Assessing impact of agricultural innovation programme

Innovate UK launched the AgriTech Catalyst in 2013 to tackle global challenges in agriculture by promoting the development of innovative products and processes.

DFID provided £10 million to launch an AgriTech Catalyst International Development Window. This window supports UK and developing country organisations to produce innovations that address post-harvest losses and sustainable agricultural intensification. These grants also improve knowledge flows between the UK and targeted countries through inter-organisational partnerships. The effect of AgriTech Catalyst is intended to be enhanced food security, nutrition and welfare for the poor.

DFID contracted IPE Tripleline and Genesis Analytics to assess the contribution that AgriTech Catalyst has made to development outcomes and impacts through encouraging agricultural innovation in developing countries.

The scope of this evaluation extends beyond a standard performance evaluation. It includes aspects of a process and impact evaluation, with evaluation questions that focus on the activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts of the programme.

This evaluation has two levels of inquiry in terms of the design, performance, implementation and overall impact of the programme and the innovations supported. The focus of the evaluation was on learning, both in terms of understanding what works well at the project level and also to distil lessons at a programme level for future funding rounds and partnerships.

The impact and process evaluations will coalesce into a holistic assessment of the AgriTech Catalyst window, with the outputs intended to inform forthcoming rounds and iterations of the programme, future collaborations with Innovate UK, and provide lessons on how DFID and others can support innovation more broadly.