The Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP)

Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS)

To bring capacity development up to speed with the challenges facing agriculture in the 21st century, the partners of the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) have adopted a new approach that moves away from the idea, successfully adopted during the Green Revolution, that saw knowledge being passed on to farmers through the transfer of technology. 

Instead, TAP has embraced the so-called Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) perspective, which recognizes that agricultural innovation is a process involving many different actors and factors and that it can only take off if it meets the demands of its principal users. 

The AIS is comprised of four main components: research and education, business and enterprises, bridging institutions, and the enabling environment

Source: adapted from Aerni et al., 2015.