Chain Governance Systems and Sustainable Capital Use – A Conceptual Approach

Due to pressures such as climate change, globalization, price volatility and scarcity of natural resources, our agri-food chain is urged to make a transition towards more sustainable production. How to organize such a transition, given the various stakeholders involved, and how to monitor progress still remain important challenges. This paper presents a new conceptual framework that follows an integrated chain approach to help address these challenges. First, it tackles the complex ecological and socio-economic challenges along the chain and its members (agriculture and food industries), and second, allows for decision support to chain members and policy.This framework combines two existing theoretical frameworks. The first framework is global chain value analysis (GCVA) of Gereffi (2005) which has its roots in institutional economics. GCVA categorizes five governance types of value chains (markets – modular – relational – captive – hierarchy) based on three variables: (i) the complexity of information and knowledge transfer required to sustain a particular transaction, (ii) the ability to regulate transactions, and (iii) the capabilities of actual and potential suppliers. The second framework, which was first formulated in ecological economics, extends the set of traditional economic resources to various forms of capital in the production system. These are natural (land, water, …), manufactured (buildings, machinery, ...), human (labour, skills,…), and social capital (networks,…). The economic system is fully embedded in the social system which in turn is embedded within the finite ecological system. Throughput of natural, social, human, and manufactured capital allows for the description of agri-food systems in terms of the maximal sustainable use of their stocks and flows.These two frameworks can be combined to perform an integrated system analysis of the agri-food chain, including the governance structures and the boundary conditions for the various types of capital. This paper describes this new conceptual framework illustrated by means of a case study of the agri-food chain in Flanders, Belgium

A reflexive assessment of a regional initiative in the agri-food system to test whether and how it meets the premises of transdisciplinary research

In recent sustainability assessments, transdisciplinary approaches have been used to bridge contested normative views among many societal actors, policymakers and researchers. Transdisciplinary research is mainly based on three premises: (1) various perspectives need to be incorporated and discussed to empower actors, (2) the collaboration and co-creation of knowledge between academic and societal actors allows to better grasp the complexity of a real-world problem, and (3) a mutual learning process arises which could increase the legitimacy of decisions and their implementation in practice. Despite many examples of transdisciplinary projects, few assessments have been done that question whether such a project fulfils the premises of transdisciplinary research. Therefore, we report on a reflexive assessment of an initiative set up to foster the transformation of the Flemish agri-food system towards sustainability. The case study involved both scientific and societal actors with different views, making it possible to implement a transdisciplinary process, evaluate the expectations and give suggestions for future processes. Evaluation criteria are linked to context, process and outcomes. Analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data indicates that the initiative did empower the transformation towards sustainability. Furthermore, results show that, in this case, a transdisciplinary approach can fulfil its premises. However, some critical factors are identified, such as the importance of the context specificity and a flexible, adaptive and iterative process

Unravelling the myriad of sustainability assessments in the agri-food system : role of assessment tools

The agri-food system is a dynamic and complex system where companies work closely together. Societal pressures challenge this system to transform its activities towards more sustainability. Transformation implies a continuous process of measuring progress, learning and seeking new ways to achieve and organize the sustainable development of the system. Given the complexity of the agri-food system and its challenges, a wide diversity of sustainability assessments arises. The rationale of the PhD research is to guide agri-food chain actors in the sustainable development of their firm, farm, food chain, organization or system. The research aims to enable the chain actors to improve and follow up their sustainability by structuring the myriad of sustainability assessments. Although practice based, the research objective and questions answer specific challenges defined in literature. The overall objective is to unravel contextual and procedural aspects necessary to organize and install sustainability assessments focusing on assessment approaches and tool use in practice. To do so, needs of agri-food system actors regarding sustainability assessment were identified. This allowed to define building blocks for sustainable development and construct five types of sustainable development processes in the agri-food system. At farm level, this resulted in a framework for guiding sustainability assessment and on-farm strategic decision making together with an on-demand assessment tool. Next, with this framework, it became possible to structure existing sustainability assessment tools. The dissertation concludes with three take-home messages for agri-food system actors who want to set-up new sustainable development processes: (1) sustainable development processes should be action-oriented and generate actionable knowledge by valuing interaction and knowledge co-creation; (2) strengthen the link between sustainability assessment and strategic decision-making by offering individual trajectories and a complementary use of tools; (3) take into account the influence of a governance structure by incorporating regular reflection moments

Can we use Electrical Resistivity Tomography to measure root zone moisture dynamics in fields with multiple crops?

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How do current sustainability assessment tools support farmers’ strategic decision making?

A multitude of farm-level sustainability assessment tools (SATs) exists, reflecting a variety of agricultural practices and sustainability perceptions. Tools differ and insight is lacking about how they match with farmers' needs. This paper examines whether and how existing SATs focus on the farmer's strategic decision-making. The potential of the SATs to direct farmers towards more sustainable management is analysed with a focus on their implementation and the farmers' decision-making process. Based on the published SAT characteristics and on interviews with the tool developers, we classified 18 SATs in a two-dimensional framework. One axis reflects the overall complexity of the SATs, i.e. time required for the entire assessment process; type of assessment, indicators and data, and thematic coverage. The other axis reflects the steps in the farmer's strategic decision making process, i.e. assessment, interpretation, development of improvement strategies, their implementation, and monitoring of results. We make three main observations: (1) many SATs lack a focus on the implementation of the assessment's results and thus provide only a weak link to the farmers' strategic decision making; (2) over its lifetime, a SAT's complexity may evolve, causing it to shift to another complexity level; (3) a diversity of goals was found at each level of complexity. These observations allow us to conclude that SATs are gradually becoming more farm or farmer focused, offering more context specificity and flexibility. The farm(er) focus and the support for strategic decision-making play a central role in the adoption of sustainable practices if there is sufficient interaction between farmers, advisors and experts. Future research should therefore focus on integrating support for farmers' strategic decision-making in (further) development of SATs and in their implementation process