Agroecology offers promising pathways to increase productivity and build resilience to socio-ecological, economic, and climate shocks, delivering holistic solutions to complex challenges in the food systems. However, we still need well-tested and context-tailored agroecological practices (AEP) that can guide a transition effectively.
Co-creation is a central element of the Agroecology living labs (ALLs), and in CANALLS we focus on the co-creation of combinations of AEP to overcome the main challenges faced by farmers and other value chain actors.
What is co-creation within the context of CANALLS?
For us, co-creation is the participatory and collaborative development of agroecological practices aimed at addressing the main challenges faced in the focus crops. This approach entails fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders, including farmers, experts, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), representatives from the private sector, and members of civil society. Co-creation of agroecological practices is a 4-step cycle where we start by 1) Identifying and understanding the challenges, 2) Mapping, prototyping, and prioritizing AEP combinations, 3) Evaluating the AEP combinations in the field and 4) Evaluating the results and planning scaling strategies and the next co-creation cycle.
Why is co-creation needed?
Input-intensive technologies have been traditionally developed and transferred in a linear, top-down approach. However, an incremental and transformational agroecological transition involves simultaneous technological and institutional changes, accompanied by an increased capacity for problem-solving from farmers and service providers to adapt the practices to the local context. Such a challenge calls for an innovation strategy that includes farmers and other actors in the agri-food system, improving the relevance and legitimacy while maintaining the credibility of science. Active involvement of end users in problem-solving and alternative development could increase the adoption of agroecological innovations and maximize the impact of agricultural research. A co-creation approach can help the stakeholders and other interested parties create their systems, modify them to fit their needs and create their compromises by utilizing both their own and scientific knowledge.
