Societal actors across scales and geographies increasingly demand visual applications of systems thinking – the process of understanding and changing the reality of a system by considering its whole set of interdependencies – to address complex problems affecting food and agriculture. Yet, despite the wide offer of systems mapping tools, there is still little guidance for managers, policy-makers, civil society and changemakers in food and agriculture on how to choose, combine and use these tools on the basis of a sufficiently deep understanding of socio-ecological systems. Unfortunately, actors seeking to address complex problems with inadequate understandings of systems often have limited influence on the socio-ecological systems they inhabit, and sometimes even generate unintended negative consequences. Hence, we first review, discuss and exemplify seven key features of systems that should be – but rarely have been – incorporated in strategic decisions in the agri-food sector: interdependency, level-multiplicity, dynamism, path dependency, self-organization, non-linearity and complex causality. Second, on the basis of these features, we propose a collective process to systems mapping that grounds on the notion that the configuration of problems (i.e., how multiple issues entangle with each other) and the configuration of actors (i.e., how multiple actors relate to each other and share resources) represent two sides of the same coin. Third, we provide implications for societal actors - including decision-makers, trainers and facilitators - using systems mapping to trigger or accelerate systems change in five purposive ways: targeting multiple goals; generating ripple effects; mitigating unintended consequences; tackling systemic constraints, and collaborating with unconventional partners.

This paper theorizes the spiritual processes of community entrepreneuring as navigating tensions that arise when community-based enterprises (CBEs) emerge within communities and generate socio-economic inequality. Grounded on an ethnographic study of a dairy CBE in rural Malawi, findings reveal that intra-community tensions revolve around the occurrence of ‘bad events’ – mysterious tragedies that, among their multiple meanings, are also framed as witchcraft. Community members prepare for, frame, cope and build collective sustenance from ‘bad events’ by intertwining witchcraft and mundane socio-material practices. Together, these practices reflect the mystery and the ambiguity that surround ‘bad events’ and prevent intra-community tensions from overtly erupting. Through witchcraft, intra-community tensions are channelled, amplified and tamed cyclically as this process first destabilizes community social order and then restabilizes it after partial compensation for socio-economic inequality. Generalizing beyond witchcraft, this spiritual view of community entrepreneuring enriches our understanding of entrepreneuring – meant as organization-creation process in an already organized world – in the context of communities. Furthermore, it sheds light on the dynamics of socio-economic inequality surrounding CBEs, and on how spirituality helps community members to cope with inequality and its effects.

This research aimed to investigate livestock owners’ willingness to pay (WTP) for a hypothetical livestock vaccination program in southern Ethiopia. We used both primary and secondary data. The former data were collected from 377 livestock farmers. We used descriptive statistics and a seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model to analyze the data. The double-bounded contingent valuation format was used within a seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model to identify factors influencing WTP for livestock vaccination. It was found that the average WTP for sheep and goat vaccination was 0.38 USD (United States of America dollar) yearly, while for cattle and oxen vaccination, it was 0.64. Factors such as the household head’s education, sex, and age; annual income; total livestock holdings; and farm size affected farmers’ WTP for sheep and goat vaccination in both initial and follow-up scenarios. Market access, farm experience, and access to credit also influenced WTP for cattle and oxen vaccination across both bid values. We suggest that improving socioeconomic factors, such as household well-being and access to credit services, is vital because these elements directly influence a household’s capacity to invest in livestock health and productivity. Establishing clear vaccination rates, with vaccine costs aligned to the average household income, is recommended.