGOs in radio programmes helps to build networks.
Scaling up
• Sustainability requires capacity strengthening throughout the process to ensure local
people and organisations assume ownership and leadership. This should be continuous
and not undertaken as a one-off activity. It requires long-term funding commitments.
• SSA CP PLS, particularly those in Malawi demonstrated the links with, and the benefits
from, contributing to the country’s ASWAp. They provide a functioning model of districtand
community-level IPs that fit with local priorities within District Development Plans,
which reflect national priorities. As such the IP structure and activities are proving to be
a useful model for the implementation of the Malawi Government’s agricultural sector
programme in the respective districts.
Sustainability
• Sustainability requires ongoing capacity strengthening for all stakeholders including:
farmers, research and extension partners, and importantly farmers’ organisations to
effectively assume ownership and leadership of IPs. This should be continuous and not
undertaken as a one-off activity. It requires long-term funding commitments.
Implications for integrated agricultural research for development
The case studies show that increased agricultural productivity is driven by the ready availabilities
of new technologies together with improved incentives for farmers and agribusiness supported
by enabling government policies. At the same time it is likely that the private sector will play
an increasingly important role in technology development, marketing and processing systems
crucial for agricultural growth and poverty reduction. To support and enable this, the public
sector will need to ensure that predictable and transparent policies required for private sector
investment exist. The public sector will need to fund infrastructure in particular the roads,
power and water to ensure that markets can work effectively. Governments will need to fund
research particularly for such low-value food security crops as cassava and sweet potatoes as
well as measures to counteract the continuously evolving plant and animal pests and diseases
that threaten agriculture. Governments also need to support agricultural advisory services to
provide required support to the process of innovation generation.
It is increasingly recognised that IAR4D and the use of innovation systems approaches have
a major role to play in improving the links between stakeholders and in introducing new
ways of working. Experience shows that where stakeholder interaction is weak or missing,
facilitation or brokering is required to strengthen it. This facilitation role is very different from
traditional roles of research and extension, which have focused on technology development
Looking to the future 103