Agroecological transition, innovation and lock-in effects: The impact of the organizational design of supply chains

Abstract

The French agricultural production system has to evolve towards more environmentally friendly practices. Although research is developing new agricultural cropping systems, getting them adopted by the agricultural profession remains difficult. This technological lock-in effect can be explained by a set of self-reinforcement mechanisms, which strengthen a productive choice established initially in favor of an agriculture based on intensive use of inputs, at the expense of other alternatives. This work aims at analyzing the organizational structure of the durum wheat supply chain to assess the characteristics that are likely to speed-up or restrain the adoption of new production systems. Our results show that the low degree of integration of the supply chain can be viewed as a lock-in mechanism. Therefore, the organizational structure of the supply chain itself can play the role of a self-reinforcement mechanism that reduces the incentives to adopt new practices. The literature on sociotechnical transitions shows that a solution to unlock the system is to create small and highly integrated supply chains (niches), besides the traditional agro-industrial supply chains. The question is then how the value generated by these niche supply chains has to be shared in order to give enough incentives to producers to choose new (and more costly) practices.