Institutional Learning and Change Initiative

The Learning Laboratory case explores the complex issue of how learning occurs in knowledge intensive, as opposed to the conventional input intensive, agricultural systems. This case has large poverty reduction focus with specific attention to small and marginal farmers in India .

Justification for participation in the Learning Laboratory:

The problems with the linear model of agricultural innovation are reasonably well known. Models of change that have had sources of innovation outside the formal agricultural establishment present interesting opportunities for study and analysis. Some of these have been successful but have perhaps not been scaled or have diluted objectives in the process. Even in these cases of partnerships are few. The cases taken for the Learning Laboratory present contemporary ways by which organizations have been combining aspects of action research and learning to bring about institutional change.

Informal research and alliances have played a major role in the evolution of some of these ventures and this needs greater explication for the institutional implications of changed behavior for research organizations. How have scientists involved in the cases done things differently even as they were constrained in innovating within their own settings? How could these lessons be taken further in their own organizational settings? What have been their approaches to learning and how have these been facilitated? All of these would be explored through the Learning Laboratory including exploring why is it that some organizations have been more receptive to change while others have not?

The cases also provide interesting points where newer interactions might change the axioms of research. Can civil society and farmers be involved in setting the parameters for research? For example in SRI, one such axiom that has evolved is that SRI trials have to be on farmer’s fields, i.e. on-farm rather than on-station. What are the responses and institutional changes that might have to happen if these were to be tried out? These are the kinds of questions that the Learning Laboratory hopes to answer through facilitation.

C Shambu Prasad, Xavier Institute of Management