"A holistic multi-actor approach to agrobiodiversity enhancement" Keynote by Edwin Nuijten, LBI, NL

1. Edwin Nuijten, LBI
Adanella Rossi, UNIPI
Estelle Serpolay-Besson, ITAB
Véronique Chable, INRA
Final Diversifood Congress,
Rennes, France
12 December 2018
A holistic multi-actor approach to agrobiodiversity
enhancement

2. • Need for development of inclusive approaches
– Role of farmers
– Role of other food chain players
• Processors
• Traders
• Consumers
Ø Crucial to understand barriers and opportunities that affect
sustainable use and maintenance of crop genetic diversity
Ø Need for multi-actor approaches
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Maintenance and development of
crop diversity

3. • Need to identify these factors related to:
1) crop (such as breeding system, plant phenology and architecture)
2) socio-cultural aspects (labour organisation, taste preferences,
learning processes and change of attitudes),
3) economic aspects (value distribution along the chain, affordability),
4) agro-ecological elements (climate, soils, farming system),
5) organisational-institutional elements (forms of coordination among
actors, norms)
6) legal-political aspects (regulatory frames, tools for genetic material
protection, incentives)
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Enabling and hampering factors shaping
agri-food systems

4. 4
Developing new multi-actor approaches in Diversifood
Three tools to operationalise multi-actor approach
1) Common definitions for key-words and concepts
2) Toolkit of multi-actor methods
3) An overarching methodological framework

5. Challenges
• Allow common understanding (from the different points of view of all partners)
• Try to propose a framework that COMBINES the different approaches and
ways of thinking (and NOT propose a framework to HOMOGENISE them)
– Show and keep diversity at the different levels
• Not obliged to bridge paradigms
– Facilitate an effective communication among partners

6. Balance in paradigms needed
• Paradigm (world view)
• Methodology (research approach)
» Method (means to answer question)
• Tool (concrete objects)
• Maintain diversity in methods, methodologies and paradigms
• Maintain and express the diversity in the project, in biological, economic,
social processes (and plants and crops)

7. 1 The importance of key-words
• Contribute to good internal communication (everybody has different
backgrounds)
– Create awareness that people can have different ideas / perspectives
• Culture
• Language
• Education
• Etc….
– We need to listen to each other and then come to share the same meaning attached
to words
• Means to stimulate the collaborative process in the project
• To uncover diversity but also to help combine it in a common, shared
framework

8. Identification of key-words and concepts

9. Result survey on key-words (n = 25)
Pre-selection of key words
Score
(in %) Additional key words
Score
(in %)
sustainable agriculture 100 agrobiodiversity 44
local adaptation 92 organic farming 28
resilience 88 local market 28
evolutionary processes 60 food quality 28
collaborative research 80 innovative farming system 24
participatory action research 72 innovation 24
transdisciplinarity 92 diversified food chain 24
nutritional quality 84 farmers rights 20
empowerment 80 diversity breeding 20
food chain 88
community(agro)biodiversity
management 20
food culture 84 informal seed system 16
promoting autonomy 84 GxE interaction 16
food sovereignty 16
decentralised and participatory
research / participation 16
diversity / functional biodiversity 16

10. 1. Diversified food system
2. Food quality
3. Sustainable food systems
4. Food democracy
5. Community management of agro-biodiversity
6. Collaborative, participative and action research
7. Trans-disciplinarity and paradigmatic shift
8. Co-evolutionary processes
9. Resilience
Ø Together these key concepts describe the multi-actor approach in
Diversifood
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The nine key concepts

11. Leaflet with definitions of 9 selected
keywords, translated in 7 languages
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12. • Development of approach to analyse and compare methodologies of partners cases
Ø Ask partners to describe a case study in terms of ‘approach, methodology, method and tools’
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2 Toolkit: Connecting methodologies and methods;
partners cases

13. Next steps: partners cases (ii)
• 2016: Cases of all partners were summarised in posters
o Posters were used as input for discussions in workshop during 2nd annual meeting in
Bologna
• 2017: A new table was developed to describe
o Involvement of actors in various research phases
o Methods, knowledge resources and other resources used in the case study
• 2017: A scheme was developed to describe
o Relationships among actors, methods and knowledge resources
• All information is used as input for development of a toolkit, and an
overarching framework
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14. 14
Posters describing case studies with Goals, Research operationalisation, Methods and Tools

16. • common will,
• common vocabulary,
• trust building,
• transparency,
• facilitation,
• various types of resources,
• adapted distribution of the work
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General building blocks of multi-actor approach

17. • Type of approach is related to development stage of technology
– Number of knowledge fields and methods may vary
• Decision making and research operationalisation: continuous process
– May change over time, needs continuous care
• Transparancy
– Sufficient time and resources are needed for the process
• Unexpected results oblige the group to do reflection
– Allow space for needs, creativity and serendipity
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Important lessons for multi-actor approaches

18. • Better underpinning for the use of holistic multi-actor research approach for
different socio-biological contexts
• Taking into account all aspects and components involved in the whole food
chain
• Consistent design from a methodological point of view
• A more informed and comprehensive implementation and monitoring
• Optimise the use of the outcomes by and for involved actors
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3 An overarching framework for multi-actor research

19. Achievements
evaluation
Research
operationalisation
Problem /
research goal
definition
Level of
democracy
Reflexivity
Multi-
dimensionality
Trans-
disciplinarity a. different forms and levels of actor involvement
in the different stages è level of democracy
b. different kinds of knowledge resources
mobilized and the degree of their integration in
the research operationalisation è
transdisciplinarity
c. dimensions involved in each stage (technical,
breeding, agronomical, socio-cultural,
economic, organisational-institutional, legal-
political) è multi-dimensionality
d. level and modes of evaluation of achievements
and of the suitability-effectiveness of the
research choices è (self)-reflexivity
Overarching methodological framework

20. Thank you for your attention!
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21. • Plant breeding as a design activity to create the plant resources of agroecology
– by Laurent Hazard, INRA, France
• NOVIC: A Participatory Project to Trial and Breed Vegetable Varieties for Organic Systems
– by Bill Tracey, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
•
Posters
• Participatory ideotyping for organic and locally adapted wheat variety mixtures
– by Emma Forst, INRA, France
• Seeding the Green Future – Participatory organic cotton breeding
– by Monika Messmer, Fibl, Switzerland
• LIVESEED boosting organic seed and plant breeding across Europe
– by Monika Messmer, Fibl, Switzerland
• Paradigm shift for multi-actor and transdisciplinary research
– Veronique Chable, INRA, France
• Roundtable & plenary discussion
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Schedule session 6