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R-6/21 Oversikt over norsk og global akvakultur og akvafôr

Report
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The basic objective of this report is to compare Norwegian and global aquaculture and the use of aquafeed reciprocally. We have formulated two main goals: 1) To compile information about the development in use of raw materials in compound feed for aquaculture and land-based animal husbandry respectively, taking updated information as of 2020 on feed for Norwegian aquaculture as point of departure, and 2) To strengthen the knowledge base for future decisions on sourcing and development of feed raw materials for Norwegian aquaculture in the light of international markets for food, availability of commodities as well as climate and environmental demands.

A-35/21 Combined solar and membrane drying technologies for sustainable fruit preservation in low-income countries –prototype development, modelling, and testing

  • Pia Piroschka Otte
  • Ricardo Bernardo
  • Henrik Davidsson
  • Peter Samuelsson
  • Gustaf Bengtsson
  • Viktor Döhlen
  • Joakim Olsson
  • Randi Phinney
  • Lucas Tivana
  • Martin Andersson
  • Marilyn Rayner
Article
Summary

This investigation consisted of developing and evaluating solar dryers together with semi-permeable membrane pouches for drying juicy fruits in low-income tropical countries. Two design iterations were carried out including prototype modelling and testing. The latest developed solar dryers were a passive and an active solar dryer. Modelling was initially carried out mathematically using an equation solver software followed by computational fluid dynamics. Preliminary measurements were carried out on a small-scale solar dryer. Thereafter, full-scale models were developed and tested, both in laboratory and in real conditions in Mozambique. Results from modelling were validated against measurements in laboratory in Sweden and field trials in Mozambique. Prototype building and testing in Mozambique was undertaken in collaboration with local farmers and a university. Measurement results show that the dryers help to prevent microbial growth through increased temperatures. The drying flux was increased by 50% for the passive, and by 100% for the active solar dryers compared to the ambient controls that did not use a solar dryer. The total drying time was below four days for all pouches in the dryers. The active solar dryer was shown to have the shortest drying time and the highest capacity (more pouches) but also the highest costs. Mould growth and juice fermentation were observed on control pouches drying in open air. These problems were solved with the use of solar dryer technology. However, some challenges with the membrane pouches require further development including degradation of the membrane when exposed to direct sunlight.

A-34/21 Boundaryless boundary-objects: Digital fencing of the CyborGoat in rural Norway

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Summary

This article describes a case study of virtual herding and digital fencing technology implementation for goats in Norway. With the abolishing of physical fences, the goats can roam free in a physical sense, but in the digital realm, they are controlled by a virtual fence. The virtual fence, or digital boundary, is set by the famers and interacts with a collar around the goats’ necks. The collar first give a sound signal and thereafter a small electric shock if the goats cross a boundary, resulting in the creation of new classifications and orderings of reality. This article focuses on what this disruption means for contemporary goat farming in terms of practices, perceptions and policies of (smart) farming, as well as how the goats themselves are given new meanings and ways of being. We analyze this with the theoretical concept of “boundary object” and see how goats, which contain a multiplicity of agency and autonomy, are transformed by smart-farming technologies. Collaboration and interaction are made possible despite the fact that the actors have widely different goals. Through negotiations between multiple actors, a new type of goat emerges between nature-, culture- and technology. We conceptualize this as “CyborGoat.” This boundary object facilitates new everyday agricultural settings, which brings new benefits and issues for different stakeholder actors involved.

A-33/21 The domestication triangle: How humans, animals and technology shape each other – The case of automated milking systems

  • Terje Finstad
  • Margrethe Aune
  • Kine Ariela Egseth
Article
Summary

This article investigates the domestication of milking robots, most often labelled automatic milking systems (AMS) into dairy farms in Norway. It shows that producers of AMS tend to represent the integration of the technology as a process where their expert systems aid and guide the farmer so that she learns how to be an ‘AMS farmer’. However, farmers' AMS-stories shows us that learning to live with AMS is a process that continues even after the AMS technology seems to have been fully integrated. Furthermore, cows and fellow farmers are central actors, but machines also learn in the process. Hence, we find a extended domestication process where farmers and cows not only adapt to the machine, but indeed that the machine also need to ‘learn’ how to function in particular farms. As such, we target a domestication triangle of machines, animals and farmers where all elements co-evolve. From this we argue that the concept of domestication in studies of agricultural technology needs to take a posthuman turn and focus on a domestication triangle of humans, animals and machines.

A-32/21 Using Aggregated Farm Location Information to Predict Regional Structural Change of Farm Specialisation, Size and Exit/Entry in Norway Agriculture

  • Klaus Mittenzwei
  • Sebastian Neuenfeldt
  • Alexander Gocht
  • Thomas Heckelei
  • Pavel Ciaian
Article
Summary

In this paper, we extend the analysis of farm structural change with respect to farm specialisation, size and exit in Norway by, first, explicitly incorporating the location information of farms generating a number of neighbouring farms within a certain range and, second, by predicting farm numbers in addition to farm group shares, which allows for consideration of the exit farm group. We use Norwegian single-farm full census data for the period 1996–2015. Four production specialisations and seven size classes represent farm groups, as well as a residual and an exit farm group at the regional level. The estimates indicate the explanatory power and importance of aggregated farm location information in the model. Simulation analysis showed that the farm groups develop differently, given a change in the number of neighbouring farms with respect to the farm numbers and farm group shares.
Agriculture 2021, 11(7), 643; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11070643

A-31/21 Local Integration as Durable Solution? Negotiating Socioeconomic Spaces between refugees and Host Communities in Rural Northern Uganda

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Summary

With a growing number of displaced people, there is a need for robust approaches to coping with displacement. Uganda has a progressive refugee policy that promotes freedom of movement and the socioeconomic rights of the refugees. Specifically, refugees are often allocated land to settle and cultivate rural settlements, and the integrated social service provision facilitates interaction with host communities. However, there remain challenges in creating sustainable livelihoods for refugees in rural settlements. There exist significant tensions over shared resources such as land, water, woodlots, and grazing areas. Based on a survey of 416 households and key informant interviews with South Sudanese refugees in selected settlements in the Adjumani district, the paper highlights refugees’ access to social and economic spaces as critical pathways to sustainable livelihoods and integration. Uganda’s progressive policy expands the opportunity space; however, refugees still encounter significant barriers in accessing the socioeconomic spaces. Sustainability 2021, 13(19), 10831; https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910831

A-30/21 Should we use email for farm surveys? A comparative study of email and postal survey response rate and non-response bias

Article
Summary

Many agricultural researchers are now turning away from the traditional postal surveys to email surveys of farmers – an option that is increasingly viable as digitalisation continues to permeate rural areas. However, email surveys often result in considerably lower response rates. This raises questions about the potential of email surveys to experience non-response bias, where the survey methodology excludes particular sectors of the general population and thus results in responses that do not represent the wider population. In this paper we address the issue of whether agricultural researchers should move from postal surveys to email surveys by comparing the results of two applications of the Norwegian national Trends survey – one to 3000 farmers via email and one to 3000 farmers via standard mail. The postal survey achieved a response rate of 41.1% – almost double that of the email survey at 21.4%. However, analysis of the returns suggested this had not led to greater non-response bias in the email survey. While respondents to the email survey were younger, better educated and more likely to be part-time farmers, comparing the entire survey revealed very few significant differences between the two samples. Where the difference was significant (in particular, attitudes towards technology), the scalar difference was so small that using different survey methods would not have led to different conclusions. Although there was no evidence that the low response rate compromised the email survey, we conclude that postal surveys may still be preferable because (a) there is less scope for non-response bias, and (b) having to double the gross survey size to achieve a sufficient sample size may create additional survey fatigue in the long term. We discuss the applicability of the findings to farm surveys in other countries.

A-29/21 Social transparency in rural areas in Norway: Promoting or restraining the desire to stay?

Article
Summary

“Everyone knows everyone” is a recurring characteristic in descriptions of rural communities, one that has been interpreted as both a benefit and a drawback in research on such localities. In response to that discrepancy, this paper investigates the overall statistical effect of social transparency on residents’ desire to continue living in their rural communities. As revealed by analyses of survey data representing a national sample of Norway’s rural population in 2016, social transparency did significantly increase respondents’ desire to maintain residency in their rural communities. In providing and explaining such results, the paper contributes to current understandings of social conditions that influence rural (non-)migration and rural resilience.

Politics and Policies of Rural Authenticisty

Book
Summary

This book explores the notion of rurality and how it is used and produced in various contexts, including within populist politics which derives their legitimacy from the rural-urban divide. The gap between the ‘common people’ and the ‘elites’ is widening again as images of rurality are promoted as morally pure, unalienated and opposed to the cultural and economic globalization. This book examines how using certain images and projections of rurality produces ‘rural authenticity’, a concept propagated by various groups of people such as regional food producers, filmmakers, policymakers, and lobbyists. It seeks to answer questions such as: What is the rurality that these groups of people refer to? How is it produced? What are the purposes that it serves? Research in this book addresses these questions from the areas of both politics and policies of the ‘authentic rural’. The ‘politics’ refers to polarizations including politicians, social movements, and political events which accentuate the rural-urban divide and brings it back to the core of the societal conflict, while the ’policies’ focus on rural tourism, heritage industry, popular art and other areas where rurality is constantly produced and consumed. With international case studies from leading scholars in the field of rural studies, the book will appeal to geographers, sociologists, politicians, as well as those interested in the re-emergence of the rural-urban divide in politics and media. Forlag: Routledge

N-2/21 Samarbeid om vekstskifte i jordbruket

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Variert vekstskifte er kjent innen agronomien som et effektivt jordforbedrings- og planteverntiltak med positiv effekt på både avlingsmengde og kvalitet, og dermed også på det økonomiske resultatet for bonden. I dette notatet har vi en praktisk tilnærming til samarbeid om vekstskifte mellom bønder, og vi retter søkelyset på hvilke forutsetninger et slikt samarbeid bør bygge på og på vilkår som bør være til stede for å lykkes. Vi ser også på mulige tiltak som kan bidra til å styrke samarbeidet, enten samarbeidet gjelder allsidige vekstskifter (korn, gras, potet og/eller grønnsaker), eller det gjelder samarbeid om enklere vekstskifter mellom for eksempel korn og gras, eller bare mellom ulike kornarter. I notatet foreslår vi flere tiltak for støtte opp om et vekstskiftesamarbeid, og mulige framgangsmåter i arbeidet. Vi har også et forslag til ei interessekartlegging blant mulige deltakere i et samarbeid, samt ei skisse til avtale om samarbeid. Målgruppe for notatet er primært rådgivere, bønder og andre som er interessert i vekstskiftesamarbeid på tvers av jordbrukseiendommer.

R-5/21 Interaksjons- og læringsprosesser i skogrelaterte innovasjonsprosjekter: En casestudie av et multiaktørprosjekt i Arena Skog

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Denne rapporten er basert på en casestudie relatert til arbeidspakke 4 i LIAISON-prosjektet, et EU-finansiert prosjekt under Horisont 2020-programmet. LIAISON skal bidra til å gi en oversikt over omfanget og variasjonen av ulike tilnærminger til innovasjon knyttet til jord- og skogbruk samt i bioøkonomien generelt slik at innovasjonstakten kan økes og kvaliteten forbedres. Prosjektet tar sikte på å bedre forståelsen av hva som er et vellykket innovasjonspartnerskap og hvordan man kan oppmuntre til flere slike vellykkede partnerskap og nettverk. I arbeidspakke 4 ble det gjennomført dybdestudier av 32 ulike innovasjonsprosjekt i Europa. Analysene skal bidra til utviklingen av bedre verktøy og samhandlingsmetoder for innovasjon. Ruralis var ansvarlig for to casestudier med norsk og nordisk perspektiv. Rapporten tar utgangspunkt i studien av et multiaktørprosjekt i næringsklyngen Arena Skog.

R-4/21 Evaluering av Grønn Forskning i Midt-Norge

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Since 2008, the initiative Grønn Forskning i Midt-Norge, «Green Research Central Norway» (GFMN), has sought to foster research that meets the needs of actors in the region’s agricultural sector. The initiative has facilitated dialogue and collaboration between farmers, research and development actors, and public-sector agencies. Thematic working groups identify knowledge and research needs and are complemented by seminars targeting research-funding organizations as well as project workshops to develop fundable research projects. This report summarizes Ruralis’ evaluation of GFMN, which was carried out from April-August 2021. The evaluation was requested by Trøndelag County Municipality in connection with its decision to grant financial support to the initiative in fall of 2020. The work has been conducted based on the initiative’s own working documents and reports, a review of relevant research literature, and 30 qualitative interviews with actors connected to the initiative.

A-26/21 A river runs through the landscape: Everyday use in an ever changing environment

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The meaning of riverine landscapes to society has evolved to serve our ever-changing needs, from harvesting and transporting resources to arenas for outdoor recreation and contemplation. From the 18th century, rivers have been important resources for industry and hydroelectric power. The objective of this study is to explore and describe the rhythms of everyday use of a river environment using multiple quantitative and qualitative methods, and to identify subjective, multiple and often competing relations. We use Lefebvre's concept of rhythmanalysis and Ingold's contextual approach as a tool for bridging scientific and methodological disciplines. Our results show a wide breadth in everyday activities and a dynamic relation between people and the river on multiple time scales. The use of the river environment appears orderly and predictable, but the wide spectrum of everyday users on different spatiotemporal scales is diverse and forms multiple rhythms at each locality. The partial lockdown in Norway in response to Covid-19 and the subsequent shifts in people's daily routines changed the rhythm of daily and weekly use patterns, and demonstrates how rhythms can change rapidly in the face of large-scale, societal agitation. We argue that rhythmanalysis is a useful analytical tool in interdisciplinary approaches to better understand the use and valuations of landscapes.

A-25/21 Agriculture in Transition: New Strategies for the Promotion of Occupational Health and Safety

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It is well documented that farming is a high-risk industry in terms of fatalities and injuries, and with numerous risk factors associated with operating the farm. It has also proved difficult to find evidence for the effectiveness of interventions. Moreover, farming is in transition, with ongoing technological transformations as well as becoming increasingly more globalized. Thus, new perspectives that allow for more systemic understandings in the management and promotion of occupational health and safety (OHS) are needed. Our main objective is to present an integrated theoretical understanding of the farm as an enterprise and an integrated element in the political-economic agricultural system. The main question is how can farmers organize and manage the farm, in order to simultaneously improve efficiency, quality and OHS based on systemic models for OHS and a systemic understanding of the political-economical system of Norwegian agriculture? The framework is adapted to the Norwegian agricultural context, with ongoing transformations both technologically and organizationally, including visions and plans set by Norwegian agriculture itself. However, the framework can be applied irrespective of national context. lack N.L., Neumann W.P., Noy I. (eds) Proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021). IEA 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 221. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74608-7_26

A-24/21 Balanced readiness level assessment (BRLa): A tool for exploring new and emerging technologies

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In this paper a methodology for a balanced readiness assessment of novel agricultural technologies is developed and presented. The methodology expand on the well-known Technology Readiness Level (TRL) assessments, with a method for assessing TRL as well as Market Readiness Level (MRL), Regulatory Readiness Level (RRL), Acceptance Readiness Level (ARL), and Organizational Readiness Level (ORL) in concert. In the article the Balanced Readiness Level assessment (BRLa) methodology is employed and illustrated on 1) a set of 36 novel agricultural technologies, and 2) on the development of a technology for virtual agricultural fences. The empirical applications in this article indicates that the BRLa- methodology may serve as a fruitful approach for a compound assessment of emerging technologies. The methdodology is relevant for actors involved in advisory services, funding, investment and technology development.

A-23/21 Farmers’ interest in crowdfunding to finance climate change mitigation practices

Article
Summary

Agricultural activities and associated land use change are a major contributor to global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making climate change mitigation in the agricultural sector all the more critical. However, farmers' willingness to adopt GHG abatement depends, to a large extent, on the financial implications of new practices. Climate change mitigation is unlikely to be adopted without external (financial, socio-cultural, or other) incentives. The research presented in this paper considers farmers' preferences for financing climate change mitigation practices through public crowdfunding. As a first study of its kind, we investigate farmers' attitudes towards climate change mitigation, knowledge of crowdfunding as a fundraising method, and interest in using public crowdfunding campaigns to finance on-farm mitigation practices. Based on a choice experiment survey with 443 Norwegian farmers, we show that knowledge about crowdfunding as an alternative finance method is generally low. Respondents who are interested in using crowdfunding prefer donation- or reward-based crowdfunding models that cover the full cost of mitigation over a loan-based model or campaigns that only fund a proportion of the costs. A financially secure farming business, previous exposure to crowdfunding, and a strong sense of responsibility to abate climate change are associated with higher farmers’ interest in using crowdfunding. We find that farmers in Norway are hesitant to be publicly presented as recipients of crowdfunding, which suggests that crowdfunding is best set up as joint campaigns (e.g. with other farmers) that are run by intermediary organisations (rather than by individual farmers). Our findings highlight that, while opportunities to use crowdfunding as a fundraising method for agricultural climate change may be limited, properly designed campaigns can provide an effective instrument to engage certain groups of farmers in on-farm climate change mitigation.