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Knowledge in Action
Wageningen Univerisity and Research Centre is known for its practical and societally relevant research in spatial development. Stakeholders currently put much emphasis on participatory processes in landscape planning procedures. This poses a special challenge for research. What role does research play in our present world characterised by complexity, competing claims and development needs, and an increased concern for climate change and environmental impact? In the book 'Knowledge in Action' we explore different types of transdisciplinary research that scientists engage in. Depending on the societal context and the interests of local citizens, researchers apply different research approaches ...
Sustainable Intensification in Smallholder Agriculture
Sustainable intensification has recently been developed and adopted as a key concept and driver for research and policy in sustainable agriculture. It includes ecological, economic and social dimensions, where food and nutrition security, gender and equity are crucial components. This book describes different aspects of systems research in agriculture in its broadest sense, where the focus is moved from farming systems to livelihoods systems and institutional innovation. Much of the work represents outputs of the three CGIAR Research Programs on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics, Aquatic Agricultural Systems and Dryland Systems. The chapters are based around four themes: the conceptual underpinnings of systems research; sustainable intensification in practice; integrating nutrition, gender and equity in research for improved livelihoods; and systems and institutional innovation. While most of the case studies are from countries and agro-ecological zones in Africa, there are also some from Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
Adaptive Collaborative Approaches in Natural Resource Governance
The contexts range from farmer field schools, to floodplain management and community forestry.
Intervening in complex agrifood systems: Assessing outcomes of a multistakeholder approach in central Mozambique
Inclusive co-design of system innovations incorporates diverse perspectives and bodies of knowledge that can generate solutions that fit well in a local context and over time influence the socio-technical regime. In operationalizing system transformation-oriented co-design processes, research and development actors have experimented in recent decades with the role of multistakeholder approaches. A specific application of such approaches in the agrifood system context are Agricultural Innovation Platforms (AIPs). Despite the growing application of AIPs and similar approaches, documentation of AIP achievements and assessment of their outcomes beyond the lifetime of the program are rare. We pre...
Agronomy for Development
Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- CONTENTS -- List of abbreviations -- List of contributors -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Knowledge politics in development-oriented agronomy -- 2 On the movement of agricultural technologies: packaging, unpacking and situated reconfiguration -- 3 South-South cooperation and agribusiness contestations in irrigated rice: China and Brazil in Ghana -- 4 GM crops 'for Africa': contestation and knowledge politics in the Kenyan biosafety debate -- 5 Systems research in the CGIAR as an arena of struggle: competing discourses on the embedding of research in development -- 6 One step forward, two steps back in farmer knowledge exchange: 'scaling up' as Fordist replication in drag -- 7 When the solution became a problem: strategies in the reform of agricultural extension in Uganda -- 8 Sweet 'success': contesting biofortification strategies to address malnutrition in Tanzania -- 9 Crops in context: negotiating traditional and formal seed institutions -- 10 Laws of the field: rights and justice in development-oriented agronomy -- 11 A golden age for agronomy? -- References -- Index
Evolvability in Business
Through the unique combination of evolutionary biology and management theory applied to business cases, and keeping in mind that organisations are fundamentally human systems, Goh and Mundra propose organisational evolvability as a new frame to guide enterprise transformation and change. Some of the topics covered in the book include: Understanding the differences between Complicated and Complex; Moving from Planned Change to Emergent Change; Applying principles of evolution to enterprise evolvability, and how to operationalise it using a Sense-Adapt-respond loop; Identifying and addressing Sensemaking gaps; including different approaches to scaling and repaying organisational debt; Measurin...
Root, Tuber and Banana Food System Innovations
This open access book describes recent innovations in food systems based on root, tuber and banana crops in developing countries. These innovations respond to many of the challenges facing these vital crops, linked to their vegetative seed and bulky and perishable produce. The innovations create value, food, jobs and new sources of income while improving the wellbeing and quality of life of their users. Women are often key players in the production, processing and marketing of roots, tubers and bananas, so successful innovation needs to consider gender. These crops and their value chains have long been neglected by research and development, hence this book contributes to filling in the gap. ...
Innovation Platforms for Agricultural Development
Innovation Platforms (IPs) form the core of many Agricultural Research for Development programmes, stimulating multi-stakeholder collaboration and action towards the realization of agricultural development outcomes. This book enhances the body of knowledge of IPs by focusing on mature IPs in agricultural systems research, including the crop and livestock sectors, and innovations in farmer cooperatives and agricultural extension services. Resulting from an international IP case study competition, the examples reported will help the many actors involved with agricultural IPs worldwide reflect on their actions and achievements (or failures), and find tools to share their experience. Chapters feature case studies from Central Africa, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nicaragua and Uganda. Authors reflect critically on the impact of IPs and showcase their progress, providing an important sourcebook and inspiration for students, researchers and professionals.
Increasing Production from the Land
African agriculture faces major challenges with growing population pressure and the impact of climate change. Until now food production overall has broadly kept pace with demand. To maintain this impressive achievement, production from the land needs to be intensified, soil fertility must be enhanced, forests and water resources must be conserved, and land use practices must be sustainable over the long term. This book shows what needs to be done, and points to how best to achieve this. The book starts with a brief guide to what plants and animals need to grow well, how farmers currently use the land, and the research that is being conducted on new agricultural technologies. A comparison is ...
