DiverIMPACTS researchers have analysed the project’s 25 case studies to explore the extent to which barriers to crop diversification are related to the setting in which they emerge. The project’s multi-actor case studies are allocated to one of five clusters: service crops, crop diversification under adverse conditions, crop diversification in systems from Western Europe, diversification through intercropping, with a special focus on grain legumes, and the diversification of vegetable cropping systems.
DiverIMPACTS notes that “innovations supporting a shift towards more sustainable food systems can be developed either within the dominant food system regime or in alternative niches. No study has compared the challenges faced in both contexts.
“Based on an analysis of the 25 DiverIMPACTS case studies of European innovations that support crop diversification, this paper explores the extent to which barriers to crop diversification are related to the setting in which they emerge.”
Based on a qualitative analysis of interviews and participatory brainstorming, the authors highlight 46 different barriers to crop diversification in the case studies, occurring at three different levels: production, downstream operations (farm to retail, marketing and consumers), and contracts and coordination between actors.
To characterise the diversity of innovation strategies at the food system level, the authors introduce the concept of ‘food system innovation settings’. They write that these combine: “(i) the type of innovative practice promoted at farm level; (ii) the type of value chain supporting that innovation; and (iii) the type of agriculture involved (organic or conventional).
“Through a multiple correspondence analysis, we show different patterns of barriers to crop diversification according to three ideal-types of food system innovation settings: (i) ‘Changing from within’, where longer rotations are fostered on conventional farms involved in commodity supply chains; (ii) ‘Building outside’, where crop diversification integrates intercropping on organic farms involved in local supply chains; and (iii) ‘Playing horizontal’, where actors promote alternative crop diversification strategies - either strictly speaking horizontal at spatial level (e.g. strip cropping) or socially horizontal (arrangement between farmers) - without directly challenging the vertical organisation of dominant value chains.
“We recommend designing targeted research and policy actions according to the food systems they seek to develop. We then discuss further development of our approach to analyse barriers faced in intermediate and hybrid food system configurations.”
Taken from: Morel K, Revoyron E, San Cristobal M, Baret PV (2020). Innovating within or outside dominant food systems? Different challenges for contrasting crop diversification strategies in Europe. PLoS ONE 15(3): e0229910. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229910
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