NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences 
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This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.Diagnostics and field experiments
Publication date: March 2018Source: NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, Volume 84Author(s): Maarten VoorsAbstractField experiments have been embraced in development economics and political science as a core method to learn what development interventions work and why. Scientists across the globe actively engage with development practitioners to evaluate projects and programmes. However, even though field experiments have raised the bar on causality, they are often too narrowly defined and lack focus on structural development problems. Researchers and development practitioners should do more to improve the diagnostic...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
An institutional diagnostics of agricultural innovation; public-private partnerships and smallholder production in Uganda
Publication date: March 2018Source: NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, Volume 84Author(s): Diana Akullo, Harro Maat, Arjen E.J. WalsAbstractThis paper presents and discusses a diagnostic framework to identify institutional processes in the creation of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for agricultural innovation. The diagnostic framework proposed here combines a conceptualisation of institutions with a conceptualisation of technology. We argue that a performative notion of institutions provides a better tool for institutional diagnostics than the common understanding of institutions as ‘rules of the game’. Th...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Diagnosing institutional logics in partnerships and how they evolve through institutional bricolage: Insights from soybean and cassava value chains in Ghana
This article proposes institutional logics as a theory and methodology for institutional diagnosis to gain insight into context-embedded negotiation and change processes created by project-based partnership interventions. We analyse the institutional logics of organisations active in the development of two value chains in Ghana to subsequently show how, in partnerships, these logics are negotiated in light of the objectives and interests of the intervention. The main findings are that donors, with their market and professionalisation logics, are quite influential, but many other development actors still adhere to principle...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
How does institutional embeddedness shape innovation platforms? A diagnostic study of three districts in the Upper West Region of Ghana
In conclusion, we stress that the institutional identity of facilitating agents and their relationship to members of the platform and to powerholders in the broader context provides a useful diagnostic lens to analyse the processes that shape the platform’s ability to achieve its goals. (Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences)
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Identifying ripple effects from new market institutions to household rules -Malawi’s Agricultural Commodity Exchange
Publication date: March 2018Source: NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, Volume 84Author(s): Georgina Gomez, Saskia VossenbergAbstractThe introduction of new rules in an institutional field provides agents with a new set of opportunities and constraints on which they can leverage to change the rules in other institutional fields. Inspired by Elinor Ostrom, we term this causality a ripple effect, born out of the initial institutional changes. In this article we enquired in what ways women farmers could transfer genderblind changes in the market to the household. We developed a diagnostic tool to capture this propagat...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Frugality and cross-sectoral policymaking for food security
The objective of this paper is to adopt a bottom-up perspective to address the need for cross-sectorality in food security policies. Sustainable Rural Livelihood (SRL) and Grassroots Innovation (GI) are two well recognized schools of thought which emphasize the cross-sectoral approaches to livelihood and local level problem-solving. By embracing a frugality lens, we can offer a conceptual regularity in the patterns of behaviour and decision-making highlighted by the SRL and GI schools of thought. Taking a step further, the frugality lens, by focusing on the usefulness of a decision in the actual environment, emphasizes the...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Institutional diagnostics for African food security: Approaches, methods and implications
This article introduces a special issue that investigates approaches and methods, anchored in different institutionalisms, diagnosing how institutions influence food security levels in diverse African contexts. We draw two main lessons from this special issue. Firstly, there is a clear need for localized ex-ante institutional diagnostics to understand developments in food security in Africa. This can inform and guide decision-makers in designing locally appropriate interventions. Secondly, developing institutional diagnostics in view of sustainable food security requires theoretical triangulation; food insecurity is typica...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Xanthomonas Wilt of Banana (BXW) in Central Africa: Opportunities, challenges, and pathways for citizen science and ICT-based control and prevention strategies
Publication date: Available online 17 March 2018Source: NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life SciencesAuthor(s): Mariette McCampbell, Marc Schut, Inge Van den Bergh, Boudy van Schagen, Bernard Vanlauwe, Guy Blomme, Svetlana Gaidashova, Emmanuel Njukwe, Cees LeeuwisAbstractXanthomonas 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 dimensions, ...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Diagnosis of management of bacterial wilt and late blight in potato in Ethiopia: A systems thinking perspective
Publication date: Available online 29 March 2018Source: NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life SciencesAuthor(s): E. Damtew, Shiferaw Tafesse, R. Lie, B. van Mierlo, B. Lemaga, K. Sharma, P.C. Struik, C. LeeuwisAbstractPotato is one of the most important food crops for smallholder farmers in the Ethiopian highlands. Diseases, particularly bacterial wilt (caused by Ralstonia solanacearum) and late blight (caused by Phytophthora infestans), are among the major constraints of potato production, despite continuous efforts to control them. Bacterial wilt and late blight are complex problems with multiple technical and institutional ...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Farmers’ knowledge and practices of potato disease management in Ethiopia
Publication date: Available online 30 March 2018Source: NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life SciencesAuthor(s): Shiferaw Tafesse, E. Damtew, B. van Mierlo, R. Lie, B. Lemaga, K. Sharma, C. Leeuwis, P.C. StruikAbstractEffective management of potato diseases such as bacterial wilt and late blight depends to a large extent on farmers’ knowledge of the diseases as well as on the integration of recommended management methods in their daily practices. Late blight has continued to be a dominant potato disease for many decades in Ethiopia, whereas bacterial wilt has emerged more recently with a devastating impact on the country’s...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Farm diversity and resource use efficiency: Targeting agricultural policy interventions in East Africa farming systems
Publication date: April 2018Source: NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, Volume 85Author(s): Monica K. Kansiime, Piet van Asten, Koen SneyersAbstractThis paper aimed to provide empirical evidence on the links between farm diversity and resource use efficiency. Using farm typology and stochastic production frontier approaches, we grouped households into those pursuing similar livelihood strategies and assessed their resource use efficiency. At 60% coefficient of similarity, we identified three distinct farm types – Farm-specialised, Diversified and Off-farm specialised. Significant (p < 0.01) differen...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Scaling up of sweetpotato vine multiplication technologies in Phalombe and Chikwawa districts in Malawi: A gender analysis
Publication date: April 2018Source: NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, Volume 85Author(s): Netsayi N. Mudege, Robert O.M. Mwanga, Norita Mdege, Tafadzwa Chevo, Putri E. AbidinAbstractThis paper adopts a feminist approach to analyse how processes of scaling up of technologies to promote adoption can reinforce or reduce gender inequalities. It focuses on sweetpotato vine multiplication in Phalombe and Chikwawa districts in Malawi, and uses data from focus group discussions and individual interviews with men and women farmers and extension workers. Findings suggest that perception biases towards regarding the farmer ...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Recognizing farmers’ practices and constraints for intensifying rice production at Riparian Wetlands in Indonesia
Publication date: April 2018Source: NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, Volume 85Author(s): Benyamin Lakitan, Buyung Hadi, Siti Herlinda, Erna Siaga, Laily I. Widuri, Kartika Kartika, Lindi Lindiana, Yunin Yunindyawati, Mei MeihanaAbstractDespite its large acreage, riparian wetland has been underutilized in Indonesia. Intensity of agricultural activities on this wetland was very low mainly due to two unfavorable extremes, i.e. unpredictable occurrence of flooding during rainy season and drought during dry season. Relevant, affordable, and acceptable technologies are required as solution to this problems. The techno...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Understanding the emergence of a hybrid knowledge production discourse: The case of the Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) drought tolerant rice research in India
Publication date: April 2018Source: NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, Volume 85Author(s): Soutrik Basu, Joost Jongerden, Guido RuivenkampAbstractThe Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) is an international platform for agrarian knowledge production for a complex scientific problem, namely, Drought. The GCP ushered in a new form of knowledge production that reconciles both the upstream laboratorial research and its downstream delivery at the farmer's field. This paper aims at understanding the knowledge production process of the GCP. More precisely, it explores the following three research questions: how three pro...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Understanding grower non-participation in the collective management of carob moth in pomegranate in Iran
Publication date: April 2018Source: NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, Volume 85Author(s): Naser Zamani, Khadijeh Bazrafkan, Kambiz MinaeiAbstractThe management of carob moth is a complex and multidimensional process that is only possible when collective action takes place in the pest-affected areas. The non-participation in carob moth management has led to increasing pest problems which unless managed collectively, they impose a serious limitation on pomegranate production and endanger the future of pomegranate orchards in Arsanjan county, Fars province, Iran. The current study aimed to explore why collective act...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - July 11, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research
