[2011] Sustainable agricultural innovation is a social learning process: it requires collective decisions and adaptive interactions, which gradually lead to change. Into an Agricultural Innovation System (AIS), based on dynamic networks and knowledge flows, communication plays a central role in facilitating stakeholders’ participation, negotiating between national priorities and local demands, enhancing institutional coordination and strengthening agricultural service provision.

This study was carried out in the framework of the CSDI initiative and examines the Bolivian AIS, its institutional and policy framework, and the demand–supply dynamics of agricultural information services in the country. The author assesses the methods and approaches currently used, and looks at opportunities and constraints for the development of demand-driven and participatory agricultural advisory services, based on the adoption of ComDev methods and tools.