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Climate change is expected to lead to increased occurrences of droughts, floods, and rising sea levels, which may result in soil and water salinisation, thereby affecting agricultural productivity and food and water security. To address this challenge, it will be necessary to adapt food systems by incorporating saline agricultural practices. One potential solution is the cultivation of salt-tolerant potato varieties, which have the potential to sustain global food security in areas affected by increasing salinisation. This report proposes a methodology for the process of stakeholder mapping for case studies of the (saline) food systems and applies it to the Dutch potato sector. This methodology can be transferred to other contexts and on other crops.This report employs a stakeholder analysis approach to identify and classify key actors in the Dutch potato industry, in order to understand the relationships and power dynamics between them. This study provides new insights into the barriers and opportunities facilitating change in farming practices related to saline agriculture. The applied methodology was adapted from existing methodologies (Lelea et al., 2014; Raum, 2018) and tailored to the specific context of the national potato industry in the Netherlands.The Dutch potato industry holds a strong global position, but stakeholders show less concern about salinisation than researchers outside of the industry. There is a lack of internal consensus about leadership and a feeling of lack of agency amongst stakeholders, making industry change difficult. According to the findings, a significant portion of stakeholders participate in various segments of the value chain, but there is a gap between the interest and influence of different stakeholder groups in the industry. Government institutions are seen as having high influence but low interest, while civil society actors are considered to have high interest but low influence. Additionally, farmers are perceived to have frictious relationships with retail, because of pricing power, and national government institutions due to opposing goals. Multiple stakeholder types have stated that at this point in time, innovations regarding salt-tolerant potato varieties are primarily interesting for export to countries with arid climates. Salinity is not a high priority on the agendas of farmers, as the current nitrogen crisis in the Netherlands is threatening the farmers' existence.To address and overcome some of these challenges, stakeholders need to engage in open and honest dialogue, build trust and respect, and commit to working together. Creating an inclusive and transparent process will enable all stakeholders to have a voice and contribute to the industry's evolution, which is crucial for sustainable development. The study suggests that awareness raising should increase the perceived severity of the salinisation issue to identify salinisation as a parallel problem that is also a threat to the viability of the food systems including potatoes. Challenges are exacerbated by a general feeling of lack of agency among stakeholders. Without clear leadership it is difficult to know who to target to facilitate change. Mutual understanding needs to increase in order to innovate the industry and henceforth move the industry forward to ensure its resilience and adaptive capacities to climate change. |
