Workshop 1.1

Convenors

Jesús Rosales Carreón, Department of Innovation, Environmental and Energy Sciences - Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development - Utrecht University - Utrecht, The Netherlands
Fleur Marchand, Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO) – Social Sciences Unit, Burg. Merelbeke, Belgium
Lies Debruyne, Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO) – Social Sciences Unit, Burg. Merelbeke, Belgium

If you have any questions regarding this workshop, please turn directly to the convenors by sending an email.

Abstract

To overthrow barriers that impede transitions towards a sustainable agriculture, to increase the development or adoption of new systems, establishing linkages between stakeholders seems to be valuable. Furthermore, experiences with monitoring and evaluating various processes are very diverse. In this workshop, we will consider the role of instruments and the role of actors in knowledge exchange and learning processes towards sustainable farming.

Description

In the decades since World War II world agriculture has become considerably more efficient. This resulted in what we nowadays know as conventional agriculture. Conventional agriculture creates diverse challenges that require a strategic reappraisal of how to continue with the farming practices. Sustainability has developed into an important issue on the international agenda and agriculture is not the exception. In this workshop we argue in favor of sustainability as a guiding principle to master the challenges that agriculture faces. Amongst others, four challenges for the sustainable agriculture domain are proposed in this workshop. The first is to understand the true nature of agricultural sustainability. We must better educate ourselves in sustainability issues because it has been studied that simply by passing practices and policies often fail (Brady 1990). Second, is creating, and testing innovative systems and technologies to increase rural incomes, alleviate hunger, and conserve natural resources. Systems and technologies must be adapted for the local level of aggregation. Third, is to establish linkages between the different stakeholders involved in agriculture. Such linkages will further ascertain the premise that the path to sustainability does not lie in one single actor but in transdisciplinary collaboration between a broad range of disciplines including scientists, farmers, advisors, policy makers, … . Fourth, to increase the adoption of new systems and technologies and to assure the development of acceptable systems and technologies for all stakeholders, knowledge exchange between and learning processes with all stakeholders is crucial.

Hence, to confront these challenges and to overthrow the barriers that impede transitions towards a sustainable agriculture, establishing linkages between different stakeholders seems to be valuable. Furthermore, past experiences with monitoring and evaluating various processes are very diverse. As a result, we propose to consider the role of different actors and the role of instruments and tools in knowledge exchange and learning processes. This workshop will focus on papers that consider the following key (factors) questions:

• What barriers impede the transition towards a sustainable agriculture?
• How can we monitor and evaluate the various processes that occur in the implementation of sustainable practices within agriculture? What is the role of different instruments and assessments? Is there a need for complementary use of instruments, is there a need for harmonizing tools?
• What is the role of the different actors in knowledge exchange and learning processes within the agricultural system (i.e farmers, scientists, suppliers, etc.)?

Workshop-process

Authors of selected papers will be asked to present their paper during the conference session, with time for questions for each individual speakers. The first sessions will deal with papers that have their focus either on barriers, on instruments or on actors, while the final session will be an open discussion on the differences between actor-driven or instrument-driven approaches in knowledge exchange and learning processes.