Living Lab: Making it easier for farmers and entrepreneurs to find the right information and advice

Latvia

The Latvian Living Lab aimed to improve the engagement of farmers and other entrepreneurs with the resources and facilities of the agricultural advisory system in Latvia.

Context, theme and target group

The provision of agricultural advice in agriculture in Latvia is decentralised. An increasing number of public, private and third sector organisations are involved in providing advice to farmers, however there is little coordination among them.

The Latvian AKIS also remains fragmented and is not perceived as a coherent and unified system. Consequently, many different forms of knowledge, advice and instruction exist for farmers. However only a few of them have the time or skills to navigate the advisory system, especially when they do not have a clear understanding of their professional needs or where to start looking for help.

The primary target group of the Latvian Living Lab was small farmers and other entrepreneurs requiring professional advice about fruit and vegetable processing and marketing.

This target group experiences a very specific “gap” in the available services offered to them. Whilst there are many freely available information materials and different forms of instruction and guidance available on the production and marketing of processed fruit or vegetable products, the channels through which relevant materials, individuals or organisations can be easily located are limited.

Partner and contact person

Baltic Studies Centre

Emils Kilis, emils.kilis@gmail.com

BSC is an independent scientific institute that undertakes action-oriented research with a focus upon the needs of practitioners and the provision of practical support for sustainable innovations.

The facilitator of the Latvian Lab was Dalija Segliņa. Dalija is a senior researcher at the Latvian Institute of Horticulture and has extensive experience and understanding of practical horticulture. Her knowledge and contacts greatly enhanced the team’s ability to build relationships with key stakeholders.

http://www.bscresearch.lv/

The Living Lab story

The Latvian Living Lab was launched in late 2017 with the clear identification of a “gap” in the advisory services offered to farmers and small producers. After consulting with various experts, it was agreed there was a lack of assistance regarding the processing and marketing of fruits and vegetables that could help farmers and small producers adopt sustainable business strategies and ensure their livelihoods.

Whilst it was easy to identify the problem, the process of creating a solution tailored to the Latvian context was more complicated and required effective engagement with stakeholders to ensure that the solutions proposed were focussed, feasible and fit for purpose.

During consultation with experts in January 2018, the idea of a new online platform was proposed to allow farmers and growers to i) easily identify areas where assistance is required, and; ii) quickly and efficiently find where they can obtain it. It was initially proposed to cover horticulture in its entirety, but then gradually decided to focus only on processing and marketing.

Many farmers and entrepreneurs in Latvia use online facilities and regularly subscribe, for example, to mailing lists to find about upcoming events of potential interest to them. Some agricultural advisors consulted in the Living Lab explained that their clients are very comfortable using phone apps.

The majority of 2018 was spent trying to find an optimal way of engaging the potential users of the online platform. The platform was presented at several events attended by farmers and entrepreneurs during summer and autumn. However, the overall impression, based on the responses of participants, was that a more interactive presentation of the platform was needed to encourage more comprehensive and useful feedback. At the end of 2018, it was therefore decided to create a visual representation of the online platform.

Visualising the platform for the purposes of presenting the platform to potential end-users was a valuable experience as it forced the Living Lab participants to confront the fact that they had been working with a very abstract idea of what the platform would be. Furthermore, it raised awareness of the need to spend more time thinking about how to present the online tool. The feedback received from advisors and experts on the visual representation was very useful and the Living Lab moved ahead with building the actual platform.

More information on progress with the Living Lab is included in the links below.

Lessons learned

Participation and engagement
While active participation by different actors and stakeholders should be encouraged, the extent of their involvement will probably vary from Living Lab to Living Lab and may depend on the cultural specificities of the country in question.

Traditional ways
Although the Living Lab set out to alter the way that farmers navigate the existing advisory system in Latvia, it was important to recognise and appreciate that some farmers have good working relationships with their local advisors and that care must be taken not to disrupt these relationships (with the risk of unclear consequences). The Living Lab therefore needed to look for solutions that focussed not only on correcting the weaknesses of the existing system, but also that built upon the strengths that exist.

Ambition
The Living Lab had to constantly narrow down its ambition in order to come up with something that could work and continue to exist after the AgriLink project had concluded.

More info about the Latvian Living Lab (in English)

Practice Abstract 4 – Building platforms for improved advisor-practitioner communication: the Latvian Living Lab (Baltic Studies Centre)

A blog dedicated to the Latvian living lab: https://livinglablv.blogspot.com

A video about the Latvian living lab broadcast on Latvian public television: https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/lauku-konsultantu-petijuma-veido-tiessaistes-informacijas-kratuvi.a341650/

Blog post on AgriLink site:

Farm Advisors

Policy-makers

Researchers

Farmers

Others