Agriculture Innovation Systems

Meeting rising global demand for food and responding to changes such as climate change, globalization, and urbanization will thus require good policy, sustained investments, and innovation – not business as usual. Agricultural innovation enables the agriculture sector, farmers and rural entrepreneurs to adapt rapidly when challenges occur and to respond readily when new opportunities arise – for example in the fields of technology and markets. While investments in public research, extension, education, and their links with one another have elicited high returns and pro-poor growth, these investments alone have not elicited innovation at the pace or on the scale required to meet the challenges. Innovation takes place in an innovation systems context. Besides a strong capacity in R&D, components of effective agricultural innovation system (AIS) include collective action and coordination, the exchange of knowledge among diverse actors, the technical and soft skills, incentives and resources available to form partnerships and develop businesses, and enabling conditions that make it possible for actors to innovate.
This course will engage adult learners using a dynamic, online learning approach that connects users to the leading approaches to AIS, as defined by the approved content of the Sourcebook. Reflective activities within each module will draw on personal experiences, collegial messages, case studies, activities and interactive media elements which will fully engage users with the learning content and demonstrate key issues in AIS.