Evaluating the impacts of agricultural innovations

Summary

Since the 2000s, researchers engaged in innovation processes are having to respond to the demand of donors, national research and development agencies and civil society that their research should be open to evaluation. In order to meet this demand, agricultural researchers have to use tools and methods to help them determine the effects of their proposals, not only at agronomic level, but also on the economic, social and environmental dimensions. This chapter presents the different evaluation methods that can be used, as well as the trade-offs to be made in order to choose the approach that is most appropriate for the innovation under study and for issues raised by the evaluation. Two case studies on the use of methods to evaluate the impact of research, conducted as part of the ImpresS and Impresa projects, are presented and discussed.