Agricultural services for rural development

Rural development contributes to the eradication of poverty, which is one of the Millennium Development Goals. Agricultural innovation in the broad sense - a mixture of technological, social and institutional factors - is needed to enhance rural development. Knowledge service providers, in collaboration with other actors, are crucial in enhancing the performance of the rural innovation system.

A main challenge is to strengthen the agricultural knowledge and information system (AKIS) and in particular the agricultural research, extension and education systems. A key question is how knowledge-based service provision can become more demand-driven and how farmers themselves can become empowered actors in the agricultural innovation system.

Approach

Improving the Agricultural Innovation System and the Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (AKIS) can be achieved through:

  • a stronger interaction between public and private knowledge-based service providers and other actors such as farmer organizations 
  • the empowerment of farmers and other entrepreneurs in the innovation system.

KIT develops methods and tools, adapted to the African context in particular, that increase the effectiveness of all parties - agricultural service providers, farmer organizations, local governments and the private sector – to take part in the innovation process.

Focal points

  • Enhancing the role of farmer organizations in agricultural innovation systems and service provision
  • Developing public private partnerships for value chain innovation
  • Strengthening multi-stakeholder knowledge-based agricultural service delivery systems
  • Developing capacity of local agricultural research and extension service delivery systems
  • Enhancement of multi-stakeholder driven funding mechanisms for agricultural innovation and service provision
  • Monitoring and evaluating performance of agricultural innovation systems and service provision

Example

Multi-stakeholder rural innovation development
Best practices and lessons learned for developing multi-stakeholder partnerships that enhance pro-poor rural and agricultural service provision were identified using case studies. This was the starting point for developing approaches for capacity development and institutional strengthening.

Together with partner organizations in Tanzania (Mviwata, Sokoine University of Agriculture, and DRT), Rwanda (ISAR, ROPARWA) and Benin (Fupro, INRAB), KIT produces guidelines on stakeholder-driven funding mechanisms; public-private partnerships and the role of farmer organizations; and farmer inclusiveness for rural innovation development. An example is the widely adopted Client Oriented Research Management Approach (CORMA), which empowers farmers and other stakeholders while facilitating organizational and institutional change in the Agricultural Knowledge and Information System.

Projects


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Team members


Contact

Suzanne Nederlof

Tags

agriculture | farming systems | agricultural development

Royal Tropical Institute