Guy FAURE (CIRAD), Director
http://umr-innovation.cirad.fr/accueil
Innovation
and advisory services

Our approach on innovation
 Analysing innovations :
◦ within the context of the stakeholders
◦ Using an innovation system perspective
 Interdisciplinary research, combining
skills in agronomy and social sciences
 Action-Research methodology with
partners to understand and strengthen
innovation processes
 Strong relationships with Master and
PhD studies

Our scientific project
How do actors innovate in their own
context?
Analyzing
innovation
processes
(coexistence/
confrontation of
development
models)
Under-
standing the
role of
organizations
and
institutions
(IP, IS, R&D,
advisory
services)
Co-designing
innovation and
support actors
(diversity of
methods for a
diversity of
situations)
Assessing the
innovation
effects on
development
(Ethical issues,
research
impact)

Innovation in agriculture and
food
Innovation
&
Dévelopement
SIRA
Organizational
Innovations in R&D
(Innovation Systems)
ALISTAR
Innovations in food
systems and markets
DAM
Innovations to acess
to food
ACTINA
Agroecological
innovations in farming
systems
COCKTAIL
Farmers’ innovations
AGRICITES
Innovations dans
l’agriculture et
l’alimentation des villes
In agriculture And food

What is innovation?
Innovation (an idea put in action)
 a new technics or practice (hardware)
 + new knowledge and new values (sofware)
 + new organizations and rules (orgware)
 Two ways to see innovation :
◦ a transfer of knowledge from research to
farmers (main stream, unefficient to solve
complex problems),
◦ a production from a network of actors to
produce knowledge and mobilize resources
(diferent phases, crisis, competition,
unpredictable)
5

How to support innovation?
 Needs to strengthen networks, to provide information, to
strengthen actors’ capacities to analyze their environment, to
plan/monitor/assess processes, to experiment, etc =
capacities to innovate
 Research is on player among other providing information,
methods and sometimes
 Advisory services play a key role but have to evolve

Diversity of approaches more or
less adapted to innovation
 Transfer of knowledge (say what to do)
◦ The problem and the solutions are known (standardized
advice)
 Support to decision making (say what are the options)
◦ The problem and the solutions are known (standardized
advice)
 Problem solving (to co-produce with the farmer)
◦ Problem unknown or complex, solutions unknown or to be
adapted (diferentiated advice)
 Strenngthening the farmers’ skills
 Problem and solutions are unknown (learning process to
be autonomous)
• To support initiative or solve conflicts
 Listen, facilitate innovation process, support negotiation,
A mix ?

Do the advisory services fit the
innovation perspective?
 Emergence of new forms of advisory service providers (NGO, PO,
private firms) and recognition of pluralistic advisory and extension
system
 Many new experiences to provide advice (FFS, MAFF, …) with
innovative methods while the past methods remains important.
◦ To which extent the new advisory approaches do support innovation
processes?
◦ To which extent the different service providers coordinate their actions to
answer the different needs of farmers?
 Many evaluation at programme/project level of performances and
impacts with statistical approaches
 Need to assess the performances and impacts of pluralistic
extension systems to support national policy makers and top
managers of service providers

Proposal to Assess Complex
Pluralistic Extension System
 Comprehensive approach based on the IFPRI
framework (Birner el al. 2009)
◦ Holistic perspective with insights from different
discipline of social sciences
◦ Causal relationships between EAS characteristics,
EAS performances, farm performances and
impacts (impact pathway approach)

Context-
ual
factors
Policy,
farming
systems,
access to
market)
Governance
structure
(funding, rule)
Advisory
methods
Service
provider
capacities

Point of discussion :
Governance structure
 At national level :
◦ The various objectives of ES public policies
leading to :
 Diversity of governance mechanisms
(funding, rules)
 Diversity of extension systems
 Coalition of actors supporting different kind of farmers,
different vision on agriculture
 Coexistence, synergies, confrontation

Point of discussion : the
governance structure
 At local level :
◦ Interactions between the different
components of advisory services
explaining the specific configuration of
each extension systems

service relationship
Environment
(policy, farming system, access to market, etc.)
contractual relationships
Advisor
Service provider : PO,
NGO, private firm
Intermediaries:
PO, downstream
actor, ministry
Producer
Backstopping :
research, NGO
SKILLS FUNDING
GOVERNANCE
METHODS
Point of discussion : the the governance mechanisms

Context-
ual
factors
Policy,
farming
systems,
access to
market)
Perfor-
mances
efficiency
effectiveness
inclusion
sustainability
Governance
structure
(funding, rule)
Advisory
methods
Service
provider
capacities
Farm
house-
hold
Representatio
n
Decision
Change of
practices

Point of discussion : the learning
process
 Better analyzing the learning process and
the relationship between
◦ provision of advice,
◦ change of farmers’ representation,
◦ improvement of farmers’ skills,
◦ change of farmers’ practices (agricultural,
managerial, social)

Context-
ual
factors
Policy,
farming
systems,
access to
market)
Perfor-
mances
efficiency
effectiveness
inclusion
sustainability
Impacts
Economic
Social
Environment
al
Governance
structure
(funding, rule)
Advisory
methods
Service
provider
capacities
Farm
house-
hold
Representatio
n
Decision
Change of
practices

Point of discussion : the
different impacts
 First level (direct impacts) : impact on the
farms interacting with service providers
 Second level :
◦ Impacts on the farms without direct
interactions with service providers
(indirect impacts)
◦ Other impacts on organizations, value
chains, public policies, etc.(spill-over)

Methodological Proposal
 Mapping of RAS at national level
(governance, funding, capacities, methods)
 Selecting case studies to represent the
diversity of service providers and diversity
of innovation processes

Tools to be Designed
 Timeline diagram
 Impact pathway diagram
◦ linking key outputs, outcomes, and impacts
Performance diagram
◦ Efficiency, effectiveness, inclusion,
sustainability
 Impacts diagram
◦ first level and second level
◦ economic, social, environmental, etc.

Thank you for your attention
http://umr-innovation.cirad.fr/accueil