Strengthening Agricultural Innovation Capacity: Are Innovation Brokers the Answer?
Lawrence Klerkx, Andy Hall & Cees Leeuwis
#2009-019
This paper examines the role of innovation brokers in stimulating
innovation system interaction and innovation capacity building, and
illustrates this by taking the case of Dutch agriculture as an example.
Subsequently, it reflects upon the potential role of innovation brokers
in developing countries’ agriculture. It concludes that innovation
brokerage roles are likely to become relevant in emerging economies and
that public or donor investment in innovation brokerage may be needed to
overcome inherent tensions regarding the neutrality and funding of such
players in the innovation system. The Dutch experience suggests that
innovation brokers need to be contextually embedded, and are unlikely to
become effective through a centrally-imposed design. Hence, we conclude
that stimulating their emergence requires a policy that supports
institutional learning and experimentation. In the evaluation of such
experiments, it is important to note that innovation brokers tend to
play intangible roles that are not easily captured through conventional
indicators.
Key Words: Agriculture, Developing Countries, the Netherlands,
Innovation Broker, Neutrality, Institutional Learning, Context-Specific,
Innovation Systems, Capacity Strengthening, Agricultural Extension
Journal Codes: N54, 013, 031, Q13, Q16, Q18
UNU-MERIT Working Papers
ISSN 1871-9872