Agricultural innovation is critical for increasing agricultural productivity as well as for sustainability of agricultural systems. Innovation, however, cannot rely solely on spin-offs from foreign research. It requires endogenous capacities to generate, systematize, and adapt knowledge as well as to adopt and up-scale new practices.
An Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) is a network of actors or organizations, and individuals, together with supporting institutions and policies in the agricultural and related sectors, which bring existing or new products, processes, and forms of organization into social and economic use. Policies and institutions (formal and informal) shape the way that these actors interact, generate, share and use knowledge as well as jointly learn.
Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems (CD for AIS) enables joint learning and co-creation and new uses of knowledge for social change and enhances the interactions between actors. It is also about creating an enabling environment for such interaction, learning and innovation, based not only on conducive formal law and regulations, but also on informal values, attitudes and behaviours. It aims at changing people’s behaviour and developing of more sustainable practices that bring about societal transformation.
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