Process för bred analys av kunskapsbehov inom jordbruket

Process to identify and prioritise farmers knowledge needs for the Swedish agriculture. Several studies have pointed out gaps and shortcomings in the knowledge chain in Swedish agriculture (Swedish Board of Agriculture 2019, OECD 2018). Two questions that have been raised are whether the research has focused on the knowledge needs farmers really have and how the cooperation among the actors along the knowledge chain works. The goal of this pilot project was to develop and test, in a small scale, a process to identify and classify knowledge needs of Swedish farmers, in collaboration with key stakeholders along the knowledge chain in the agricultural sector. The long-term goal is to scale up the process to a national level to assess farmers needs in Swedish agriculture. The purpose is to highlight what knowledge farmers request all over Sweden and to provide input to the prioritization of research and development funds. The project was carried out during the Cov-19 pandemic 2020-2021, which limited the possibility of physical meetings, and all meetings were therefore digital. Four digital workshops were conducted in slightly different ways, with farmers representing two geographical areas. Each workshop had a unique set-up of participating farmers. At the workshops, the farmers discussed and prioritized their various knowledge needs. The material from the workshops was compiled into categories and sent out for feedback to various experts, in the broad sense. The experts classified the needs according to what knowledge is already available and whether this knowledge is easily accessible. They were also asked to rank their top three most important knowledge needs for each category. A process to capture, classify and prioritise farmers' knowledge needs is presented and tested in this study. This process captures farmers' knowledge needs in a broad sense and is favourably to be used as a complement to knowledge gaps identified by specialised interest groups, such as trade associations or sector-specific centres, to provide a comprehensive picture of farmers' knowledge needs. By collaboratively highlighting and discussing farmers' knowledge needs in a broader context, the process has potential to increase cooperation and knowledge exchange between the actors in the agricultural knowledge chain