Due to the travel restrictions imposed as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the CCRI has been unable to welcome any visiting academics during the last 18-months. This was something that in ‘pre-COVID’ times the CCRI was regularly able to facilitate. However, we are very pleased to receive our first visiting research student since early 2020. Rafa Mesa joins us from the Inter-University Institute of Local Development of the University of Valencia, Spain.
Rafa is conducting his thesis on the diffusion of innovations or new practices in organic farming. The analysis is based on interviews and surveys to find out, firstly, where the knowledge that farmers acquire about the agricultural practices they introduce in their crops comes from, and secondly, to know the profile of the farmers, how they are predisposed to innovate. To do this, among others tools, he will use a Social Network Analysis methodology, in order to map the diffusion of knowledge in organic farming through the interactions between farmers.
