An assessment of a country’s agricultural innovation system (AIS) provides insights on its strengths and weaknesses, and needs and opportunities for improvement. A well-managed AIS assessment provides data and information that inform policy dialogue, guide capacity development and help prioritize investments that boost innovation. To support countries that wish to assess their AIS, FAO’s Office of Innovation has now published Assessing agricultural innovation systems: a training manual. 

The general objective of the training manual is to guide trainers and facilitators engaged in developing capacities at the national level to assess AIS and identify evidence-based needs and entry points for strengthening AIS. It targets agricultural professionals at middle/senior level working in universities, ministries, consultancy companies, NGO’s, etc., interested in understanding and strengthening a country’s AIS. 

The training manual presents a methodology developed by FAO’s Office of Innovation in collaboration with partners and supported by the European Union in the context of the TAP-AIS project. It contains eight modules, each taking two to three hours to complete, using a highly participatory learning process where trainees’ experiences and reflections on agricultural innovation processes are central to the learning.

After completing a training programme, trainers and facilitators will: 

· be familiar with the concept of AIS and the Tropical Agriculture Platform’s approach to capacity development for AIS; 

· be familiar with the FAO framework on AIS assessment, approaches and tools to use in each step of the assessment; and 

· be able to plan and assess an AIS in a specific national situation and interpret and communicate the results.

The training manual is part of FAO’s Office of Innovation portfolio of publications on AIS that serve FAO member countries’ pursuit of agricultural transformation.