‘Best practice’ is not even a mouthful but what it means in practice remains unclear to many people who use the phrase. In African agriculture, it takes a lot for a farmer or trader to become a best practitioner.  Most value chain actors face challenges in identifying sufficient quality evidence that can be translated into Read more about How to move from ordinary to best agricultural practices[…]

Many developing countries are witnessing trends where indigenous knowledge systems are transforming to a commercial stage.  This is exposing the myth that indigenous knowledge can remain pure and undiluted in the current rapidly globalizing world. The modern economy forces farmers, traders and other economic actors to contribute knowledge to their socio-economic networks. Every farmer or Read more about From farmers and traders to knowledge artisans[…]

There are many reasons why developing countries suffer from a severe mismatch between knowledge supply and demand. Less than 20% of knowledge in African countries has been documented.  Besides driving policy and economic development, such knowledge is trying to influence the 80% tacit knowledge which is undocumented. While computerisation and digital technology are expanding in Read more about How can we build equilibrium knowledge ecosystems in developing countries?[…]

One of the enduring challenges in African agriculture is defining effective metrics to measure the value of knowledge. In most agricultural value chains, knowledge is not considered a cost component. Farmers and other value chain actors consider inputs, labour and equipment to be the only elements in calculating profit. Excluding knowledge, which is apparently becoming Read more about How can we measure the cost of lost knowledge in the agriculture sector?[…]

Socio-economic challenges facing many developing countries are revealing the shortcomings of rewarding individual performance. Most problems have become so complex that individual people or organisations cannot solve them alone. In agricultural-driven economies, rewarding agricultural performance should be seen to be moving from individuals to community incentives. That’s one of the indicators of knowledge sharing. Incentives Read more about From individual rewards to community incentives[…]

Given their openness and competitive nature, informal agriculture markets enable farmers to see their knowledge gaps. This shows up in a comparative sense where farmers use consumer choices, quality and prices to compare their commodities with those from their peers. If a fellow farmer gets a better price, one who receives an inferior price strikes Read more about How informal markets are redefining agricultural extension[…]