Together with Professor Michele Holbrook, I recently co-organized a workshop on the challenge of designing innovation systems to meet the needs of the most vulnerable farmers. The workshop was held at Harvard University on September 11–12, 2014. It brought together a diverse group of scholars to explore how actors in the agriculture innovation system can better promote the needs of small and marginal farmers.
Four key themes emerged from the workshop:
(1) Drought sets fundamental limits on productivity. Its impacts are intertwined with temperature and nutrient stresses. Both genetic and management options to mitigate impacts of drought exist, but there are no silver bullets. Moreover, many existing technologies for addressing drought and water scarcity are currently not in widespread and sustained use across many parts of the developing world.
(2) Agriculture technologies should be thought of in terms of risk profiles to farmers rather than yields. This mirrors how farmers themselves think about whether to adopt a new technology. In this context, packages of technologies, as opposed to stand-alone interventions, are often important. So are broader institutional interventions that mitigate risks to farmers and facilitate adoption such as access to assured markets.
(3) Successful innovation is a multistage process, generally involving invention, selection, promotion, adoption, and adaptation on the way to widespread use. The actors in the innovation system who are most concerned with serving the needs of small and marginal farmers too often focus only on one stage of the innovation system, missing other important stages that are necessary to achieve their ultimate goals. A broader perspective that encompasses the entire innovation system is needed.
(4) Efforts are needed to increase the involvement of small and marginal farmers throughout the stages of the innovation system. In order to do this we need to build local capacity to adapt knowledge and technologies to specific social and ecological conditions and develop social capital among small and marginal farmers to demand policies and technologies that meet their needs. A common theme connecting examples of success was the role of local champions, who often approach challenges from a systems perspective, connecting stages of the innovation system to help develop “pockets of prosperity” for small and marginal farmers in specific regions.
You can read our full workshop report HERE.
You can visit the workshop website HERE.
PROVIDE LINK TO PAPER.