Catalysing agrofood sector innovation ENoLL FAO Workshop Rome 25-26. January 2011

1. 
Catalysing
agrofood
sector
innovation
Do$.
Francesco
Molinari,
mail@francescomolinari.it

2. 2
Contents
 Where
 Why
 Who
 How
 What
 Lessons
learnt
Francesco
Molinari

3. 3
Where
The
N/W
“>p”
of
Tuscany
Lunigiana
14
municipali4es,
56,000
inhabitants,
4,000
unemployed,
5,300
enterprises
(800
agricultural
-­‐
1,600
craB
firms)
Francesco
Molinari

4. 4
Where
(2)
Francesco
Molinari

5. 5
Where
(3)
Francesco
Molinari

6. 6
Why
 Agriculture
has
largely
become
an
informal
ac>vity:
 “Second
job”
for
most
regular
employees
 Lowest
produc<vity
and
size,
high
dispersion
of
agricultural
firms
 Old
age
of
local
farmers
(>65)

need
to
ensure
the
con>nuity
of
business
and
its
permanence
on
the
territory
 Wish
to
break
the
“vicious
circle
of
depression”
 Low
market
demand

no
incen4ve
to
increase
quan4ty
and/or
improve
quality
of
produc4on!
 Poor
knowledge
and
innova<on
capacity
in
local
players
 A
long
track
record
of
“failures”
in
“top
down”
enterprise
support
policies
Francesco
Molinari

7. 7
Why
(2)
 An
untapped
poten<al
deriving
from:
 A
few
products
interna>onally
renowned
for
taste
and
quality,
some
holding
a
EU
cer>fica>on
(e.g.
Honey
PDO,
Chestnut
Flour,
Val
di
Magra
Wine
PGI,
“ Testaroli”
etc.)
 Local
consump<on
of
agricultural
products
as
part
of:
 Touris>c
promo>on
of
the
rural
and
mountain
territory
 The
experience
of
an
invaluable
‘quality
of
life’
 The
communitarian
/
collabora<ve
structure
of
local
society
 Some
na<onal
/
interna<onal
rela<ons
brought
into
the
project
by
a
group
of
visionary
people…
 The
“open
innova<on”
approach
implemented
“for,
by
and
with”
the
people
to
opera>onalise
“bo$om
up”
strategies
for
rural
development
Francesco
Molinari

8. 8
Who
 A
non
profit
associa<on
under
the
Italian
law
 Established
in
January
2007,
now
coun>ng
120+
members
and
200+
associates
(mostly
from
the
agricultural
and
agritourism
sector)
 A
‘light’
structure,
with
minimal
costs
of
func>oning
 HQs
located
in
the
Terrarossa
Castle,
in
the
very
heart
of
Lunigiana
 Like
any
‘virtual’
organiza>on,
Lunigiana
Amica
does
not
imply
significant
membership
fees
 Run
and
managed
by
its
members
 Each
member
can
freely
and
seamlessly
join
or
leave
any
internal
cluster
(project)
of
Lunigiana
Amica,
following
their
con>ngent
requirements,
interests
and
opportuni>es.
Francesco
Molinari

9. 9
Who
(2)
Francesco
Molinari

10. 10
Who
(3)
Francesco
Molinari

11. 11
How
LA
≈
120-­‐150
en>>es
Members
Local
Firms
&
≈
250-­‐300
Partners
Lunigiana
Business
≈
2,500+
Community
…
a
Catalyser
of
Local
Innova2on
…
Francesco
Molinari

12. 12
How
(2)
LA
Associa>on
Informal
Informal
Informal
partnership
#1
partnership
#2
partnership
#N
Project
#1
Project
#2
project
#N
Third
Par>es
Francesco
Molinari

13. 13
What
Establish
a
distribu<on
and
Promote
the
consump<on
of
marke<ng
centre
for
Lunigiana’s
agricultural
products
in
the
same
agricultural
and
crah
products,
in
area
of
produc<on
by
means
of:
coopera>on
with
a
local
coopera>ve
par>cipa>on
in
local
fairs,
strategic
company
based
in
the
area.
alliances
with
the
agritourism
and
Ho.Re.Ca.
sectors,
etc.
Favour
an
increase
in
quan<ty
and
Create
a
virtual
competence
centre,
quality
of
local
agricultural
(and
networking
with
European
and
bio-­‐)
products
through
finding
new
interna>onal
best
prac>ces
in
rural
markets
and
opportuni>es
for
development
and
ICT
innova>on,
programming
(e.g.
school
providing
valuable
services
canteens,
new
Regional
law
to
the
whole
Lunigiana.
on
agritourism
etc.)
Francesco
Molinari

14. 14
What
(2)
Francesco
Molinari

15. 15
What
(3)
Francesco
Molinari

16. 16
What
(4)
As
a
follow-­‐up
of
a
na>onal
project
on
fire
preven>on
in
the
rural
and
mountain
areas
of
Italy,
we
have
established
in
2007-­‐2008
an
innova<ve
pilot
(FRAIL)
-­‐
based
on
mobile
technologies
-­‐
in
the
specific,
real-­‐life
scenario
of
fire
risk
monitoring
and
control.
The
pilot
won
recogni>on
of
FP6
WearIT@Work
IP
as
a
take-­‐up
ac>on
and
its
results
were
presented
at
the
mGov
Conference
2009
in
Barcelona.
Involved
partners:
Coldiren,
the
Mountain
Community
and
the
Milan
based
ICT
company
Actvalue
s.r.l.
Francesco
Molinari

17. 17
Ongoing
projects
 Addi<onal
points
of
distribu>on
and
sale
in
the
area
 Promo>on
of
the
“bio”
label
of
local
products
 Regional
level
agreements
for
the
supply
of
“Km.
0”
products
(also
from
other
areas
of
Tuscany)
to
various
prospec>ve
buyers
 E-­‐Commerce
for
selected
items
in
north
European
markets
 “PortoQui”
=
an
in-­‐port
food
supply
service
to
yachters
 “Hotel
Lunigiana”
=
an
integrated
supply
of
rooms
from
several
agritourism
farmhouses
 Interna<onal
clustering
and
partnering
for
addi>onal
business
opportuni>es
and/or
RDI
projects
based
on
the
Living
Lab
approach
Francesco
Molinari

18. 18
Lessons
learnt
 “Doing
it”
is
possible,
par>cularly
in
small
communi>es
(word
of
mouth
effects

trust
and
image
building)
 Don’t
need
much
>me
to
see
the
first
results
 Make
it
cheap,
keep
overheads
low
 Public
funding
is
key,
but
only
for
the
start-­‐up
phase
 Reputa<on
is
essen>al,
and
growing
with
your
achievements
 You
can’t
serve
everyone
at
best,
so
be
ready
to
lose
some
founding
members
on
the
way
 Going
interna<onal
helps
you
learn
from
someone
else’s
mistakes
&
open
up
new
windows
of
opportunity
Francesco
Molinari

19. 19
More
info
 Associazione
Lunigiana
Amica
 h$p://www.lunigianaamica.it
(in
Italian,
sorry)
 h$p://www.openlivinglabs.eu/sites/enoll.org/files/lunigiana-­‐
amica.pdf
 FRAIL
project
 h$p://www.wearitatwork.com/take-­‐up-­‐projects/frail/
 Italian
Network
of
Living
Labs
 h$p://www.inoll.it
 “PortoQui”
project
 h$p://proge$okublai.ning.com/group/portoqui
 Francesco
Molinari,
mail@francescomolinari.it
Francesco
Molinari

20. 20
Thanks
for
your
kind
attention
Attribution – Non Commercial –
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Francesco
Molinari