Farmer field schools and the co-creation of knowledge and innovation: the mediating role of social capital

Charatsari, Chrysanthi; Lioutas, Evagelos D.; Koutsouris, Alex

doi:10.1007/s10460-020-10115-8

Cited by 25 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…Indonesia, Uganda, India) which have addressed issues of trust and behavioural change around sustainability and food security by forming farmer field schools (FFS). At its core, the FFS is an innovative pedagogical approach which emphasises ecological learning, systems analysis, and experimentation for and by groups of farmers who meet routinely for field-based sessions during an entire production cycle to learn how to make adaptive soil and crop management decisions, and find local solutions (Mfitumukiza et al 2020 ; FAO 2019 ; Charatsari et al 2020 ). An adapted version, in the form of ‘farmers’ knowledge networks’ or something similar could be considered at the landscape level to enable farmers to adapt or alter their agricultural practices to changing circumstances and concerns around soil heath.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Have farmers had enough of experts?

Rust

Stankovics

Jarvis

et al. 2021

Environmental Management

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The exponential rise of information available means we can now, in theory, access knowledge on almost any question we ask. However, as the amount of unverified information increases, so too does the challenge in deciding which information to trust. Farmers, when learning about agricultural innovations, have historically relied on in-person advice from traditional ‘experts’, such as agricultural advisers, to inform farm management. As more farmers go online for information, it is not clear whether they are now using digital information to corroborate in-person advice from traditional ‘experts’, or if they are foregoing ‘expert’ advice in preference for peer-generated information. To fill this knowledge gap, we sought to understand how farmers in two contrasting European countries (Hungary and the UK) learnt about sustainable soil innovations and who influenced them to innovate. Through interviews with 82 respondents, we found farmers in both countries regularly used online sources to access soil information; some were prompted to change their soil management by farmer social media ‘influencers’. However, online information and interactions were not usually the main factor influencing farmers to change their practices. Farmers placed most trust in other farmers to learn about new soil practices and were less trusting of traditional ‘experts’, particularly agricultural researchers from academic and government institutions, who they believed were not empathetic towards farmers’ needs. We suggest that some farmers may indeed have had enough of traditional ‘experts’, instead relying more on their own peer networks to learn and innovate. We discuss ways to improve trustworthy knowledge exchange between agricultural stakeholders to increase uptake of sustainable soil management practices, while acknowledging the value of peer influence and online interactions for innovation and trust building.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Have farmers had enough of experts?

Rust

Stankovics

Jarvis

et al. 2021

Environmental Management

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“…To ensure questionnaire content and face validity, we used a panel of experts who are requested to complete the questionnaire and to comment on the relevance of the items used to the purpose of the study. This strategy, also used in recent studies (Charatsari et al , 2020) allowed us to make essential corrections before administering the questionnaire. Furthermore, to provide a sound basis for investigating innovation adoption by women farmers, we stratified the sample by taking into account relevant sociodemographic, structural and territorial variables.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge transfer and innovation adoption in women farmers

Rosa

Bartoli

Charatsari

et al. 2020

BFJ

Self Cite

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PurposeThe study aims to analyse patterns of innovation adoption among Italian female-owned farms, by evaluating the impact of innovation support services and entrepreneurial orientation on innovation adoption.Design/methodology/approachTo explore both the entrepreneurial identity of women farmers and the role of innovation support services in boosting innovation, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of Italian women farmers. A multivariate analysis lets to classify the farms under the previous two perspectives.FindingsThe analysis reveals various patterns of innovation adoption, heavily depending on both the effectiveness of innovation support services and farmers' entrepreneurial orientation.Research limitations/implicationsThe research analyses a sample of women farmers to excavate worlds of innovation among female-owned farms. Cross-gender comparisons can offer a more complete picture of the ways gender catalyses innovation adoption.Practical implicationsAt a policy level, the results of our empirical analysis point out the need for gendering innovation analysis and for tailoring policy interventions to the different worlds of innovation that exist in rural Italy.Social implicationsThe paper confirms the importance of deepening research on gender issues, with the purpose of fulfilling gender mainstreaming underlined in numerous policy documents at both the European and international levels.Originality/valueThe analysis represents a first attempt to join both the entrepreneurial identity of women farmers and the role of innovation support services in boosting innovation. Therefore, the paper fills a gap in the literature.

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Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many researches have been conducted to explore interactions between various forms of social capital and innovation-seeking alliances (Tiwana, 2008). Other studies have emphasized the mediating role of social capital for co-creating knowledge (Charatsari et al, 2020). If social capital "Ambidexterity": a way for innovation provides support for knowledge acquisition and, through this, innovation adoption, how to plan a different type of social capital for acquiring pertinent knowledge is a fundamental field of analysis.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Ambidexterity”: trump card for farm's innovativeness and competitiveness

Vecchio

Francescone

Adinolfi

et al. 2021

BFJ

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PurposeThe paper aims to analyze the relevance of networking and social capital in promoting the adoption of sustainable innovation, then reinforcing trajectories of multifunctional agriculture. It puts forwards a systemic perspective by focusing on agricultural knowledge and innovation systems. More precisely, we share the idea of “micro agricultural knowledge and innovation systems”, by addressing ambidexterity as engine for boosting sustainable innovation.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical analysis is focused on sustainable innovation adopted by young farmers in Italy and on the mediation effect of ambidextrous relations in performing innovation adoption. Ambidextrous relations are analyzed within at the micro-AKIS level, through the lens of social capital. Relationships between social capital and innovation adoption are statistically measured.FindingsThe analysis shows how ambidexterity develops a mediation effect, with a strong impact on the farm's innovative capacity. Actually, our results confirm that ambidextrous relations reveal good performance and stimulate innovation and, consequently, farms' competitiveness, alongside the path of multifunctional agriculture. As a consequence, the relevance of networking activity in adoption of sustainable innovation may address possible policy action with the aim to strengthen ambidexterity and farm's innovativeness.Originality/valueThe paper tries to fill a gap in literature, by focusing on micro-AKIS which are explored through the lens of social capital.

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Farmer field schools and the co-creation of knowledge and innovation: the mediating role of social capital

Cited by 25 publications

References 91 publications

Have farmers had enough of experts?

Have farmers had enough of experts?

Knowledge transfer and innovation adoption in women farmers

“Ambidexterity”: trump card for farm's innovativeness and competitiveness

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