Innovation and Development in Agriculture and Food

This paper summarizes the main findings of the GLAMUR project which starts with an apparently simple question: is “local” more sustainable than “global”? Sustainability assessment is framed within a post-normal science perspective, advocating the integration of public deliberation and scientific research. The assessment spans 39 local, intermediate and global supply chain case studies across different commodities and countries. Assessment criteria cover environmental, economic, social, health and ethical sustainability dimensions. A closer view of the food system demonstrates a highly dynamic local–global continuum where actors, while adapting to a changing environment, establish multiple relations and animate several chain configurations. The evidence suggests caution when comparing “local” and “global” chains, especially when using the outcomes of the comparison in decision-making. Supply chains are analytical constructs that necessarily—and arbitrarily—are confined by system boundaries, isolating a set of elements from an interconnected whole. Even consolidated approaches, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), assess only a part of sustainability attributes, and the interpretation may be controversial. Many sustainability attributes are not yet measurable and “hard” methodologies need to be complemented by “soft” methodologies which are at least able to identify critical issues and trade-offs. Aware of these limitations, our research shows that comparing local and global chains, with the necessary caution, can help overcome a priori positions that so far have characterized the debate between “localists” and “globalists”. At firm level, comparison between “local” and “global” chains could be useful to identify best practices, benchmarks, critical points, and errors to avoid. As sustainability is not a status to achieve, but a never-ending process, comparison and deliberation can be the basis of a “reflexive governance” of food chains.

Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are increasingly garnering attention in food systems research, owing to their rising popularity among consumers, producers and policy-makers in the last few decades. Written with the aim to identify research gaps for the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, this literature review provides a state of play of the definition and characterisation of SFSCs, and of their sustainability. Drawing on hypotheses about SFSC sustainability elaborated in an expert network in France, this review summarises a wide range of papers from various disciplines in the SFSC literature, written in English or French, while specifically highlighting the empirical results derived from European projects. Though the literature tends to generally agree on the social benefits of SFSCs, their economic and environmental impacts typically elicit more heterogeneous outcomes, while their health/nutrition and governance dimensions remain under-explored. Based on this review, recommendations for a future research and innovation programme are outlined, addressing the contribution of SFSCs to agrifood system transition and resilience in the current context of the Covid-19 crisis and of the Green New Deal objectives.

In industrialized nations, local food networks have generally been analyzed through alternative food systems, in spite of the fact that they are much more diverse than this would imply. In France, ‘short food chains’ are both a continuation of a long tradition and a recent trend which now extends beyond activists, to consumers and producers as well. This paper will explore the conditions under which these chains can change the practices and knowledge of ordinary actors in urban food systems, from producers to urban consumers and policy-makers, in the area of agriculture and sustainability. It will consider the case study of the creation and development of an urban open-air market which has been analyzed using intervention research with input from economic sociology. We will highlight how personal relations, which are encouraged by a participatory context, support the evolution of practices and knowledge. We will also illustrate how a system of produce labelling has emerged as a mediation resource, and has increased changes as well as participation within the re-territorialization of the urban food system. By describing a concrete expression of food democracy which is spreading in France via a free collective trademark, and by showing its role in the transition of ‘ordinary’ actors towards a more sustainable agriculture, this paper will shine new light onto local food chains as well as traditional short food chains, and will call for more research on the subject.

Abstract Climate change will have a profound effect on vine growing worldwide. Wine quality will also be affected, which will raise economic issues. Possible adaptations may result from changes in plant material, viticultural techniques, and the wine-making process. Relocation of vineyards to cooler areas and increased irrigation are other options, but they may result in potential conflicts for land and water use. Grapes are currently grown in many regions around the world, and growers have adapted their practices to the wide range of climatic conditions that can be found among or inside these areas. This knowledge is precious for identifying potential adaptations to climate change. Because climate change affects all activities linked to wine production (grape growing, wine making, wine economics, and environmental issues), multidisciplinary research is needed to guide growers to continue to produce high-quality wines in an economical and environmentally sustainable way. An example of such an interdisciplinary study is the French LACCAVE (long-term adaptation to climate change in viticulture and enology) project, in which researchers from 23 institutes work together on all issues related to the impact of climate change on wine production. (JEL Classifications: Q1, Q5)

This paper reviews the recent literature dealing with farmland protection (FP) policies in developed countries from a planning perspective, with a specific focus on the Mediterranean region. It provides coverage of French language papers that may have been omitted in previous reviews. While the Mediterranean is often pointed out as a region with acute challenges related to food security and a lack of effective planning policies, the literature underlines that issues related to FP policies are similar across the world. Hence, this review may bring valuable insights for more sustainable management of farmland on the urban fringe. It maps several interesting areas of research concerning the often implicit and disparate rationales of FP policies as well as the barriers and potential avenues for improvement for FP. It highlights that FP cannot rely merely on transferring policy tools that have proven successful elsewhere. It also reveals that land policies do not always take into account the specific needs of farming systems, as they often focus on land rather than on agriculture. Further research is thus needed to reveal the interaction over time between the use of certain FP tools and the unique local features of urban fringe agriculture. This review may be of interest to students and scholars, but also to practitioners, policy makers and local groups looking for innovative, more flexible or locally suited farmland protection programs.

Agroecology has been recognized as a paradigm that can offer multiple ecological and socio-economic benefits. In many developing countries, the promotion of agroecology is facilitated by intermediary organizations such as Farmers’ Organizations (FOs). Detailed studies on how FOs support their farmers in the adoption of agroecology innovations are still scarce, and particularly there are limited studies on the roles of FOs in this realm in Africa. This paper addresses this gap by presenting a study on how FOs stimulate farmers’ adoption of agroecological innovations in Burkina Faso. Three case studies of FOs were done to unravel the ways FOs support of farmers’ adoption of agroecological innovations processes, using the lens of innovation intermediaries. The findings show that FOs fulfil both knowledge and innovation intermediation functions in the process of stimulating their farmers’ adoption of agroecological innovations. By doing this, FOs act as a facilitator for the introduction and/or development of complementary agroecological innovations over longer periods of time. Future studies could look more deeply into how intermediation may contribute to broader transitions and how it connects with the political activities of FOs such as advocacy and lobbying.

Abstract Over the last decade, societal pressure has increased on public research agencies to provide evidence that their research contributes to achieve development goals. To address this challenge, the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development (Cirad), developed an ex-post impact assessment method based on the impact pathway approach, called Impact of Research in the South (ImpresS). The reconstruction of the impact pathway identifies and assesses research outputs, outcomes, and impacts on development over long-time spans, taking into account the contribution of other stakeholders, projects, and contextual factors. By applying mixed methods and participatory approaches, ImpresS involves key actors in assessing the contribution of research to impacts in innovation processes. Such a participatory approach raises, however, questions about the advantages and disadvantages of participation in impact assessment. This article examines whether and how participation affects the results of an evaluation and the methodological challenges this poses. The analysis is based on 13 case studies covering different innovation processes, countries, and time spans. The main results show that participation, combined with triangulation of information including quantitative and qualitative data, strengthens the explanation of the causal relationships among outputs, outcomes, and impacts. It helps reveal a large and diversified list of impacts based on the perception of actors, especially uncovering positive and negative impacts unexpected by researchers. However, participation may render other impacts less visible, especially those related to environmental and political issues. Furthermore, participatory evaluation entangles challenges linked to expectations, divergent perceptions, power dynamics, and social inequality, which must be carefully addressed to provide robust and transparent evaluation results.

Abstract In the face of global warming, academics have started to consider and analyze the environmental and carbon footprint associated with their professional activity. Among the several sources of greenhouse gas emissions from research activities, air travel—one of the most visible and unequal fractions of this footprint—has received much attention. Of particular interest is the question of how air travel may be related to scientific success or visibility as defined by current academic evaluation norms, notably bibliometric indicators. Existing studies, conducted over a small sample of individuals or within specific disciplines, have demonstrated that the number of citations may be related to air-travel frequency, but have failed to identify a link between air travel and publication rate or h -index. Here, using a comprehensive dataset aggregating the answers from over 6000 respondents to a survey sent to randomly selected scientists and staff across all research disciplines in France, we show that higher individual air travel is associated with a stronger publication rate and h -index. This relationship is robust to the inclusion of the effects of gender, career stage, and disciplines. Our analysis suggests that flying is a means for early-career scientists to obtain scientific visibility, and for senior scientists to maintain this visibility.

This article addresses ecosystem service perceptions in the case of pond fish-farming systems in Brazil, France and Indonesia. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment vision suggests a more integrated reflection on environmental policies with greater adaptability to local knowledge and the development of social learning processes, which tend to promote more sustainable changes in behavior and practice than do sanctions. This study considers a part of the identification of ecosystem services. It shows that perceptions differ with the context, and found few differences depending on the type of stakeholders (fish farmers and other stakeholders). From a methodological viewpoint, this paper opens up new prospects for valuing ecosystem services through a perception study.

As the urgency to adapt to climate change intensifies, nature-based solutions (NBS) are receiving increasing attention. To mainstream NBS, a fundamental shift in environmental management is required. This study evaluates the role that Communities of Practice (CoP) can play as platforms to foster social learning to drive such a paradigm shift. A Natural Flood Management (NFM) CoP in Yorkshire, UK, was used as a case study. A unique research design combined opportunistic data collected prior to the inception of the CoP and purposive data collected during and after its formation. Opportunistic data captured information from stakeholders regarding NFM engagement and challenges around its instalment and delivery. Purposive data was used to examine the ability of a CoP to foster social learning, overcome the challenges identified prior to its establishment and evaluate the extent to which a CoP contributes to inducing a NBS paradigm shift, using a multi-loop social learning framework. Results demonstrate that the CoP was effective in delivering social learning and improving NFM instalment and delivery. While most evidence of social learning point to incremental rather than transformational changes, it did reveal abundant questioning of the current framing of flood management. Furthermore, the CoP seems to have encouraged some participants to re-think the current governance structures for NFM and the boundaries of current actor networks, raising promise that, if sustained in the longer term, the CoP could induce a paradigm shift. Further research should conduct longitudinal studies to examine the CoP’s development overtime and its potential for overcoming current constraints. • We evaluate a Community of Practice (COP) and its contribution to a nature-based solution (NBS) paradigm shift. • A Natural flood management (NFM) COP based in Yorkshire (UK) is used as a case study. • The COP fostered social learning between participants, leading to improvements in NFM design and delivery. • While changes were mostly incremental, some signs of potential transformational change emerged. • Despite constraints around current management practices, COPs could contribute to inducing a paradigm shift.

A global expansion in public and private initiatives seeks to strengthen the link between traditional products and sustainable development by creating a niche in the market for these products. Relevant examples are the Geographical Indications and the Slow Food Presidia models. This paper compares both types of Origin Food Schemes (OFS) to disclose the main commonalities and differences in their institutionalization, and their complex outcomes on cultural biodiversity (CB), which is a major concern for the sustainability of rural communities. We used underpinning knowledge dynamics as an analytical lens through the cross-comparison of ethnographic findings collected in four case studies of origin cheeses located in France, Italy and Morocco. Our findings suggest that OFS have high potential to defend CB because of their collective and context-dependent approaches. We argue that knowledge and practices mobilized in OFS are the result of power relations and confrontations among local actors, and show how four identified tensions between different forms and types of knowledge differently shape food culture, food technique, perceptions, and representations. In conclusion, the institutional approaches, practices and knowledge dynamics compared in this analysis show six effective ways to link OFS and CB, facilitating the trajectory toward sustainable development.

The last few years have seen the emergence of different initiatives designed to promote the biodiversification of agroecosystems as a counterpoint to the global expansion of homogenized industrial agriculture. In Brazil, two food procurement programs demonstrate the potential to promote discussions related to this agroecological transition: the National School Meal Program (Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar, PNAE) and the Food Procurement Program (Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos, PAA). The objectives of this paper are to analyze: (a) how these procurement programs currently integrate agrobiodiversity (crops and cropping systems) according to the local context; (b) the main challenges that key stakeholders perceive for the adoption of biodiverse systems; and (c) the extent to which the key stakeholders involved in these programs associate agrobiodiversity with the provision of ecosystem services. We carried out this research in 2017 in two contrasting municipalities in the eastern part of the Brazilian Amazon, Paragominas and Irituia. Our research shows that these programs have included up to 42 species in Irituia and 32 species in Paragominas. Perennial crop species are the most common type of culture in Irituia (up to 50%), while vegetables are the most common in Paragominas (up to 47%). Although in both municipalities stakeholders identify a large number of ecosystem services (up to 17), services mentioned in Irituia were more closely related to agrobiodiversity. Stakeholders indirectly associated with the programs have a broader view of ecosystem services. We conclude that these procurement programs can be useful tools to promote the biodiversification of local production systems, but their potential may depend on involving institutions not directly associated with their administration. Additionally, despite the observed differences in production context, providing more ecosystem services appears to be a compelling motivation for promoting changes in agroecosystems.

After a period of progressive abandonment of cultivation, the wine growers of the Etna initiated a process of renewal that allowed them to place high quality products on the market and to involve in wine tourism with the Etna Wine Route. In this context, the viticulture of the Etna is a model, which has become a strategic component of rural sustainable development and improvement of local tourism. In this study we implemented the Strategic Orientation Round (SOR) integrated in the SWOT analysis, a qualitative approach aimed to create awareness and promote action as prioritized by the stakeholders. We argue that the key requirement of the Etna Wine Route effective management for wine tourism development is the stakeholder involvement in generating ideas and developing products and services. In the case of EWR the major problems among the actors concern the distribution of commitments and the ability to focus on marketing strategies. Marketing alliance between the different elements of tourism could offer greater flexibility in choice, contributing to the development of the image of the area. The study shows that the SOR analysis is an effective tool to interpret the planning of tourism development of the EWR in a participatory way.

La co-conception de systèmes agricoles innovants est une piste prometteuse pour répondre au défi de l’innovation, notamment pour les exploitations agricoles familiales africaines confrontées à de multiples changements. Mais il faut penser à la place et aux rôles tenus par de multiples acteurs (agriculteurs, conseillers, chercheurs) pour produire les changements souhaités par toutes les parties, et donc réfléchir à la question du partenariat dans le processus. Cet article présente la démarche de conception en partenariat de systèmes agricoles innovants (CPSAI) élaborée entre 2005 et 2015 dans l’ouest du Burkina Faso, notamment sur la gestion de la fumure organique des cultures. La CPSAI s’appuie sur un dispositif partenarial formalisé et sur une démarche progressive en trois phases itératives : (1) exploration et formalisation du partenariat, (2) conceptions et test des options de changement, (3) bilan et désengagement. Les résultats obtenus montrent que l’innovation est plus efficace et durable quand elle est le produit d’un travail partenarial.

In the West African Sahel, climate variability and climate change pose huge challenges to food security and health, particularly for poor and marginalised population groups. Co-production of actionable climate information between scientists and users has been advocated to increase its use in climate change adaptation. Consequently, Weather and Climate Services (WCS) co-production models have been expanding, but there have been few evaluations of their effects. Those that exist mostly focus on the end user. The empirical contribution of this paper is an evidence-based evaluation of the scaling of WCS based on co-production models in Senegal. The methodological contribution is a systemic and iterative evaluation method involving multiple analytical tools. The scaling of WCS in Senegal involved at least 161 actors and resulted in five axes of transformation: 1) continuous improvement of WCS, 2) emergence and consolidation of WCS facilitators, 3) inclusion of WCS in action planning, 4) active mobilisation to sustain WCS scaling, and 5) empowerment of actors. New users and uses emerged beyond agriculture, involving the fisheries, water and energy sectors, producing changes in institutional communication strategies, operational planning, and in coordination between actors. Enabling factors for scaling included capacity strengthening, knowledge-sharing and action platforms, interaction opportunities, and financial and political support. However, reduced precision of forecasts over time is perceived. New challenges are emerging including improving delivery and finer grain information, getting the private sector involved, and building capacity and trust at a large scale, to keep pace with the increase in uses and users

The main purpose of this work was analyzing how an innovation platform can foster and provide a basis for multi-actor collaboration in order to enable climate-smart agriculture (CSA) implementation at the local level. Using a mix of social (interactions between stakeholders, knowledge changes, adoption of practices) and technical indicators (income, fulfillment of caloric requirements of the household, farm resource use, planned biodiversity or greenhouse gas emission changes), we monitored the collaboration between an NGO, local civil authorities, associations, and farmers that aimed to achieve a common goal linked to the participatory and contextualized development of CSA in Colombia. We found that multiple stakeholder engagements led to improved interactions between members of the platform and their local environment, a proactive participation in the platform meetings and a significant increase in farmer knowledge levels on the challenges posed by climate change and the resultant extreme events. The platform also facilitated the adoption of best-bet practices that contribute towards CSA when farmers both diversify their production and decrease the use of mineral fertilizers. Our findings suggest that innovation platforms can facilitate the collective understanding and use of CSA options corresponding to local conditions and priorities.

This chapter seeks to investigate the way in which the system of protection of geographical indications (GI) has developed in the legal, policy, and socioeconomic context of an emerging country such as Vietnam. Vietnam has over fifteen years of experience in GI protection, and GIs are considered an important tool for socio-economic development in the country. Vietnam also recently completed the negotiations of two international free trade agreements, which include specific provisions on GIs: one with the European Union, the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, 1 and the other one with twelve countries of the Pacific (including the United States), the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). 2 Our analysis in this chapter aims at providing useful insights on the law and practice of GIs in Vietnam, which could also be relevant with respect to other countries in the region, as several countries in South East Asia are currently considering reforms to their existing laws or are implementing new provisions in the areas of GIs.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of the links between the representativeness of the local community by those drafting and elaborating the specification of the geographical indication (GI), the market access and the use of the GI. Design/methodology/approach The present study followed a comparative research design, building upon primary data from the field works dealing with the elaboration and development of GIs worldwide, from legislations on the protection of GIs and from secondary data, i.e. literature dealing with the elaboration of the GI specifications at case level or national/international level. Findings The GI is permeable to a multitude of objectives and the management of controversies represent the “price of participatory democracy”, which still needs to be under the umbrella of the justice of peace, the State authority. Representativeness does not necessarily conduct to equity and fairness. It depends on the heterogeneity of the value chain, which might lead to the dilution of the GI specificity. Mandatory membership might not be always the best option Transparency to guarantee the producer’s group works for the common good is essential. Originality/value The controversies in the elaboration of the GI product specification are directly induced by the controversies in the management of the GI either by the collective organisation of producers or by the public authority. Issues such as representativeness, mandatory membership, transparency and heterogeneity of the value chain are deeply analysed to understand the functioning of GI producers associations and their limits. The state intervention as justice of the peace appears necessary.

Abstract The unintended consequences of standards and certification schemes, particularly their challenges for alternative agri‐food networks, is a core concern of rural sociology. The conventionalisation of organic agriculture is a prime example. In this article, we contribute to this debate by studying standards that organic farmers developed for themselves within a French organic producers’ organisation. We introduce a ‘regulationist theory of collective action’ and show that these farmers crafted specific rules that go beyond the EU regulation, which in turn gave life to their own alternative, collective project. We thus demonstrate that standardisation and certification do not inevitably engender conventionalisation.

What is a “local” food chain as opposed to a “global” chain? Are local food chains more sustainable than global chains? In the context of market globalization and the proliferation of local alternatives, these questions have taken on a new aspect, which has been addressed by the GLAMUR (Global and Local food chain Assessment: a Multidimensional performance-based approach) project. Using an analysis of three archetypal wine chains in the south of France, and considering food chains as embedded social constructions, we will first attempt to objectivize which aspects of wine are local, and which are global, using a multidimensional analytical approach. As local vs. global characteristics seem to be strategic assets or constraints, and not structural components, we will then outline an evaluative approach to wine chain sustainability by valuing qualitative indicators to be scored and benchmarked by experts. We will discuss our findings from a scientific and operational perspective by highlighting how a local vs. global approach produces new sustainability issues and practical solutions. Nevertheless, as concrete chains often mix global and local characteristics, further research must be done in order to assess how this combination may be sustainable for different types of actors, depending on their values, capacities, networks and constraints.