The success and impacts of research projects in agriculture that develop technologies for the resource poor farmers are most often considered in terms of the natural sciences and answer questions such as, how effectively do new interventions increase grain yield and how do they fit into the farming system. In this paper we review research in the context of the innovation system as a whole and examine impacts on institutional arrangements, rather than just on direct impacts of the technologies. We use the case of two participatory research projects in Nepal designed to produce better rice technologies for low-resource farmers. These took place in the context of the Nepal rice innovation system that is comprised of many formal and informal actors. Farmers’ innovations and their seed networks have contributed significantly to this innovation system and the participatory rice improvement projects brought greater recognition of their role. It led to the development and spread of socially-responsible, technical innovations in the rice improvement system and contributed to important policy changes such as changes in the seeds act and institutional innovations. These included the establishment of formal partnerships between non-governmental and governmental organisations and led to the latter changing extension methods to increase role of farmers. However, no project can act alone and, although the two participatory projects contributed to institutional change, apportioning credit to individual actors in complex innovation systems is not possible.
The evolution and spread of socially responsible technical and institutional changes in a rice innovation system in Nepal
by Krishna D Joshi†, Stephen Biggs & Others, , 01 June, 2006