The Agri-Environmental Knowledge Innovation System for Water Quality Improvement

In this paper is proposed to conduct a first stage AKIS diagnostic exercise developing a map of the system of the actors involved in water quality protection and catchment management that interact with the farming community. Specifically we will use the tool to understand: (a) Who are the players? (b) What roles do they have? (c) what is their position in the Innovation System. A key part in changing the regulatory or public incentive system is to change the behaviour not only of the farmers but also of the policy makers to facilitate the movement to a more localised approach. The fundamental message of this paper is that improving a complex local environmental externality • Requires local solutions and information and incentives • Taking an Innovation System perspective to the problem solution • Means that changing the behaviour of farmers may involve changing the behaviour of others upstream within the innovation system, requiring an examination of their incentives and motivations • Local information is necessary to facilitate local decisions