Knowledge Asymmetries Between Research and Practice: A Social Systems Approach to Implementation Barriers in Organic Arable Farming

Summary

Research in organic cropping systems has identified basic principles for increasing the robustness and production level of organic arable systems. But even though farmers know these principles, they have not implemented them in practice. This paper aims to improve our understanding of this “knowledge gap” using the theory of knowledge asymmetries, and discusses the implications for research, extension and practice. The paper is based on interviews with 10 organic arable farms focused on how to understand the barriers from the perspective and context of the farming system. The findings show that some barriers are due to lack of knowledge of suggested actions, calling for more ordinary dissemination. But this cannot at all explain all the barriers. The farming systems face paradoxes of fragmented knowledge; if they try to improve one problem, this creates other problems. More scientific knowledge produces more paradoxes, and the farming systems lack tools to handle this. Systems research is meant to counteract this fragmentation, but has difficulties dealing with the plurality of practical contexts. And science has to deal with the dilemma of being superior and minor to practice at the same time. A perspectival understanding of science could be a step in that direction.