A special issue of Experimental Agriculture, ‘Doing Development-Oriented Agronomy: Rethinking Methods, Concepts and Direction’ brings together a selection of papers that not only present agronomic research findings, but critically review orientations, methodologies and research practices in agronomy.
The special issue is edited by Jens Andersson and Ken Giller, who (along with STEPS members Jim Sumberg and John Thompson) organised the conference Contested Agronomy: Whose Agronomy Counts? at the Institute of Development Studies in 2016, which also resulted in the edited book Agronomy for Development: the Politics of Knowledge in Agricultural Research.
The new special issue forefronts the juggling with productivity enhancing, environmental and social developmental goals that characterize development-oriented agronomy – which takes place within a complex environment of (inter)national research and development policy organisations, development donor-funded projects, governmental, NGO and private sector agencies and global professional networks and (public–private) partnerships.
As a result, it is especially in development-oriented agronomy where the debate and contestations over goals and direction, research methodologies and findings of agronomic research are first likely to emerge and become apparent.
List of papers
- Andersson, Jens A., and Ken E Giller. 2019. “Doing Development-Oriented Agronomy: Rethinking Methods, Concepts and Direction.” https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479719000024
- de Roo, Nina, Jens A. Andersson, and Timothy J Krupnik. 2017. “On-Farm Trials for Development Impact? the Organisation of Research and the Scaling of Agricultural Technologies.” https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479717000382
- Wall, Patrick C et al. 2019. “Comment on ‘De Roo Et Al. (2019). on-Farm Trials for Development Impact? the Organization of Research and the Scaling of Agricultural Technologies’.” https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479718000492
- Andersson, J A, Timothy J Krupnik, and N De Roo. 2019. “On-Farm Trials as ‘Infection Points’? a Response to Wall et al” https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479718000492
- Krupnik, Timothy J et al. 2019. “Does Size Matter? a Critical Review of Meta-Analysis in Agronomy.” https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479719000012
- Fraval, Simon et al. 2019. “Making the Most of Imperfect Data: a Critical Evaluation of Standard Information Collected in Farm Household Surveys.” https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479718000388
- Snapp, Sieglinde et al. 2019. “Perennial Grains for Africa: Possibility or Pipedream?.” https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479718000066
- Harris, D. 2019. “Intensification Benefit Index: How Much Can Rural Households Benefit From Agricultural Intensification?” https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479718000042
- Ollenburger, Mary, Todd Crane, Katrien Descheemaeker, and Ken E Giller. 2019. “Are Farmers Searching for an African Green Revolution? Exploring the Solution Space for Agricultural Intensification in Southern Mali.” https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479718000169
- Silva, Joao Vasco, and Joshua J Ramisch. 2019. “Whose Gap Counts? the Role of Yield Gap Analysis Within a Development-Oriented Agronomy.” https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479718000236
- Hobbs, Peter R, Raj Gupta, Raj Kumar Jat, and R K Malik. 2019. “Conservation Agriculture in the Indogangetic Plains of India: Past, Present and Future.” https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479717000424
Related resources
Contested Agronomy: whose agronomy counts? (conference website)
Contested Agronomy: Agricultural Research in a Changing World (book)
Agronomy for Development: The Politics of Knowledge in Agricultural Research (book)