1 research outputs found
Influencing innovation structures and processes in agro-industries dominated by subsistence producers: an analysis of the rural poultry industry in Tanzania
This thesis examines innovation structures and processes in rural poultry industry in
Tanzania. In 2005, FAO categorised the rural poultry production system in Tanzania
under the lowest sector IV with very minimal biosecurity measures and with no
commercial orientation. By 2012, a DFID-funded Research into Use (RIU)
programme transformed the industry to Sector III which represents a significant
commercial orientation and relatively higher bio-security measures. This thesis
explains how RIU achieved that.
This analysis is presented from three perspectives. First, the path dependence
framework is used to present the observed dominance of the traditional poultry
production system as a ‘lock-in’. The study makes it clear that before RIU, mental
frames, resource allocations and how dominant powers behaved reinforced low
innovation tendencies. Second, using the agricultural innovation system (AIS)
framework and the concepts of ‘organisational thinness’ and ‘fragmentation’ (also
from path dependency theory), it explains that by making rural producers feel self-sufficient
in inputs and knowledge, practices in the traditional system disconnect
producers from engaging with other actors. Third, the concepts of ‘innovation
broker’ and of ‘exogenous shock’ are used to present RIU as an external force or
facilitator which instigated a transformation process. RIU facilitated a large number of rural producers to produce for the market, and which was sufficient enough to
create a significant demand for inputs and services. This demand triggered new
investment and re-organisation in the supply chains. Then, RIU supported actors to
solve capacity problems that emerged from the shock. RIU is therefore presented as a
flexible ‘innovation broker’ who played different roles and allocated resources based
on circumstances on the ground.
The thesis makes several contributions. It presents a case of how a public action can
promote innovation in industries dominated by subsistence producers by playing the role of an innovation broker to support a significant number of producers to change
routines and interact with other actors. It also shows that rural growth can be
achieved through linking rural enterprises with those in the urban instead of
supporting rural actors in isolation. It basically makes it clear that African agriculture
needs re-organization, so that technological changes can follow as a consequence