The document discusses agricultural innovation and provides context for the upcoming 2014 State of Food and Agriculture report. It defines innovation as the process of creating and implementing new combinations of knowledge through interaction between stakeholders. Innovation systems are nonlinear and involve interactions between researchers, producers, processors and other actors. Barriers to innovation include poor linkages between actors, attitudes, lack of resources and inadequate enabling policies. The key message is that building innovation capacity requires developing expertise, communication networks, and supportive policies to empower family farmers to innovate.