Beyond knowledge brokerage: an exploratory study of innovation intermediaries in an evolving smallholder agricultural system in Kenya

The recognition that innovation occurs in networks of heterogeneous actors and requires broad systemic support beyond knowledge brokering has resulted in a changing landscape of the intermediary domain in an increasingly market-driven agricultural sector in developing countries. This paper presents findings of an explorative case study that looked at 22 organisations identified as fulfilling an intermediary role in the Kenyan agricultural sector. The results show that these organisations fulfill functions that are not limited to distribution of knowledge and putting it into use. The functions also include fostering integration and interaction among the diverse actors engaged in innovation networks and working on technological, organisational and institutional innovation. Further, the study identified various organisational arrangements of innovation intermediaries with some organisations fulfilling a specialised innovation brokering role, even as other intermediaries take on brokering as a side activity, while still substantively contributing to the innovation process. Based on these findings we identify a typology of 4 innovation intermediation arrangements, including technology brokers, systemic brokers, enterprise development support and input access support. The results indicate that innovation brokering is a pervasive task in supporting innovation and will require policy support to embed it in innovation support arrangements. The paper is not normative about these arrangements

Unraveling innovation platforms – Insights from co-evolution of innovation in a smallholder dairy development program in Kenya

Challenges facing agricultural development, particularly in developing countries dominated by smallholder farming are increasingly framed in the context of weak innovation systems and capacities in the growing literature on agricultural innovation systems. Innovation systems (IS) approaches emphasize the collective dimension of innovation pointing to the need to effect necessary linkages and interaction among multiple actors. IS thinking also pays attention to the co-evolution of innovation processes, arguing that successful innovation results from alignment of technical, social, institutional and organizational dimensions. These insights are increasingly informing interventions that focus on supporting multi-stakeholder arrangements such as innovation platforms as mechanisms for enhancing agriculture innovation. While much emphasis in analyzing agricultural innovation systems has focused on how these multi-stakeholder platforms are organized and mechanisms through which actors interact, there has been limited analysis that has unraveled how and why such platforms contribute to innovation processes and thus they remain a black-box. This paper therefore aims to address this gap by analyzing innovation platforms as intermediaries in efforts to better understand their contribution in shaping dynamic innovation processes. The paper presents an empirical case study of the East African Dairy (EADD) program in Kenya. The program is led by a consortium of five organizations and provides a platform for building partnerships between farmers, various government and private sector actors to enhance innovation for improving productivity and market access for smallholder dairy farmers. The results show the diverse role of the platform as the innovation process unfolds and draws conclusion relevant to how the concept of platforms is usually approached and calls for a more dynamic view in analyzing them as part of understanding innovation processes

Well-facilitated and inclusive multi-stakeholder processes contribute to more effective dairy value chain development in Tanzania

Irish Ai

Beyond knowledge brokerage: an exploratory study of innovation intermediaries in an evolving smallholder agricultural system in Kenya

The recognition that innovation occurs in networks of heterogeneous actors and requires broad systemic support beyond knowledge brokering has resulted in a changing landscape in the intermediary domain in the increasingly market-driven agricultural sector in developing countries. This paper presents findings of an explorative case study that looked at 22 organizations identified as fulfilling an intermediary role in the Kenyan agricultural sector. The results show that these organizations fulfill functions that are not limited to distribution of knowledge and putting it into use but also include fostering integration and interaction among the diverse actors engaged in innovation networks and working on technological, organizational, and institutional innovation. Further, the study has identified various organizational arrangements of innovation intermediaries, with some organizations fulfilling a specialized innovation brokering role and other intermediaries taking on brokering as a side activity, while substantively contributing to the innovation process. On the basis of these findings, we identify a typology of four innovation intermediation arrangements including technology broker, systemic broker, enterprise development support, and input access support. The results indicate that innovation brokering is a pervasive task in supporting innovation and will require policy support to embed it in innovation support arrangements, but without prescribing a one-size-fits-all approach

RAAIS: Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Innovation Systems (Part I). A diagnostic tool for integrated analysis of complex problems and innovation capacity

This paper introduces Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Innovation Systems (RAAIS). RAAIS is a diagnostic tool that can guide the analysis of complex agricultural problems and innovation capacity of the agricultural system in which the complex agricultural problem is embedded. RAAIS focuses on the integrated analysis of different dimensions of problems (e.g. biophysical, technological, socio-cultural, economic, institutional and political), interactions across different levels (e.g. national, regional, local), and the constraints and interests of different stakeholder groups (farmers, government, researchers, etc.). Innovation capacity in the agricultural system is studied by analysing (1) constraints within the institutional, sectoral and technological subsystems of the agricultural system, and (2) the existence and performance of the agricultural innovation support system. RAAIS combines multiple qualitative and quantitative methods, and insider (stakeholders) and outsider (researchers) analyses which allow for critical triangulation and validation of the gathered data. Such an analysis can provide specific entry points for innovations to address the complex agricultural problem under study, and generic entry points for innovation related to strengthening the innovation capacity of agricultural system and the functioning of the agricultural innovation support system. The application of RAAIS to analyse parasitic weed problems in the rice sector, conducted in Tanzania and Benin, demonstrates the potential of the diagnostic tool and provides recommendations for its further development and use

Addressing food and nutrition insecurity in the Caribbean through domestic smallholder farming system innovation

Structural conditions underlying the development of CARICOM’s two-tiered agricultural innovation system depict diverse drivers of change over time, versus institutional inertia of export-oriented formal institutions and the neglect of informal domestic markets. Key principles of taking an agroecological approach would include: supporting diversity and redundancy, building connectivity, managing slow variables and feedbacks, improving understanding of socioecological systems as complex adaptive systems, and encouraging polycentric governance systems. In this paper, we review the conditions that have been undermining sustainable food and nutrition security in the Caribbean, focusing on issues of history, economy, and innovation

Unravelling the role of innovation platforms in supporting co-evolution of innovation: Contributions and tensions in a smallholder dairy development programme

The agricultural innovation systems approach emphasizes the collective nature of innovation and stresses that innovation is a co-evolutionary process, resulting from alignment of technical, social, institutional and organizational dimensions. These insights are increasingly informing interventions that focus on setting up multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as innovation platforms and networks, as mechanisms for enhancing agricultural innovation, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. There has been much emphasis on how such platforms are organized, but only limited analysis unravelling how they shape co-evolution of innovation processes. This paper addresses this gap and conceptualizes platforms as intermediaries that connect the different actors in innovation systems in order to foster effective co-evolution. We present a case study of a smallholder dairy development programme in Kenya, led by a consortium of five organizations that provide a platform for building multi-actor partnerships to enhance smallholder dairy productivity and improve livelihoods. The findings indicate that co-evolution of innovation is a highly dynamic process with various interactional tensions and unexpected effects, and that the distributed nature of intermediation is important in resolving some of these tensions emerging at different actor interfaces. However, platforms are not always able to adapt adequately to emerging issues. This points to the need to look at platforms dynamically and pay more attention to mechanisms that strengthen feedback, learning and adaptive management in innovation processe

How Dynamics of Learning are Linked to Innovation Support Services: Insights from a Smallholder Commercialization Project in Kenya

Purpose: The important role of learning is noted in the literature on demand driven approaches to supporting agricultural innovation. Most of this literature has focused on macrolevel structural perspectives on the organization of pluralistic innovation support systems. This has provided little insight at the micro-level on the dynamics of demand articulation, and the related interplay of matching farmers’ demand with supply of innovation support services. This paper contributes to understanding this interplay using the concept of the dynamic learning agenda. Design/methodology/approach: We present a case study of a project supporting smallholder commercialization of onions in Kenya. Data were collected in selected project sites over seven months using key-informant interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation at various meetings and project document reviews. Findings: The results show that because learning in agricultural innovation processes is dynamic, static notions of demand articulation and related support are inadequate. Supporting learning and innovation requires an understanding of how farmers’ demand evolves, a flexible matching process with various innovation support services to achieve ‘best-fit’, and an awareness of sometimes competing interests of actors. Practical implications: The findings are useful for enhancing support of innovation processes by pointing to the need for paying attention to evolving demands and how these are matched with the right type of services, guided by effective monitoring in order to adapt the dynamic learning agenda accordingly. Originality/value: We add to the debate on demand-driven approaches to innovation with a dynamic analysis of pluralistic innovation support service provisioning, which has mainly been analyzed statically

Examining the legitimacy of inclusive innovation processes: perspectives from smallholder farmers in Uasin Gishu, Kenya

In recent decades, the concept of inclusive innovation has been used to refer to how innovation can include actors that are considered marginalised from its processes and outcomes. Contrary to the ‘expert-driven’ approaches prevalent in evaluating the legitimacy of such processes, this paper examines the legitimacy of inclusive innovation from the perspective of smallholder farmers with little resource endowments in Uasin Gishu, Kenya, that are targeted with various agricultural innovation interventions. Findings indicate that procedural aspects of legitimacy, such as including farmers as co-innovators and including their knowledge and skills in agricultural innovation processes, are an important criterion used by targeted farmers to accord legitimacy to such interventions. We also find that such interventions need to be stable over time to be legitimate to the intended beneficiaries. These criteria used by targeted actors can be an important addition to evaluation procedures and methods for inclusive innovation

Value chain upgrading and the inclusion of smallholders in markets: Reflections on contributions of multi-stakeholder processes in dairy development in Tanzania

Increasingly, value chain approaches are integrated with multi-stakeholder processes to facilitate inclusive innovation and value chain upgrading of smallholders. This pathway to smallholder integration into agri-food markets has received limited analysis. This article analyses this integration through a case study of an ongoing smallholder dairy development programme in Tanzania. Value chain upgrading and innovation systems perspectives were combined in an analytical framework to interpret the findings, which show that multi-stakeholder processes enhance horizontal and vertical coordination but limit process and product upgrading. The main conclusion is that, although such processes may catalyze smallholder market inclusion, their effects are largely bounded by existing value chain structures (e.g. production system, fragmented markets), timeframe and how prevailing institutional constraints are addressed, which may constrain the intentions of such collaboration action. This calls attention to the starting points of value chain interventions and the socio-political dynamics that are part of multi-stakeholder processes