Innovation in livestock systems: Team-wide outputs

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/768

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The impact of social networks on dairy technology adoption in North-West Ethiopia
(Poster Abstract, 2012-09-19) Asres, A.; Sölkner, Johann; Puskur, Ranjitha; Wurzinger, Maria
Social structure, especially in the form of social networks, aﬀects the adoption of agricultural technologies. In light of an increasing focus on new demand-driven agricultural extension approaches that leverage social networks as an opportunity, too little is known about (a) which network characteristics matter? and (b) how do speciﬁc network characteristics matter? This paper investigates the impact of social networks in relation to smallholder dairy production technology adoption in Ethiopia. Structured household interviews were conducted on randomly selected 304 smallholder dairy farmers. Combined social network analysis and economic approaches is used to analyse dairy production adoption that incorporates social learning. Results reveal that smallholders acquire knowledge about improved dairy practices mainly from the public extension system (extension network), and to a lesser extent through their close associates (peer networks). The market networks are not a signiﬁcant predictor of dairy adoption; supporting the ﬁnding that innovation is supply-driven by extension rather than market-driven by product demand articulated by traders. Likewise, community networks have no direct eﬀects, suggesting that community-based associations (for example, cooperatives, self-help groups, etc.) are less likely to technology adoption decisions in this particular case. These ﬁndings suggest that the potential contributions of other social networks, particularly communication networks and market networks that can signiﬁcantly aﬀect adoption, often remain untapped. Given the adoption of agricultural production technologies as an essential means of boosting productivity, increase production and improving incomes of smallholder households, these results indicate that technology-promoters may have to change their approach and focus on the innovative use of all kinds of social networks as an important determinant. In addition, this ﬁnding shades light to design suitable strategies that leverage social networks to promote more rapid adoption of agricultural technologies by smallholders.
Livestock innovation systems and networks: Findings from smallholder dairy farmers in Ethiopia
(Journal Article, 2012-09-15) Asres, A.; Sölkner, Johann; Puskur, Ranjitha; Wurzinger, Maria
This paper uses household and key informant survey data from Ethiopia to: (1) understand the organizational structures that influence change in dairy production systems; (2) explore how local-level innovation system networks are functioning in the smallholder dairy production and (3) identify intervention points for strengthening innovation capacity. Results revealed that public sector actors are the major role players in the dairy production system despite their minor role in marketing linkages. We also found out that the private sector actors play peripheral roles in the network. Differences between innovator and non-innovator social networks were observed, with innovators exhibiting greater access to sources of production knowledge, inputs, credits and markets. Important institutions that could strengthen the stakeholders’ ability to identify, implement and adapt sustainable practices were not included in the processes. We recommend for policy guidance to reform the current agricultural extension system to address institutional and policy issues that constrain effective agricultural innovation system.
Redesigning a livestock research institute to support livestock development within an AIS approach: Innovative activity profile 1
(Book Chapter, 2012-02-15) Puskur, Ranjitha; Ballantyne, Peter G.; Kristjanson, Patricia M.
Social acceptance of dairy farming: The ambivalence between the two faces of modernity
(Journal Article, 2011-06) Boogaard, Birgit K.; Bock, B.B.; Oosting, Simon J.; Wiskerke, J.S.C.; Zijpp, A.J. van der
Society’s relationship with modern animal farming is an ambivalent one: on the one hand there is rising criticism about modern animal farming; on the other hand people appreciate certain aspects of it, such as increased food safety and low food prices. This ambivalence reflects the two faces of modernity: the negative (exploitation of nature and loss of traditions) and the positive (progress, convenience, and efficiency). This article draws on a national survey carried out in the Netherlands that aimed at gaining a deeper understanding about the acceptance of modern dairy farming in Dutch society. People take two dimensions into account when evaluating different aspects of modern dairy farming: (1) the way living beings are used for production and (2) the way a dairy farm functions as a business. In both these dimensions people appeared to adopt cautious opinions: most people preferred relatively traditional and natural farms and were concerned about the use of nature and treatment of animals in modern production—although this did not imply an outright rejection of modern animal farming. The study also looked for (and sought to explain) differences of opinion between social groups. Besides socio-demographic factors such as age and gender, farming experience and value-orientation (such as socially minded and professional) appeared to be important variables. The values and convictions within modern society can help to explain why some people are greatly concerned about animal welfare while some show less concern. This diversity also helps to explain why general information campaigns are quite ineffective in allaying concerns about modern animal farming.
The socio-cultural sustainability of livestock farming: an inquiry into social perceptions of dairy farming
(Journal Article, 2011) Boogaard, Birgit K.; Oosting, Simon J.; Bock, B.B.; Wiskerke, J.S.C.
Over the past 50 years, the scale and intensity of livestock farming have increased significantly. At the same time, Western societies have become more urbanised and fewer people have close relatives involved in farming. As a result, most citizens have little knowledge or direct experience of what farming entails. In addition, more people are expressing concerns over issues such as farm animal welfare. This has led to increasing public demand for more sustainable ways of livestock farming. To date, little research has been carried out on the social pillar of sustainable livestock farming. The aim of this study is to provide insights into the sociocultural sustainability of livestock farming systems. This study reviews the key findings of earlier published interdisciplinary research about the social perceptions of dairy farming in the Netherlands and Norway (Boogaard et al., 2006, 2008, 2010a and 2010b) and synthesises the implications for sociocultural sustainability of livestock farming. This study argues that the (sociocultural) sustainable development of livestock farming is not an objective concept, but that it is socially and culturally constructed by people in specific contexts. It explains the social pillar of the economics/ecological/social model sustainability in terms of the fields of tensions that exist between modernity, traditions and naturality – ‘the MTN knot’ – each of which has positive and negative faces. All three angles of vision can be seen in people's attitudes to dairy farming, but the weight given to each differs between individuals and cultures. Hence, sociocultural sustainability is context dependent and needs to be evaluated according to its local meaning. Moreover, sociocultural sustainability is about people's perceptions of livestock farming. Lay people might perceive livestock farming differently and ascribe different meanings to it than experts do, but their ‘reality’ is just as real. Finally, this study calls for an ongoing collaboration between social and animal scientists in order to develop livestock farming systems that are more socioculturally sustainable.
Socio-cultural sustainability of pig production: farm visits with citizen panels in the Netherlands and Denmark
(Journal Article, 2011-09) Boogaard, Birgit K.; Boekhorst, L.J.S.; Oosting, Simon J.; Sørensen, J.T.
Many sustainability studies of animal production consider three pillars: the economic, environmental and socio-cultural. Farmers and animal scientists tend to put most emphasis on the economic and environmental pillar and largely ignore the socio-cultural pillar. Socio-cultural sustainability refers to social perceptions of animal farming, including social appreciations and concerns of animal production systems. Integration of social demands and values in the production sector is a prerequisite to justify animal production within a society. The objective of the present study was therefore to gain further insights into socio-cultural sustainability of pig production. Many citizens may not know what contemporary pig production actually entails. To give people a real life experience with pig production, we conducted farm visits with citizen panels with 18 respondents in the Netherlands and 8 respondents in Denmark. In both countries, respondents were divided over two panels and each panel visited a conventional and an organic pig farm. During the farm visits respondents noted their sensory experiences — what do you smell, hear, see and feel? In addition, each respondent made pictures of six positive and six negative aspects on the farms for which they had to write a motivation. The qualitative analysis resulted in seven socio-cultural themes (SCT) of pig production namely: 1) meat production, 2) farm activities, 3) farm income, 4) animals, 5) housing system, 6) environment and nature, and 7) culture and landscape. Each SCT included several socio-cultural aspects (appreciations, SCA) and socio-cultural issues (concerns, SCI). We identified 31 SCAs in the Netherlands and 33 SCAs in Denmark, of which 29 were SCIs in both countries. Although many issues were associated with animal welfare, the results also showed that social concerns of pig production extended beyond animal welfare. In general it can be stated that citizens are strongly concerned about overexploitation of animals in contemporary pig production systems, but at the same time they appreciate the dynamism in a pig farm including certain modern developments.
Report of the Second Meeting of the imGoats Inhassoro Innovation Platform (IP), Mangungumete, Mozambique, 26 July 2011
(Report, 2011-07-26) International Livestock Research Institute
Innovation systems perspective and Value Chains Approach for development: Concepts and principles
(Presentation, 2010-11-23) Gebremedhin, Berhanu
Opportunities for promoting gender equality in rural Ethiopia through the commercialization of agriculture
(Working Paper, 2010-05-31) Aregu, Lemlem; Bishop-Sambrook, C.; Puskur, Ranjitha; Tesema, E.
Rural women in Ethiopia represent a tremendous productive resource in the agricultural sector. They are major contributors to the agricultural workforce, either as family members or in their own right as women heading households. However, despite recent policy initiatives to strengthen the position of women in the agricultural sector, a mixture of economic constraints, cultural norms and practices continue to limit their contribution to household food security and, to a lesser extent, inhibits the commercialization of the sector. Gender roles and relationships influence the division of work, the use of resources, and the sharing of the benefits of production between women and men. In particular, the introduction of new technologies and practices, underpinned by improved service provision, often disregards the gendered-consequences of market-oriented growth and many benefits bypass women. Not only do these circumstances have implications for issues of equality but also may be detrimental to the long-term sustainability of development initiatives. Despite the crucial role of the agricultural sector in the Ethiopian economy, studies on gender aspects of agricultural commercialization are relatively scarce. The main purpose of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge base about implications of gender roles and responsibilities for the development of the agricultural sector. This paper discusses gender issues in the context of the Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian Farmers’ Project being implemented by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The findings are based on qualitative studies undertaken by the IPMS gender research team and Research and Development Officers in 10 pilot learning woredas (PLWs) located in 4 regions of the country. The study had three objectives: to increase the understanding of the different roles of women and men in agricultural activities, marketing and decision making, and their share in the benefits; to identify potential barriers for women’s and men’s participation in market-led development initiatives and technology adoption; and to identify what actions may overcome some of these barriers.
Commercializing dairy and forage systems in Ethiopia: An innovation systems perspective
(Working Paper, 2010-05-05) Lemma, T.; Puskur, Ranjitha; Hoekstra, Dirk; Tegegne, Azage
This paper presents and discusses the results of the analysis of Ethiopian dairy and forage innovation systems. Two factors triggered the need for understanding the innovation systems: Ethiopian dairy subsector has not been able to take-off despite decades of research and development efforts; and the context for the subsector development is changing. The purpose of the research was to identify organizational, institutional and policy options to facilitate market-driven and knowledge-based smallholder dairy development in the country. Specifically, the analysis looked at contextual factors determining opportunities and necessities for innovation; the key innovation systems actors, pattern of interaction between them; coordination mechanisms; and the subsector development policy and strategy. The investigation was based on a survey of actors and their roles and interactions, review of policy, and project documents and available empirical evidence. The research identified constraints and challenges relating to market, supportive services, interaction of actors, inter-organizational coordination, and gaps in the subsector development policy and strategy. Finally,options are identified that can enhance commercialization and innovation. The options include: strengthening dairy cooperatives with emphasis on their business-orientation, linking them, where appropriate, vertically to processors and input suppliers, and strategically linking dairy development intervention to informal markets through food security/food transfer programs and institutionalized school feeding programs; public support for the development of private service and pluralistic service delivery system, alongside strengthening public capacity for performing regulatory and quality assurance functions effectively; formulating national dairy development policy and strategy to ensure coordinated policy implementation on the ground; encouraging the integration of emerging dairy cooperatives at higher levels and capacity building to enable them to demand service, command accountability, and serve as a mouthpiece of producers; capitalizing on the on-going Business Process Re-engineering for revising the prevailing reward systems in public research and extension to encourage innovation and impactorientation; creating incentive system such as leverage fund and competitive grant to encourage intervention-based public–private innovation partnership; and strengthening dairy platform at woreda and/or milkshed level for achieving of better impact through continuous incremental improvements and to facilitate scaling out and up of successful experience to achieve wider impact and inform higher policymaking.
Writing convincing research proposals and effective scientific reports. Part B: scientific writing
(Training Material, 2010-03-25) Baguma, S.; Anandajayasekeram, P.; Puskur, Ranjitha
During one of the interactions between the management of the Capacity Strengthening Unit, and the Graduate Fellows of ILRI, the students identified the need for additional training in areas such as experimental design and data analysis, oral and poster presentation, scientific writing and proposal writing, project management, and leadership training. ILRI also noted that although a large number of theses were produced by the Graduate Fellows, they were not prolific enough in writing scientific papers and journal articles. This module is a response to this request. The training module was primarily intended to assist the Graduate Fellows to write convincing proposals to access the available competitive funds, and also to write and publish the results of their work widely. Once the Graduate Fellows leave ILRI, we also want them to train their own colleagues in the systems they come from. To enable this, the learning module is designed to include learning objectives, handouts (teaching notes) and the PowerPoints used during the presentations for every session. Where relevant, exercises and additional references are also provided. The materials are presented in the form of ‘Reusable Learning Objects’ so that the users can make use of the relevant sections based on the target group and purpose. Although the primary audiences of this module are ILRI Graduate Fellows, the materials can be easily adapted by our national research partners. The users are expected to modify and change the content to suit their specific context and need. We are planning to update this module periodically to respond to the changing needs and circumstances. Hence, any feedback and constructive comments from the users are very much appreciated.
Writing convincing research proposals and effective scientific reports. Part A: writing a convincing proposal
(Training Material, 2010-03-24) Baguma, S.; Anandajayasekeram, P.; Puskur, Ranjitha
The growth in agricultural research investment was very rapid in the 1970s and slowed down since the mid 1980s. The rate of expansion of research staff has been more rapid than that of funding, resulting in a growing proportion of research funds being used to pay salaries and an acute shortage of operating funds for undertaking research. As national public sector spending on research is falling, many National Agricultural Research Systems are heavily depending on donor funds to support research. This situation is more acute in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else in the world. In order to keep the research agenda moving, it is critical for individual agricultural research scientists and their organizations to find new sources of funds. While the available research resources are declining, there has been a universal move towards the use of competitive funding for research. Many institutes also started moving towards results based contractual arrangements. That means a successful researcher will have to write convincing proposals to secure funds and be able to widely publish the results (outputs and outcome)of their work to attract more resources.Although the primary audiences of this module are ILRI Graduate Fellows, the materials can be easily adapted by our national research partners. The users are expected to modify and change the content to suit their specific context and need. We are planning to update this module periodically to respond to the changing needs and circumstances. Hence, any feedback and constructive comments from the users are very much appreciated.
Strengthening partnerships and networks in agricultural research for development.
(Training Material, 2010-03-16) Anandajayasekeram, P.; Puskur, Ranjitha
Partnerships have been and are a cornerstone of ILRI’s implementation framework. ILRI has a partnership strategy to guide the implementation of ILRI’s activities. This module complements this strategy in terms of preparing our collaborating partners to effectively participate and contribute to multidisciplinary, multistakeholder interventions. This module is expected to have multiple uses. One, as a source material for trainings that could be organized at different levels, and two, as reference document to upgrade the knowledge of staff of partner organizations about partnership design and management in R4D projects. The design of the learning module includes guidance notes for potential trainers including learning purpose and objectives for each session; description of the session structure (including methods, techniques, time allocation to each activity); power point presentations, presentation text, exercise handouts, worksheets, and additional reading material. There are also evaluation forms and recommended bibliography for use by future facilitators. The session modules can each be downloaded separately by search in this repository.
Applying innovation system concepts in agricultural research for development: a learning module
(Book, 2009-11-23) Anandajayasekeram, P.; Puskur, Ranjitha; Zerfu, E.
This learning module is expected to have multiple uses. One, a source material for trainings that could be organized at different levels, and two, as reference document to upgrade the knowledge of staff of partner organizations about innovation systems approach and applications. The design of the learning module includes guidance notes for potential trainers including learning purpose and objectives for each session; description of the session structure (including methods, techniques, time allocation to each activity); power point presentations, presentation text, exercise handouts, worksheets, and additional reading material. There are also evaluation forms and recommended bibliography for use by future facilitators. The module has been prepared in the style of a source book and it assumes that the reader is familiar with the concepts, procedures and tools used in participatory research approaches. Users can pick and choose the sessions/idea/tools/concepts that are most relevant and appropriate in specific contexts and for specific purposes. This is work in progress. The module is being continually refined and updated, based on application of the concept and tools in the project and elsewhere and, lessons learned in the process. Case studies will be prepared to supplement this module. Therefore, IPMS would like to encourage users of this learning module to actively provide feedback, including suggestions on how it can be improved.
Concepts and practices in agricultural extension in developing countries: a source book
(Book, 2008-03-27) Anandajayasekeram, P.; Puskur, Ranjitha; Workneh, Sindu; Hoekstra, Dirk
The first chapter outlines the emerging challenges faced by agricultural R&D sectors and how paradigms are evolving in response to these changes and challenges. The second chapter traces the evolution of agricultural extension thinking and practice. It highlights some generic problems faced at various stages of evolution and approaches to address them. It highlights the factors identified in literature as contributing to successful knowledge dissemination processes and creating higher access to clients to the services. While reflecting on the challenges and opportunities, the chapter also explores the possible future of extension services in developing countries. The third chapter gives an account of the various extension models, approaches and methods that have been tried out in developing countries and the experiences. The chapter concludes with the transition being made to agricultural innovation systems from Research & Extension systems and highlights the role of extension services in this context. Chapter four highlights the importance of farmer groups in providing effective extension services and promoting innovation. It explains in detail the processes, approaches and methods involved in group formation and development, management, performance assessment and, monitoring and evaluation. Chapter five lists and describes in detail the various tools and methods used in participatory research and development processes. Chapter six focuses on the very important issues of Monitoring and Evaluation as systems for learning and for facilitating reflective action cycles. The importance of participatory approaches in M&E, process monitoring and outcome mapping are highlighted. This book can be used by students and practitioners of extension, researchers and decision-makers. This is a collation of knowledge regarding the practice of extension and is not intended to be used as a recipe or blue print. Based on the context and the requirement, the approaches and tools should be selected, adapted and used. There is a built-in flexibility that would allow the user to employ his/her experience, creativity and imagination in adapting and using the approaches and tools described in this source book.
Linking international agricultural research knowledge with action for sustainable development
(Journal Article, 2009-03-31) Kristjanson, Patricia M.; Reid, Robin S.; Dickson, N.; Clark, W.C.; Romney, Dannie L.; Puskur, Ranjitha; MacMillan, Susan; Grace, Delia
We applied an innovation framework to sustainable livestock development research projects in Africa and Asia. The focus of these projects ranged from pastoral systems to poverty and ecosystems services mapping to market access by the poor to fodder and natural resource management to livestock parasite drug resistance. We found that these projects closed gaps between knowledge and action by combining different kinds of knowledge, learning, and boundary spanning approaches; by providing all partners with the same opportunities; and by building the capacity of all partners to innovate and communicate.

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