Everyday practices of innovation give farmers invaluable inspiration which may be applied to their own innovation efforts. With 18 examples of innovation, AgriSpin provides the innovator and his actors with inspiration from European agriculture.

Innovation cases are all different and even though the seven stages of the Spiral of Innovations are applicable to all innovation cases, it varies from case to case how much time is spent on each of the seven stages: initial idea, inspiration, planning, development, realisation, dissemination, and embedding.

The AgriSpin booklet thus examines the 18 innovation cases in question by looking at one stage of the Spiral of Innovations at a time because each case has something interesting to say about one particular stage.

Initial idea

In Belgium, farmers get inspiration for their marketing and product development by going on a bus tour to supermarkets in Canterbury, England, arranged by the Food Innovation Academy on Tour. Mark and Linda, Saffron growers since 2013, attended the tour because they wanted to expand their product range and they ended up bringing home some refreshing new ideas from the supermarkets.

Meet Mark and Linda in this video.

Inspiration

In Italy’s Campania region, an innovative partnership between organic farmers, local governments, and the catering and hospitality industries has led to the creation of bio-districts. Farmer Felice Maio and his wife Anne Nigro run an organic farm producing extra virgin olive oil, vegetables, figs, and wine. In their case, the involvement of the mayor of Castelnuovo Cilento and the support of the whole municipality, facilitated by the organic farmers’ association, was crucial for expanding their customer network.

Learn about the bio-district initiative in this video.

Planning

The Keisala Farm, a dairy farm in Western Finland, wanted to build a new barn. On the advice of ProAgria, the Finnish expert organization the farmer used an Investment Support Team, consisting of experts in design, economics and production. The flexibility of the team made it possible to discuss different aspects of the solution to ensure an extensive planning phase. The farmer also started a blog on the suggestion of ProAgria, and received a lot of mental support from other farmers through this blog.

Watch the video about the Keisala Farm.

The success was based on the fact that we got so much help from experts from different professions. Merja Keisala, farmer

Development

Due to the mountainous topography of the Basque Country, livestock breeders often lose track of their herds. In response, the advisory service HAZI, developed a livestock geo-localisation device to make the lives of the farmers easier. There was close collaboration with the farmers, who tested the device in real conditions, and HAZI, who carried the risks and costs of this development.

Realisation

Agrocoach is a learning network that helps farmers become more entrepreneurial. 8 to 10 agricultural entrepreneurs from different sectors learn about and discuss the concepts of innovative labour organization at their farm during 8 evening sessions. Jan Gielis, the owner of Belgicactus, designed a first action plan for his organizational change while attending Agrocoach. Afterwards, he further elaborated on the plan with a private consultant.

Meet Jan Gielis, the owner of Belgicactus, in this video.

Dissemination

Jan Van den Borne is a large-scale potato farmer by Dutch standards. He is a pioneer in using smart farming technologies, gathering a lot of data from preparing the land, managing the crops and measuring the yield. Through smart farming, Jacob can increase his yield by 10-15 % and lower inputs by about 2-5 % on average. Jacob has established an innovation support network with the help of ZLTO, the farmers’ association in the Netherlands. ZLTO’s role is to actively support Jacob in building his alliance and network to make him eligible for subsidy and for collaboration with national and international projects.

Watch the video about Jan Van den Borne and his precision farming.

Embedding

The Oberfeld plot, located in the neighborhood of Darmstadt, Germany, and used for agriculture in the past, included 135 ha of arable land and a large dairy barn. The ownership of the plot by the state expired in 2006 and the citizens then founded the “Hofgut Oberfeld” initiative, a community-supported urban farm, embedded in a warm network of local and regional actors and comprising direct selling, on-farm-shopping, catering, on-farm-restaurant and social enterprises for care-farming with handicapped children.

Learn more about the micro-stock company “Hofgut Oberfeld” by watching the video.

Read More

Peruse the complete booklet or take a look at its different sections.