NEW PAPER KLAXON!

Want to know how farmers are influenced by their network of peers to try more sustainable agricultural practices?

Then check out our #OpenAccess article to find out more! https://emeraldopenresearch.com/articles/2-8/v2 

tl;dr:

Who farmers are connected with influences their farm management decisions.

Being in a diverse network that's open to innovation and includes a range of stakeholders increases the chance farmers will try a more sustainable agricultural practice

"Social capital" and its counterparts (trust, norms, connectedness and power) are crucial in fast-tracking the adoption of more sustainable agricultural practices.

But our review found that there is not one simple recipe to follow to create successful social capital

We found that power has been inadequately addressed in research on social capital and sustainable agriculture.

Power within a network is critical to understand as it is the overarching force that influences everything.

Building effective networks that spread uptake of sustainable agricultural practices is hard but here are some common themes we found in our review:

- trust is key
- there needs to be the norm for innovation/openness to change present

- close-knit conservative farming communities that have limited influence from outsiders limit adoption of new practices
- sustainable agriculture practitioners need to tackle the issue of power. This means getting an external facilitator involved to help redress the imbalances

Watch this space for a more in-depth empirical analysis of how exactly trust influences uptake of more sustainable agricultural practices - the manuscript is in preparation!

@CCRI_UK @cretweeting one for you? New paper with authors from both these institutions