Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems in European Union policy discourse: Quo vadis?

‘Sustainable intensification’ of agricultural production, or ‘producing more with less’, has been widely adopted as a policy approach by national governments and international agencies, including the European Union (EU) through its Common Agricultural Policy. Sustainable intensification will be facilitated through on-farm innovation in a process that is fostered by knowledge sharing between actors with complementary forms of knowledge. These actors, their organisations, the knowledge flows between them and the so-called ‘enabling environment’ constitute an ‘agricultural innovation system’ (AIS). This paper begins by reviewing recent international theoretical development of the AIS concept and of equivalent concepts in the EU. Although the international and EU development paths are similar, there are clear differences between them. It is argued that these different perspectives can be integrated into a single ‘multi-level’ model, with family farming at its centre. The paper then explores current agricultural innovation policy discourse in the EU. Based on the European Innovation Partnership ‘Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability’ (EIP-AGRI), this may result in the adoption of a new and contestable use of the term ‘Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System’ or ‘AKIS’ that is reminiscent of the EU’s treatment of the term ‘Rural Development’. The paper argues, however, that this development may in fact add clarity to the understanding of the agricultural innovation systems concept. Greater dialogue between researchers, policy makers and others in the EU and beyond offers the welcome prospect of greater coherence between future EU and international approaches to fostering agricultural innovation.