Principles for guiding research and innovation toward sustainable and equitable agrifood systems
Open accessAbstract
Investments in research and innovation are critical for transformations toward sustainable agrifood systems and for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. However, the frequent neglect of environmental and social goals by investors remains a major challenge. System-oriented approaches to designing and monitoring innovations can be a promising solution to guide innovations and allow investors to identify those that are more sustainable. This article presents a set of eight ‘Principles for Agrifood Research and Innovation’ developed by an international multi-stakeholder task force including staff of research agencies, funders and impact investors, private sector, non-governmental organizations, and benchmarking organizations. The article explains the rationale for the selection of the principles and describes potential ways forward for their uptake and implementation, building on pilots done by several research and funding organizations.
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A common shortcoming of research projects in bringing about societal change is a lack of an agri-food systems perspective as a basis for a theory of change that is legitimate for all involved in a reflexive arrangement.
“A common shortcoming is a lack of an agri-food systems perspective as a basis for a theory of change that is legitimate for all involved in a reflexive arrangement (Zurek et al. 2023).”
From A heuristic framework to portray agroecological transition initiatives in reflexive arrangements, illustrated with a conservation agriculture network in Denmark (2025) · cites this paper as Zurek et al. 2023
Section 2 (p. 3) describes conventional innovation approaches as linear and siloed. Section 5 (pp. 6–7) recommends an agrifood-systems perspective for theories of change, reflexive adaptation, and inclusion of impacted actors. The paper does not say that a common shortcoming is the absence of a theory of change legitimate to all involved; that part goes beyond its account. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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“…also used the framework to set their scope of work on pre-production, production and post-harvest activities. angles provides the foundation for developing new insights and ideas for better management practices (Ericksen, 2008; Ingram and Zurek, 2018; van Berkum et al., 2018; Hebinck et al., 2021).”
BackgroundAgri-food value chain revolutions in low- and middle-income countries
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Cassart, P., Frei, A., Hauggaard-Nielsen, H., Kruse Rasmussen, H., Swartebroeckx, A., Froidmont, E., Stilmant, D., & Rossing, W. (2025) · Ecology and Society · doi:10.5751/es-15770-300210 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
- Authors
- Zurek, M., Wirths, J., Hebinck, A., Crawford, S., Lidder, P., Prasad, P. V. V., Tittonell, P., Herrero, M., & Compton, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (IT)
- Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL)
- CGIAR (FR)
- Kansas State University (US)
- Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (FR)
- Cornell University (US)
- International Water Management Institute (IWMI) (LK)
- Corresponding author
- Wirths, Jonathan
- ORCID
- Venue
- Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2023-09-14
- Volume
- 7
- Pages
- 1059063
- ISSN
- 2571-581X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4386790861
- Cited by
- 6
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 0.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Agritrop (Cirad) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- United States Agency for International Development (AIDOAAL1400006, OAA-L-14-00006)
- Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agricultural Research and Practices
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis
- Keywords
- agri-food systems, sustainable development, equity, research and innovation, innovation design, impact investing, Sustainable Development Goals, Paris Agreement, multi-stakeholder collaboration, research funding, systems approach
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