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Innovation is a complex phenomenon and process involving translation of knowledge into new techniques, products, services. It is considered crucial for sustainable agriculture development and achievement of long-term food security. The review describes the diversity of innovation and relates it to agro-food sector. It also sheds light on different innovation models and explores their contribution to framing agro-food sustainability transitions. There are many variations in the use of the term ‘innovation’. Typical distinctions encountered in the literature are incremental vs. radical innovation and product vs. process vs. organizational innovation. A significant feature of the development of modern innovation thinking has been a gradual broadening of innovation scope as well as more attention to sustainability. The scope of innovation was broadened to include soft (social/organisation) innovations besides hard/technical ones. In fact, the interest has shifted from technological innovation to disruptive niche innovations fundamental for socio-technical transitions. Moreover, as recognition of system complexity, frameworks such as the Innovation systems and the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) were developed and promoted. However, despite positive innovation benefits, relationship between innovation and sustainability in the agro-food arena is far from straightforward. Therefore, focus is gradually moving from innovation process to its impacts in terms of sustainability and its contribution to sustainability transitions in agriculture and food systems.

Food losses refer to edible food mass decrease throughout the human food chain. Food losses occurring at consumption stage are called food waste. Food Losses and Waste (FLW) represent one of the most critical social, economic and ecological challenges facing humanity, besides being also an ethical issue. FAO data show that roughly one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. There are no precise and accurate data regarding food waste in Near East and North Africa (NENA) region. The review paper aims at providing insights about the extent of FLW in NENA region with a special focus on Arab countries and Iran. The paper explores linkages between food waste and food security. Moreover, it analyses the economic and environmental implications of FLW. FLW vary depending on food type, country and season. Generally speaking, postharvest losses are significant in this region for most of commodity groups. It is estimated that FLW amount to 34% of food supply in NENA region. FLW undermine the very foundations of food security and amount to major depletion of resources (e.g. water, land, energy) and produce needlessly greenhouse gases. They also represent a wasted investment that reduces farmers’ incomes and increase consumers’ expenses. Therefore, food waste reduction is crucial for improving the sustainability of the food supply chain and achieving food and nutrition security in the region.

Rural development is crucial for overall national development in Serbia. Rural tourism can play a significant role in achieving sustainable rural development. For that it is necessary to be aware of factors and services that attract tourists to visit a rural area. The paper aims at analysing connection between tourists’ interest in typical and traditional food products of a rural area and interest for visiting it thus fostering rural tourism development. In particular the paper sheds light on the importance of traditional and typical food products in rural areas attractiveness. The study was carried out in two phases through two questionnaire surveys. In the first phase, with 251 field questionnaires, was examined consumers’ perception and interest in traditional food products, while in the second one, with 70 structured interviews, were analysed motivations for visiting rural areas. Both questionnaires were conducted in Serbia, in the period from July 2012 to March 2014. Results indicate a positive connection between interest for traditional food products and rural tourism development. In fact, results of the questionnaire survey show that almost 50% of the first phase surveyed Serbian people is very interested in typical products. Furthermore, attributes that people mostly associate to typical products are linked to tradition and support of local economy. Besides, there is a very high level of interest for visiting rural areas for tasting locally produced traditional food. These findings should be taken into consideration for the design of effective rural tourism development strategies and for better marketing of traditional products

The entity of the Republika Srpska (RS) in Bosnia and Herzegovina has great natural, cultural, gastronomic, religious and historic potential for rural tourism development. Rural tourism encompasses a range of activities, services and amenities provided by farmers and rural people to tourists. It includes agro-tourism, farm tourism, nature tourism, ecotourism, wine tourism, etc. The paper aims at analyzing the political, legal and regulatory frameworks as well as the governance of rural tourism in the RS. It is based on an extended literature review and primary data collected through structured questionnaires carried out in summer 2012 with 45 rural tourism operators and 49 municipality dwellers in 11 municipalities in the RS. The competencies in tourism and rural development are mostly at the entity level. Support to rural tourism development in the RS is provided by the Ministries of Agriculture, and of Trade and Tourism. The main strategic documents dealing with rural tourism in the RS are: Law on Tourism; Law on Hospitality; Tourism Development Strategy 2011-2020; and Rural Development Strategy (RDS) 2009-2015. Many measures are foreseen in the RDS for rural tourism development: promotion of rural tourism; improvement of touristic services provision; and organizational support and capacity building. There are limited dynamics and coordination between involved stakeholders e.g. ministries of agriculture and tourism, municipalities, touristic organizations, donors, rural households, etc. Legal framework and institutional environment for rural tourism development have considerably improved in the recent period. However, there is room for improvement in particular regarding governance and rural hospitality tax regimes

Agriculture plays an important socio-economic role in Serbia in terms of contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment, especially for almost a half of the population living in rural areas. However, Serbian agriculture and rural areas face many socio-economic, political and governance problems. The paper aims at analyzing governance and coordination of agricultural and rural development (ARD) in Serbia. Research is based on an extensive literature review and primary data collected through a questionnaire survey performed in summer 2013 with representatives of 120 public, civil society and international organizations. The survey focused on problems regarding ARD policy cycle (design, implementation, and monitoring & evaluation) and multi-stakeholder and cross-level coordination. The Law on Agriculture and Rural Development sets agricultural policy objectives and provides a general rural policy framework. Many public (national, regional and local), civil society and international organizations are involved in the ARD arena. Lack of appropriate human resources is a problem in all three phases of ARD policy cycle. Coordination is ineffective at central as well as local level due to, among others, inadequate vertical and horizontal cooperation and information dissemination mechanisms. Serbian agricultural and rural policy requires fundamental reforms at all levels and in the whole policy cycle. More attention should be given to rural development. Participation of civil society organizations and the private sector in policy design and evaluation should be enhanced. Building the capacity of human resources dealing with ARD policy is a priority. Improved policy governance and coordination should be operational and by fostering complementarities between stakeholders across administrative levels

Sixty-five per cent of the Serbian land area is agricultural and 55% of the population is rural.Agriculture share of GDP is more than 10% and about 47% of the rural labour force deals with agriculture. The aim of this work is to analyse the impacts of the global financial and economic crisis on the Serbian agro-food sector and rural communities. Measures introduced, mainly by public institutions, for relieving the consequences of the crisis are presented and discussed. Easily accessible yet high quality data from the central Office of Statistics in Serbia and specialized literature have been used. Impacts have been assessed by analyzing and discussing the trends of many socio-economic indicators. The crisis has had general impacts on the Serbian economy (low GDP growth, unemployment increase, price volatility, purchasing power decrease, etc.). Due to the crisis growth in agricultural production has been very low (0.1% in 2009). Agro-food exports decreased dramatically in 2008. About 9000 agricultural jobs were lost in 2008 and 2009. Reduced exports and lower domestic demand impacted negatively on agricultural commodity prices and agricultural household incomes.Access to credit became more difficult especially for small producers. However, agriculture is still a very important safety net. Agricultural employment share has increased both for men and women. The importance of agriculture is even higher if we consider the “grey agricultural economy”. To mitigate the crisis effects, the Government provided subsidies to rural people and will adopt the National Strategic Plan and Programme for Rural Development. Nevertheless, public institutions - in partnership with private, civil society and international organisations - should improve rural producers’ access to market information and credits and foster investments in rural areas including non-agricultural ones and those aiming at improving physical capital.