The need for a new agro innovation system

Agriculture has seen a tremendous development in both production and productivity growth during the last decades. A continuous innovation effort was at the heart of these positive developments. And with that growth, the negative effects on the physical and social environment have also become apparent. For the coming decades the world population will continue to grow, and rising incomes will lead to the increasing demand for food and other agricultural produce. These developments urge the agricultural sector to shift toward a more sustainable development so that production will continue to rise and the impact on the environment will diminish. Systems innovation is needed to bring this about. Based on a large number of action experiments we propose five assumptions that may alter the way in which innovation can be organized and stimulated. This book explores the validity and applicability of these assumptions building on an extensive body of research of various disciplines, that was carried out alongside the action experiments. The results are presented as a practical model to transform agro innovation.