This report sets out the synthesis of work carried out within the framework of the Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC) Secretariat Initiative on “The family economy and agricultural innovation: towards new partnerships”. The initiative aimed to stimulate analyses, collect field data and case studies that encourage debates between regional actors, with a view to informing the development of regional policies and actions in order to promote and strengthen producer access to agricultural innovation, where most producers are anchored in the family economy. In particular, the report summarizes the results of the following activities:
(i) An electronic consultation carried out from December 2003 to March 2004 with key regional and international actors; (ii) Field work undertaken in four West African countries: Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Ghana and Mali; (iii) A regional strategic thinking workshop on access to innovation organised in June 2004 by the SWAC Secretariat in collaboration with the WAEMU.
The Convergence of Sciences programme has spent the past decade exploring new pathways for agricultural innovation that focus on enabling smallholders to capture opportunity. Its approach relies on bringing together different actors who can achieve major change in an agriculture...
West and Central African Council for Africulture Research and Development (WECARD) and Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) research that explores how national agricultural research organisations use innovation platforms to strengthen innovation capacity and address capacity gaps in sector development. The aim is to share...
This paper compares lessons learned from nine studies that explored institutional determinants of innovation towards sustainable intensification of West African agriculture. The studies investigated issues relating to crop, animal, and resources management in Benin, Ghana, and Mali
The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the role that benchmarking can play in rural and agricultural innovations. Although generally known as 'traditional sector', rural activities are far from static but rather driven by old and new challenges pleading...
A lo largo de su historia, los servicios de Extensión y Asistencia Técnica en América Latina y el Caribe han sido un instrumento focalizado, mayormente, hacia la pequeña agricultura como una forma de mejorar las condiciones de vida en el entorno rural y llevar tecnologías (conocimientos) que sirvan...