Bridging the gap between theory and practice in agro-ecological farming: Analyzing knowledge co-creation among farmers and scientific researchers in Southern Spain

Abstract

Conventional industrial agriculture is no longer suited to feed the world, because it has causes depletion to the ecosystems on which all life on earth depends. Agro-ecological farming is increasingly being recognized as the way forward, yet its development is highly dependent on local environmental, social, economic, cultural and political contexts. Not only is there a need for new knowledge that can be tailored to fit local circumstances, changes are also needed in the processes by which this knowledge is generated. How can these processes be organized in a way that fosters a balance between scientific rigor and robustness on the one hand, and local relevance on the other? This research aimed to answer the questions as to how knowledge co-creation process dynamics among farmers and scientific researchers are organized, to what extent the outcomes of such processes explain successful impacts in terms of positively influencing agro-ecological farming behavior and which conditions contribute to this success. A generic analytical framework on joint knowledge production dynamics was employed in conducting a systematic literature review of scientific empiric analyses of knowledge co-creation processes in the context of agro-ecology. In more than half of the sample no process impacts were mentioned, which might point towards a gap between agro-ecological theory and practice. Also, cases with successful impacts, defined as the (re)design of agro-ecosystems based on ecological principles, were limited. The findings of this research suggest that when the goal is to further develop agro-ecology, a shift is needed from focusing on agro-ecological farming practices to agro-ecological farming principles.