Key Drivers of the Engagement of Farmers in Social Innovation for Marginalised Rural Areas

Baselice, Antonio; Lombardi, Mariarosaria; Prosperi, Maurizio; Stasi, Antonio; Lopolito, Antonio

doi:10.3390/su13158454

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Key Drivers of the Engagement of Farmers in Social Innovation for Marginalised Rural Areas

Antonio Baselice

Mariarosaria Lombardi

^2,*

Maurizio Prosperi

Antonio Stasi

¹ and

Antonio Lopolito

Department of Agriculture, Food, Natural Resource and Engineering (DAFNE), University of Foggia, 71122 Foggia, Italy

Department of Economics, University of Foggia, 71121 Foggia, Italy

Department of Economics, Management and Territory, University of Foggia, 71121 Foggia, Italy

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editors: Pedro Verga Matos and Tania Pereira Christopoulos

Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8454; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158454

Received: 16 June 2021 / Revised: 24 July 2021 / Accepted: 26 July 2021 / Published: 28 July 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Innovation and Sustainability)

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Abstract

The European Union promotes social innovation (SI) initiatives for the support of marginalised rural areas through rural and sustainable development policies. These are based on the engagement of local actors and the strengthening of their mutual relationships to boost the fostering of professional collaborations. In this context, the Horizon 2020 Social Innovation in Marginalised Areas (SIMRA) project elaborated a conceptual framework for characterising the engagement in an SI initiative. Accordingly, this paper aims to demonstrate that engagement relies on specific key drivers, such as the existence of unmet social needs and the role of agency. To this end, a two-step Heckman model was applied to an SI initiative case study called Vàzapp’, a rural hub (agency) located in Southern Italy. It promotes relationships among farmers to valorise the marginalised rural areas. The results appear consistent with the theoretical framework, demonstrating that the farmers’ engagement was motivated by the existence of the aforementioned determinants. The implications are relevant for policymakers, consultants, and social innovators who may incorporate these elements in designing specific SI projects in different contexts. View Full-Text

Keywords: social innovation; relationships; marginalised rural areas; rural hub; farmers engagement; two-stage model; collaboration creation

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Baselice, A.; Lombardi, M.; Prosperi, M.; Stasi, A.; Lopolito, A. Key Drivers of the Engagement of Farmers in Social Innovation for Marginalised Rural Areas. Sustainability 2021, 13, 8454. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158454

AMA Style

Baselice A, Lombardi M, Prosperi M, Stasi A, Lopolito A. Key Drivers of the Engagement of Farmers in Social Innovation for Marginalised Rural Areas. Sustainability. 2021; 13(15):8454. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158454

Chicago/Turabian Style

Baselice, Antonio, Mariarosaria Lombardi, Maurizio Prosperi, Antonio Stasi, and Antonio Lopolito. 2021. "Key Drivers of the Engagement of Farmers in Social Innovation for Marginalised Rural Areas" Sustainability 13, no. 15: 8454. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158454

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Author Biographies

Antonio Baselice

Antonio Baselice undertook the master’s degree in Agricultural Science and Technologies and Ph.D. in Management of innovation on Mediterranean agro-food systems at the University of Foggia (Italy). He was visiting scholar at the “Department of Resource Economics”, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (USA). He had a two-years research private contract with the Department of Sciences of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the University of Foggia for the project “Methods for evaluating the social aspects of social innovation and its impacts”.

Mariarosaria Lombardi

Since 2006, Mariarosaria Lombardi has been assistant professor in Commodity Sciences at the Department of Economics, University of Foggia (Italy). She undertook a degree in Economics and PhD. in "Commodity Sciences" at the University of Bari (Italy). She deals with the socio-economic and environmental aspects of innovations in production processes (energy from biomass, urban carbon footprint, social innovation in agriculture, climate change and food innovations). In 2019, she received the certification of “Climate Shaper” from the Future Food Institute and FAO . She is a member of Vazapp, a social innovation initiative that promotes a more sustainable development of the agro-food system.

Maurizio Prosperi

Maurizio Prosperi is an Agricultural Economist specializing in Rural Development. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agriculture, Food, Natural resources and Engineering, at the University of Foggia (Italy). He completed his bachelor's degree in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Bologna (Italy), and his Master's and Doctoral courses in Agricultural Sciences at Kyoto University (Japan). Currently, he teaches Rural Appraisal and Farm Accounting, and Management of Logistic Networks in the Agri-Food sector. His main research activities are related to: analysis of social innovation initiatives in rural areas; economics of irrigation water systems; strategies for the development of biorefinery schemes; participatory approaches for supporting multi-stakeholder strategy formulation. He has attended several international conferences and has published about twenty articles in reputable Journals.

Antonio Stasi

Antonio Stasi (MSc, PhD) is professor of Agricultural Economics and Statistics at the University of Foggia, where her serves as provost for social innovation activities. His research focuses mainly on consumers’ behavior towards agri-food products and social innovation models. The common element of his research is econometric modeling and advances in statistical analysis. He is a team member at Vazapp where he is responsible for international activities . Finally, he is coordinating the local group for the RURITAGE project.

Antonio Lopolito

Antonio Lopolito is Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics at the Department of Economics, Management and Territory, University of Foggia (Italy). His main research interests focus on behaviors spread through social networks and on agents' expectations convergence. A first line of research uses agent based models to understand how social networks dynamics can impact the spread of new behaviors or novelties. He uses also field experiments to analyzes how a shared vision can emerge among agents. His research activity has given rise to about thirty scientific articles published in several international indexed scientific journals.

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