An analysis of the Local Innovation Agents Program in the production processes of animal husbandry in the Brazilian Northeast

Abstract

Abstract The Local Innovation Agents Program (ALI) is an initiative of the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae) that offers specialized support to promote increased productivity through innovation. The LIA plays a fundamental role in promoting the competitiveness improvement of Brazilian micro and small companies. The success of the Program in micro and small companies in the commerce and service sectors was responsible for the expansion of the methodology to rural businesses. Given this context, the purpose of this research was to evaluate the impact of the ALI Program methodology on the production processes of animal husbandry (cattle, goats, and sheep) in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. To this end, two sub-dimensions of the Innovation Radar were analyzed, before and after monitoring agricultural properties, aiming to identify the operations and procedures adopted to improve the production process and evaluate the solutions chosen to solve property problems. The results demonstrated that the monitored properties showed an improvement of 19.74% in their production processes after monitoring and that the ALI Rural Program methodology had a positive impact on improving the production processes of animal husbandry in RN.