Navigating organic farming challenges with farmer-led entrepreneurial innovations in the U.S. Mid-South

Abstract

Agricultural production is fraught with risks and uncertainties. However, unlike conventional agriculture, where producers have a variety of options to mitigate risks around diseases, pests, and poor-quality soils, organic farmers face limitations on the use of synthetic chemicals and fertilizers. These challenges have contributed to the low adoption of certified organic production particularly in the Lower Midwest and Mid-South of the U.S. as compared to other parts of the country, such as the Upper Midwest and Northeast.

Recently, there has been growing interest in entrepreneurship and innovations happening in the agricultural sector, but our literature review re­vealed that there is limited research on entre­pre­neurship and innovations among certified organic farmers, particularly in the Mid-South region, in­cluding the states of Arkansas, Ken­tucky, Mis­souri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. In this paper, we em­ployed a hybrid thematic analysis, integrating both deductive and inductive ap­proaches, to examine the entrepreneurial innova­tions used by certified organic farmers to address regional-specific chal­lenges affecting their opera­tions. We used Schum­peter’s perspective on inno­vations to categorize farmer innovations. Our findings reveal that farm­ers have demonstrated remarkable pro­activity and innovativeness in tack­ling regional production chal­lenges. They have done so by diversifying their products and services, improving production pro­cesses, creating new marketing strategies, and rein­venting their farming. Through these approaches, farmers have created fresh op­portunities for their enterprises. However, despite significant individual farmer innovations, there are system challenges for these producers. Our find­ings suggest an entrepre­neurial ecosystems ap­proach might be necessary to support producers’ entrepreneurial innovations, which could involve developing supportive policies and community sup­port networks in these regions. Additional re­search is needed to gain a deeper understanding of the reinventions and transfor­mations occurring among organic producers, including their experi­ences pushing them away from certified organic production.