Taherzadeh, Alice

Taherzadeh, Alice
Start date:
October 2019
Research Topic:
Developing Agroecological Farmer to Farmer Agroecological Learning and Training Models: A Place-Based Perspective in the UK
Research pathway:
Research Supervisor:
Terry Marsden and Hannah Pitt
Supervising school:
Ysgol Cynllunio a Daearyddiaeth,
Primary funding source:
ESRC Studentship

Transitions to sustainable food systems require radical rethinking of agricultural research and training. Current top-down approaches to knowledge transfer – scientist to farmer – are inadequate to social, economic and environmental challenges facing the sector. Grassroots sustainability movements are setting a new agenda for farmer-led agricultural learning, inspired partly by farmer-to-farmer models developed in Latin America and promoted by the international peasant network La Via Campesina. However, such projects remain disconnected and peripheral to mainstream provision. The purpose of this research is to investigate how farmer-to-farmer learning models are shaped by place-based factors in order to inform coproduction of new models within the UK context and support shifts towards agroecological practice and continued development of locally-grounded agroecological knowledge.