Missed Opportunities for the Social Use of Scientific Knowledge in Agrifood Policy at the Subnational Scale: Analysis of the Program for Goat Producers in San Luis Potosi, Mexico

Abstract

The complex issues that government and society face emphasizes the need for scientific advice. However, the transition between the production of knowledge and its use by decision makers is usually slow and full of economic, political, technical and epistemological difficulties. To analyze this problem, this article addresses the experience of a government program for goat producers in the state of San Luis Potosi. In terms of methodology, the concept of “reconciling supply and demand of science” was adopted as central approach, and the case study was used to examine the social dimensions that hindered scientific information from being considered relevant for decision making in a government program for goat producers in the state of San Luis Potosi. The study shows that the public program, was a lost opportunity due to the mismatch of perspectives, values, interests and meanings about this pastoral production system so important for food sovereignty. The conclusions argue the important to install local science-policy interface mechanisms to take advantage of local scientific capabilities and lead to better policies for the benefit of producing families. The originality of this study lies in the fact that it proposes as an analytical tool the matrix of missed opportunities that comes from science and technology policy approaches and shows its operationalization. Among the limitations is that the case study included the testimonies of decision makers and researchers, so other research could expand the results presented in this work by interviewing agricultural producers.