From Food Production to Food Security - Global Environmental ...

into actions (strategies, policies, interventions, technologies) leading to better and more sustainablelivelihoods.5 Learning orientationResearch projects are more likely to be successful in linking knowledge with action when they aredesigned as much for learning as they are for knowing. Such projects are frankly experimental,expecting and embracing failures so as to learn from them throughout the project’s life. Such learningdemands that risk-taking managers are funded, rewarded and regularly evaluated by external experts.6 Continuity with flexibilityGetting research into use requires strengthening links between organizations and individuals operatinglocally, building strong networks and innovation/response capacity, and co-creating communicationstrategies and boundary objects/products.7 Manage asymmetries of powerEfforts linking knowledge with action are more likely to be successful when they manage to ‘level theplaying field’ to generate hybrid, co-created knowledge and deal with the often large (and largelyhidden) asymmetries of power felt by stakeholders.Who are the stakeholders in the GEC–food security debate?The term stakeholder is now commonly employed to denote ‘all parties with a voluntary orinvoluntary legitimate interest in a project or entity’ (Brklacich et al., 2007). For issues offood security, in addition to those involved in the food system activities per se (e.g. foodproducers, processes, packers, distributors, retailers, consumers), stakeholders includefunding agencies, national/regional policy agencies, non-governmental organizations(NGOs), civil society groups, business (and increasingly the energy sector, as opposed tobiofuels), individuals and communities affected by GEC, and the researchers themselves. Forresearch projects that involve a significant natural resource management component at thelocal level (as is often the case in field-based, food production research), the resourcemanagers (who are often, but not exclusively, farmers, fishers, pastoralists, etc.) themselvesare usually critically important stakeholders. Indeed, methods and approaches for identifyingand engaging farmers in the research process, especially in the development agriculturearena, have given rise to a wide body of literature (Chambers et al., 1989; Okali et al., 1994;Martin and Sherington, 1997; Haggar et al., 2001; Ortiz et al., 2008a).The initial problem facing researchers is to identify who the other stakeholders are, that is,with whom researchers should aim to engage. This can be helped by being clear not only onwho the intended target or beneficiary groups are (e.g. impoverished smallholder farmers;urban communities) but also on how food security research is intended to assist them. Thismeans establishing by what route, and mediated by which institutions and structures, the66