Priorities for Research on Sustainable Agriculture: The Case of Poland

Abstract

The need for sustainable agricultural sector is growing rapidly due to climate changes. As there are still knowledge gaps and the need for innovations that support farmers in the sustainability transition, there is a need for determining priority research areas that are vital for the sustainable development of agriculture. The aim of our study was to derive a long-term vision of the desirable agricultural sector in Poland and prioritize research areas required to make Polish agriculture sustainable. We applied the living lab approach and, by conducting a backcasting exercise with the lab members, we identified a desirable vision of agriculture in Poland and the research areas needed to realize this vision. Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Cumulative Voting (CV), we prioritized these research areas. Our results show that adaptation to climate changes is the most important area of research, having 38.6% of the total possible number of points using AHP and 29.7% in the case of CV. The analysis of the Polish strategic documents related to agriculture and agricultural research shows that, to some extent, these key research areas are already part of the national policy, but there is not sufficient funding and coordination to tackle all aspects of sustainability in agriculture.