Given the search for new solutions to better prepare cities for the future, in recent years, urban agriculture (UA) has gained in relevance. Within the context of UA, innovative organizational and technical approaches are generated and tested. They can be understood as novelties that begin a potential innovation process. This empirical study is based on 17 qualitative interviews in the U.S. (NYC; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Chicago, IL, USA).
Citizen science is the involvement of citizens, such as farmers, in the research process. Citizen science has become increasingly popular recently, supported by the proliferation of mobile communication technologies such as smartphones. However, citizen science methodologies have not yet been widely adopted in agricultural research. Here, was conducted an online survey with 57 British and French farmers in 2014.
Farmers’ experiments can be defined as the autonomous activities of farmers to try or introduce something new at the farm, and include evaluation of success or failure with farmers’ own methods. Experiments enable farmers to adapt their farms to changing circumstances, build up local knowledge, and have resulted in countless agricultural innovations. Most research on the topic has been conducted in countries of the south.
The study examines whether the goal of food security for the population of Sverdlovskaya oblast, one of the mostly industrial northern region in Russia, aiming agricultural productivity improvement and rural poverty reduction, could be achieved by the regional authorities within post-soviet type of agricultural policy. Results show that, the current trends of agricultural production and rural social development in Sverdlovskaya oblast are degrading.
Partnership brokering is needed to work out new ways of organising food systems that treat agricultural smallholders as a resource and opportunity rather than a problem or distraction. This is because food systems are demanding innovation in the way they are organised. This is a matter of transforming stakeholders into partners in order to reconfigure food systems to operate differently, rather than just operate more efficiently. Fundamental systemic changes are needed as our contemporary food system is failing to deliver the food we increasingly demand.
This paper starts describing the importance of agroforestry systems for the increase of productivity, resilience and efficiency. After the papaer describes the current state of agroforestry in Eastern Europe and its challenges and introduces good examples of agroforestry innovation networks initiatives in the region.
The main objective of this paper is to describe the AgroFE and Agrof-MM projects. This projects aims to develop an agroforestry training system based on a common framework and core content, and to promote training at European level. The knowledge databank is a component of the project training system. It aims to gather and share a set of documents, resources that partners can use and which will have been accessed by learners and the public users.
The aim of this research is to explore the different policy frameworks adopted by the Italian regions to support cooperation for innovation projects in RDPs in the period 2007-2013. These were analysed against the conceptual background outlined by the European Commission and the international literature on the interactive approach to innovation processes (EC, 2013). The study is supported by the use of a mixed-methods approach, based on desk and on field research, qualitative and quantitative methods
The sustainability of food value chains is an increasing concern for consumers, food companies and policy-makers. Global food chains are often perceived to be less sustainable than local food chains. Yet, thorough food chain analyses and comparisons of different food chains across sustainability dimensions are rare. In this article it is analyzed the local Belgian and global Peruvian asparagus value chains and explore their sustainability performance.
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have become a popular tool for governing rural development in a European context. PPPs are often presented as significant solutions for increasing both the effectiveness (problem-solving capacity) and the legitimacy of sustainable rural governance in terms of participation and accountability. In Sweden, where PPPs have played a marginal role, due to the EU cohesion policy they are now gaining ground as a model for the governance and management of natural resources in rural areas.