Achieving best-fit configurations through advisory subsystems in AKIS: case studies of advisory service provisioning for diverse types of farmers in Norway

Purpose: In light of the discussion on ‘best-fit’ in pluralistic advisory , this article aims to present and discuss challenges for services in serving various types of farmers when they and acquire farm business advice. /methodology/approach: The empirical basis is data from four workshops, five interviews with staff from organizations, and interviews with 11 farmers. : Emerging configurations serve different types of farmers, is, private advisors serve different clients in different ways; could be considered subsystems within the overall advisory . implications: Best-fit configurations of advisory services within a country setting in response to farmers’ information and how they seek information, as well as public goals the advisory system, and lead to advisory subsystems. Policymakers monitor the emergence of these subsystems and active participants in some of them, in line with the of the public sector as regulator of private and advisory systems. implications: Best-fit has been mainly explored at level, but this study shows that, within countries, different service configurations are formed. So, best-fit should not considered at national level only, in view of subsystems which have wider or narrower boundaries. More broadly, the of Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) not be confined to the national level, for example, in view farmer specializations within countries and the international of advisory systems. /value: The originality lies in the further unraveling of within AKIS and what this implies for advisory delivery configurations.