Agriculture Innovation System: Challenges And opportunities for the Caribbean Muhammad Ibrahim, PhD Experto en Ganadería Ambiental, Leader, resilient agriculture Flagship project, IICA Diseno: Expoagro Argentina, 2011

Issues Related to Reserarch in the Caribbean o Little impacts of research on agricultural productivity and value addition o Poor information systems and lack of base line to evaluate impacts o Poor systems for technology transfer o ICTS not used for communication of results o Research system does not incorporate key actors for scaling up results

Source: K. Fuglie, “Productivity Growth and Technology Capital in the Global Agricultural Economy,” in Productivity Growth in Agriculture: An International Perspective, ed. K. Fuglie, S. L. Wang, and V. Eldon Ball (Oxfordshire, England: CAB International, 2012). Note: Growth rates are annual averages from 1995 to 2007 or 2009, depending on data availability. Agriculture productivity will have to increase at a faster rate to meet demands- throught technological innovation

How to achieve sustained, inclusive and resilient agriculture productivity growth? Improvements in the investment climate in: - agricultural innovation systems and farming practices; -in the management of natural resources and adaptation and mitigation to CC; and -specific policies and market based mechanisms to close the productivity gap of small family farms.

Fuente: Rincón, 2013 Productivity Gains with technological innovation: example with beef cattle systems Liveweight gains (kg/ha/año)

6 Technological innovation with agroforest system: KUXUR RUM, in Central America for productionof corn and beans in family agriculture systems: Increased and sustainable yields Multiple services and goods

Concept of innovation Innovations in agriculture and food systems can be understood as new knowledge and technologies in agricultural and food production, processing, and marketing that are applied in economic and social processes. As a result of such innovations, farmers, processors, and traders become more competitive, sustainable and resilient, and produce or sell better-quality products, and generate greater profits.

Actors of the National Agricultural Innovation Systems (NAIS) Number and diversity of actors in the NAIS are many including: NARS, Universities, Producer organizations, research centers and private firms related to the business, and to inputs, seeds and services etc. The NARS, responsible for public sector research and leaders of the NAIS, have very limited capacity to integrate other actors

Strenthening the innovation system to work on agriculture: Role of IICA and strategic partners PROCITROPICOS PROCISUR SICTA PROCINORTE CATIE CARDI PROMECAFE NARS + Universities+ Development org. Centers CGIAR CIAT, CIP, CIMMYT, IFPRI, Bioversity PROCIS- Family agriculture in strategy - Regional agenda for research and development -Policy dialogue and advocacy -knowledge management -Projects -Networking

Regional platforms of Procisur PerIod MTP

PRINCIPAL ACHIEVEMNT of Procisur  Baseline information- knowledge of production systems, inventory of technologies, organisations of farmers, insitutional framework of public and prívate organisations.  Alliances with regional and International actors for joint implementation of projects and institutional strengthening – EU, CGIAR, FONTAGRO. GFAR  Systematic approach in the countries to develop National Agriculture innovation and to promote policies to improve system: reserach, extension, organisations etc.

Publications  In the period – 34 publications were produced Projects implemented in the last 10 years 9 proyects FONTAGRO, 1 proyect SECCI/BID, 5 proyects Unión Europea, 1 proyect BMZ/ISNAR, 2 proyects Banco Mundial, 5 proyects - Cooperativos PROCISUR, 1 proyect – international agreement (INIA España/CIMMYT/INIA Uruguay/PROCISUR), 3 proyectsFonCT of IICA

Policies to improve the innovation system - Strengthen the reserach and extension system -Modernise infrastructure- laboratories etc -Strengthen farmer’s organisations and cooperatives -Services for high quality seeds and other inputs -Credits for investment in technologies -Information and communication tools

How to create favourable conditions for the investment of the private sector Public policies: regulatory frameworks- intellectual property etc.. Build alliances along the value chain: cooperatives, research centers, NGOs, Universities, private sector, etc. Creation of competitive funds (public and private): generally state has more interest in small farmers and private sector on bigger farmers or where there is an interest