Putting Heads Together Agricultural Innovation Platforms in Practice
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2650.Bw.Put.heads17.drij_Putting Heads 16-02-12 22:06 Pagina 1 Bulletin 396 Development, Policy & Practice Putting heads together Agricultural innovation platforms in practice Suzanne Nederlof Mariana Wongtschowski Femke van der Lee (Eds.) 2650.Bw.Put.heads17.drij_Putting Heads 16-02-12 22:06 Pagina 2 Contributors Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), Uganda Lydia Kimenye Joseph Methu Banana Hill Consultants, The Netherlands Mundie Salm Egerton University, Kenya Elizabeth Kamau-Mbuthia Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Ghana Wale Adekunle Leonard Oruko International Centre for development oriented Research in Agriculture (ICRA), The Netherlands Richard Hawkins International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC) Victor Clottey Constant Dangbegnon Kenya National Federation of Agricultural Producers Peter Gitika Makerere University, Uganda Florence Kyazze Birungi Malawi University, Malawi James Sitima 2650.Bw.Put.heads17.drij_Putting Heads 16-02-12 22:06 Pagina 3 Muvek Development Solutions LTD (MUVEK), Tanzania Vera Mugittu Plateforme Nationale pour l’Innovation dans le Secteur Agricole (PNISA), Benin Roch Mongbo Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), Uganda Washington Ochola Research Into Use (RIU), Nigeria Utiang Ugbe Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), The Netherlands Peter Gildemacher, Willem Heemskerk, Femke van der Lee, Suzanne Nederlof, Bertus Wennink, Mariana Wongtschowski University of Ghana (CoS-SIS), Ghana Samuel Adjei-Nsiah Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR), The Netherlands Laurens Klerkx Sietze Vellema 3 2650.Bw.Put.heads17.drij_Putting Heads 27-02-12 09:30 Pagina 4 Bulletins of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) The KIT Bulletin series deals with current themes in international development. It is a multi-disciplinary forum to present research findings and latest insights in local economic development, natural resource management, health, gender, culture, history and anthropology to scientists, policy makers, entrepre- neurs and development advisors. These fields reflect the broad scope of KIT’s activities. KIT Development Policy & Practice KIT Development Policy & Practice is the Royal Tropical Institute’s main department for international development. Our aim is to contribute to reducing poverty and inequality in the world and to support sustainable development. We carry out research and provide advisory services and training in order to build and share knowledge on a wide range of development issues. We work in partnership with higher education, knowledge and research institutes, non-governmental and civil society organizations, and responsible private enterprises in countries around the world. Contact Information Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) KIT Development Policy & Practice P.O. Box 95001 1090 HA Amsterdam The Netherlands Telephone +31 (0)20 568 8458 Fax +31 (0)20 568 8444 Email [email protected] Website www.kit.nl/ Publication and distribution by KIT Publishers www.kitpublishers.nl Email: [email protected] © 2011 KIT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands This is an open access publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Edited by Mundie Salm, Banana Hill Consultants Cover and design Grafisch Ontwerpbureau Agaatsz bNO, Meppel, The Netherlands Cover photo An aerial photograph of an African village in Chad. Copyright Ecoimages Maps Paul Mundy Printing High Trade NV, Zwolle, The Netherlands Citation Nederlof, Suzanne, Mariana Wongtschowski and Femke van der Lee (eds). 2011. Putting heads together. Agricultural innovation platforms in practice. Bulletin 396, KIT Publishers Keywords Agricultural innovation, innovation platforms, innovation brokers, value-chains ISBN 978 94 6022 1835 ISSN 0922-7911 NUR 903/947 4 2650.Bw.Put.heads17.drij_Putting Heads 16-02-12 22:06 Pagina 5 Contents Foreword 7 Acknowledgements 9 Part I - Analysis 10 1 Agricultural innovation platforms.................................................................................11 1.1 The need for this book.............................................................................................11 1.2 What theory tells us .................................................................................................13 1.3 The innovation platform cases ................................................................................16 1.4 Brief description of cases .........................................................................................20 1.5 Lessons from the cases .............................................................................................25 1.6 Limitations of this book...........................................................................................25 1.7 The process of writing the book .............................................................................26 1.8 Structure of the book...............................................................................................27 2 Designing innovation platforms....................................................................................30 2.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................30 2.2 Initiating a platform.................................................................................................31 2.3 Levels of operation...................................................................................................35 2.4 Platform members, roles and responsibilities ........................................................36 2.5 Formal, informal… or something in between?......................................................38 2.6 Ensuring availability of resources (human and financial)......................................39 2.7 Keep it running ........................................................................................................40 3 Brokering innovation......................................................................................................43 3.1 Clarifying concepts...................................................................................................43 3.2 Who are the brokers? ..............................................................................................44 3.3 Brokering functions..................................................................................................45 3.4 Main lines of support...............................................................................................49 3.5 Linking local to high-level platforms – and vice versa...........................................50 3.6 Skills and capacities of innovation brokers ............................................................51 3.7 Easier said than done...............................................................................................52 2650.Bw.Put.heads17.drij_Putting Heads 16-02-12 22:06 Pagina 6 4 Impact and sustainability ...............................................................................................55 4.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................55 4.2 Intended impact pathways ......................................................................................56 4.3 Outcomes of innovation platforms.........................................................................57 4.4 Sustainability ............................................................................................................61 4.5 Scaling up..................................................................................................................63 4.6 Assessing and measuring outcomes and impact ....................................................65 5 Lessons learned and lessons needed ............................................................................68 5.1 Agricultural innovation platforms ..........................................................................68 5.2 The (im)possibility of design....................................................................................69 5.3 Brokering innovation...............................................................................................70 5.4 Monitoring towards learning..................................................................................71 5.5 Practical lessons ........................................................................................................72 5.6 Contribution of this book........................................................................................72 Part II - Case studies...................................................................................78 I Soybean cluster in Ghana .............................................................................................79 II Improved maize-legume production systems in Nigeria ............................................88 III Oil Palm in Ghana..........................................................................................................96 IV The national innovation platform for the agricultural sector in Benin...................105 V The Ugandan Oilseed Sub-sector Platform................................................................114 VI The Poultry Sub-sector Innovation Network in Tanzania .........................................124