Using Innovation Indicators and Benchmarks to Strengthen National Agricultural Innovation Systems

By: David J. Spielman, Regina Birner Agriculture & Rural Development Department World Bank

(c) 2008 To download full document (PDF File) Click here

Agricultural science, technology, and innovation are vital to promoting rural development and poverty reduction. To this end, many studies on agricultural research, extension, and education have highlighted the importance of public investment and policies in these areas. However, as agricultural innovation becomes increasingly viewed as a complex process that defies simple solutions, it has become more and more difficult to identify the types of investment and policy interventions needed to make developing-country agriculture more responsive, dynamic, and competitive. 

The “national system of innovation” framework offers an interesting perspective for guiding investment and policy interventions in this area. The framework draws attention to the wide range of actors and organizations from the public, private, and civil society sectors that are involved in bringing new products, processes, and forms of organization into economic use. The framework also emphasizes the role of the institutional and policy environment that affects their performance and behavior. Applying this innovation systems framework is particularly promising for agricultural development because it can help identify where the most binding constraints to agricultural innovation are located and how better to target interventions to remove such constraints. 

This paper explores the application of the innovation systems framework to the design and construction of national agricultural innovation indicators. Optimally, these indicators could be used to gauge and benchmark national performance in developing more responsive, dynamic, and innovative agricultural sectors in developing countries. The paper develops a conceptual framework that ties the innovation systems framework to the agricultural sector; reviews how the framework has been used to develop innovation indicators in other fields; discusses a set of potential innovation indicators for developing-country agriculture; and identifies potential data sources and methods for constructing different types of indicators.

Ultimately, the paper aims to inform national and regional stakeholders, policymakers, development partners and researchers who are interested in developing or using indicators as a tool for designing evidence-based agricultural innovation policies.

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