The distribution of roles and functions for upscaling and outscaling innovations in agricultural innovation systems

Hermans, Frans; Stuiver, Minze; Beers, Pieter J.; Kok, Kasper

doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2012.09.006

Cited by 128 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…have been designed from empirical knowledge that farmers acquired through trial and error over the years. Designing production systems based on empirical knowledge raises the issue of scaling out, that is the process of transposing an innovation from one farm to another (Hermans et al, 2013). The empirical knowledge developed at one site might not be applicable on another site (Duru et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Herbage intake regulation and growth of rabbits raised on grasslands: back to basics and looking forward

Martin¹,

Duprat²,

Goby³

et al. 2016

Animal

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Organic agriculture is developing worldwide, and organic rabbit production has developed within this context. It entails raising rabbits in moving cages or paddocks, which enables them to graze grasslands. As organic farmers currently lack basic technical information, the objective of this article is to characterize herbage intake, feed intake and the growth rate of rabbits raised on grasslands in different environmental and management contexts (weather conditions, grassland type and complete feed supplementation). Three experiments were performed with moving cages at an experimental station. From weaning, rabbits grazed a natural grassland, a tall fescue grassland and a sainfoin grassland in experiments 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Rabbit diets were supplemented with a complete pelleted feed limited to 69 g dry matter (DM)/rabbit per day in experiment 1 and 52 g DM/rabbit per day in experiments 2 and 3. Herbage allowance and fiber, DM and protein contents, as well as rabbit intake and live weight, were measured weekly. Mean herbage DM intake per rabbit per day differed significantly ( P < 0.001) between experiments. It was highest in experiment 1 (78.5 g DM/day) and was 43.9 and 51.2 g DM/day in experiments 2 and 3, respectively. Herbage allowance was the most significant determinant of herbage DM intake during grazing, followed by rabbit metabolic weight (live weight 0.75 ) and herbage protein and fiber contents. Across experiments, a 10 g DM increase in herbage allowance and a 100 g increase in rabbit metabolic weight corresponded to a mean increase of 6.8 and 9.6 g of herbage DM intake, respectively. When including complete feed, daily mean DM intakes differed significantly among experiments ( P < 0.001), ranging from 96.1 g DM/rabbit per day in experiment 2 to 163.6 g DM/rabbit per day in experiment 1. Metabolic weight of rabbits raised on grasslands increased linearly over time in all three experiments, yielding daily mean growth rates of 26.2, 19.2 and 28.5 g/day in experiments 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The highest growth rate was obtained on the sainfoin grassland despite lower concentrate supplementation. Thus, it seems possible to reduce complete feed supplementation without reducing animal performance. This possibility requires improving our knowledge about organic rabbit production systems and especially grazing and animal health management.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Herbage intake regulation and growth of rabbits raised on grasslands: back to basics and looking forward

Martin¹,

Duprat²,

Goby³

et al. 2016

Animal

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“…We would therefore argue that a process of innovation and scaling has to be approached as an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary endeavour. This may also involve new roles for researchers, combining an expert role with a role of facilitating collaborative processes (Brouwer and Woodhill 2015;Hermans et al 2013;Schut et al 2011;Spruijt et al 2014;Turnhout et al 2013;Wittmayer and Schäpke 2014), and this will also require that an enabling environment is created as existing procedures, incentive systems and funding mechanisms may work against such new roles ( Roux et al 2010;Turner et al 2016).…”

Section: Conclusion: Current Contribution Of Promis and Next Stepsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systemic perspectives on scaling agricultural innovations. A review

Wigboldus

Klerkx

Leeuwis

et al. 2016

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

243

181

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Agricultural production involves the scaling of agricultural innovations such as disease-resistant and droughttolerant maize varieties, zero-tillage techniques, permaculture cultivation practices based on perennial crops and automated milking systems. Scaling agricultural innovations should take into account complex interactions between biophysical, social, economic and institutional factors. Actual methods of scaling are rather empirical and based on the premise of 'find out what works in one place and do more of the same, in another place'. These methods thus do not sufficiently take into account complex realities beyond the concepts of innovation transfer, dissemination, diffusion and adoption. As a consequence, scaling initiatives often do not produce the desired effect. They may produce undesirable effects in the form of negative spill-overs or unanticipated side effects such as environmental degradation, bad labour conditions of farm workers and loss of control of farming communities over access to genetic resources. Therefore, here, we conceptualise scaling processes as an integral part of a systemic approach to innovation, to anticipate on the possible consequences of scaling efforts. We propose a method that connects the heuristic framework of the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions (MLP) to a philosophical 'modal aspects' framework, with the objective of elucidating the connectedness between technologies, processes and practices. The resultant framework, the PRactice-Oriented Multi-level perspective on Innovation and Scaling (PROMIS), can inform research and policymakers on the complex dynamics involved in scaling. This is illustrated in relation to three cases in which the framework was applied: scaling agro-ecological practices in Nicaragua, farmer field schools on cocoa cultivation in Cameroon and 'green rubber' cultivation in Southwest China.

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“…Some evaluation criteria inspired by transition management are interaction and drivers to participate. Evaluation methodology and the evaluation of various participatory initiatives [45,56,57] has been used to structure our analytical framework and to identify criteria useful for evaluating societal effects and the various outcomes. The outcomes are evaluated in terms of collaboration success or failure and future collaborations [58].…”

Section: A Systems Approach To Evaluate Sustainability Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Experiments in the Agri-Food System: Uncovering the Factors of New Governance and Collaboration Success

2017

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Abstract:In recent years, research, society and industry recognize the need to transform the agri-food system towards sustainability. Within this process, sustainability experiments play a crucial role in transforming the structure, culture and practices. In literature, much attention is given to new business models, even if the transformation of conventional firms toward sustainability may offer opportunities to accelerate the transformation. Further acceleration could be achieved through collaboration of multiple actors across the agri-food system, but this calls for a systems approach. Therefore, we developed and applied a new sustainability experiment systems approach (SESA) consisting of an analytical framework that allows a reflective evaluation and cross-case analysis of multi-actor governance networks based on business and learning evaluation criteria. We performed a cross-case analysis of four agri-food sustainability experiments in Flanders to test and validate SESA. Hereby, the key factors of the success of collaboration and its performance were identified at the beginning of a sustainability experiment. Some of the key factors identified were risk sharing and the drivers to participate. We are convinced that these results may be used as an analytical tool for researchers, a tool to support and design new initiatives for policymakers, and a reflective tool for participating actors.

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The distribution of roles and functions for upscaling and outscaling innovations in agricultural innovation systems

Cited by 128 publications

References 31 publications

Herbage intake regulation and growth of rabbits raised on grasslands: back to basics and looking forward

Herbage intake regulation and growth of rabbits raised on grasslands: back to basics and looking forward

Systemic perspectives on scaling agricultural innovations. A review

Sustainability Experiments in the Agri-Food System: Uncovering the Factors of New Governance and Collaboration Success

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