Assessing a rural innovation system: Low-input rice in Central China

Following China's Green Revolution, public policy now aims to maintain high yields while reducing the amounts of water and agro-chemicals used by agriculture and so to lower costs and minimise environmental damage. This goal is pursued by supporting biotechnology-based research to develop new crops with the required characteristics, but the innovation systems framework suggests that a range of non-research actors are also essential for these efforts to lead to practical changes. This article therefore examines what the new policy direction means for university-based researchers, whether such research is set within an institutional context of the kind necessary for effective innovation, and whether the various actors involved shared the goals of the new policy. It reports that the study area possesses all the elements needed for an effective innovation system; but that the various actors in place lack the agreement on objectives that is required for effective innovation.