Transforming industrial food systems to prevent future disruptions

I cannot emphasize enough the relevance of the work reported in this book, most notably how Chinese consumers procure food, including so-called wet markets that are often blamed for infec­tious disease outbreaks (e.g., SARS-CoV in 2002 and SARS-CoV-2 in 2019). For this reason, JAFSCD has allowed me to review this book although it was ably reviewed by Anthony Fuller in the previous issue of JAFSCD (Fuller, 2020). This book provides theoretical as well as empirical analysis of food systems in China, a country with the largest human population. It also details the long-established his­tory of how traditional wet markets have become culturally important for food, nutrition, health, livelihoods, and wellbeing of Chinese residents. The book is divided into 10 self-contained chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the topic with a compelling story of how the authors’ journey to write this book began after they attended the BioFach China trade fair in Shanghai, the biggest annual organic food trade fair in the country (http://www.biofachchina.com/en/). This chapter also outlines the research objectives and methods for data collection and analysis. Chapter 2 provides further context surrounding China’s changing food systems after the economic liberal­ization in the late 1970s, following the death of Mao Zedong, former chairman of the People’s Republic of China. It was the time when industrial agriculture gained momentum in the country. Together with crop monoculture that eroded agricultural biodiversity and polluted air, water, and soil, industrial livestock production led to the concentration of animal wastes and excessive use of antibiotics and growth hormones

Learning Networks Matter: Challenges to Developing Learning-Based Competence in Mango Production and Post-Harvest in Andhra Pradesh, India

This discussion paper explores aspects of innovation systems ideas in the analysis of mango production and export by smallscale farmers in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The paper shows how despite favourable agro-ecological conditions and being the largest international mango producer, India still struggles to build momentum in rapidly emerging export markets. An analysis of the sector's recent history combined with an empirical account of inter-sectoral and intra-sectoral linkage patterns among stakeholder groups appears to provide the basis for remedial policy suggestions. Most of these relate to aspects of integrated technology development and innovation management.innovation, innovation systems, mango, high-value, national competence, learning networks, South Asia, India

Responsible agricultural mechanization innovation for the sustainable development of Nepal’s hillside farming system

Agricultural mechanization in developing countries has taken at least two contested innovation pathways—the “incumbent trajectory” that promotes industrial agriculture, and an “alternative pathway” that supports small-scale mechanization for sustainable development of hillside farming systems. Although both pathways can potentially reduce human and animal drudgery, the body of literature that assesses the sustainability impacts of these mechanization pathways in the local ecological, socio-economic, cultural, and historical contexts of hillside farms is either nonexistent or under-theorized. This paper addresses this missing literature by examining the case of Nepal’s first Agricultural Mechanization Promotion Policy 2014 (AMPP) using a conceptual framework of what will be defined as “responsible innovation”. The historical context of this assessment involves the incumbent trajectory of mechanization in the country since the late 1960s that neglected smallholder farms located in the hills and mountains and biased mechanization policy for flat areas only. Findings from this study suggest that the AMPP addressed issues for smallholder production, including gender inequality, exclusion of smallholder farmers, and biophysical challenges associated with hillside farming systems, but it remains unclear whether and how the policy promotes small-scale agricultural mechanization for sustainable development of agriculture in the hills and mountains of Nepal

Digitally Engaged Rural Community Development

First paragraphs: As a scholar working with the Regional and Rural Broadband research team in Canada (see http://www.r2b2project.ca), I was motivated to review Responsive Countryside: The Digital Age and Rural Communities, by Roberto Gallardo, to learn more about digitally engaged rural community development in the U.S. I begin this review with Gallardo's contextual discussion of the U.S. countryside. I then consider Gallardo's examples of digital revolutions in rural community development and finally reflect on this book's scholarly contributions. In defining the term "rural" in Chapter 1, Gallardo clearly appreciates that, unlike in the past, businesses and livelihoods in the countryside are not only about agriculture. Rural is a geographic concept that connotes location and lifestyle. In the U.S., there have been profound changes in rural areas (those without an urban core of at least 10,000 residents) and small cities (those with an urban core of 10,000 to 49,999 residents). Gallardo produces an evidence base that, contrary to general perceptions, the population in the U.S. countryside is growing. This also applies to rural parts of other countries, such as Canada. However, population growth rates in the countryside are slower than in metro areas. The U.S. population is also aging, and rural communities and small cities are aging faster than metro areas. Further, the U.S. population is becoming more diverse, with a decrease in white non-Hispanics and an increase in Hispanics, even in rural areas. Gallardo argues that these changes are due to new technologies, not the least of which are digital revolutions....

Critical systems of learning and innovation competence for addressing complexity in transformations to agricultural sustainability

Technological innovation is necessary but not sufficient to achieve food security. This article uses interlinked social, ecological and technical systems theory to investigate why agricultural biodiversity-rich developing countries fail to utilize “agroecological competence,” particularly natural resource-based competitive advantage, to achieve food security despite substantial investments in “technological competence” development. Empirical study involves a critical examination of two food security strategies: improving subsistence agriculture to contribute to Nepal's national food security strategies, and promoting high value agriculture integrating Indian farmers into global commodity supply chains. Findings from these countries at very different stages of economic agricultural development suggest that low and middle-income countries, irrespective of their economic growth, cannot succeed unless technological competences are complemented by critical systems of “learning competence.

Responsible innovation through conscious contestation at the interface of agricultural science, policy and civil society

This research examines a series of case studies from the agricultural sector to illustrate how various models of innovation embrace value proposition. A conscious value contestation at the interface of science, policy and civil society requires transformations in the triple-helix model of university-government-industry collaboration, because reiterations in the triple-helix model of innovation, such as quadruple, quintuple and higher helices, do not necessarily address civil society concerns for human values and science ethics. This research develops and tests a matrix model of university-government-industry-civil society collaboration, which involves the co-creation of inclusive and transformational spaces for value proposition. Findings suggest that the matrix model of innovation institutionalises citizen science as it serves as a moral heuristic to make seemingly apolitical science responsive to essentially contested societal values

Paradox of mainstreaming agroecology for regional and rural food security in developing countries

Paradox of mainstreaming agroecology refers to an apparent contradiction between upscaling niche innovations to produce more food in sustainable ways, and the concerns for a loss of core values and principles of agroecology in the mainstreaming process. This paper examines this paradox of mainstreaming and sidestreaming (continuity of niche practises) using longitudinal case studies of agroecological innovations in soil and water conservation, crop improvement, crop intensification, and market differentiation in the regional and rural contexts of developing countries. Findings suggest that there are latent and salient paradoxes of mainstreaming niche innovations, respectively explaining cooperative and competitive interactions with the incumbent regime of industrial food and agriculture. While the former paradox involves continuity of niche practises as well as regime conditions through incremental adaptations, the latter comprises regime shifts through transformational adaptations. However, as these two paradoxes are in flux a latent paradox can become salient when competitive elements of seemingly cooperative niche-regime interactions unravel

Broadband for a sustainable digital future of rural communities: a reflexive interactive assessment

Stakeholders face an ongoing challenge of assessing impacts of large-scale interventions, such as rural broadband infrastructure, which involve both social and technological change. In order to determine immediate benefits, intermediate outcomes and long-term societal impacts of broadband Internet, this paper integrates latest approaches to assess social and technological change, which are known respectively as ‘reflexive learning’ and ‘reflexive governance’. This paper contextualises the integrated framework using case studies of broadband access and use among small businesses and community organisations from the first release areas of the heavily invested high-speed broadband network known as EORN (Eastern Ontario Regional Network) in Canada. EORN represents a major public-private partnership for rural telecommunications which began in 2009 and ended its first phase in 2014. Findings revealed location and sector specific benefits of broadband that rural small businesses and community organisations have realised from increased access to (including availability and affordability) as well as reliability of Internet connections. Also evident were early signs of transitions to more resilient and sustainable rural communities. Partly because of a new initiative, research evidence, however, was not sufficiently robust to determine system-level impacts or structural changes, such as closing rural-urban price gaps and reducing the price of rural broadband services