A new green revolution or agribusiness as usual? Uncovering alignment issues and potential transition complications in agri-food system transitions

Niko Wojtynia (), Jerry van Dijk, Marjolein Derks, Peter W. G. Groot Koerkamp and Marko P. Hekkert
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Niko Wojtynia: Universiteit Utrecht / Utrecht University [Utrecht]
Jerry van Dijk: Universiteit Utrecht / Utrecht University [Utrecht]
Marjolein Derks: WUR - Wageningen University and Research [Wageningen]
Peter W. G. Groot Koerkamp: WUR - Wageningen University and Research [Wageningen]
Marko P. Hekkert: Universiteit Utrecht / Utrecht University [Utrecht]

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Abstract: Agri-food system transitions are a considerable challenge requiring stakeholder alignment on what changes need to be made and how. When stakeholders do not agree on the goals or methods of a transition, this can be a serious obstacle to success. This paper analyzes 42 vision documents for the future of Dutch agriculture from a broad range of stakeholders to determine stakeholder alignment using an inductive coding approach. We identified 23 issues as the main challenges for the transition in these documents. We are the first to categorize them according to a recently proposed problem-solution space for wicked problems. Stakeholders were fully aligned in recognizing the problem for the majority of issues, but showed agreement on solutions for less than a quarter. For the issues of international orientation, sector size, and farm business models, we found a lack of consensus on the problem, indicating fundamental disagreement about the type of agricultural sector desired by stakeholders. The apparent consensus on environmental and social issues provides clear societal expectations for agronomic development and innovation, while the divergence on economic issues highlights the rift between growth-oriented paradigms and more holistic paradigms like agroecology. The crucial empirical novelty of this paper is that progress on environmental and social matters is restricted by divergent views on the economic characteristics of a future agri-food system, adding further complexity to mission-oriented transition and innovation policies.

Keywords: Agri-food system; Sustainability transition; Vision; Mission-oriented innovation; Stakeholder alignment; Normative contestation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03893991
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published in Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 2021, 41 (6), pp.77. ⟨10.1007/s13593-021-00734-8⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03893991

DOI: 10.1007/s13593-021-00734-8

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