A systematic review of social innovation and sustainable entrepreneurship practices in the agri-food sector and their contribution to socioenvironmental resilience of rural producers

Urban Farm DB summary

A systematic review using PRISMA 2020 methodology examined social innovation and sustainable entrepreneurship practices in the agri-food sector as responses to socio-environmental resilience challenges facing small-scale rural producers and local food systems. It characterized these practices, evaluated their impacts across sustainability dimensions, and identified success factors and barriers. Studies on social innovation predominated over those on sustainable entrepreneurship, with experiences distributed across Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. The initiatives analyzed included social agriculture, community gardens, inclusive agribusiness models, women's cooperatives and regenerative agroecological projects, with overall positive effects reported for social inclusion, community empowerment, market access, income diversification and improved environmental practices. Facilitating factors included cross-sector collaborative governance, local leadership and the capacity to combine heterogeneous resources; barriers included poorly adapted regulatory frameworks, dependency on external funding, and tensions between economic and socio-environmental objectives. The review concludes that hybrid practices combining social innovation and sustainable entrepreneurship contribute significantly to rural producers' socio-environmental resilience when embedded in favorable institutional environments and supported by public policy and legal frameworks.