Understanding transitions in agriculture: pathways from conventional to sustainable production systems

Practical, affordable, climatic, and environmentally conscious; sustainable Best Management Practices (BMPs) represent a growing alternative to dominant conventional methods of agricultural production. As BMP adoption decisions are made at the farm-level, they are influenced by the system that they are embedded within, and they are diverse and context-specific. Through a systematic review of literature this paper aims to examine the drivers and barriers influencing farmer’s motivations and uptake of sustainable practices. In an effort to understand how to increase the prevalence of BMP use and trigger a transition from the current agri-food system‚ dominated by a productivist paradigm, and the rationale of economic growth over ecological stability‚ this paper proposes the use of the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP). Highlighting the relationship between niche-, regime, and landscape-dynamics, the MLP provides a framework to examine the methods by which small, dynamic segments of society or system can disrupt and destabilize existing and powerful regimes. Applying the MLP to our review of literature, this paper argues that much of the existing scholarship on factors impacting farmer’s adoption of BMPs currently lacks critical examination of the relationships which support transitions to sustainability, and future research could be strengthened through the consideration of interaction and interdependence across levels in the system. Additionally, we propose the use of the Positive Deviance approach to help in identifying and recognizing niche-innovations and actors, deepening understandings of the existing structural/institutional barriers faced by farmers, and the means by which these are being overcome. This research study is financed by OMAFRA. Funding: OMAFRA through the Ontario Agri-food Innovation Allianc