This research is dedicated to illuminating the relationship between knowledge and innovation within agrifood supply chains (ASCs) – although insightful and informative – is marked by conceptual and methodological issues that restrict our ability to understand the ways knowledge affects innovation and vice versa. In this work, adopting a systems approach to ASCs and synthesizing literature from different fields of study, we discuss the metaphors that guide research in this area, and we propose an alternative conceptualization of ASCs
The objective of this study was to integrate sustainability in the innovation process by applying a systems view of foresight in an early stage of innovation development. For this end, we set up a back-casting process based on a triple-helix approach that was adapted to the agricultural setting by including science, policy and agricultural practice. Was deliberately selected four conceptual sustainability-oriented innovations that were driven by the motivation of actors in agricultural science and practice.
This paper reports the activities carried out in the first Regional Agroforestry Innovation Networks (RAINs) meeting organized in Italy where Agroforestry Innovation Network project (AFINET) project is focused on the multipurpose olive tree systems in the territory around Orvieto Municipality, Umbria Region, Central Italy.
Within the context of the European-funded JOLISAA FP7 project (JOint Learning in Innovation Systems in African Agriculture), several agricultural innovation experiences focused on smallholders were assessed in Benin, Kenya and South Africa. Fifty-six cases were characterised through review of grey literature and interviews with resource persons according to a common analytical framework inspired by the innovation systems perspective. Of these, 13 were assessed in greater depth through semistructured interviews, focus-group discussions and multistakeholder workshops.
This analysis evaluates a real world complex intervention to study the impacts of an agricultural value chain development program on livelihood outcomes, in hill and mountainous regions of Nepal. The intervention was not designed for the study and no baseline data existed to compare the final outcomes. Data came from a carefully designed household survey administered to 3,028 households (50% beneficiaries and other 50% non-beneficiaries) across seven districts in Western Nepal.
The aim of the present article is to propose a new approach to improve interactions between stakeholders, using traceability and contractualization. Faced with a crisis generated by volatility, collective action, incorporating all stakeholders, including consumers, is needed: but what exactly must be done? The article first describes the SDSC approach which combines three main concepts: Extended Demand, Extended Supply and Demand-Supply Chain (DSC), and then goes on to detail how a collaborativemodeling tool needs to be built up.
Changes in the structure of value chains have opened up lucrative opportunities for smallholder producers to increase income as a means to improve their livelihoods. Yet, recent literature argues that smallholder producers are better off in their current markets than when integrated in high value chains on disadvantageous terms. This article studies the terms of integration of smallholder producers in high value chains from a marketing systems perspective
This paper aims at analysing the competitive performance of a very tradeable global commodity and the main export crop of Cameroon from 1961 to 2013 through the application of a step-wise analytical framework accommodating aspects of agri-value chain analysis. This conventional analysis was expanded to include value chain comparisons between various valueadding processes in the Cameroonian cocoa value chain as well as consensus vs.
This paper presents a qualitative case study of a US based beef co-operative integrated to a VBSC. Was used an analytical framework of viability, sustainability and resilience to analyse impacts at farm-level. Our analysis highlights a number of positive effects on farm-level viability, sustainability and resilience including improvements to market orientation and price stability, among others which provide crucial insights for beef PO development in Ireland.
The objective of this paper is to show how Value Chain Analysis for Development (VCA4D) applied sustainable development concept for value chain analysis to establish a manageable set of criteria allowing to provide quantitative information, which is desperately lacking in many situations in developing economies, usable by decision makers and in line with policymakers concerns and strategies (the “international development agenda”).