An analysis of a cassava integrated research and development approach: has it really contributed to poverty alleviation?

In 1981, the Integrated Cassava Research and Development (ICRD) Project was implemented as an integrated set of institutional, organizational, and technological interventions designed to link small-scale cassava farmers to expanding markets. The Project?s objective was to develop both technology and market opportunities for cassava producers in the northern Colombia, targeting especially small farm owners and landless farmers. The paper assesses the Project?s impact on participating communities in terms of poverty alleviation, and identifies the avenues by which the Project was able to bring these positive changes. The ICRD Project showed that agricultural research can contribute tangibly to poverty alleviation, but with the following conditions that (1) market and post harvest research and development are integrated with production technology research agenda; (2) interinstitutional partnerships are developed, whereby different institutions with their own expertise, comparative advantages, and mandates collaborate to respond to the demands of local community organizations and individuals; and (3) existing social and human capital is used to create intimate networking among institutions, local social organizations, and individuals

Fortalecimiento de los procesos socio-organizativos que sustentan la gestión de las empresas asociativas rurales -AdA Nicaragua

Este documento es el segundo de una serie de 5 guías metodológicas y tiene como propósito apoyar a las empresas asociativas rurales para desarrollar procesos de fortalecimiento de la gestión socio-organizativa mediante una propuesta metodológica que permita la reflexión colectiva sobre el desempeño de este proceso de gestión, y facilite el diseño y la implementación de acciones estratégicas para su fortalecimiento y mejora continua. Esta serie, desarrollada por las organizaciones que hacen parte de la Alianza de Aprendizaje en Nicaragua, es una adaptación resultado de la validación, ajuste y ampliación de las primeras guías metodológicas desarrolladas por el CATIE y aplicadas en el Ciclo de Aprendizaje 2008-2010, con el fin de fotalecer la gestión empresarial de organizaciones de productores mediante un proceso de seguimiento y evaluación, que permitiera sistematizar los cambios significativos generados en el proceso de fortalecimiento y generar lecciones aprendidas

Building public–private partnerships for agricultural innovation in Latin America: Lessons from capacity strengthening

"The International Service for National Agricultural Research�on its own from 2002 until 2003, and as a division of the International Food Policy Research Institute thereafter has studied 124 public–private partnerships in agriculture in nine Latin American countries through its initiative on public–private partnerships for Agro-Industrial Research in Latin America...This paper examines...seven cases of public–private partnership building in which private- sector companies, producer associations, and research organizations engage in collaboration for the purpose of developing innovations in agricultural production and value chains. The paper considers different points of entry to partnership building, emulating best practices. The paper describes (a) how common interests among multiple stakeholders have been identified; (b) how partners have been motivated to participate in partnerships; (c) how the roles of different brokers within or outside the partnerships have fostered partnership development; and (d) how the contributions of partners have been negotiated to ensure that partnership arrangements are in alignment with the interests of the partners, their capacities, and the prevailing technological and market opportunities. The paper targets policymakers and administrators in agricultural development, and collaborators in research and innovation projects who are interested in issues of how best to build partnerships among public and private agents." from Authors' AbstractPublic-private partnerships, Agricultural innovations, Capacity strengthening, Agricultural research,

Fortalecimiento de servicios para la gestión de empresas asociativas rurales. Guia 4

Esta es la cuarta de 4 guías desarrolladas por la Alianza de Aprendizaje; cada una de ellas correspondiente a uno de los cuatro módulos de capacitación aplicados durante el Ciclo de Aprendizaje 2008 – 2010 de la Alianza Nicaragua. Esta guía le brinda herramientas a las empresas asociativas de productores para identificar, caracterizar, evaluar, priorizar, diseñar y financiar una cartera de servicios para sus asociados, asociadas y otros clientes, tanto desde la propia empresa como en alianza con otras organizaciones u empresas

Learning alliances: An approach for building multistakeholder innovation systems

Millions of dollars are spent each year on research and development (R&D) initiatives in an attempt to improve rural livelihoods in the developing world, but rural poverty remains an intractable problem in many places. There are many reasons for this; one being the limited collective learning that occurs between researchers, development workers, donors, policymakers and private enterprise. As a result, useful research results do not reach the poor, lessons learned do not influence research, and donor and policy agendas are less relevant than they could be. This Brief describes how the Rural Agroenterprise Development Project of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is addressing the problem. Through building learning alliances that engage multiple stakeholders in processes of innovation, the initiative is enhancing learning and improving effectiveness in rural enterprise development