Innovation Systems Research: Where We Came from & Where We Could Go

Published on 19 May 2016. Hyderabad, India. Presentation by Dr Andy Hall Project leader-Food Systems Innovation Agriculture Flagship Commonwealth Scientific Industrial and Research- -Organization (CSIRO) AUSTRALIA

Agricultural innovation systems (AIS) is a global perspective accidently invented by ICRISAT nearly 20 years ago. At that time ICRISAT along with the rest of the CGIAR was struggling with the question of how to improve the impact of its research. Partnership with the private sector as a way of achieving impact was a highly controversial idea. The failure of impact assessment research to make a difference and help set priorities could only be discussed in hushed whispers.

AIS thinking explained why partnership was critical for innovation. It explained why we needed to shift from measuring impact to learning how to achieve it. And it explained why (institutional) innovations in the innovation process were a critical part of an organization’s, a sector’s and a country’s capacity to innovate. Unsurprisingly it took many years before these ideas started to become main streamed and uncontroversial, but in the process many misunderstanding and confusion have crept in. 

The promise remains that AIS can 
  1. be used operationally to help navigate and progress the process of innovation in different contexts and 
  2. it can help frame a missing learning and research enquiry on how innovation and impact at scale really happens. 
Like all promises, there is work to do to keep that promise. So why not do it at ICRISAT where it all started? 





Related:
12 - 16 May 2016. Hack4Farming was an exciting event and part of ICRISAT’s digital agricultu
re initiative to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, supported by Microsoft, aWhere, USA and T-Hub. Digital technology can accelerate the pace of developing and delivering sustainable and equitable solutions to smallholder farmers and in so doing enable us to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals before 2030. This includes narrowing the knowledge gap between researchers and farmers; providing timely and targeted information to farmers to manage weather and market variability and integrating farmers into profitable markets.

Over 100 data analysts, hardware buffs and software developers came together with agriculture domain experts at a two-day hackathon, titled Hack4Farming, to explore digital solutions to address agricultural development issues in India.

Hack4Farming focused on weather and systems modeling, and their potential impacts on the Indian agriculture sector. Teams explored how to leverage new modeling techniques (from ICRISAT), weather data (from aWhere, USA) and Intelligent Cloud (from Microsoft) to address the information gaps, and benefit the agriculture stakeholders including seed producers, service providers and farmers across India.
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G7 leaders’ declaration on food security and nutrition:

26 - 27 May 2016. Ise-Shima, Japan. Meeting of the G7 Ministers and high representatives, and the European Commissioner responsible for the environment. This meeting follows 2015 global commitments including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. The meeting covered seven themes: the 2030 Agenda, Resource Efficiency, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Chemicals Management, the Role of Cities and Marine litter. 

 G7 leaders’ declaration on food security and nutrition:
“Ending hunger and malnutrition is a fundamental element of the 2030 Agenda. As part of a broader effort to achieve the SDGs, we commit to engage collectively in concrete actions in collaboration with relevant partners and stakeholders towards the achievement of our aim to lift 500 million people in developing countries out of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Building on the G7 Broad Food Security and Nutrition Development Approach, we endorse the G7 Vision for Action on Food Security and Nutrition"
The G7 Vision for Action on Food Security and Nutrition outlines collective actions in the priority areas of:
  1. empowering women; 
  2. improving nutrition through a people-centered approach that recognizes the diverse food security challenges people face across the rural to urban spectrum; and 
  3. ensuring sustainability and resilience within agriculture and food systems. 
We commit to enhance synergies with relevant international initiatives. We support the development of good practices for global food security and nutrition that are in line with the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on climate change. This could include expanding farming opportunities, revitalizing rural communities, and enhancing production, productivity, responsible investment, trade and sustainability in agriculture and food systems. We welcome the International Symposium on Food Security and Nutrition to be held in Japan and the Nutrition for Growth Summit.”
Extract of the V4a (Vision for Action) (page 4)
Enhanced synergies and engagement with broad stakeholders and other fora: 
The G7 will seek further synergies with the G20 and its efforts on food security and nutrition, as well as collaboration with regional efforts and fora such as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), taking into consideration each region’s specific context and challenges and adjusting approaches where necessary, including by utilizing such opportunities as the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI: 27 to 28 August 2016 in Nairobi, Kenya).

Recalling the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the G7 emphasizes the critical importance of mobilizing multiple streams of financing to achieve the 2030 Agenda. The G7 will work with relevant stakeholders to more effectively and sustainably mobilize resources for food security, complementing a similar exercise by the SUN Movement for nutrition. The G7 welcomes further efforts in leveraging private investments such as that demonstrated in the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP). 

The G7 will raise awareness on the issues that this V4A puts forward, and promote aligned actions and coherence in implementation, among all stakeholders including developing country partners, other donors, including through the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development (GDPRD), international and regional organizations, multilateral development banks, researchers and academics, and philanthropic organizations. The G7 will foster continued collaboration with the private sector and civil society, including through the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. The G7 will seek opportunities to engage in multi-stakeholder dialogue, making full use of relevant fora and platforms on food security and nutrition, particularly the CFS.

Forthcoming:
  • Symposium on Food Security and Nutrition Japan 
  • 4th of August 2016. The Second High Level Summit on Nutrition will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the biggest global event between now and 2020 to address the devastating burden of undernutrition.
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Awarded grants of the Dutch Food & Business Global Challenges Programme Call

20 May 2016. Five Integrated Projects have been awarded grants within the third Call of the Food and Business Global Challenges Programme (GCP). The theme of the NWO-WOTRO Call, selected and developed by the Food & Business Knowledge Platform (F and BKP), is “Transformation of food systems with a focus on sustainability and urbanization.”

Please find below a list of this month’s awarded Integrated Projects, linking to their own Research Projects page on this website.

Sustaining food supplies and improving health: Integration of small farmers into modern value chains with food safety standards in Kenya
Contamination with fungal toxins is a prominent food safety concern in tropical regions. Aflatoxin, a fungal toxin common in maize and groundnut, affects much of African produce. Besides exacting a significant health toll, it impedes farmers’ access to global food markets and high-value domestic markets. This project will develop and test business models to support the scale-up of a biocontrol product - Aflasafe, to combat aflatoxin among smallholder maize farmers in Kenya.

Cocoa crop improvement, farms and markets: a science-based approach to sustainably improving farmer food security in Ghana and Ivory Coast
Cocoa farmers in West Africa face poor productivity due to constraints at the crop, field, farm and sector level. To ensure farmers’ livelihoods, yields need to increase sustainably. This research will investigate the effect of field level practices on cocoa productivity. The suitability of different (combinations of) practices for different smallholder farm systems in Ghana and Ivory Coast will be explored. Effective delivery of the services supporting these practices will be co-developed with public and private partners.

Scaling-up nutrition-sensitive agricultural initiatives in poor mountainous areas in Vietnam and Lao PDR
Food insecurity and malnutrition remain persistent challenges among upland populations in Asia. Interventions are often fragmented and address immediate rather than underlying causes. Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture (NSA) is a relatively new inter-sectoral, multi-level food system approach aiming to maximise agriculture’s contribution to improved food security and nutrition. Building upon existing interventions in Vietnam and Lao PDR, this project generates evidence on the effectiveness of, and best way to scale-up, NSA amongst ethnic minorities in mountainous areas.

Fish for food security in city regions of India and Ghana: an interregional innovation project (Fish4Food)
Seafood is vital to the health and food security of millions of poor consumers in rapidly expanding city regions in the global south. This project aims to understand how low-price fish chains contribute to urban food security in India and Ghana and to identify policy and business interventions that have potential to improve them.

Horticultural food systems based on ecologically intensive production and socio-economically sustainable value chains in the transition economies Chile and Uruguay (HortEco)
While consumption of vegetables in emerging economies falls well short of dietary recommendations, vegetable production contributes to environmental pollution and health risks. This project will engage with small farmers and organizations involved in low-or-no-pesticide production methods in Chile and Uruguay to develop more effective production, knowledge sharing methods and collaborative value chains.
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Overview and Future Prospects of Aflatoxin Research at ICRISAT

26 September 2014

Abstract :
Aflatoxin contamination of food crops is one of the most agriculturally important problems in the world. Perhaps, this is one of the most focused research areas of several advanced research institutions, CGIAR centers and NARS of several countries. Public health implications due to aflatoxins, the secondary metabolites produced by toxigenic molds Aspergillus flavus, is a global concern. Keeping in view of its growing threat and health hazards on humans and animals, ICRISAT has always been in the forefront in contributing to mitigate this menace especially in groundnut and made a remarkable progress. For over three and half decades, ICRISAT’s aflatoxin research is spear-headed by a number of excellent scientists based in Asia and SSA.

Dr. Waliyar delivered a seminar on “Overview and future prospects of aflatoxin research at ICRISAT” highlighting his research outputs, salient findings and management strategies in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The 2nd part of his presentation focused on the new opportunities, looking ahead he introduced and discussed the outline of a new concept note that was prepared in collaboration of several scientists.


@ 31:00 Dr. Waliyar discusses the use of bio control agents of which trichoderma. In this research trichoderma was initially used for composting but in the process it was discovered that it has an anti fungal activity. "Hopefully someone will pick this up"
@ 51:26 - 58:00 Dr. Waliyar discusses the use of Aflasafe. "It is an expensive technology for rich people." "A different strain has to be developed for each country which takes 4 years."

Related: 
On 9-11 October 2013, participants from five CGIAR centres met at Naivasha in Kenya to share about their current activities related to mycotoxin research and to plan for how these different activities might contribute to the next phase of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) mycotoxin research portfolio.
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Innovative Ways for Sustainable Nutrition, Food Security and Inclusive Agricultural Growth

25 April 2016. Brussels, Belgium. Food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture are among
the EU’s top development priorities for the period of 2015–2020. In this regard, research and innovation are fundamental pieces to achieve food and nutrition security goals.

Objectives
The main purpose of this high-level dialogue was to collectively consider opportunities for innovation in food security, nutrition and agriculture to secure inclusive human development. Four specific panels: resilience, nutrition, research and financing shared insights and enable creative dialogue between participants structured around three
key questions:
  1. Challenges: What has been learned from experience with regard to the challenges to inclusive and equitable development and what do we know about how can they be creatively overcome in the post 2015 era? 
  2. Synergies: How best can synergies and strategic coherence be promoted between various initiatives - such as those show-cased as well as others? 
  3. Partnerships: What are the opportunities for new partnerships to be forged to reverse trends of widening inequalities, accelerate impact and reinforce accountability? 
Background:
Neven Mimica, EC Commissioner (2014-2019)

International Cooperation and Development
The EU launched four major initiatives to support partner countries in food security and agriculture specifically addressing the key areas of innovation, nutrition, resilience and financing:
  1. In 2016, the European Commission launched an innovative process, promoting a "Joint global food insecurity analysis" with the support of key international partners dealing with food and nutrition insecurity, namely FAO and WFP. The joint analysis allowed agreeing upon the following figures regarding the global situation of food insecurity
  2. The EU has designed programmes and new partnerships that specifically address institutional and capacity constraints to effective nutrition governance: The National Information Platforms for Nutrition, the Food Fortification Facility and the FIRST initiative and is supporting global governance initiative for nutrition such as the SUN movement. 
  3. The EU supports global and regional Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) initiatives, including the CGIAR, the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR), and African research organisations supporting the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) process, both through funding and engagement with governance bodies.
  4. The EU acts as a catalyst for private financing through greater use of financial instruments such as guarantees, equity and other risk-sharing instruments for investments. The EU’s new Agriculture Finance Initiative (AgriFI) aims to increase investment in smallholder agriculture and agribusiness. Private sector engagement should result in improving the inclusiveness and sustainability of value chains in agriculture, and food security for the particular benefit of farmers currently left behind by economic opportunities.  

Download the Concept note in PDF format
Download the Agenda in PDF format


Panel members: Part 1 :
  • David Nabarro – UNSG Special Adviser on 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development introducing the Nutrition Discussion 
  • Monique Pariat - Director-General, EC Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection 
  • Tom Arnold – Scaling Up Nutrition Movement Coordinator 
  • Djimé Adoum - Executive Secretary, CILSS 

Part 2 :
  • Rudolf Strohmeier - Deputy Director-General, EC Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 
  • María de los Ángeles Benítez Salas - Deputy Director-General, EC DirectorateGeneral for Agriculture and Rural Development 
  • Charles Brand – Executive Vice President Product Management & Commercial Operations, Tetra Pak  Didier Hoffschir – Scientific director, Ministry of Superior Education and Research, France 
  • Patrick Caron – President of the UN High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition introducing the Research Discussion 
  • Monty Jones – Minister of Agriculture of Sierra Leone 

Parallel session 2
Addressing governance and accountability gap in nutrition 
  • Tom Arnold – Scaling Up Nutrition Movement Coordinator Panel members: 
  • Mike Penrose – CEO of Action Against Hunger, France 
  • Robinah Mulenga Kwofie - Executive Director, National Food and Nutrition Commission, Zambia 
  • Judith Kimiywe - Associate Professor, Department of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics, Kenyatta University 
  • Stineke Oenema – Coordinator of UN Standing Committee on Nutrition 
  • Jean-Pierre Halkin – Head of Unit for Rural Development, Food and Nutrition Security - EuropeAid
Other parallel sessions:
Session 3: Connecting innovation and research to development 
  • Gerda Verburg - Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the FAO and future Scaling Up Nutrition Movement Coordinator Panel members: 
  • Mamadou Cissokho – Honorary Chairman of the "West African Network of Farmers Organisations" 
  • John Bell - Director Sustainable Bioeconomy, Director-General for Research and Innovation 
  • Albert Schram - Vice Chancellor of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology 
  • Gerd Fleischer - Head of the Agricultural Innovation, Sustainability Standards' section, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) 
  • Jean-Luc François - Head of the Agriculture, Rural Development and Biodiversity Division, Agence Française de Développement (AFD) 
  • Monty Jones – Minister of Agriculture of Sierra Leone
Session 4: Promoting innovative financing for agriculture 
  • Thomas Duve – Director KfW Bankengruppe Panel members: 
  • Charles Brand – Executive Vice President Product Management & Commercial Operations, Tetra Pak 
  • Roberto Ridolfi – Director for Sustainable Growth and Development, EC Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development 
  • Marie Konate - Côte d'Ivoire Entrepreneur and African Business Woman of the year 
  • Ishmael Sunga – CEO of Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions 
  • Jérôme Bertrand-Hardy - Deputy Director of operations, Proparco 
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