10 Policies, Processes and Institutions
production, economic, environmental and social dimensions of farming and food
systems. Courses in agroecology and organic farming are now becoming more
prevalent on university campuses in the Nordic region, Europe, US and elsewhere.
Geir Lieblin and colleagues observe that in most programmes and courses the
teaching methods have departed little from a strong emphasis on transmitting
information through lectures, some discussion and library readings, and periodic
trips to farms that often turn into lectures in the field. Adult education provides an
appropriate set of methods for learning about the complexities of farming systems.
Agroecology provides a new framework to organize learning opportunities for stu-
dents interested in solving challenges in today’s world. The authors’ programmes
in agroecology concentrate on discovery and learning. Rather than agroecological
theory having primary value, they immerse students in practical phenomena at the
farming and food system level, and let these phenomena determine what theory is
necessary and relevant. Teachers are converted from lecturers to leaders and cata-
lysts in the learning process.
Part IV: Enabling Policies and Institutions
The first chapter in Niels Roling and Annemarie Wagemakers’ 1998 book Facili-
tating Sustainable Agriculture sets out a series of significant challenges for actors
and institutions engaged with agricultural development and the sustainability
project. Five interlocking dimensions are identified, including agricultural prac-
tices, learning these practices, facilitating that learning, institutional frameworks
that support such facilitation, and conducive policy frameworks. Sustainability is
seen as an emergent property of systems – the outcome of the collective decision
making that arises from interaction among stakeholders. The formulation of sus-
tainability in this manner implies that the definition is part of the problem that
stakeholders have to resolve. This chapter describes the social energy required to
make the flip, and explores the prevalent paradigm for thinking about innovation
(which gets in the way of progress towards sustainability). Constructionism is the
term given to the epistemology which supports learning processes described in this
book. If everyone agrees about the goals, we can afford to worry about the best
technological means of securing those goals. If everyone agrees about the facts, we
can speak of objective truth. But these conditions rarely hold, and as reality is no
longer a given, then it becomes something that has to be constructed by people.
John Kerr and colleagues address a pervasive problem in agricultural develop-
ment. If farmers are paid to do something, such as adopt a new crop or build a ter-
race, then they are not likely to question the choice of technology, nor to adapt it to
their own conditions. At the same time, external professionals are not challenged to
ensure that technologies do indeed fit local conditions and needs. In this paper, the
use of subsidies in watershed development in India is analysed. The authors do not
argue that government support for agriculture and poverty alleviation should not