innovation, value chains, co-production, local food systems
Transform value chains, businesses and policies to facilitate the transition to agroecology
We would like to cooperate on both themes under topic 2 (i.e. "new business models in the value chains to facilitate the agroecological transition" and "Coordination among actors, social innovations and policies to enhance the agroecological transition" bringing in a Norwegian case.
Norway is an interesting research case for may reasons including:
- Geographically we present an increasingly important region (northern periphery and the arctic) due to climate change impacts and international security
- Norway is not an EU-member, but through the EFTA-agreement we are part of the EU inner market, leading to a complicated political landscape for agriculture and food production
- We have one of the lowest self-sufficiency rates in the world (and currently declining despite clear national policy goals to reverse this trend)
- We have unique outfield grazing resources that are gradually being used less due to industrialization of agriculture and high level of predator conflict
- Norwegian agriculture is using the least amount of antibiotics per produced unit in Europe, and conventional agriculture is relatively close to organic in that it has moderate use of industrial fertilizers and pesticides
- (Still) high share of small scale family farms but centralization is leading to many farms closing down every year. Now the remaining number of farms is approaching a critical level to maintain local knowledge and prevent abandonment of many rural communities
Nordland Research Institute (NRI) is located in Northern Norway (headquarter in the city of Bodø) and carry out interdisciplinary social sciences research. We lead national and international research projects, closely collaborating with local communities, authorities, businesses and other research organizations.
We have extensive experience with sustainable food system research, self-sufficiency and local food systems, innovation systems and value chains. Co-production and stakeholder collaboration is a key component in most of our research.