دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی مباحث تشخیص نهادی نوآوری در کشاورزی؛ مشارکت دولتی و خصوصی - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

This paper presents and discusses a diagnostic framework to identify institutional processes in the creation of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for agricultural innovation. The diagnostic framework proposed here combines a conceptualisation of institutions with a conceptualisation of technology. We argue that a performative notion of institutions provides a better tool for institutional diagnostics than the common understanding of institutions as ‘rules of the game’. The paper furthermore proposes to conceptualise technology as affordance, in contrast to a more common understanding of technology as an input. We explore the value of our diagnostic framework by analysing the literature on PPPs for agricultural innovation and unpublished data from a PPP initiative for smallholder sorghum production, based on an agreement between Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) and Nile Breweries Limited (NBL). In the discussion and conclusion section we evaluate the benefits of our diagnostic framework and discuss how the empirical issues it brings forward create important lessons for analysis of innovation for African smallholder farming and institutional diagnostics more generally.

10. Discussion and conclusion

The overall objectives of PPPs for agricultural innovation are in line with ‘classic’ agricultural extension: to introduce science-based technologies to the agricultural community, most prominently smallholder farmers. A major assumption of such arrangements is that bringing in private-sector partners results in more effective development and implementation of agricultural technologies, with smallholder farmers as the main beneficiaries. The diagnostic framework that we introduced to analyse such partnerships aims to provide a better insight in the institutional changes such partnerships bring about and the role of technology in such arrangements.

Our analysis of the literature on PPPs for agricultural innovation and the case of sorghum production for the NBL beer company in Uganda show that institutions are predominantly understood as organisational arrangements, largely in line with Douglass North’s definition of institutions as ‘rules of the game’. This notion seems adequate at first. PPPs for agricultural innovation are indeed very much about new arrangements and how different organisations can improve service delivery to farmers. However, we argued that this notion falls short in explaining inconsistencies and wide variation in application and interpretation of rules. These are better captured by a performance-based notion of institutions. Our diagnostic framework also highlights the importance of considering technology as an affordance. In most studies on PPPs for agricultural innovation, technology is perceived as an input. Institutions ‘work upon’ technology and therewith change their meaning and functioning within a particular context.