Smith, H, Sallu, S orcid.org/0000-0002-1471-2485, Whitfield, S orcid.org/0000-0002-3040-778X et al. (4 more authors) (2021) Innovation systems and affordances in climate smart agriculture. Journal of Rural Studies, 87. pp. 199-212. ISSN 0743-0167
Abstract
There is significant international investment and effort in the development, piloting and upscaling of climate smart agriculture (CSA), with particular emphasis on delivering benefits to smallholder farmers through programmes of CSA interventions. However, there is poor understanding of how smallholder farmers access beneficial outcomes from changes in agricultural practices, beyond narrow and simplistic metrics, such as adoption rates and yield increases. Furthermore, binary notions of adopters and non-adopters provides a poor basis for understanding innovation within complex farming systems. By integrating an innovation systems perspective with the theory of affordances, we explore how agricultural innovation happens in the context of two CSA interventions in the Tanga Region of Tanzania, to examine who has access to, and is able to benefit from interventions, who does not, and why. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data involving over 200 participants, we demonstrate how innovation processes in this context are diverse and non-linear, and discuss how potential outcomes derived from programmes are shaped by farmers’ affordances. We argue that common programme reporting metrics fail to account for the dynamic and nonlinearity of innovation processes and risk overlooking unintended outcomes of interventions. We propose that interventions should be conceived with an appreciation of context and affordances from the outset, to support how they engage with the least capable from the very beginning.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an author produced version of an article published in Journal of Rural Studies. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Affordances theory; Agricultural innovation systems; Agricultural research and development; Agriculture; Climate change; Smallholder |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number BBSRC (Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council) BB/P027784/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 16 Sep 2021 09:47 |
Last Modified: | 21 Mar 2023 01:13 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.09.001 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:178218 |