14th AIEAA Conference "Reconciling competitiveness and sustainability in the agrifood system: the role of knowledge and innovation" - Pisa, 18-20 June 2025

Reconciling competitiveness and sustainability in the agrifood system: the role of knowledge and innovation

The European farmers' protests in 2023 and early 2024, even if triggered by countries-specific issues, have in common the unsolved trade-off between complying with environmental restrictions the EU imposes on farmers and competing in a context where non-EU producers are not subject to the same environmental and food safety regulations. Indeed, farmers, on one side, face a demand for more sustainable production models; on the other side, they experience deep competition in the global market in a context of fast, sometimes radical, changes in technologies. At the same time, society plays a crucial role, being more aware of the environmental risks of agricultural activities and the potential food waste and advocating for a more sustainable food chain.

The Commission's answers to the wave of protests, the proposed amendments to CAP regulations and the weakening of some environmental initiatives, represent only a temporary solution. If farmers and their representatives consider them a "success", the position of consumers and environmentalists is diametrically opposed.

To address these trade-offs in the agrifood system and potentially solve the related conflicts in our society, reconciling competitiveness and sustainability in the agrifood system becomes a priority. That requires deepening the relationships between these two concepts and carefully analysing factors that can affect them.

In 2015, the AIEAA Conference "Innovation, productivity and growth: towards agrifood production" dealt with the themes of sustainability and innovation. However, the questions and the issues that inspired the scientific debate then were rather different. At that time, the main concern was the relationship between innovation and productivity, productivity and growth, sustainable agricultural innovations, and long-term patterns of food production. Since then, the international scenario has profoundly and unpredictably changed. First, the pandemic, then the wars, the rethinking of globalisation and multilateral relationships, the role of some emerging actors like China, India, and Brazil, the extremisation of climate events and global warming, the advance in the digital and ecological transformations, all these external factors have contributed to new dynamics and unprecedented thinking.

In light of all these new critical factors, the 2025 AIEAA Conference intends to investigate the links between sustainability and competitiveness, ideally bridging the work of ten years ago and moving forward in the research and discussion.

Both sustainability and competitiveness are broad concepts, and the relationship between them, as well as the factors that influence this relationship, may depend on the territorial scale - whether the focus is on the national, regional, or farm level - on the time perspective (short-run and long-run), on the general development level, and on the perspectives of different actors involved. Knowledge and innovation can play a relevant role in bridging these two concepts. However, their drivers, generation and diffusion processes, and characteristics can differ according to the analysis scale and perspective.

Innovation is one of the principal strategies for reconciling competitiveness and sustainability in the agrifood system by encompassing several different areas:

- technological advancements, such as 4.0 agriculture and over, sustainable intensification, and precision agriculture;

- management strategies, such as sustainable management practices, that can adapt to environmental pressures without compromising productivity;

- investment policies, which are crucial for maintaining competitiveness in an uncertain environment, including protecting agricultural firms from a range of risks (natural risks, market risks, etc.).

It is of the utmost importance to comprehend how agricultural economics and associated disciplines can facilitate the delineation of transformation pathways, transcending the anachronistic zero-sum paradigm. That will enable the generation of mutually advantageous win-win scenarios that augment environmental and societal value, while concomitantly reinforcing organisational competitiveness.

The XIV AIEAA Conference aims to deepen this analysis and puts knowledge and innovation at the core of the scientific and cultural debate on reconciling agrifood system competitiveness and sustainability goals in terms of development trajectories and policies. We invite scientists, academics, public officers, and stakeholders in the field of agrifood system to discuss this relevant topic and intend to contribute to the current debate on how to find a reliable and viable way to rethink the role of knowledge and innovation in the contemporary agrifood system. AIEAA welcomes contributions based on methodological and conceptual approaches, policy analyses, empirical models, and case study presentations.

Specific issues to be addressed include:

- Assessing coherence and trade-offs between economic, social, and environmental sustainability in the agrifood system;

- Sustainable and/or competitive agrifood systems models;

- Adoption and diffusion of innovations;

- Knowledge share, access, exchange and use in the context of Agricultural Innovation Systems;

- New policies and new approaches to support innovation in the agrifood systems;

- Social innovation and new governance of agrifood systems;

- Digital and ecological transitions for sustainable agrifood systems;

- Innovation to improve resilience in agrifood systems;

- Policies, analysis and tools to help agrifood businesses adapt and manage income risks.

AIEAA welcomes the submission of contributions on the topics above. However, the submission of contributions on other agricultural and applied economics topics is also encouraged.