Abstract
Family farmers and grassroots innovations can enable transitions to more sustainable food systems. The study explores the roles umbrella farmers’ organizations play in building transformative capacity through grassroots innovations in rural food systems in Guatemala. An analytical framework based on the notion of transformative capacity and socio-technical transitions is used to explore the specific factors enabling and limiting the transformative potential of grassroots innovations in a rural setting. A case study in rural Huehuetenango, Guatemala is presented, using interviews and focus groups discussions with relevant stakeholders engaged in the development process. Perceptions from interviews and focus groups discussions highlight the catalyst role played by the umbrella farmers’ organization as the main enabling factor to increase transformative capacity of grassroots innovations. The umbrella organization plays a key role in enabling farmers to pursue socio-technical transformations and in moving grassroots innovations outside a niche sphere. It contributes to creating coherence towards a common sustainability vision, supporting innovation and experimentation, and providing technical assistance around core development processes. In addition, it navigates across different levels of agency (households, communities, networks, and institutions) and different interaction scales (local, department, and national). However, gender and multi-generational gaps have been identified as limiting factors that would require further analysis.
Highlights
Producing more food, while building resilient agri-food systems requires socio-ecological innovations, as well as changes in how institutions and stakeholders organize and operate [1–4]
We present findings from interviewees’ perceptions and focus groups discussions about factors that either strengthen or limit the transformative capacity of niche innovations emerging from family farming in rural Guatemala
Interview subjects were asked about the role government, private actors, umbrella farmer organizations, and donors played in strengthening the transformative capacity of grassroots innovations
Summary
While building resilient agri-food systems requires socio-ecological innovations, as well as changes in how institutions and stakeholders organize and operate [1–4]. Increased academic attention is paid to the factors that lead to sustainable transitions [5–8] in agri-food systems [9–14]. There is an urgent need to move towards more sustainable food production [1–3], and such transformation requires active engagement of all relevant stakeholders [4,5]. Social innovations may define sustainable agendas, change institutions and attitudes towards increased resilience and improved livelihoods [6], and different governance forms [7,8]. Farmers and grassroots innovations can play a crucial role in enabling transitions to more sustainable societies [2,10] and resilient food systems [11–14]. The transformative potential of grassroots innovations depends on the power of actors and their networks in challenging systemic changes [7,17].
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