In this paper, presented at the 8th European IFSA Symposium ( Workshop 6: "Change in knowledge systems and extension services: Role of the new actors") in 2008, the authors discuss a conceptual framework that understands innovation processes as the outcome of collaborative networks where information is exchanged and learning processes happen. They argue that technical and economic factors used to analyse drivers and barriers alone are not sufficient to understand innovation processes.
The European Innovation Partnership for agricultural productivity and sustainability (EIP-AGRI), which can be perceived as a platform based on interaction among farmers, researchers, and advisors/extensionists, represents a useful tool for a better understanding of applied innovation processes.
The overarching research question developed in the Conceptual Framework conveys the core objective of SALSA (What is the contribution of small farms and of the related food businesses to sustainable FNS in a wide range of foos systems?) by highlighting that the research follows a systemic approach.
The SALSA project aims at assessing the current and future role of small farms and related small food businesses in contributing to sustainable food and nutrition security at regional level in Europe and in selected African regions, and to identify the conditions for them to meet the demand for food in an increasingly populated and resource-constrained world.
The project Small Farms, Small Food Business and Sustainable Food Security (SALSA) intends to assess the role of small farms and small food business in terms of food production and food security. One important first step in doing this is to test and develop methods and tools able to produce accurate and useful information about small farms.
This deliverable is a report on the main methodological steps implemented in the framework of the Small Farms, Small Food Business and Sustainable Food Security (SALSA) project in task 2.3 of Work Package 2 (WP2) to produce the Output 3, which is a crop type map in small farms context in each reference region (see D.2.4 report pag. 5).
This document presents the small farm typologies developed from SALSA's sample (n=892) and provides a detailed comparative analysis on the key characteristics and livelihood strategies of each of the types, identifying similarities, differences and trends.
This document presents an in-depth comparative assessment of the local and regional food systems analysed in SALSA. Its aim is to improve the understanding of the current and potential role of SF in regional Food and Nutrition Security (FNS). This deliverable is a synthesis report on the main insights gained from the analysis completed for the 30 reference regions.
This report represents findings on the role of women in small-scale farming (defined as farms up to 5 ha or 8 ESU), particularly in relation to governance frameworks associated with food and nutrition security. It follows SALSA Deliverable 5.1, which assesses the governance arrangements which impact upon small-scale farms and small food businesses. Both reports utilise the data collected in SALSA WP3 (In-depth assessment of food systems in 30 regions).
It is clear that any definition of a small farm needs to be based on national and regional realities. Definitions involving only the criterion of farm size have universal appeal as they are relatively easy to apply and allow simple comparisons across countries and world regions. However, they don't capture all the complexities of farming. Definitions involving additional criteria to farm size are more meaningful, particularly those including indicators of the farm economic output, but data availability is often a limitation (Ruane, 2016).