Farmer-centered and structural perspectives on innovation and scaling: a study on sustainable agriculture and nutrition in East Africa

ABSTRACT

Purpose

We studied innovation processes in agriculture and nutrition to discuss a scaling approach that encompasses the technical, institutional, and behavioral dimensions of change.

Approach

To understand dynamics across these dimensions, we analyzed farmers’ innovation processes through two analytical lenses: farmer-centered and structural. Focus group discussions in Kapchorwa, Uganda, and Teso South, Kenya, looked at farmers’ choices of innovations. Individual interviews and stakeholder workshops at both study sites increased understanding of the local innovation system.

Findings

To address local challenges, strive for livelihood aspirations, and fulfill personal taste preferences, farmers selected and adapted practices promoted by a research project. A wide range of additional support providers encouraged farmers to develop innovations in agriculture, marketing, and nutrition.

Practical implications

By promoting innovation as a process rather than an outcome, it is possible to address context-specific needs and enhance farmers’ adaptive capacities. Scaling these processes necessitates the involvement of innovation support service providers in order to create an enabling environment for experimentation.

Theoretical implications

Analytical dualism highlights the different roles of human agency and structures in innovation processes needed to design successful scaling strategies.

Originality/value

This paper sets out a novel approach to understanding the increasingly discussed dimensions of scaling by linking them with concepts from innovation studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable agriculture
• nutrition
• scaling
• innovation
• Kenya
• Uganda

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the engagement of farmers and other innovation system actors who participated in the focus group discussions and the interviews as well as the participants in the multi-stakeholder workshops in Busia and Kapchorwa. Our particular thanks go to the study team members who contributed to the design and implementation of the study (in addition to the authors): Judith Aliso and Johnny Mugisha from the Makerere University, and Grace Khatenya and Dorine Oware from the Egerton University. We acknowledge the valuable inputs into the theoretical framing of the study from Hycenth Tim Ndah from the University of Hohenheim. We also thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor of this journal for carefully reading the manuscript and their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The study was conducted as part of the project ‘Education and Training for Sustainable Agriculture and Nutrition in East Africa (EaTSANE)’. The project is part of the LEAP Agri program, a joint Europe Africa Research and Innovation (R&I) initiative related to Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA). This study was financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) based on the decision of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany through the Federal Office of Agriculture and Food (BLE), by the Kenyan Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST) through the National Research Fund (NRF), and by the Ugandan Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MoSTI).

Notes on contributors

Thomas Pircher

Thomas Pircher is a doctoral researcher at the University of Hohenheim and an advisor on international agricultural research at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. His research interests are understanding and facilitating innovation processes of farmers and other food system actors toward more sustainable farming and nutrition practices.

Magdalena Nertinger

Magdalena Nertinger studied in the M.Sc. program Organic Agriculture and Food Systems at the University of Hohenheim. Her work and research focus on transdisciplinary research, participation of practitioners and socio-ecological transformation of food systems.

Luisa Goss

Luisa Pereira Goss graduated with a M.Sc. degree in Organic Agriculture and Food Systems at the University of Hohenheim. Her research thesis was about agro-ecological transitions for rural social movements and their potential to scale agroecology. Currently, she works with marketing and communications at ProVeg Incubator.

Thomas Hilger

Thomas Hilger is Acrocomia Hub manager at the Hans-Ruthenberg-Institute of Agricultural Sciences in the Tropics at the University of Hohenheim. His expertise is in tropical crop science including crop physiology and management, improvement of cropping systems, and soil conservation with a special focus on neglected crops and linking agriculture and nutrition.

Jeninah Karungi-Tumutegyereize

Jeninah Karungi-Tumutegyereize is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Production at the Makerere University. Her research interest is in applied ecological research with emphasis on insects in agro-ecosystems and pest management.

Lydiah Waswa

Lydiah Maruti Waswa is a lecturer in the Department of Human Nutrition at Egerton University in Kenya. Her research interests focus on linking agriculture and nutrition aimed at enhancing food and nutrition security, dietary diversity and alleviating all forms of malnutrition and their associated diet-related non-communicable diseases among vulnerable population groups.

Andrea Knierim

Andrea Knierim is Professor of Communication and Advisory Services in Rural Areas at the University of Hohenheim in Germany. Her research interests focus on the support of voluntary change, inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches and agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS).