The creative process that leads to farmers’ innovations is rarely studied or described precisely in agricultural sciences. For academic scientists, obvious limitations of farmers’ experiments are e.g. precision, reliability, robustness, accuracy, validity or the correct analysis of cause and effect. Nevertheless, we propose that ‘farmers’ experiments’ underpin innovations that keep organic farming locally tuned for sustainability and adaptable to changing economic, social and ecological conditions.
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.
Organic farming is recognized as one source for innovation helping agriculture to develop sustainably. However, the understanding of innovation in agriculture is characterized by technical optimism, relying mainly on new inputs and technologies originating from research. The paper uses the alternative framework of innovation systems describing innovation as the outcome of stakeholder interaction and examples from the SOLID (Sustainable Organic Low-Input Dairying) project to discuss the role of farmers, researchers and knowledge exchange for innovation.
The objectives of this manuscript are threefold; to provide a financial, and thus formal, definition of value added; measure value addition by firms across the four nodes/stages of the value chain; and third to test hypotheses as to the drivers of value creation that differ across the four nodes.First was defined value creation/
The paper specifically proposes a framework to detect and quantify non-linear consequences in response to progressively deteriorating chain fragility factors. The paper’s approach is a novel alternative to the traditional value chain ‘risk assessment’.
The present study intended to propose insights on the contribution of innovation and competitiveness in meat production chains. A systematic review of the literature was carried out, considering manuscripts published in the Scopus, Web of Science and Science Direct databases. Based on the search and exclusion criteria, the analyzed portfolio consisted of 18 works related to the main animal production chains (i.e. pork, chicken, beef, and sheep)
This teaching case study is to stimulate readers to think strategically and come up with innovative solutions to the challenges that Songxiaocai faces. The materials used to write this case is drawn from the sources including the semi-structured interviews with managers within Songxiaocai Company, online information, and materials
The goal of this work is to review methodologies to analyze value chains, particularly within the agribusiness sector. The first part of the analysis delves into the value chain concept, with the aim of discovering how the concept has changed from an historical perspective, and what would be an acceptable narrow definition.
The aim of this study is to explore how the governance of a global food value chain can facilitate the value chain’s market orientation. The study applies a multiple case study design. Four in-depth case studies were conducted on global food value chains from New Zealand to Western Europe dealing with the products apples, kiwis, venison and lamb. Interviews were conducted with actors from these four value chains in the Netherlands as well as in New Zealand. In each value chain actors with similar functions were interviewed in order to make the results comparable.
This paper examines some issues related to the production and marketing of kiwi in Arunachal Pradesh, the largest producer of kiwis in India. It contributes 56.5% of the total 8.5 thousand tons of kiwis produced in the country. India imports 75% of its domestic demand for fresh kiwis and, therefore, there is huge scope to upscale kiwi production in north-eastern states in general and Arunachal Pradesh in particular.