Marc Schut

Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research | CGIAR

Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) are seen as a promising vehicle to achieve agricultural development impacts. By increasing collaboration, exchange of knowledge and influence mediation among farmers, researchers and other stakeholders, MSPs supposedly enhance their 'capacity to innovate' and contribute to the 'scaling of innovations'. The objecti...

Scaling of agricultural, food and other livelihoods innovations is one of the biggest challenges for research for development (R4D) organizations. For a long time, scaling was done without using evidence which led to disappointing results. Scaling Readiness builds on state-of-the-art science and scientifi c methods in order to: 1. Assess the potent...

This Editorial to the Special Issue “Science of Scaling: connecting the pathways of agricultural research and development for improved food, income and nutrition security” presents the framing, overview and analysis of 10 articles focussed on scaling innovation in the agricultural research for development sector. The publications cut across three c...

The objective of this paper is to explore the extent to which systems approaches to innovation are reflected in the crop protection literature and how such approaches are used. A systematic literature review is conducted to study the relation between crop protection and systems approaches to innovation in 107 publications. The analysis of the crop...

Complexity-sensitive decision support approaches (CSDSA) have gained prominence in the research for development (R4D) sector. However, limited attention has been given to critically examining the underlying causal assumptions of CSDSAs and their overall effectiveness in navigating complexity and achieving desired outcomes. Scaling Readiness has eme...

The CGIAR Research Initiative on Diversification in East and Southern Africa (Ukama Ustawi) aims to support climate-resilient agriculture and livelihoods in 12 east and southern African countries by helping millions of smallholders intensify, diversify and reduce the risks in maize-based farming through improved extension services, small- and mediu...

Weak and inefficient institutional arrangements have been identified as a major cause of the slow pace of agricultural growth in developing countries. Institutions – the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction – play a significant role in Sustainable Crop Intensification (SCI) in Uganda. This study uses farmers' perceptions to asse...

Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW) is the major threat to banana in Rwanda, causing up to 100% yield loss. There are no biological or chemical control measures, and little is known about potential direction and magnitude of its spread, so cultural control efforts are reactive rather than proactive. In this study, we assessed BXW risk under current and p...

Increasing global food insecurity amidst a growing population and diminishing production resources renders the currently dominant linear production model insufficient to combat such challenges. Hence, a circular bioeconomy (CBE) model that ensures more conservative use of resources has become essential. Specifically, a CBE model that focuses on rec...

The African "youth" population is growing at a fast and steady pace, attracting attention from scholars, policymakers, and politicians. Yet, we know relatively little about this large and heterogeneous segment of the population. This paper presents data from 110 interviews and ten focus groups with youth engaged in commercial agriculture across all...

CGIAR has considerable experience with private sector engagement in the context of its mission to create sustainable and resilient food, land and water systems, and there is continuing interest and dialogue on this theme within CGIAR and the international development community more generally. The on-going CGIAR reform provides an opportunity to ca...

Scaling of innovations is a key requirement for addressing societal challenges in sectors such as agriculture. Research for development (R4D) programs, projects and other interventions struggle to make innovations go to scale. Current conceptualizations of scaling are often too simplistic and narrow, and more systemic and multidimensional perspecti...

This study was designed and carried out to ascertain the situation and perceptions of end users of cassava flash drying equipment in Nigeria with the aim of giving suggestions to policies and approaches for improved technology. Forty-one processing firms were selected and interviewed. Descriptive analyses were used and a logistic regression model w...

Between early 2019 and end of 2020 two CGIAR-RTB funded scaling projects employed the Scaling Readiness approach to guide their overall scaling activities and decisions. Scaling approach for flash drying of cassava starch and flour at small scale is a two-year scaling project that aimed at improving cassava processing at small-scale through gains i...

Diet quality is a critical determinant of human health and increasingly serves as a key indicator for food system sustainability. However, data on diets are limited, scattered, often project-dependent, and current data collection systems do not support high-frequency or consistent data flows. We piloted in Rwanda a data collection system, powered b...

Scaling of innovations is a key requirement for addressing societal challenges in sectors such as agriculture, but research for development programs struggles to make innovations go to scale . There is a gap between new complexity-aware scientific theories and perspectives on innovation and practical approaches that can improve strategic and operat...

Crop monitoring is crucial to understand crop production changes, agronomic practice decision-support, pests/diseases mitigation, and developing climate change adaptation strategies. Banana, an important staple food and cash crop in East Africa, is threatened by Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW) disease. Yet, there is no up-to-date information about th...

The overdependency on local cassava varieties and informal seed sources by farmers in Rwanda has contributed to the spread of cassava viral diseases. The use of improved planting materials made available through formal seed sources, that assure seed quality, is one way to prevent future disease outbreaks. In order to increase the availability of, a...

This document is a systematic compilation of critical descriptors for documenting innovations in order to respond to the needs of stakeholders in the information and performance management systems within the CGIAR, such as innovation users, project and program managers, investors/donors, evaluators, monitoring officers, impact assessment officers,...

The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers, and Bananas (RTB) has commissioned a study to develop an innovation catalogue to present its innovation portfolio to the international scientific and development community and to support ongoing efforts to establish an innovation management architecture in CGIAR. The study team has been tasked with desig...

For the past 15 years, IITA and the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT have worked closely together with (inter)national universities, NARS and other public and private innovation and scaling partners under the Consortium for Improving Agriculture-based Livelihoods in Central Africa (CIALCA - https://www.cialca.org/). CIALCA aims to accelerate the imp...

Ground-level realities associated with the introduction of digital tools to smallholder banana farmers in Rwanda.

Despite repeated wars and the persistence of feudal land tenure, the agricultural sector is at the center of economic activity for most rural households in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This study aims to assess the competitivity of the agricultural sector in relation to other sectors of economic activity, such as mining. To achieve this aim, i...

One CGIAR set ambitious targets for reforming the CGIAR system 1. In the last year alone, CGIAR has sharpened its mission and unified under single governance. It has made significant progress in institutional integration, designing common policies and services. It started developing a unified country and regional presence, new research modalities f...

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest health threats for both humans and animals. This justifies the need for a conceptual framework that provides an integrated assessment of the measures and strategies that can be applied within livestock supply chains to reduce the risks of human exposure to resistant pathogens. The aim of this study is...

Increasing global food insecurity amidst a growing population and diminishing production resources, renders the currently prevailing linear production model insufficient to combat such challenges. Hence, a circular bioeconomy (CBE) model that ensures more conservative use of resources has become essential. Specifically, a CBE model that focuses on...

This document provides an overview of objectives, design principles, workflows, results and ideas for future work related to the integration of Scaling Readiness into ProPAS. It includes references to instructional video on how to properly use Scaling Readiness in ProPAS. The document explains some of the basic principles of Scaling Readiness and h...

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest health threats for both humans and animals. This justifies the need for a conceptual framework that provides an integrated assessment of the measures and strategies that can be applied within livestock supply chains to reduce the risks of human exposure to resistant pathogens. The aim of this study is...

Scaling of innovations is a key requirement for addressing societal challenges in sectors such as health, agriculture, and the environment. Research for development (R4D) programs, projects and other interventions struggle to make particular innovations go to scale. Current conceptualizations of scaling are often too simplistic; more systemic and m...

Value chain partnerships face difficulties achieving inclusive relations, often leading to unsustainable collaboration. Improving information flow between actors has been argued to contribute positively to a sense of inclusion in such partnership arrangements. Smallholders however usually lack the capability to use advanced communication technologi...

Rollout of development interventions using a one-size-fits-all model can achieve economies of scale but neglects to account for variability in farm and farmer characteristics. A data-driven approach to incorporate farmer diversity in scaling strategies may help to achieve greater development impact. However, interpreting the multiplicity of smallho...

Rollout of development interventions using a one-size-fits-all model can achieve economies of scale but neglects to account for variability in farm and farmer characteristics. A data-driven approach to incorporate farmer diversity in scaling strategies may help to achieve greater development impact. However, interpreting the multiplicity of smallho...

This study explored the potential of the Innovation Platform approach, in improving the participation of rural female farmers in Maize value chain. It intends to identify the peculiarities, in terms of challenges and opportunities related to its application to the rural women realities. The study collected data from 120 small scale maize producers...

Livestock play multiple roles for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Mixed crop-livestock systems are common in South Kivu, eastern DR Congo, but herd sizes are small and numbers of large livestock (i.e. cattle) have declined, due to high population density, recent conflicts and extreme poverty. Over half of the farmers keep cavies, a type...

Scaling Readiness is an approach that can support organizations, projects, and programs in achieving their ambitions to scale innovations and achieve impact. Scaling Readiness encourages critical reflection on how ready innovations are for scaling, and what appropriate actions could accelerate or enhance scaling.

Multi-stakeholder platforms have become mainstream in projects, programmes and policy interventions aiming to improve innovation and livelihoods systems, i.e. research for development interventions in low-and middle-income contexts. However, the evidence for multi-stakeholder platforms' contribution to the performance of research for development in...

CIALCA Annual Report 2018

Scaling of agricultural, food and other livelihoods innovations is one of the biggest challenges for research and development organizations. One of the key problems is the lack of approaches that can facilitate evidence-based decision making on which activities and partnerships can support scaling of innovation towards achieving Sustainable Develop...

This data is a set of literature sources that Scaling Readiness Approach (SRA) was built upon. Specifically, it presents i) Complex Adaptive Systems, ii) innovation Systems, iii) organization science and iv) implementation science literature sources published on different livelihood sectors such as agriculture, health, environment, natural resource...

Scaling Readiness has been developed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Wageningen University (WUR) under the CGIAR research program on Roots Tubers and Banana (RTB). Scaling Readiness supports research, development and donor organizations in the design, implementation and monitoring of efficient scaling strategies.

Abstract Although the political context in Uganda exhibits democratic deficit and patronage, research and development actors have given little attention to the possible negative impact these may have on agricultural policymaking and implementation processes. This article examines the influence of power in perpetuating prevailing narratives around...

Innovation platforms are fast becoming part of the mantra of agricultural research and development projects and programs. Their basic tenet is that stakeholders depend on one another to achieve agricultural development outcomes, and hence need a space where they can learn, negotiate, and coordinate to overcome challenges and capitalize on opportuni...

Data S1. Materials and methods. Table S1. The 124 pre‐submitted research questions that address fundamental and applied issues in weed ecology, evolution and management

Maize production is of critical importance to smallholder farmers in Ghana. Various factors limit the productivity of smallholder maize farming systems undergirded by the lack of capital for critical investments both at the farm and at national policy levels. Using a value chain approach, this diagnostic study explains how a complex configuration o...

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is increasingly seen as a promising approach to feed the growing world population under climate change. The review explored how institutional perspectives are reflected in the CSA literature. In total, 137 publications were analyzed using institutional analysis framework, of which 55.5% make specific reference to ins...

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is increasingly seen as a promising approach to feed the growing world population under climate change. The review explored how institutional perspectives are reflected in the CSA literature. In total, 137 publications were analyzed using institutional analysis framework, of which 55.5% make specific reference to ins...

Invasive species such as Ambrosia (an annual weed) pose a biosecurity risk whose management depends on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of many stakeholders. It can therefore be considered a complex policy and risk gover-nance problem. Complex policy problems are characterised by high uncertainty, multiple dimensions, interactions across diff...

Innovation platforms are fast becoming part of the mantra of agricultural research for development projects and programmes. Their basic tenet is that stakeholders depend on one another to achieve agricultural development outcomes, and hence need a space where they can learn, negotiate, and coordinate to overcome challenges and capture opportunities...

Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) have been playing an increasing role in interventions aiming to generate and scale innovations in agricultural systems. However, the contribution of MSPs in achieving innovations and scaling has been varied, and many factors have been reported to be important for their performance. This paper aims to provide evide...

Questionnaire English t = 1 survey. (DOCX)

Questionnaire French t = 1 enquête. (DOCX)

Questionnaire English t = 2 survey. (DOCX)

Questionnaire French t = 2 enquête. (DOCX)

Agricultural extension in sub-Saharan Africa has often been criticised for its focus on linear knowledge transfer, and limited attention to systemic approaches to service delivery. Currently, the region is experiencing a new-ICT revolution and there are high expectations of new-ICTs to enhance interaction and information exchange in extension servi...

Agricultural policies in sub-Saharan Africa have paid insufficient attention to sustainable intensification. In Uganda, agricultural productivity has stagnated with aggregate increases in crop production being attributed to expansion of cultivated land area. To enhance sustainable crop intensification, the Ugandan Government collaborated with stake...

The data represents the participation of stakeholders to 411 different events organized by Humidtropics innovation platforms in Uganda between 2013 and 2016.

This dataset contains cleaned data for analyzing the performance drivers for multi-stakeholder platforms. Specifically it contains: Action area of intervention Calendar day of the event Number of participants divided by 10 Number of participants Average number of objectives/actions per person Average engagement level of participant Month Duration...

Weedy plants pose a major threat to food security, biodiversity, ecosystem services and consequently to human health and wellbeing. However, many currently used weed management approaches are increasingly unsustainable. To address this knowledge and practice gap, in June 2014, 35 weed and invasion ecologists, weed scientists, evolutionary biologist...

This paper argues that the CGIAR -through its CGIAR Research Programmes-is struggling to fulfil its international mandate of conducting strategic research that contributes to agricultural development and global food security. Ongoing reforms have resulted in a situation where the CGIAR is assessed as if it were a development organisation. This lead...

Xanthomonas Wilt of Banana (BXW) is a complex problem in the African Great Lakes Region that is affecting the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers. Since the first disease reports from Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2001, BXW has been studied widely. The majority of these studies focus on the technological or biophysical d...

Innovation platforms are fast becoming part of the mantra of agricultural research for development projects and programmes. Their basic tenet is that stakeholders depend on one another to achieve agricultural development outcomes, and hence need a space where they can learn, negotiate and coordinate to overcome challenges and capture opportunities...

Innovation platforms (IPs) form a popular vehicle in agricultural research for development (AR4D) to facilitate stakeholder interaction, agenda setting, and collective action toward sustainable agricultural development. In this article, we analyze multilevel stakeholder engagement in fulfilling seven key innovation system functions. Data are gather...