The agri-food sector is facing enormous challenges worldwide, stemming from diverse societal goals and changing market and production realities. Mastering these complex demands and challenges requires innovative ideas and new solutions from all involved actors of the agricultural sector, also in the in the upstream and downstream business areas. But what is the current state of innovation in the agri-food sector and its ability to continue and even increase such innovation?

This question is examined in our new HFFA Research publication by focusing on the example of the German federal state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The objective of the project was to describe and analyze the innovation potential of the agricultural location NRW in a comprehensive manner. The study works out sectorial strengths and weaknesses, potentials, and limitations in NRW, thereby contributing to the broader public discussion on how to promote innovation along the agri-food chain.

The project was conducted in collaboration with a team from the Ruhr-Forschungsinstitut für Innovations- und Strukturpolitik (Rufis) e.V., consisting of Prof. Dr. Helmut Karl and Prof. Dr. Dieter Hecht. The study was commissioned by Bayer Crop Science Deutschland GmbH and can be downloaded (in German language) here.

For more information on the project, you can also visit the HFFA Research website here.