Envisioning and Enabling Sustainable Smart Markets

__Abstract__ Many of the world’s most urgent problems such as climate change, population growth, poverty, malnutrition and environmental degradation not only demand solutions but also require us to find more sustainable ways of living. Market mechanisms can be effective in solving large-scale resource allocation problems of this kind, but only if the market design reflects the social costs. The growth and spread of advanced information and communication technologies mean that new smart markets offer a way to achieve this and will become central to many areas of economic activity. However, the volumes of data and speed of transactions involved place a burden on human decisionmaking capabilities, and information systems can have a central role to play in helping to devise solutions – in particular, in developing intelligent software agents to provide decision support. This address looks at the challenges and opportunities involved for information systems researchers, and sets out an agenda for sustainable smart markets research, centered on collaborative approaches. It focuses on three overlapping areas: market and learning agent design; market evaluation using autonomous learning agents; and real-time decision support. Examples are included of current work on sustainable smart markets for electricity (smart grid) and for flowers (Dutch Flower Auctions)

CREATING AN INNOVATION OPPORTUNITY SPACE FOR BROADACRE SMART FARMING: A CASE STUDY OF AUTONOMOUS FARM EQUIPMENT

Advances in digital technologies are transforming the agriculture and agri-food system. The technological changes are represented in many forms, ranging from software-based prescriptions for optimal rate application of farm inputs, advanced imagery of fields and plants collected by sensors, satellites and drones, to new forms of human-to-machine interactions and machine learning This thesis is a case study of one type of a smart farming innovation, a field robot., originating from a small-to-medium sized enterprise (SME) that designs and manufacturers machinery used in broadacre, conservation tillage farming. The innovation, known as DOT™, is an entrepreneur’s response to problems in the agriculture industry, and a solution to a critical constraint of labour shortages in the sector. By gathering qualitative data through interviews, news items and academic publications, observing the farming community’s engagement with digital technology innovation at farm show, and applying the Innovation Opportunity Space (IOS) analytical framework, this study identified that an autonomous DOT™ offers a solution for farming problems. Other firms are incorporating the DOT™ technology into their manufacturing operations through licensing agreements and early farmer adoption is positive. The process of innovation was based on synthesis of tacit knowledge (experience-based knowledge of farming and agribusiness) and codified knowledge (drawing on computer programing), while public policy facilitated the hiring of trained university students who remain with the SME as advocates for smart farming. There remain some gaps: public policy for safe deployment of smart farming innovation is lagging behind invention and commercialization; new business models for manufacture and commercialization of high-tech equipment are just emerging and data ownership and control remains unresolved; and evidence of the value of smart farming technologies to farmers and the larger social system remains scant

The power to flourish: Unearthing the roots of Kenyan flower producers' market access strategies

Powering Kenya’s agricultural economy, the Kenyan flower industry is prided as an example of successful African integration into global agricultural trade. Export markets are bifurcated due to a marked shift from the Dutch flower auctions and an increase in trade within ‘direct markets’ which includes supermarkets and florists. While flower production is dominated by a few vertically integrated, large scale flower farms (>100 ha), mid-scale (20-80 hectares) and small-scale (>0.25 hectares) flower farms which are the focus of the thesis, face a unique set of challenges in terms of navigating access to the more stable direct markets. The overall narrative is that even in a buyer-driven market, Kenyan cut flower producers at the mid and small scale have agency, and they exercise their bargaining power for favourable export access by diversification and differentiation in strategies and networks. Two meta-narratives framing the sector coalesce around the development angle which showcases contestations around labour and environmental abuses and the political economy angle focusing on governance structures and power relations of production. This thesis goes deeper than these meta narratives by introducing micro-level, relational perspectives using the GPN framework, and asks what strategies Kenyan mid and small scale cut flower producers employ to navigate the shifts in export markets as producers diversify from the Dutch auctions towards supermarkets. My findings identify diversification as the common factor in mid and small scale producers’ strategies for securing a range of lucrative export markets. Producers’ enhance their bargaining power to access diverse markets through adaptable production, relationally through collective action, and in the regulatory sphere by circumvention, compliance or contestation for more favourable ‘rules of the game’. Going beyond labour and environmental analyses, the thesis uniquely analyses the knowledge economy originating from the cut flower sector as an undertheorized aspect of its development impact.The Cambridge Commonwealth European and International Trust, the University Field Work Fund, the Smuts Memorial Fund, the African Studies UAC of Nigeria travel fund, the Centre of Development Studies PhD fieldwork fund, Jesus College, the Cambridge Political Economy Society Trust (CPES), and the Christian International Student Network (CISN

Invasiones biológicas y dimensiones humanas: Aún necesitamos trabajar duro en nuestras perspectivas sociales

In this article, we analyze and challenge a long-held paradigm that reduces the field of biological invasions to its ecological components. We explore thirteen case studies grouped within three major human dimensions (values, traditions, and quality of life) to show how biological invasions interwove and interact with them. The group of human dimensions we explore in this work, although small, exposes a rich spectrum of interdisciplinary synergies between natural and social sciences that should receive more attention to make the field of biological invasions more sound and socially integrated.Invasiones biológicas y dimensiones humanas: Aún necesitamos trabajar duro en nuestras perspectivas sociales. En este artículo analizamos y desafiamos el paradigma que reduce el campo de las invasiones biológicas a sus componentes ecológicos. Para esto, revisamos trece casos de estudio agrupados dentro de tres dimensiones humanas principales (valores, tradiciones y calidad de vida) para mostrar cómo las invasiones biológicas se entretejen e interactúan con ellas. El grupo de dimensiones humanas que exploramos en este trabajo, aunque pequeño, expone un rico espectro de sinergias interdisciplinarias entre las ciencias naturales y sociales que deberían recibir más atención para hacer que el campo de las invasiones biológicas sea más sólido y socialmente integrado.Fil: Bortolus, Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto Patagónico para el Estudio de los Ecosistemas Continentales; ArgentinaFil: Schwindt, Evangelina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto de Biología de Organismos Marinos; Argentin

Governing of agro-ecosystem services - modes, efficiency, perspectives

In this study we incorporate interdisciplinary New Institutional and Transaction Costs Economics (combining Economics, Organization, Law, Sociology, Behavioral and Political Sciences), and suggest a new framework for analysis of mechanisms of governance of agro-ecosystem services. The first part it discusses the modern concepts and the economics of agro-ecosystem services. After that, it presents a framework for analysis and improvement of the governance of agro-ecosystem services. This new approach takes into account: the role of the specific institutional environment; and the behavioral characteristics of individual agents; and the transaction costs associated with the various forms of governance; and the critical factors of agrarian activity and exchanges; and the comparative efficiency of market, private, public and hybrid modes; and the comparative efficiency of alternative modes for public intervention; and the complementarities between different modes and the needs for multilateral and multilevel governance; and the role of technological and ecological factors. In the second part it identifies and evaluates the efficiency of market, private and public modes of environmental governance in Bulgarian agriculture. It depth analyses is made on structures for governing agro-ecosystems services in Zapadna Stara Planina, a mountainous region in the North-West part of the country. Assessment on prospects for evolution of environmental governance in the conditions of EU CAP implementation follows. This book aims to give insights on modern understanding of environmental governance, and elaborate a holistic framework for analysis and improvement of the governance of agro-ecosystem services, and test this new approach in the transitional Bulgarian conditions. In addition, diverse (positive and negative) examples from different countries are widely used to support arguments of the author

Mechanisms of Governance of Sustainable Development

In this paper we incorporate the interdisciplinary New Institutional and Transaction Costs Economics (combining Economics, Organization, Law, Sociology, Behavioral and Political Sciences), and suggest a framework for analyzing the mechanisms of governance of sustainable development. The agricultural sector is used to illustrate the approach, test the framework, and support with examples. Firstly, we discuss the modern concepts and the economics of sustainability. Secondly, we present a new framework for analysis and improvement of the governance of sustainable development. This new approach takes into account the role of specific institutional environment; and the behavioral characteristics of individual agents; and the transaction costs associated with the various forms of governance; and the critical factors of economic activity and exchanges; and the comparative efficiency of market, private, public and hybrid modes; and the potential of production structures for adaptation; and the comparative efficiency of alternative modes for public intervention. Finally, we identify specific modes for environmental governance in Bulgarian agriculture; and access the efficiency of market, private and public modes; and estimate the prospects for evolution of environmental governance in the conditions of EU CAP implementation. Agrarian development is associated with specific (different from other European states) environmental challenges such as degradation and contamination of farmland, pollution of surface and ground waters, loss of biodiversity, significant greenhouse gas emissions etc. That is a result of the specific institutional and governing structure evolving in the sector during the past 20 years. Implementation of the common EU policies will have unlike results in “Bulgarian” conditions enlarging income, technological, social and environmental discrepancy between different farms, sub-sectors and regions. Dominating subsistence farming, production cooperatives, small-scale commercial farms, and large business firms will be highly sustainable in years to come.mechanisms of governance; sustainable development; institutions, market, private, public and hybrid modes of governance; transaction costs; agrarian sustainability; environmental governance; Bulgaria

Process monitoring IAN Agroparks in India : Transforum report 2009

This is the first report of the TransForum project Process monitoring agroparks international, which focuses on India and specific on the development of the IFFCO Kisan SEZ Nellore in the south of India. It contains an overview of process design and the content of the proposition of IAN agroparks in India for 2009