Hannington Odame

• Centre for African Bio-Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is lauded globally for their contribution towards development(Merigó-Lindahl, 2015)(Blowfield & Dolan, 2014)(ADB, 2016). The interplay between entrepreneurship, regional development and culture creates different experiences for female entrepreneurs (Merigó-Lindahl, 2015). Past research critically analyzes and acknowledges the role...

https://www.future-agricultures.org/blog/advocating-policy-based-on-evidence/

Innovation capacity presupposes capacity to harness science, technology and innovation (STI) for agricultural commercialisation. Agricultural commercialisation requires an enabling policy environment on STI issues such as impact of climate change, nutrition, improved seed and inputs, emerging technologies, infrastructure, research and extension, an...

The international emergence of India’s generic pharmaceuticals industry is seen as a success for international development and cooperation, bringing affordable drugs to populations not only in India itself but across the developing world, including in Africa. Could India’s thriving seed sector play a similar role in delivering affordable, high-qual...

Kenya is in many ways the ‘poster child’ for Africa's new Green Revolution, with numerous public-private partnerships promoting agricultural innovation and rural entrepreneurship through a growing network of agro-dealers. Despite numerous claims that the agro-dealer model offers the best approach for delivering new seeds and other modern technologi...

This paper summarises findings of the STEPS Environmental Change and Maize Innovation in Kenya project. Maize is an important staple crop in Kenya, socially, politically and economically. This project has taken maize as a window through which to explore differential responses to the combined and inter-related effects of climate change, market uncer...

This paper is about an old systems' problem versus the challenges brought about by the new technological paradigm. It identifies challenges facing the existing National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in harnessing agricultural biotechnology for smallholders in Kenya. Modern agricultural biotechnology is being introduced into largely failed sy...

Using the case study of Rhizobium inocula project in Kenya, this paper argues that the main challenge to enhancing smallholder access to biotechnology lies in addressing the sources of institutional constraints in agricultural innovation processes. These constraints include sunk costs, uncertainty and political influence. How are mechanisms such as...

Biotechnology is being integrated into the existing science and technology policy process in Kenya. This process is embedded in the country's history of agricultural development, characterised by conventional technology, public goods research, and centralised and hierarchical organisation. This study employs the case study of the transgenic sweet p...

For almost two decades, the University of Nairobi has been conducting research on biofertilizers in Kenya within the Microbial Resources Centre Network (MIRCEN) project. It has succeeded in developing a marketable bipfertilizer known as BIOFIX. Notwithstanding its obvious potential to replace often unavailable and expensive chemical fertilizers, Ke...