The Role of Support Organisations in Promoting Organic Farming Innovations and Sustainability

Abstract

Innovation is a product of collaborative effort and processes that make use of the expertise of and involves multiple stakeholders in its engineering. Most current studies focus on challenges, opportunities, and strategies for innovation. However, the role of support organisations and their specific innovative practices that foster sustainability in organic farming remain scantly researched and unknown. This study investigated innovative practices emanating from collaboration between support organisations/groups and farmers. Also, the question on how these practices influence the sustainability of organic farming was answered. A cross-sectional explorative research design was applied to collect data through semi-structured questions using interviews and focus groups in Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg federal states, Germany. Innovative practices were performed at three key organisational levels namely; compliance with organic farming standards; production processes as well as marketing and consumer engagement. The findings revealed that collaborative innovative practices by support organisations/groups at the market and consumer engagement level was greater compared to other levels. The importance of innovative practices varied across the four dimensions (environmental, social, political, and economic) of organic farming sustainability. Organic farming innovations must be enhanced to improve the organic farming situation like improving area productivity, balancing for environmental friendly and safer agricultural practices as well as food security.

Organic Farming in the European Union in the Face of the Challenges of Sustainable Consumption

“…In addition, the researchers noted the need to investigate the adaptation of land management strategies aimed at a specific region in terms of soil quality and viability, as well as minerals and environmental protection. In the light of the research, the main barriers of organic farming development include the lack of government support with taking into account both the demand and supply side, lack of additional labor, lack of knowledge farmers about the real economic potential of organic farming, lack of substantive support, lack of support for financing research, innovation and technical support (Hou et al, 2022;Kerselaers et al, 2007;Király et al, 2022;Verburg et al, 2022;Wiseman et al, 2022).…”

Identifying the factors affecting strategic decision-making ability to boost the entrepreneurial performance: A hybrid structural equation modeling – artificial neural network approach

“…Strong-memory strategic decision-makers can accurately repeat valuable knowledge, enhancing decision-making efficiency and degree ( Fechner et al, 2016 ). The large and deep network of information may help or traumatize employees’ sustainable innovation performance ( Wang et al, 2018 ; Wiseman et al, 2022 ), which becomes part of their memory. A good memory can provide strategic decision-making concepts, processes, approaches, insights, and lessons ( Bechara and Martin, 2004 ).…”

Transition of bioeconomy as a key concept for the agriculture and agribusiness development: An extensive review on ASEAN countries

“…In addition, bioeconomy is now generally accepted as a key component of the humanenvironment system and is widely viewed as having the ability to help restore ecosystems, natural resources, green growth, faster innovation, and make development that incorporates health as well as social factors. Because of this, it is essential to examine bioeconomy as a sustainable way to employ organic renewable properties to develop the goods which fulfill the demands of the current group while leaving future generations with the potential to meet their own needs as illustrated by Wiseman et al (2022). Bioeconomy, therefore, must be defined by sustainability, since it could have environmental protection, competitiveness, job creation, food security, and a long-term focus on human welfare as well as health.…”