Indicators
The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems of any rural innovation actions or interventions must be aligned with public management tools. The results should be measured in terms of the processes of technological, social, and institutional changes as well as other dimensions of the current rural situation. The following are proposed indicators for measuring rural innovation policies, programs and projects in six general groups:
Research and Development (R&D)
Research and Development (R&D)
- Percentage of public spending used for R&D
- Number of companies implementing agricultural innovations
- Number of organizations that have implemented innovation strategies or innovative business models
- Number of organizations that have developed new R&D products or services in cooperation with scientific institutions
- Number of patents registered as a result of the innovation process
- Degree of adoption and adaptation of the promoted technologies
Technical Assistance and Extension
Technical Assistance and Extension
- Proportion of the extension elements that respond to the beneficiaries’ (clients’) demands
- Number of producers that participate in / use extension and technical assistance services
- Number of public and private agents that provide extension and technical assistance services
- Number of personnel that provide extension services
- Public spending on extension and technical assistance services
- Changes in the profitability of the production areas where extension services have been provided
- Changes in the patterns of land use resulting from the extension intervention
- Client satisfaction with the provision of services necessary for access to markets
Agricultural education and training (ECA) (empowerment, leadership, institutional strengthening)
Agricultural education and training (ECA) (empowerment, leadership, institutional strengthening)
- Increase in local control of producer organizations
- Number of trained extension and technical assistance professionals in the territory
- Number of professionals beneficiaries of scholarship programs sponsored by institutions in the territory.
- Number of new responses/initiatives for existing problems in the community/territory that offer added value and greater territorial competitiveness.
Coordination and collective action for agricultural innovation
Coordination and collective action for agricultural innovation
- Level of participation of research and extension organizations in National Agricultural Information System (NAIS) meetings
- Number of actors that interact and produce relevant knowledge for territorial development
- Number of informal networks between territories, both regional and international
- Number of agreements reached between actors from different fields within a territory
- Number of university-company cooperation networks
- Presence of coworking spaces
- Number of initiatives that arise from working in a network within a territory
- Number of collective actions for providing services/resources
Knowledge dissemination and management
Knowledge dissemination and management
- Number of collaboration networks created for information dissemination, disclosure and transfer of know-how and sound practices
- Number of producers that access market information in the territory
- Number of farmers that access communication mechanisms in the territory