Why is it imperative to give more thought to the concept of agriculture? Because agriculture is directly associated with the physical and economic development of every human being. According to estimates, the global population is going to surpass the nine billion benchmark by 2050. The food production in today’s world is inadequate in terms of both sheer quantity of production as well structure of global distribution. And yet, to feed the number of people anticipated to be living in the world as of 2050, current production will have to be scaled up by another 70%.

That was the status of food requirement for consumers in the world. Let us now focus on the producers and how agriculture is equally important to them. In many developing countries, agriculture accounts for approximately three-fourths and half of employment in Sub-Saharan Africa and India respectively. Seventy-five percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas and for whom economic returns from agriculture form some part of their livelihoods. For very poor households, agricultural development is not only a defence against hunger; it is also possibly the only available option to potentially increase income as much as four times; it can raise incomes nearly four times more effectively than growth in any other sector. Perhaps that makes optimal and strategic investment in innovation systems and innovation the tools to overcoming global poverty.

However, investments made for the sake of making investment wouldn’t work. Let us now look at what countries stand to gain from innovation in these sectors. Agriculture sustains the economies of most countries in significant ways: Agriculture contributes to one-third of GDP for sub-Saharan Africa countries, and 17% of Indian GDP. These statistics serve as reasonable proxies for other parts of the developing world as well.

Innovation is widely recognized as a major source of improved productivity, competitiveness, and economic growth throughout advanced and emerging economies. If farmers, agribusinesses, and even nations are to cope, compete, and thrive in the midst of changes of this magnitude, they must innovate continuously. In light of that, this report highlights the past examples of innovation and innovation systems (there is a difference between the two – read it here) and brings forth for consideration the practice of Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS). This overview of the WB report is not so much about the importance of Agricultural Innovation Systems in the world today, as it stresses on how specific approaches and practices can foster innovation in a range of contexts – or how innovation systems can be best applied to bring about increasingly progressive and more productive changes across the three verticals – economic productivity of a country, poverty alleviation and food security.

Read the overview here.