Structure and Information Sharing within Innovation Platforms

There is increased interest in the past decade in design and implementation of innovation platforms for agricultural research and development in order to generate research output that directly responds to the needs of smallholder farmers. This study examined the relationship between organisational structure and information sharing among stakeholders within five Innovation Platforms for Agricultural Research and Development in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. Data were collected in Uganda and Rwanda. The results showed that the structure of Innovation Platforms evolved over time to form decentralised clusters for innovation at different implementation levels. Size, age of Innovation Platform, and nature of landscape determined the extent of vertical and horizontal decentralisation. Innovation Platforms which were highly decentralised both vertically and horizontally demonstrated high knowledge and information sharing among actors. Social capital motivates actors to share information.