Competing fields in sustainable agriculture: on farmer-expert understandings of good farming, good farmers and organic farming

Abstract

In this study, a cross-cultural analysis was undertaken to compare the knowledge of organic producers and agricultural experts in Iran concerning the concepts of good farming, good farmer, and organic farming in the field of sustainable agriculture. We put concepts of good farming, good farmer, and organic farming in conversation with Bourdieu's concepts of cultural capital, identity, and the dynamics of the 'rules of the game' to determine the knowledge gaps between experts and farmers in the sustainable agricultural field. Data are derived from interviews with 45 organic producers and 52 agricultural experts. The findings showed that farmers had knowledge of the key concepts discussed by experts but differed in the emphasis placed on these ideas. Results reveal tensions between how farmers and experts think about and understand how farmers ought to practice organic farming. The paper concludes with some arguments on the knowledge asymmetries and offers a few participatory approaches for negotiation to overcome the asymmetry in supporting more sustainable management practices.

Adoption and Utilization of Organic Farming Practices on Cabbage Production Among Small Scale Farmers in Sheema Municipality

“…Farmers who attend constant trainings on how organic farming practices are utilized are more motivated to use organic farming practices unlike those who are limited to training services. This finding concurs with [19] who in their study revealed that investing in building awareness, training, and capacity development support a shift towards predominantly organic agriculture. The same authors most farmers lack enough skills and information about the application of different organic farming practices and this limits their capacity to adopt and use organic farming practices as this would the increase the production of different organic products.…”

“…Access to credit would also help to fund production activities during production process. This finding is in line with [19] who in their study reported that access to credit has proved to have a positive impact on poverty reduction on long term basis due to investment in organic farming that leads to high cabbage production. The same authors revealed that various "innovative finance possibilities" exist in rural areas, such as mobile banking, links between financial institutions and weather-index-based insurance for agriculture to avoid total harvest loss among farmers.…”

An overview of approaches and methodologies for supporting smallholders: ICT tools, blockchain, business models, sustainability indicators, simulation models

“…The data collection and analysis tools depend on the research methodology used to ensure and measure sustainability [48]. Different data collection tools that can be cited such as: survey [49], interviews with experts [50], online data, firm data. The methodology defined on the survey tool is based on hypothesis approach and the statistical analysis is usually used for data analysis techniques.…”

Judicial nutrient management for sustainable production of groundnut: A Review

“…~ 174 ~ Organic farming also names as ecological farming which have great principles based on health, fairness, ecology, and care. (Veisi et al, 2021) [130] . Organic farming is a very much wellknown traditional approach but due to low production and high cost of cultivation farmers are unwilling to adopt it.…”