Beyond Europe: Priorities for Strengthening Agricultural Innovation Capacity in Africa

Beyond Europe: Priorities for Strengthening Agricultural Innovation Capacity in Africa Andy Hall LINK Coordinator, UNU-MERIT Jeroen Dijkman LINK coordinators, FAO-PPLPI Learning INnovation Knowledge Policy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation

Home Lessons for Abroad: A Cautionary Tale
It’s easy to forget how much our own national identities shape our views on how science, technology and innovation should be “done”
For us academics (since nobody listens to us) this last point is not too important
But we are now entering the age of the ‘New Philanthropists’
Soon to be biggest source of agricultural R&D grant-giving
Vision of philanthropic organisations is personalised, and often, North American
A Green Revolution for Africa… But what would we do?
Learning INnovation Knowledge Policy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation

Anglo-Dutch Innovation Preoccupations
THE BRITISH
Class-conscious and segregated
Scientists are ‘weird-beard boffins’ and entrepreneurs who have the distasteful task of making money close to the bottom of the pecking order
The class system was only officially “abolished” by Maggie Thatcher in the 1980s
Still feel uncomfortable with education and collaborative relationships
The Brits have always had great scientists. But they excel as a nation of gifted amateur-inventors
Having come up with world-beating ideas, the Brits gave them away… for nothing!
The whole of British industrial policy in the last 30 or so years has been obsessed with trying to put this right
Making better use of ideas from scientists and others and bridging the gaps between enterprise and other elements of the economy

Anglo-Dutch Innovation Preoccupations
THE DUTCH
Small country that likes to make the most of what it has
A more equal society and feels comfortable with the idea of linking and collaborating with each other
The Dutch have many good ideas!
Since well-linked together, they have been very successful in using these ideas and innovating
In the long-term this ability to use ideas creatively has led to a hugely-successful economy
Eg., The horticultural industry
Although the sun never shines, the ability to use ideas effectively has allowed them to develop very successful greenhouse businesses — helped by lightbulbs from Phillips
A recurrent Dutch innovation theme is strengthening innovation response capacity for social relevance and economic resilience

Anglo-Dutch Innovation Wisdom
Inventions are for idiots, make ideas count
Good ideas are not worth the paper their patent application is written on, unless you can use or combine them with other ideas to make money or make people happy
Learn to love linking, and link to learn loving
Linking, collaboration and learning are important for innovation and can help you learn how to collaborate and innovate better in the future
Innovate for society or die
Succeeding today doesn’t mean you won’t fail tomorrow. Use ideas to respond to what society wants. It might be productivity today, but environment or the desire to reduce poverty or support enterprise tomorrow. Or all of the above. But respond for society you must
Educate to innovate
New thinking on how to use ideas and science will remain part of the psychobabble of innovation theorists unless you are able to get this thinking into higher education and inspire a new generation of scientists, planners and development professionals

How does this translate into a plan for supporting agricultural innovation in Africa?
GROUND RULES
Supporting innovation is not just about fixing today’s problems, so our mission is to strengthen innovation capacity for the long-term
In line with our desire to support all of society’s needs, this capacity must be responsive, people-centric and enterprise and environment-friendly
Ten years to build a sustainable capacity and a development fund of 1 billion Euros
Leads to an 8-point plan organised as different development funds

1. Learning to Innovate for African Agriculture Fund — 25 %
Diagnosis :
Declining soil fertility, pest and disease problems, low and unreliable rainfall and low food production are key concerns
Major focus of national and international agricultural research for many years but with limited progress
Variety-based technology packages have not worked as well as they did in Asia
While many constraint are amenable to research, the bigger problem is the limited impact of the already very large public investments in agricultural research over the 40 years
Solution :
Based on a review of accumulated innovation experience in Africa on these topics, establish 10 pilot research programmes that combine all that is currently known about enabling innovation — participatory methods, systems thinking and technology transfer
The pilot programmes should be risky — we expect at least half to fail -- and should be orientated towards learning what approaches to agricultural innovation work in practice

2. Rapid Innovation Response and Resilience Fund — 10 %
Diagnosis :
African farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs face an unpredictable series of shocks
product standards and competitiveness in international markets, animal and crop disease outbreaks, climate change and recovery from civil disturbances
These require a continuous process of innovation and foresight information
Solution :
Time-bound taskforces, combining research and innovation services and an innovation clearing house to search for ideas globally
This will be complemented by lesson learning exercises to develop a repertoire of responses to major agricultural shocks and opportunities
This learning dimension will help build the responsiveness and resilience of rural economies. Foresight exercises will be established to scan for emerging shocks and opportunities

3. An Innovation Architecture Fund — 10 %
Diagnosis:
Many African countries have developed excellent agricultural science infrastructure
However, as research has not been orientated to society’ needs, political support has evaporated and funding declined
Solution :
Improve the relevance of research and the articulation of demand for research products by strengthening linkages with farmers, industry, civil society, banks, development agencies and decisionmakers
This will be achieved by competitive, people-centred grant schemes and/ or enterprise-friendly, governance mechanisms and public-private joint investment in scientific infrastructure

4. Agricultural Innovation Education Fund — 10 %
Diagnosis:
African universities are very good at training agriculturalists in classical botany and agronomy
But this does not prepare them for the real world where agriculture is part of a complex system of commerce, trade and uncertainty
Scientists trained overseas often return with excellent scientific knowledge but have difficulty translating these to meet local circumstances
Solution:
Establish degree courses on innovation and entrepreneurship with a strong systems orientation and problem-solving pedagogy
Add modules to science courses and use short courses to reorient scientists returning from foreign training

5. Innovation Coordination Services Fund — 20 %
Diagnosis :
Agricultural extension as a service to promote innovation through technology transfer does not work
Farmers need assistance in acquiring and applying a range of different sorts of information so that they can access markets and deal with other shocks and opportunities. They also need help linking to agencies and companies that they work with or get help from
Often innovation coordination services are required at a sector level, particularly in niche sectors such as aquaculture, spices and high value horticulture
Solution :
Support the training and retraining of public and private agents as innovation coordinators
Strengthen the capacity of existing organisations to perform sector coordination roles. Where these are absent create new ones

6. Agro-Industrial Enterprise Fund — 10 % (co-funded by a development bank )
Diagnosis :
Agro-industrial development in Africa could add value and create much-needed rural employment
Currently, lack of finance and links to knowledge and innovation services prevent the emergence of companies that are innovative enough to be regionally and globally competitive and compliant to trade standards
If companies can’t prosper, they can’t employ poor people
Solution:
An agro-industrial development venture capital facility and the creation of specialist intermediary organisations/ knowledge services to link entrepreneurs to science and other sources of knowledge
This will help build the responsiveness and resilience of emergent private agro-enterprises

7. Agricultural Innovation Policy Support Fund — 5 %
Diagnosis :
Innovation capacity (as distinct form science and technology capacity) is a new idea for many agricultural planners in Africa and the extent of this capacity is unknown
Benchmarking can help identify gaps, select intervention points and track progress
Participatory benchmarking and cross-country exchange exercises can help share ideas and promote institutional and policy change
Solution :
Commission the development of national agricultural innovation plans based on innovation surveys, participatory benchmarking and foresight process to strengthen national and regional networking and learning

8. Agricultural Convergence Fund — 5 %
Diagnosis:
The boundaries of agriculture are expanding to include issues such as energy and health
New platform technologies are one of the drivers of this expansion, but there are also market, political and ecological reasons
This requires research and capacity building that falls between conventional funding and ministerial mandates
Solution :
A special co-funding challenge programme to address issues at the agriculture interface

Concluding comments
We have a very rich understanding of how innovation, including agricultural innovation, takes place and how it can be nurtured
This understanding is derived from experiences in both the North and in the South
An emerging challenge is that major new initiatives in agricultural R&D and innovation are not well informed of the accumulated learning on innovation and are likely to make many of the mistakes of the past
While we should not try and copy-paste transfer the innovation arrangements that work for us in Europe or in individual African or Asian countries, it is our responsibility to make sure that principles of global innovation wisdom are shared and put into practice as widely as possible

Learning INnovation Knowledge Policy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation LINK is a specialist network of regional innovation policy studies hubs established by the United Nations University-MERIT (UNU-MERIT) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to strengthen the interface between rural innovation studies, policy and practice and to promote North-South and South-South learning on rural innovation.

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Beyond Europe: Priorities for Strengthening Agricultural Innovation Capacity in Africa

by LINKInnovationStudies on Apr 24, 2009

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Beyond Europe: Priorities for Strengthening Agricultural Innovation Capacity in Africa — Presentation Transcript