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Cocoa is an important foreign exchange earner and a major source of income for several households in Ghana. In 2018, a larval outbreak on cocoa pods was reported in Ghana. Although the origin is unknown, it was perceived to be a secondary pest outbreak. In this study, a survey was conducted in the outbreak areas to identify and determine the occurrence of the pest and its susceptibility to a commonly used insecticide. Field and laboratory studies were conducted to identify the pest, determine the level of infestation, insecticide susceptibility, and field management. The outbreak was mainly caused by larvae of Anomis leona (~96% infestation of cocoa trees in some communities) with extensive feeding damage (chewing channels/tunnels) on the pericarp of pods. Field populations of A. leona larvae from districts in the Central region subjected to bifenthrin were susceptible at the recommended field rate (0.0245%) for mirids after 48 h of exposure under laboratory conditions. The insecticide induced a median lethal concentration (LC50) of ≤0.0061% and ≤0.0018% on A. leona larvae from Jukwa and Twifo Praso in the Central region at 24 and 48 h of exposure, respectively. Field application of bifenthrin was able to suppress infestation. The findings show that Anomis larvae were responsible for the outbreak, inducing extensive damage on pods. Bifenthrin was toxic to the larvae and could be used to manage them on the field. The outbreak indicates the need to develop an integrated management and monitoring strategy for cocoa pests to minimize future outbreaks.

African smallholders face few opportunities that can be captured through new technologies alone. Analysis of the institutional context in which they work opens new pathways for innovation. This article synthesises nine studies that attempted such analysis. Using mixed appraisal methods, the studies identify institutional conditions that explain the, often unsatisfactory, outcomes of smallholders, as well as entry points for changing them. Instead of at the farm or community levels, Participatory Innovation System Analysis seeks at higher levels to identify actors, networks and mechanisms that maintain or can change the “pervasive bias against the small farm sector” in SSA.Defier le « biais omnipresent » a l'encontre des petits cultivateurs africains: identifier les points d'entree pour les changements institutionnelsLes petits cultivateurs africains ont a leur disposition peu d'opportunites qui puissent etre saisies par le seul biais des nouvelles technologies. Une analyse du contexte institutionnel dans ...

Cocoa is a major source of employment, smallholder farmers' incomes, and export revenue in Ghana. However, by 2010 institutional constraints throughout the value chain were failing to sustain bean quality and cocoa production. A national-level innovation platform, comprising key public and private actors in the cocoa sector, was established in 2010 to analyse and act to address this concern. The members' initial inquiries revealed that: farmers indirectly were paying for the national mass spraying and Hi-Tech input programmes, both provided free at the point of delivery. As the largest components in the cost structure, these programmes to a large extent accounted for the low price paid to farmers for their beans; a volatile exchange rate regime meant that often the prevailing rate was not equal to its equilibrium level; policies that heavily taxed cocoa were destroying farmers' expectation of long-term profitability. This paper draws on data recorded from the beginning 2009 to end 2013 by means of theory-guided process tracing 5(TGPT), to show how the platform contributed to increased prices for farmers, to subsequent reform of the input supply arrangements, and to changes to the mass spraying programme. The key causal mechanisms identified are policy learning and progressive amendment of existing institutions. The paper concludes by drawing lessons for the role of an innovation platform.

This paper discusses external influences on innovation platforms (IPs) and the options for effective responses. The platforms examined in this paper were conceived as vehicles for facilitating institutional change in support of innovation that benefits smallholders, in selected agro-enterprise domains in Benin, Ghana and Mali. They were designed and implemented in a manner that enabled experimentation with processes of change in the selected domains. A Research Associate in each case facilitated the work of the IPs and applied Theory-Guided Process Tracing (TGPT) methodology to document the innovation processes pursued by platform members. The recorded data allow analysis of the external influences on the IPs. This paper first presents a typology as derived from literature of the main external influences on the domains of interest, and then uses the typology to analyse the influences on and responses of the IPs. The main influences were found to emanate from global, sub-regional and national levels. The IPs' responses were diverse but generally included reconstitution of the membership, lobbying, capacity-building among smallholders, and empowerment of smallholders by organizing provision of new knowledge, skills or financial resources. The paper highlights lessons drawn by the platform members in addressing the challenges involved. It concludes that external influences are important in determining the direction of socio-technical and institutional innovation.

The experiences synthesised in this article indicate how significant effects in two agricultural domains have been achieved by creating pathways for inter-dependent socio-technical and institutional changes, at a range of levels of action, governance and policy-making. The synthesis emphasizes the importance of co-learning, experimentation, and critical reflection among a wide network of ‘champions’ of transformational change on behalf of smallholder farmers and processors. It shows that innovation processes may involve actors along entire value chains, industry leaders at national level, or local level actors seeking to widen the space for change beyond their immediate circle of direct influence. While the research and development initiatives of the domains are shown to have been critical in identifying the constraints and opportunities of smallholders, and also to the effects documented, this was largely because the research effort converged around empirically grounded problems and opportunities identified. The information sought, and the solutions found useful, were determined by the members of innovation platforms that drove the processes of change.