The Institute of Natural Resources NPC (INR), representing the Global Prolinnova network,was appointed by the Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR) hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to carry out a survey on local innovation. Prolinnova is a global network that promotes local innovation in ecologically oriented agriculture and natural resource management. Besides supporting local innovation by farmers, the network encourages the use of various participatory approaches that involve farmers as contributors to the innovation process, rather than being passive recipients. Prolinnova is a multistakeholder network and its members represent the different actors and constituencies of agricultural innovation systems (AISs).

As a follow-up to the survey on innovation involving FAO staff and consultants in 2022, GFAR, in collaboration with Prolinnova and in agreement with the Office of Innovation in FAO (OIN), decided to administer a modified version of the same survey, broadening the respondent population beyond FAO staff and consultants, with two purposes: i) to better inform GFAR constituencies of the types of innovation (both processes and products ) that can emerge when farmers are squarely placed at the centre of the process, with a view to better understand the implications for providing appropriate support to them as a key contribution to pro-poor transformation of AISs; and ii) to offer to the FAO Science and Innovation Strategy (in the making) up-to-date and hands-on information on a particular, relevant area of farmer-centric innovation that may deserve adequate consideration in the document.

The original FAO questionnaire was adapted and was then circulated throughout the Prolinnova network using coordinators of Country Platforms, Subregional Coordinators and various email groups. The completed forms, which covered 27 countries, were then captured to allow for analysis of the results. From approximately 800 members of the Prolinnova network, a total of 106 responses were obtained.