Rural innovation systems: introduction

A social competence. A collective capacity to learn: to generate, identify, obtain, develop and put to use technologies that are appropriate to specific conditions and societal objectives. The capacity for innovativeness is embedded in the social relations and interactions of a large number of semi-autonomous actors - individuals, groups, organizations and institutions.

A social process of interactive inquiry that actors carry out in order to construct or reconstruct their practices. The main elements are experimentation and networking, which may result in developing new methods and materials (technical, social or other) or in adaptation of ideas, practices and other elements developed by others. Because innovation requires interaction among actors, it can be seen as the outcome of a process of mutual learning.

A rural/agricultural innovation system is defined as a set of organizations and individuals that are involved in generating, disseminating, adapting and using knowledge and information of socio-economic significance, as well as the policy and institutional context that governs the way such interactions and processes take place.

A NARS comprises all a country's organizations and institutions that are responsible for organizing, coordinating and implementing research with the explicit aim of contributing to agricultural development and the maintenance of the natural resource base. [source: GTZ, 2004. Services for rural development. Developing the national agricultural research system (NARS)]

A network of organizations, enterprises, and individuals that focuses on bringing new products, new processes, and new forms of organization into economic use, together with the institutions and policies that affect their behavior and performance. Innovation systems not only help to create knowledge, but also provide access to knowledge, share knowledge, and foster learning.