Prerequisites for promoting innovation projects in the agricultural sector

Abstract

According to the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI) that started 2012, the Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative "Innovation Union" specifies European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) as a new tool for speeding up innovation through linking existing policies and instruments. Based on the report “Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in Latvia” prepared by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2019, it analyses innovations in agriculture in order to promote further development of the sector. The agricultural sector has progressed more slowly than the economic sector and slightly more needs to be invested in order to ensure a well-functioning innovation system and a policy environment that would increase agricultural productivity and improve sustainability. The aim of paper is to reveal what prerequisites are necessary to promote the development of innovation projects in agricultural sector. The research based on analysis of documents exploring the views of European Innovation Partnership project managers on how the innovation process in European Innovation Partnership projects has taken place and what are the main preconditions for promoting the development of innovation projects, as well as observation and semistructured interview, in turn, exploring, which can contribute to the development of innovation projects. As a result of the research, 8 preconditions for the promoting development of innovation projects in agriculture were identified. The results of the research can have a significant impact on the development of innovation, identifying weaknesses, problems that need more attention and take specific activities to improve the current situation.