Capturing Social Innovations in Agricultural Transformation from the Field: Outcomes of a Write-Shop

Bram Peters,Jan Brouwers,Marion Herens

doi:10.3390/su10124727

Abstract

The aim of this project was to explore the theme of social innovation for nutrition-sensitive and sustainable agriculture, resulting in examples of improved production and consumption of nutritious food. Social innovation refers to the generation and implementation of new ideas about how people organize interpersonal activities, or social interactions, to meet one or more common goals and in the process change basic routines, resources, and decision-making processes. In the country context of Myanmar, this research aimed to capture a variety of social innovation cases related to processes of agricultural transformation. Through the method of a collaborative case study write-shop, Myanmar-specific social innovations were identified, illustrating various forms of social innovation across the cases with citizen engagement processes. The write-shop method, in combination with the embedded expertise of development practitioners, proved to be a promising approach to identify niche innovations, distil insights, reframe actions, and promote critical thinking among different actors.

Highlights

Food systems are undergoing rapid changes in response to economic and market developments, environmental impacts, and dietary changes [1]
Applied to the context of Myanmar, this paper presents the projects’ explorative approach and methodology to identify social innovation cases in agricultural development and food and nutrition security programs and initiatives
Based on the iterative feedback process provided in the write-shop, the elements of social innovation (SI) that came forward from the case were the approach of short-cutting the value chains of maize and poultry by more strongly connecting consumers of safe chicken to farmers producing broiler chicken and farmers providing maize for these chickens

Summary

Introduction

Food systems are undergoing rapid changes in response to economic and market developments, environmental impacts, and dietary changes [1] Key drivers for these changes often relate to population growth, climate change, urbanisation rates, and globalising economies. In low- and middle-income countries, these changes have a profound effect on poverty, livelihoods, and food and nutrition security of poor households and smallholder farmers In many of these countries both urban and rural households interact with various food system typologies: notably the “modern” agro-industrial system, which is dominated by a few global players with vertical value chains; the “traditional” food system, which is characterised by small-scale production with short supply chains; and the “intermediate” food systems which combine elements of the other two types. It is seen that in Asia, for example, most consumers interact with intermediate food systems [2]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion