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2. A novel NGO approach to facilitate the adoption of sustainable innovations in low-income countries: lessons from small-scale farms in Nicaragua
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Dyck, Bruno (author) and Silvestre, Bruno S. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- SAGE Journals
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10522
- Journal Title:
- Organization Studies
- Journal Title Details:
- 40(3): 443–461
- Notes:
- 19 pages., via online journal., There are about 500 million small-scale farms in low-income countries on the planet. Farmers have been slow to adopt a threefold set of sustainable agronomic practices known as “conservation agriculture” (CA) that have been shown to double productivity. Our study of a novel CA project in Nicaragua, organized based on principles that counter convention, may point to improved ways of understanding and managing sustainable innovations in low-income countries. In particular, by connecting core ideas from the innovation literature to the literature that explores the role of intermediaries such as NGOs, our case study suggests that the efficacy of NGOs to facilitate the adoption of sustainable innovations by small-scale farmers in these settings may be enhanced if NGOs employ non-centrist approaches in order to address the critical uncertainties associated with such innovations. We discuss how our findings contradict some of long-standing arguments in the literature, and their implications for theory and practice.
3. Actors, roles and interactions in agricultural innovation networks: the case of the Portuguese cluster of small fruits
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Madureira, Lívia (author), Cristóvão, Artur (author), Ferreira, Dora (author), and Koehnen, Timothy (author)
- Format:
- ebook chapter
- Publication Date:
- 2018-05-20
- Published:
- Springer
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10355
- Journal Title:
- New Metropolitan Perspectives Local Knowledge and Innovation Dynamics Towards Territory Attractiveness Through the Implementation of Horizon
- Journal Title Details:
- 101
- Notes:
- 8 pages., ISBN 978-3-319-92102-0, Via ebook, The idea underpinning EIP-AGRI for linking producers and users of knowledge and promoting their interaction around problem-solving is well grounded on the evidence provided by the ‘innovation systems’ and related literature. Evidence gaps that matter to the implementation of the EIP-AGRI activities comprise the lack of knowledge regarding the best-fit network configuration for different farming systems and farming styles, and the nature and effectiveness of a facilitator function and role to bridge communication between researchers and farmers. This paper contributes with empirical evidence regarding the networks configuration best-fit for different farming system and farming styles, and provide insights on the facilitator relevance and its desirable profile, built on the study of a particular network: the Portuguese Cluster of small fruits (CSF). The small fruit sector is a novel sector in Portugal that has attracted in recent years a large number of new investors, in particular newly-established small-scale inexperienced producers. The insights provided by the CSF analysis emphasises that agglomeration economies based networks, which are very important in some agricultural sectors (e.g. fruit, wine) and in countries or regions where small-scale farms are significant, can in fact be the ground for knowledge and innovation networks in the sense wanted by the EIP-AGRI, since inclusiveness and facilitation functions are accounted for properly.
4. Collectively defining agricultural innovations: a Philippine rice farming village in dialogue
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Genilo, Jude William (author)
- Format:
- conference paper
- Publication Date:
- 2005
- Published:
- Philippines
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 154 Document Number: D06998
- Journal Title:
- International Communication Association
- Notes:
- pages 1-27
5. Factors affecting the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for farming decisions
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Ali, Jabir (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2012-02
- Published:
- Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 101 Document Number: D10884
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural & Food Information
- Journal Title Details:
- 13(1): 78-96
- Notes:
- 20 pages., via online journal, This study analyses the influences of sociodemographic factors, business orientation of farmers, and farm characteristics on adoption of ICT-based information through primary data collected from 461 farmers in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. A personal interview survey was conducted using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. The Poisson Count Regression Model was used to analyze the factors influencing use of the information derived through ICT-based systems on various agricultural practices. The findings indicate that education, income, and social category of farmers are important sociodemographic factors affecting the adoption of ICT-based information systems. Similarly, farmers who consider farming as a business venture, practice a diversified cropping system, and have small farms are more likely to use ICT-based information.
6. ICTs and small holder farming [opinion]
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Achora, Janet (author)
- Format:
- Opinion
- Publication Date:
- 2016-09
- Published:
- USA: IEEE - Inst. Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 158 Document Number: D07567
- Journal Title:
- IEEE Technology and Society Magazine
- Journal Title Details:
- 35 (3) 21-22
7. Innovation intermediation in a digital age: comparing public and private new-ICT platforms for agricultural extension in Ghana
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Munthali, Nyamwaya (author), Leeuwis, Cees (author), Van Paassen, Annemarie (author), Lie, Rico (author), Asare, Richard (author), Van Lammeren, Ron (author), and Schut, Marc (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-11
- Published:
- Science Direct
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10421
- Journal Title:
- NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences
- Journal Title Details:
- (86-87) : 64-76
- Notes:
- 13 pages., Via online journal., Agricultural extension in sub-Saharan Africa has often been criticised for its focus on linear knowledge transfer, and limited attention to systemic approaches to service delivery. Currently, the region is experiencing a new-ICT revolution and there are high expectations of new-ICTs to enhance interaction and information exchange in extension service delivery. Using an innovation systems perspective, we distinguish the roles demand-articulation, matching demand and supply, and innovation process management for innovation-intermediaries. The study explores literature on how new-ICT may support these roles, with specific interest in the possibilities of environmental monitoring and new forms of organisation enabled by enhanced connectivity. In order to contribute to the understanding of this area, the paper reports on a comparative study of two new-ICT platforms embedded in Ghanaian public and private extension organisations respectively. We assess the roles that these platforms (aim to) support, and document achievements and constraints based on interviews with extension staff and farmers. The findings indicate that while both platforms aim to support innovation-intermediation roles the focus areas and level of detail differ due to diverging organisational rationales to service delivery. In addition, we see that new-ICTs' potential to support innovation-intermediation roles is far from realised. This is not due to (new) ICTs lacking the capacity to link people in new ways and make information accessible, but due to the wider social, organisational and institutional factors that define the realisation of their potential. Therefore, more conventional modes of interaction around production advice and also credit provision continue to be dominant and better adapted to the situation. However, beyond the two platforms that were developed specifically by and for the extension organisations, there were indications that more informal and self-organised new-ICT initiatives can transform and enhance interaction patterns in innovations systems to achieve collective goals through standard virtual platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
8. Knowledge and development: dialogue at the heart of innovation
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Clavel, Daniele (author)
- Format:
- Report
- Publication Date:
- 2011
- Published:
- International: Editions Quae, Versailles Cedex, France, and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Wageningen, The Netherlands.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 166 Document Number: D08517
- Notes:
- ACDC holds citation information, table of contents, and conclusion., 107 pages.
9. Learning from experts and peer farmers about rice production: experimental evidence from Cote d’Ivoire
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Takahashi, Kazushi (author), Mano, Yukichi (author), and Otsuka, Keijiro (author)
- Format:
- Journal article abstract
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10534
- Journal Title:
- World Development
- Journal Title Details:
- 122: 157-169
- Notes:
- Abstract via online journal. 2 pages., Technological innovation is vital to economic growth and food security in sub-Saharan Africa where agricultural productivity has been stagnant for a long time. Extension services and learning from peer farmers are two common approaches to facilitate the diffusion of new technologies, but little is known about their relative effectiveness. Selection bias, whereby well-motivated training participants would perform better even without extension services, as well as knowledge spillovers, where non-participants can indirectly benefit from extension services, are among the major threats to causal inference. Using a unique sequential randomized experiment on agricultural training, this study attempts to meet the dual objectives of executing rigorous impact evaluation of extension services and subsequent spillovers on rice production in Cote d’Ivoire. Specifically, to reduce selection bias, we randomly assigned eligibility for training participation; and to satisfy the stable unit treatment value assumption, control-group farmers were initially restricted from exchanging information with treated-group farmers who had received rice management training. Once some positive impacts were confirmed, information exchange between the treated and control farmers was encouraged. We found that the initial performance gaps created by the randomized assignment disappeared over time, due presumably to social learning from peer farmers. A detailed analysis concerning the information network and peer effects provided suggestive evidence that there were information and technology spillovers from treated to control farmers after removing the information exchange restriction. Overall, our study demonstrates that information dissemination by farmers can be as effective in improving practices as the initial training provided by extension services.
10. Linking the agricultural knowledge and innovation system's subsystems: the case of the Flemish ornamental plant production
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Vuylsteke, Anne (author) and Van Gijseghem, Dirk (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2012
- Published:
- Belgium
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 187 Document Number: D01006
- Journal Title:
- Studies in Agricultural Economics
- Journal Title Details:
- 114 : 79-85