Making Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) work for development in tropical countries
This paper (PDF) in Sustainability aims to identify gaps in current capacities and the development needs as perceived by stakeholders involved in national and regional Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS). Three regional needs assessments undertaken by Tropical Agricultural Platform (TAP) and its partners. The surveyed tropical regions were Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Central America. The paper reports the main findings of the needs assessment study, draws some general lessons on the current status of the Capacity Development (CD) initiatives and hypothesizes corrective measures to improve their impact. The findings reveal a mismatch in all three regions between the external supply of primarily individual CD and the actual demand for institutional CD. The misalignment might be addressed by strengthening south-south and triangular collaboration and by improving the institutional capacities that would render national AIS more demand-oriented and responsive to the needs of smallholders in domestic agriculture.