Participatory Research towards Food System Redesign: Italian Case Study and Perspectives

Corrado Ciaccia, Marta Di Pierro, Elena Testani, Giancarlo Roccuzzo, Marcello Cutuli and Danilo Ceccarelli
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Corrado Ciaccia: CREA—Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Via della Navicella 2-4, 00184 Rome, Italy
Marta Di Pierro: CREA—Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Via della Navicella 2-4, 00184 Rome, Italy
Elena Testani: CREA—Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Via della Navicella 2-4, 00184 Rome, Italy
Giancarlo Roccuzzo: CREA—Research Centre for Olive, Citrus and Tree Fruit, via la Canapona 1 bis, 47121 Forlì, Italy
Marcello Cutuli: CREA—Research Centre for Olive, Citrus and Tree Fruit, Corso Savoia 190, 95024 Acireale, Italy
Danilo Ceccarelli: CREA—Research Centre for Olive, Citrus and Tree Fruit, via di Fioranello, 52, 00134 Rome, Italy

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 24, 1-12

Abstract: Industrial agriculture and its requirement for standardized approaches is driving the world towards a global food system, shrinking the role of farmers and shifting decision-making power. On the contrary, a holistic perspective towards a new food-system design could meet the needs of a larger share of stakeholders. Long-term experiments are crucial in this transition, being the hub of knowledge and the workshop of ‘participation in’ and ‘appropriation of’ the research in agriculture over a long term. We present a methodology applied during the creation of a small network of organic farmers in Italy and detail the steps of the co-innovation process implemented. After a context analysis of the area to define the type of research and degree of participation, three steps were performed: (1) Identification of stakeholders; (2) dialogic identification of common activities; and (3) validation and feedback from participants. In the first participatory step, five organic farms were engaged for the second and third steps. We organized meetings to discuss future plans, facilitating the interaction process between farmers and researchers. These activities led to: (i) the definition of a research protocol based on farmers’ research needs for a new long-term experiment; (ii) committing farmers to take an active role in the research; and (iii) hosting experimental satellite trials in their own farms.

Keywords: agroecology; co-innovation; long-term experiment; innovation in agriculture; organic farming systems; stone-fruit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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