Socioeconomic and institutional determiners of durable technological innovations in food-producing agriculture of Cameroun

Abstract

The challenges posed by food security for populations in subSaharan Africa and the fact that extensive production systems are reaching their limits in foodproducing agriculture imply accelerating technological innovation toward ecological intensification of agricultural production systems. A review of research on plantain banana in Cameroon since 1988 revealed how institutional innovation enabled hybridization of different forms of research (fundamental, systems, and action research) and reinforced the organizational innovation required for technical change. Evaluation of impacts underlined the complementarity between an increase in productivity and in income in rural areas, the production of human and social capital and the protection of forest resources.