Unravelling the role of innovation platforms in supporting co-evolution of innovation: Contributions and tensions in a smallholder dairy development programme

Kilelu, Catherine; Klerkx, Laurens; Leeuwis, C.

doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2013.03.003

Cited by 269 publications

(331 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…In contrast, research on broader aspects of natural resource management has embraced a systems approach (Sayer and Campbell 2004) and explicit treatment of local knowledge (Sinclair and Walker 1998;Joshi et al 2004) but tended to increasingly focus at landscape scales consistent with consideration of a range of ecosystem services manifest at these scales Cerdan et al 2012). At the same time, the focus of farmer participatory research has broadened to encompass a wider concept of innovation systems that includes markets and the institutional context within which innovation occurs (Scoones and Thompson 2009;Kilelu et al 2013). This converges with the emphasis on social-ecological connections now dominant in resilience science (Walker et al 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An integrated agro-ecosystem and livelihood systems approach for the poor and vulnerable in dry areas

et al. 2013

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More than 400 million people in the developing world depend on dryland agriculture for their livelihoods. Dryland agriculture involves a complex combination of productive components: staple crops, vegetables, livestock, trees and fish interacting principally with rangeland, cultivated areas and watercourses. Managing risk and enhancing productivity through diversification and sustainable intensification is critical to securing and improving rural livelihoods. The main biophysical constraints are natural resource limitations and degradation, particularly water scarcity and encroaching desertification. Social and economic limitations, such as poor access to markets and inputs, weak governance and lack of information about alternative production technologies also limit the options available to farmers. Past efforts to address these constraints by focusing on individual components have either not been successful or are now facing a declining rate of impact, indicating the need for new integrated approaches to research for development of dryland systems. This article outlines the characteristics of such an approach, integrating agro-ecosystem and livelihoods approaches and presents a range of empirical examples of its application in dryland contexts. The authors draw attention to new insights about the design of research required to accelerate impact by integrating across disciplines and scales.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An integrated agro-ecosystem and livelihood systems approach for the poor and vulnerable in dry areas

et al. 2013

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“…This calls for mechanisms to enable interaction, collective learning and adaptive management between farmers and other stakeholders who are key to bring about the desired change (e.g., private sector, development institutions, extension services, and local policy makers). This can be provided by multi-stakeholder innovation platforms, which have become increasingly popular in agricultural R&D [59]. The four cases above also illustrate the importance of a multi-scale approach (Sections 3.1 and 3.2 describe processes at plot-scale, Section 3.3 describes a process at farm-scale and Section 3.4 describes a process at landscape-scale).…”

Section: The Need For An Iterative Multi-scale Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where to Target Conservation Agriculture for African Smallholders? How to Overcome Challenges Associated with its Implementation? Experience from Eastern and Southern Africa

Baudron

Thierfelder²,

Nyagumbo³

et al. 2015

Environments

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Since the paper by Giller et al. (2009), the debate surrounding the suitability of conservation agriculture (CA) for African smallholders has remained polarized between proponents and opponents. The debate also gave rise to a few studies that attempted to identify the "niche" where CA would fit in the region, but the insight offered by these studies has been limited. In this paper, we first analyze the rationale of adoption where it occurred globally to define "drivers" of adoption. Our analysis suggests that CA has first and foremost been adopted under the premises of being energy-saving (time and/or power), erosion-controlling, and water-use efficient, but rarely to increase yield. We then define the niche where CA fits, based on these drivers of adoption, as systems where (1) the energy available for crop establishment is limited and/or costly (including labor and draft power); (2) delayed planting results in a significant yield decline; (3) yield is limited or co-limited by water; and/or (4) severe erosion problems threaten the short-to medium-term productivity of farmland. In Eastern and Southern Africa, this niche appears rather large and likely to expand in the near future. When implemented within this niche, CA may still be limited by "performance challenges" that do not constitute drivers or barriers to adoption, but limitations to the performance of CA. We argue that most of these performance challenges can (and should) be addressed by agronomic and socio-economic research, and provide four OPEN ACCESSEnvironments 2015, 2 339 examples where the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and its partners have been successfully alleviating four very different challenges through research and development (R&D) in Eastern and Southern Africa. Finally, we describe an iterative and multi-scale R&D approach currently used by CIMMYT in Eastern and Southern Africa to overcome challenges associated with the implementation of CA by African smallholders. This approach could also be useful for other complex combinations of technologies aiming at sustainable intensification.

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“…Rather than focusing on "upscaling" or disseminating technical solutions which have proven successful in trials, it seems more promising to focus on endogenous development efforts and ways to promote social learning processes, which may well integrate relevant scientific insights (Röling and Wagemakers, 1998;Kilelu et al, 2013). The solutions developed within such social learning processes are more likely to take into account social issues (e.g.…”

Section: Strengthening Resilience Through Social Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing social-ecological resilience through social learning: A case study of communal pasture management in the Highlands of Ethiopia

Aregu¹,

Darnhofer²

2015

Afr. J. Agric. Res.

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Social learning processes can play an important role in enabling communities to sustainably manage the natural resources they depend upon. We examine how a community in the highlands of Ethiopia has succeeded to manage its communal pasture sustainably over the past decades. We identified three processes that played a key role in enabling the community to take the window of opportunity offered by a radical policy change to transform their management approach. Firstly, traditional leaders recognized the window of opportunity and mobilized the community. Secondly, a participatory process led to an informal institution that has governed the access and use of the communal pasture. Thirdly, the community was able to effectively interact with various government agencies to safeguard its autonomy. The study thus indicates that, in face of the complexity and uncertainty associated with pervasive change, social-ecological resilience relies on social learning and the ability to engage in open-ended processes. It also emphasizes that rather than promoting technical 'packages' that focus on the biophysical productivity of a natural resource, it may be more effective to facilitate integrative social processes, thereby enabling communities to identify and implement locally adapted management approaches.

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Unravelling the role of innovation platforms in supporting co-evolution of innovation: Contributions and tensions in a smallholder dairy development programme

Cited by 269 publications

References 41 publications

An integrated agro-ecosystem and livelihood systems approach for the poor and vulnerable in dry areas

An integrated agro-ecosystem and livelihood systems approach for the poor and vulnerable in dry areas

Where to Target Conservation Agriculture for African Smallholders? How to Overcome Challenges Associated with its Implementation? Experience from Eastern and Southern Africa

Enhancing social-ecological resilience through social learning: A case study of communal pasture management in the Highlands of Ethiopia

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