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The diffusion of sustainable family farming practices in Colombia: an emerging sociotechnical niche?

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Abstract

There is significant potential for family farming to contribute to several dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. Our research aims to provide insights to help strengthen sustainable family farming. We focus on initiatives that have advanced sustainable family farming innovations in Colombia and analyse the factors and dynamics that have led to the limited penetration of those innovations across the country. To that aim, a transformative methodology is applied involving representatives of farmers’ associations, supporting organisations and researchers from various disciplinary fields. We analyse the network of initiatives against the conceptual background of sociotechnical niches and identify a stable niche where generic lessons are being systematically identified and used to establish replication projects. However, this niche is still limited in its breadth, which results in a low capacity for expansion and a strong dependency on international donors for reproducing experiences. Specific recommendations are outlined for broadening the type of actors involved in the interpretation and dissemination of lessons from the niche. Moreover, we outline suggestions for further research and conceptualisation in two directions: for exploring effective ways of broadening the niche and translating niche lessons to state policies and for deepening the understanding of interactions between the niche and other levels.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support from the WISIONS initiative (http://www.wisions.net) was invaluable for this study. Our most sincere thanks go to the management and promoters team at ASPROINCA and the coordinators of the RedBioCol network for their support for the organisation of the cbMLS. Moreover, this research would not have been possible without the valuable contributions made by all the participants at the case encounter in Riosucio; the experiences, knowledge and ideas they shared were essential for this study, and we would like thank them all. We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped us to improve the quality of the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Doeppersberg 19, 42103, Wuppertal, Germany

    Willington Ortiz

  2. Leuphana University Lüneburg, Universitätsalle 1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany

    Willington Ortiz & Ulli Vilsmaier

  3. Corporación Universitaria Minuto De Dios-Uniminuto, Calle 146 Nr. 13-28 AP 331, Bogotá, Colombia

    Álvaro Acevedo Osorio

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  1. Willington Ortiz
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  2. Ulli Vilsmaier
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Correspondence to Willington Ortiz.

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Handled by Karel F. Mulder, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.

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Ortiz, W., Vilsmaier, U. & Acevedo Osorio, Á. The diffusion of sustainable family farming practices in Colombia: an emerging sociotechnical niche?. Sustain Sci 13, 829–847 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-017-0493-6

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