The potential of digital platforms to facilitate the diffusion of diversification strategies in agriculture

Abstract

The agricultural landscape of Switzerland is dominated by industrialized but struggling milk production. Producers are facing ever-falling prices, environmental changes and increasing requirements for state supports. Facing these challenges, some farmers have developed their own products for niche markets, adopted rare or ancient breeds or demonstrated the capacity to adopt income-generating innovations. The diversification of agricultural production on farms and within whole regional landscapes has further advantages than just income diversification. It offers adaptation and buffer capacity in case of economic crisis or environmental changes and it makes the agro-ecosystem more resistant to pests and diseases and distributes risks. However, the majority of farms still encounters barriers in changing crops and diversifying. Interviews with producers in this study revealed that the main challenges are the lack of technical information about rare crops and breeds, the need to identify adapted crops and equipment to the location and the personal motivations that require an entrepreunarial or risk-taker personality. Information technologies and particularly new tools in the area of social networking could play an important role in increasing access to information and connections between peers, even internationally, and deserve more attention in the transition to sustainable agriculture. Interviews with market actors revealed multiple potentials for niche products, but also the need for increased availability of market information to producers. Social media are also starting to be used for this purpose. This study thus looked into the potential of multi-stakeholder online platforms and the role of key actors for the diffusion of innovation and niche products in agriculture and identified current limitations where efforts could be put to increase support to diversifying producers