Enhancing innovation in agriculture at the policy level: the potential contribution of Technology Assessment

Technology Assessment (TA) is an applied process that considers the societal implications of technological change in order to influence policy to improve technology governance. TA has considerable potential to enhance innovation in agriculture and to assist agricultural industries in becoming more efficient, more sustainable and more socially acceptable. Innovation in agriculture is not only about what happens at the farm level, there needs to be innovation all along the value chain, including at the policy level in agribusiness and government. In assessing innovation at multiple levels, this paper demonstrates the potential of TA to assist government and industry to make sound decisions relating to which new technologies to endorse, what regulation may be required, and how social concerns can be addressed.