Knowledge and Rural Development Dialogue at the heart of innovation

Successive food, economic and environmental crises have prompted the world Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) bodies to spring into action. Faced with the clear failure of public development aid to reduce inequalities and hunger, especially in Africa, wide consensus has been achieved from the World Bank to the G8 via the UN, the European Union and the African Union these past five years on the need to improve agricultural production through sustainable rural development which shows respect for Man and Nature. The ARD has set itself the goal of supporting the implementation of technical, social and institutional responses to sustainable development through a partnership encouraging the pooling of knowledge, increased skills and the autonomy of key players.

Acknowledgements.- Foreword.- Vulnerability and resilience of smallholder farms.- Limiting the cultural risk.- Powerlessness of international aid.- Widening the agricultural issue.- New partnerships for research and innovation.- Research and sustainable development concepts.- Developing stakeholder adaptability and empowerment.- Multi stakeholder approaches in Africa and Brazil.- Participatory practices in Africa.- The Uni-Campo pilot project in Brazil.- Case study analysis.- Overview.- Development models at the crossroads of all knowledge.- Conclusion.- References.