Bettina König

Innovation mechanisms in German precision farming

In the precision farming (PF) literature on innovation activities, it becomes apparent that only individual aspects of the entire PF innovation process chain are considered, namely, the knowledge transfer and the adoption of PF applications. Therefore, this study seeks to analyze the innovation mechanisms in the entire PF innovation process chain. The paper identifies potentials, barriers and challenges for PF innovations in Germany and the respective agricultural subsector plant production. An in-depth understanding of innovation mechanisms is required to enhance innovation capabilities, overcome obstacles and bring further innovations to the agricultural field. A mix of qualitative and quantitative methods was applied—including interviews, an expert workshop and a Delphi survey—to explore innovation mechanisms and the role of heterogeneous actors. The research is based on the analytical framework of the sectoral innovation system approach. Key results are the identification of barriers in the later stages of the innovation processes (including validation, serial production and adoption), a gap in the knowledge transfer between science and practice, insufficient communication and co-operation between actors and the important influence of political and legal conditions. Furthermore, this study showed that farmers play an important role in the generation of innovations. For example, farmers are not only adopters or demanders but also impulse providers or co-developers. In conclusion, this study moves the PF innovation debate forward not only by providing adoption facts but also by presenting explanations for the complex interactions between actors throughout the innovation process chain.

An institutional analysis of land use modelling in the European Commission

The paper aims at describing the environment, actors, practices and dynamics in the context of the European Commission’s Impact Assessment procedures into which a quantitative ex-ante policy assessment tool of land use changes has to be introduced. Both fields - Impact Assessment and land use modelling tools - are only now evolving. The institutions that guide the choice of modelling tools in the IA process are rather unclear. However, if results of the development of modelling tools are to be used, fit to their institutional environment can be enhanced by understanding this setting. This paper is based on problem-centred interviewing at different EC levels, which focussed on these issues. The purpose was to understand the context into which the Sustainability Impact Assessment Tool, which the SENSOR Consortium currently constructs, will be introduced in the European Commission. The paper concludes that the choices of desk officers are informed by their motivation to produce successful policy proposals. Modelling tools that are usable for the Commission’s Impact Assessment furthermore have to be plausible and transparent. They have to rely on official data. Often the use of modelling tools is scrutinised in a variety of fora. Land use issues and the like are of minor importance to the European Commission’s Impact Assessment as land use is not perceived to be a competence of the European Commission.

Linking system perspectives with user perspectives to identify adoption barriers to food security innovations for smallholder farmers – evidence from rural Tanzania

Food insecurity remains a persistent problem, affecting one-third of Tanzania’s population. Mutually reinforcing factors that make the situation more acute include high human population growth combined with the impacts of climate change affecting agricultural productivity. This situation explains why the development and implementation of solutions to improve food security in Tanzania continues to receive substantial attention from scholars, NGOs, practitioners, government and associated bodies. Among researchers and practitioners, innovation is discussed as one possible and widely accepted pathway for improving food security. However, evidence shows that the adoption of innovations that have a potential to improve food security status, such as improved seed, fertilizer, better cooking stoves or mechanization, remains low in Tanzania. To enhance understanding about why innovations are not always successfully adopted, we took an innovation system perspective that included three analytical steps: (1) description of system arrangements on a meso- and macro level, (2) the description of farmers’ motivation for adoption or rejection on a micro-level, and (3) an integration of findings from both levels to identify entry points for purposeful intervention. This paper applied that framework to the empirical examples of two innovations, improved cooking stoves (ICS) and fertilizer micro-dosing (FMD) combined with improved soil and crop management techniques for small-scale subsistence-farmer groups in Tanzania. These interventions were part of the Trans-SEC research project. We show how system constraints, such as hampered communication and interaction across levels, had an impact on the way innovations could be implemented by farmers and how this leads to specific adoption decisions, given conditions of not-knowing or insufficient information. From these two case studies we conclude that most technical based innovations are associated with process aspects (in the case of fertilizer micro-dosing) or social aspects (with stoves).