Background:

Over recent years, our Agro-Food Systems have become increasingly industrialized, capital intensive and globally extensive, thus causing a uniformity in agricultural production and significant ecological impact. Moreover, the concentrated control of product markets, with a small number of big organizations and the information asymmetries, has led to a detrimental effect on the economic sustainability of farmers who are subjected to a continuous imbalance of their bargaining power and to a crisis of trust in mass-produced ‘placeless and faceless’ among consumers.

To overcome limits of mainstream agro-business system through more sustainable ways of doing business, recently, many grassroots initiatives based on the synergic collaboration among farmers and consumers networks, are emerged in many countries, shaping different organizational forms in relation to the socio-economic context of the reference territories. These initiatives, which goes under the umbrella term Alternative Argo Food Networks- AAFNs, propose new and alternative business models characterized by the minimization of intermediary in the food supply chain and by a re-connection or close communication among producers and consumers thus shortening the distance - physical, social, cultural, and economic - between world production and world consumption.

• Direct on-farm sales
• Pick-your-own
• Farmers’ markets
• Box schemes
• Community supported agriculture
• Collective farm shops
• Buying groups/clubs

Even if these alternative business models can be shaped into different organizational forms, they all provide, and at the same time are fostered, by a sort of liminal space that subverts the normal experience of food shopping and where a variety of local lay knowledge related to agriculture, rural economy, the environment, food production, healthy eating and consumer values, may be exchanged, thus offering Learning Opportunities both to consumers and to producers.

Nowadays, such information/knowledge exchange may be supported by mobile services that can increase consumers/producers context awareness

The project:

As the use of mobile devices continues to grow, mobile applications have become an incredibly effective way of providing information and resources to a wide audience. Through a multi-case study analysis of local food systems and rural areas and a web review of ICT tools for Alternative Agro Food Networks (AAFNs), the SOFIA project aims to concive of, design and develop a mobile application to support the context awareness and information/knowledge exchange among farmers and consumers adhering to AAFNs. Moreover, it will endeavour to create innovative, facilitatory and safe cooperative communication environments and to foster intellectual, social and relational capital flows among AAFNs’ partners.

Sofia project will analyze innovative organizational models and explore the value of the use of ICT tools (in particular mobile and ubiquitous services) to increase Situated Learning Opportunities in AAFNs, through a multi-case study analysis of local food systems and rural areas, and a web review of ICT tools for AAFNs.

The expected impact of the research is to define a set of reproducible methodologies, models, tools and technologies that can improve the competitiveness of a selected area, leveraging its potential in terms of materials and intangible resources.

In addition, the study will aim to identify, analyze, and classify ICT tools supporting the management of information flows both for decision-making and for operational processes in the identified collaborative networks, in order to improve mutual understanding and collaboration between value chain stakeholders, thus contributing to sustainable development pathways of a local food systems and rural areas.