The international project team consists of a mix of academic and non-academic
partners from seven countries
across Europe (UK, France, Italy, Poland
and Spain) and South America (Chile and
Argentina). The project has provided a
fantastic platform for the partners and
wider food chain stakeholders to exchange
experience, best practice and knowledge at
international level in order to advance research and practice towards achieving
sustainability in agriculture.
Co-ordinated by Dr Jorge Hernandez from
University of Liverpool, the Plymouth team
is led by Shaofeng, working with Associate
Professor Lynne Butel, Professor Phil Megicks,
Dr Carmen Lopez and Dr Lucas Manzoni (and
Huilan Chen, Guoqing Zhao and Jiang Pan as
early stage researchers).
The team have had wide access to, and learnt
from, experts and organisations at all stages
of the agricultural value chain, including
farms, co-operatives, food processors,
distributors, wholesalers, retailers and
customers. A knowledge networking and
mobilisation framework has been developed
based on empirical research in various
countries and regions, by
taking into account value chain wide risks,
uncertainties and resilience factors. The
framework provides approaches to identifying
and prioritising knowledge network types,
mobilisation strategies and risk factors, as well
as to establishing their impact on value chain
efficiency and resilience.
The next stage of the work will investigate
relevant implications for value chain
management in agricultural practice such
as seed selection, cauliflower planting
optimisation, pumpkin shelf-life management,
fresh lettuce packaging and distribution, and
tomato processing and preservation.