The outward journey of a local innovation: the dissemination of an artisanal irrigation pivot from Algeria’s Sahara
2022
Ould Rebai, Abdelkrim | Hartani, Tarik | Kuper, Marcel | University Centre of Tipaza ; Partenaires INRAE | Gestion de l'Eau, Acteurs, Usages (UMR G-EAU) ; Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM) (BRGM)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-AgroParisTech-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Institut Agro Montpellier ; Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro) | Département Environnements et Sociétés (Cirad-ES) ; Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)
User-led innovation is increasingly happening in a globalized context, connecting local experience to outside ideas, knowledge, and technologies. Alternatively, local innovations designed, manufactured and marketed for a particular context travel to other settings. We analyze the diffusion of a low-cost artisanal irrigation pivot from the Suf Valley (Algeria) to other Saharan regions and even to Saudi Arabia and Sudan. We conducted 27 semi-structured interviews with manufacturers, farmers, government agents, and made field observations on 18 farms in 2020/2021. The diffusion of the pivot was enabled by extending the innovation system to trusted innovation intermediaries in new settings, who played an active role in adapting the technology and support services to local agrarian systems. However, while the innovation homeland can be considered an open innovation environment, manufacturing and after-sales services in the new settings were tightly controlled by manufacturers to secure intellectual property and maintain a monopoly. This study contributes to the debate on the creativity of local innovation actors and their involvement in (supra)national agricultural development.
Show more [+] Less [-]AGROVOC Keywords
Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by Institut national de la recherche agronomique
