New knowledge networks of small-scale farmers in Europe’s periphery

Funding for this research was provided by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 311994, and the Scottish Government’s Strategic Research Programme (2011–2016).In this paper we assess the types of knowledge networks utilised by small-scale farmers in four case studies (located in Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, and the United Kingdom). We focus on knowledge acquired to inform three new activities being undertaken by study participants: agricultural production, subsidy access and regulatory compliance, and farm diversification (specifically agritourism). Findings demonstrate that the new knowledge networks are dominated by different forms of expertise: formal ‘agricultural advisors’ identified in the case studies primarily offer codified managerial knowledge through centralised networks, suggesting that state-funded services for small-scale farmers are largely embedded in traditional, linear models of knowledge transfer. Production and diversification knowledge is exchanged through ‘distributed’ and ‘decentralised’ networks, where a range of actors are involved across varying geographical distances. Findings highlight issues associated with the quality and independence of both ‘free’ and paid advice, as well as the importance of combining tacit and codified knowledge for credibility. In all four cases, we found that small-scale farmers utilise formal advisory services primarily for accessing subsidies (e.g. completing application forms), rather than acquiring production knowledge. The authors argue that by utilising the state funding allocated to advisory services for small-scale farmers primarily to enable these farmers to access subsidies, important opportunities for innovation by both advisors or farmers can be lost.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Agricultural advisory services and AKIS systems in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia - the comparison study

The paper based on the results of survey, which have been done under EU project titled „Prospects for Farmers’ Support Advisory Services in European AKIS (PRO AKIS)”, carried under FP7 in 27 EU countries. The paper contains the analysis of AKIS systems in three European Countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The discussed subject is the comparison study of the chosen results of survey of agriculture, the history of creation the agricultural advisory system, and the structures of agricultural advisory and systems of knowledge, information and innovation flows. The analysed three Baltic countries, in spite of nearly half century of their links by common history and central command of economy policy, after regaining independence, they chosen individual ways to build the AKIS structures. In these processes they used patterns taken from some Western Europe countries, and reached different results. In Estonia, at the moment the AKIS structure is under discussion, because the linkages between AKIS actors are still weak. In Latvia the question is the influence inside AKIS system of three policies – for agriculture, for education and for science – giving as a result the weak cooperation between AKIS actors. In Lithuania, according experts opinion, the AKIS system is working well, and the linkages and cooperation between AKIS actors are rather good. The general conclusion of discussed subject is, that AKIS system in term of its organisation and structure, is working well only under condition, that the linkages and cooperation between its actors are very strong and integrated