Technology and innovation often meets with societal resistance, which can lead to disruption in diffusion. Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has been proposed to support societally intricate technologies in order to help embed them. At its core is the idea that the innovation process and its outcomes must align with the values, needs and expectations of society (Coles, Rawcliffe and Frewer, in press). It is, therefore, essential that all different societal actors work together during the whole research and innovation process (European Commission, 2015;Owen et al, 2012). Consequently, technology and innovation will be relatively uncontested and diffuse better through society.
The objective of this study, is to assess the social impacts of the implementation of novel precision agriculture (PA) techniques on small-medium sized commercial farms in China. We initially conducted a literature review focusing on both academic and policy documents to map out national policy landscape within China with respect to adoption of PA techniques. In parallel to this activity, we carried out 10 in-depth interviews with Chinese agriculture experts (i.e. academics and researchers) to ascertain their views on current agriculture practices and the future of PA techniques in Chinese agriculture. These interviews took place in September 2015 at the Joint International Conference on Intelligent Agriculture in Beijing. The initial analysis of the interview transcripts indicate that there is some discrepancy between experts regarding the type of farms that will adopt PA techniques, and the facilitators and barriers to adoption. The analysis of the expert interview transcripts is ongoing. The next task is to conduct interviews with farmers in three Chinese exemplar family farms in order to get their perspectives on existing practices, potential facilitators and barriers to adoption of novel PA techniques, and the impacts on social and economic functioning of local communities.
Owen, R., Macnaghten, P., & Stilgoe, J. (2012). Responsible research and innovation: From science in society to science for society, with society. Science and Public Policy, 39(6), 751-760.
Coles, D., Rawcliffe, A. and Frewer, L.J.(in press). The application of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) to agricultural and food production: A comparison between Chinese and European policy perspectives.