Public-private sector partnerships in an agricultural system of innovation: Concepts and challenges

The potential for publicprivate sector partnerships is likely to grow. However, despite a number of high-profile success stories, promoting partnerships has proved more difficult than many assumed. This article argues that such partnerships need to be viewed in the framework of an innovation system and a development scenario where networks of local agro-enterprises will underpin rural development and poverty reduction. This view helps reveal the importance of embedding public research organizations within these local networks and highlights the fact that constraints to building partnership is institutional in nature i.e. it relates to habits, practices and patterns of trust. The article concludes by suggesting that efforts should be focused on building social capital in agricultural innovation systems and cautioning that this should be done in contextually relevant ways.