• 2009 Small Grants Competition

    to adopt a cross-learning and iterative approach that will enable all researchers to learn from each other across different types of bio-innovation throughout the region.

  • Overview of the Project

    to enhance biological innovative capabilities, policies & institutions to support just, equitable & sustainable social & economic development in developing countries.

  • Bio-innovations in the NEWS

    Policy briefs and articles on relevant dimensions of bio-innovation.

Enabling bioinnovation for poverty allevation in Asia.

Livelihood

Enhancing the Livelihoods of the Rural Poor

Source: infoDev

There is some degree of understandable skepticism about whether information and communication technologies are appropriate tools for addressing the needs and challenges of the poor, particularly the rural poor. Yet even the poorest people and families in rural areas have information and communication needs. More generally, technologies that reduce their expenditure of their few valuable resources (their time, labor, energy, and physical resources) and increase the yield from those expenditures could have a profound positive effect on their livelihoods and incomes. Innovations and tools that leverage their own creativity, and their own knowledge of their context, could benefit both their own situation and those of their neighbors and of other poor people elsewhere.



Rainwater harvesting in dry areas: The case of rural Gansu in China

By Prof Qiang Zhu, Sep-Oct 2008

 
The loess plateau of Gansu China is one of the driest and poorest areas of the country. The serious water scarcity caused many problems in the pastno safe - access to domestic water supply, frequent droughts and low agriculture levels, the impoverishment of the local population, land degradation and environment deterioration. Since the late 1980s, however, rainwater harvesting has been studied, demonstrated and replicated on a large scale. It has supplied water for millions of rural people to meet their basic needs, with water also to enhance crop production. It has played an important role in conserving the environment. Its importance in the sustainable development of the dry mountainous area needs to be properly appreciated. This article also gives a brief description of the RWH system.
 





Bt cotton: benefits for poor farmers?

An IDS Publication

Cotton genetically engineered to express the insecticidal toxin Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt cotton) has been celebrated as a success story for poor farmers in developing countries. Bt cotton varieties have been adopted by commercial and smallholder farmers in several developing countries, including China, South Africa and India. In 2002, Bt cotton varieties occupied 20% of the global cotton area and more than half of the national cotton acreage in China. An estimated 90% of smallholder cotton farmers in the Makhatini Flats area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, planted Bt cotton.

Dominic Glover. 2003. ‘Bt cotton: benefits for poor farmers?’ Democratising Biotechnology: Genetically Modified Crops in Developing Countries Briefing Series. Briefing 9. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies. ISBN 1 85864 487 9

www.ids.ac.uk/biotech

The whole document (PDF File) can be accessed at:

http://www.ids.ac.uk/UserFiles/File/knots_team/Briefing9.pdf 

 



Science and Technology in Civil Society Innovation Trajectory of Spirulina Algal Technology

C SHAMBU PRASAD  Economic and Political Weekly October 1, 2005

The role of civil society in influencing public opinion towards more democratic
and developmental approaches is now well-recognised in diverse fields such as health,
education, livelihoods, issues relating to disadvantaged social groups and the environment. Yet,
science and technology in India is predominantly seen as the preserve of the state, and more
recently the market. In the linear model of innovation, civil society is seen at best as having a
role in extension or the delivery of technology produced elsewhere. This paper, a study of
science in civil society, questions this assumption through the case study of the work of a
civil society-led initiative in spirulina algal technology. It highlights the need for an
institutional transformation of the scientific establishment into learning organisations if they
are to focus on development with a pro-poor or human face.

To download full document, click here.(PDF File)



Technological and institutional innovations: a case study of pomegranate production and marketing

By Rajeswari S Raina
Abstract
Over the last decade important innovations have taken place in pomegranate production and
marketing in Maharashtra, India, and these developments have been associated with a wide network
of actors. This paper presents a case study of this ‘innovation network’. Starting with a short
overview of accounts of innovation in relation to rural resource-poor communities, the paper explores
some of the causal relationships that brought about innovations in pomegranate production and
marketing. It looks at technological innovations in the production and marketing of the fruit, and
associated institutional innovations – ie, the changes in the way these causal relationships evolve and
work, together with changes in the roles of actors/organizations. The central lesson is that this cluster
of actors and their mutual dependencies enable continuous innovation in pomegranate production
and marketing. In conclusion, the paper translates some of these empirical insights into a possible
framework for action by actors in public agricultural research and extension organizations.

Full Document download here.(PDF File)-pp 81-104



Focus on…. The TLUD

By: Sarah Carter

The TLUD (Top Lit Up Draft) gasifier was originally designed by Paal Wendelbo which he took to Africa in 1988. Since then, the design has been adapted and distributed around the world. A prototype of the design amended by Anderson has been produced and tested in Cambodia. A model was also adapted by ARTI in India.