Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
farmers
regulators
processors
consumers
traders
Individual learning (micro level)
Organisational and Inter-organisational
learning (meso level)
Systemic learning (macro level)
Figure 14.4
Levels of learning among stakeholders in the organic sector. Learning levels shown
are micro (individual learning), meso (organisational and interorganisational learning) and macro
(systemic learning).
from other farmers, is placed at the micro level (Figure 14.4). Micro level learning can be both
informal and more formally organised (e.g. in farmer field-schools, farmer groups for co-
learning, farmer study groups). At the meso level (Box 14.4) are communities of learners at
local and regional levels or at a particular point in the supply chain (i.e. learning within coop-
eratives, farmer associations, trade unions, processing facilities).
Learning at the meso level requires that multiple stakeholders meet somewhere or somehow.
Here too, informal and more formally organised learning can take place. Examples of more
informal social learning at the meso level include farmers' markets where consumers and pro-
ducers interact and learn from the interaction (Box 14.4), or microfinancing schemes where
policy makers, intermediate institutions and poor farmers interact around loan schemes
(Pretty 2002) or where standard-setting organisations work jointly on a project to address
shared issues. The meso level may also be relevant within a particular circle (i.e. producer asso-
ciations, trader forums, unions, consumer associations, platforms of ACBs, standard-setting
organisations) and can become a first step towards more systemic learning (e.g. subsystem
learning). The SASA project is an example of systemic learning (Box 14.5).
At the macro level there is systemic learning that takes place within an entire sector, involv-
ing all stakeholders in the supply chain and certification hierarchy. A key assumption underly-
ing this type of learning is that the whole system is more than the sum of the participants and
their relationships making up the system, and that systemic innovation can take place only
with the full participation of all contributing to the system.
