Who plays an important role during the innovation process? What determines whether an innovation process is successful? And how are innovative ideas generated? The pearls from the Danish Cross Visit were manifold. The puzzles also provided food for thought.

The Pearls: What Was Striking About the Innovation Cases?

The Role of the Farmer

In all four Danish cases, the farmers were at the centre of and involved in the innovation process. An important lesson from the Danish Cross Visit is that farmers initiate innovation processes and bring in their own needs and ideas, especially when they combine their bright ideas with board responsibilities such as decisions about priorities, funding, and ambassadorship.

The Role of the Support Service

The advisors, no matter whether they are private advisors or belong to DAAS, the local counterpart of L&F, SEGES which is a countrywide advisory service, demonstrate a high feeling of ownership of the innovation process. It may be stressed that the Danish innovation cases show the same involvement on the part of the farmers.

Other Important Stakeholders

Not just the farmers and the advisory services are valuable stakeholders. In the Danish cases, environmental, consulting as well as governmental organisations were also very involved. For example, involving enforcement agencies in the innovation process of the mini wetland case proved to be beneficial to the development of the innovation.

The Innovators’ Role

Also integral to a successful innovation process is the passion and the persistance of the innovators. Their drive pushes the innovation process forward. Economic motives are also at the core of the innovation.

Good Collaboration

Good collaboration and direct and easy communication among the stakeholders is seen to contribute to bringing out and dealing with farmers’ needs. Successfully organised collaborations was an element of all the Danish cases.

Where Do the Innovative Ideas Arise?

As the Danish cases show, innovations can be taken from non-farming sectors and adapted to the needs of the farming sector. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel every time. Also, ideas from the science departments at the universities may be taken up by the practitioners and made usable in practice. Finally, consumers’ demands may also initiate innovation as demonstrated during the Danish Cross Visit.

The Puzzles: Things to Reconsider for the Stakeholders

  • A broader view when looking for partners and ideas could be useful.
  • Be quicker in the innovation process – from big tanker to the quick speedboat. Or incorporate both aspects and make solutions when they conflict.
  • The funding process is longer than market reaction.
  • Farmers’ options to involvement in regional development are limited.
  • Hard to involve DAAS sometimes, but if you put an effort into it, it gives extra power.
  • How to bring agricultural ideas to commercial partners inside and outside agriculture, especially supermarkets. Risk when research is started under NGO pressure (animal welfare) that this pressure does not (yet) influence the market.
  • Funding schemes set the framework for (innovation) projects and topics (and there is no scheme focusing on innovation).
  • Socio-cultural factors, relating to farmers’ innovation development and adoption, are not well understood and further research in this regard might be helpful.
  • Missing competences/capacity (actors) to pick up individual ideas from farmers.
  • The two-layer system (L&F, SEGES and DAAS) and a lack of methods make it difficult to understand farmers’ motivation.
  • L&F, SEGES (national) and DAAS (local) are operated separately, with different business models. Despite good working relationships in general, there are some issues of coordination and communication. For example, L&F, SEGES might develop a new tool or method but the local offices are under no obligation to promote them, as their commercial priority is to bill client hours. Building in more feedback loops in the system might help.
  • Big cooperatives make limited space for innovations in their business models (or market departments have other policy than innovation departments).

Take home messages of the symposium:

L&F, SEGES needs to provide more “own” funding for innovative projects to be able to:

  • move faster and respond to farmers’ needs as they emerge;
  • work with issues that are not mentioned in the public funding schemes;
  • work more with business models and the value chain in order to help the niche producers and those who want to work beside the big cooperatives.

L&F, SEGES could look for other collaborators (incl. international) and sources of funding – and make sure not to invent the wheel again and again.

L&F, SEGES could improve in transferring the results from innovation projects to a broader range of farmers. For example:

  • involving the farmers/entrepreneurs more in the projects;
  • including external parties in the work groups/project groups;
  • cooperating with partners already present in the market (as in the case of the mini wetlands).

Read more about the Danish Cross Visit.