Summary
Understanding and measuring the sustainability of farms is key to evaluating progress towards policy goals for a more sustainable agriculture. In the LIFT project, a farm typology was developed to classify farms according to their ecological performance, based on farm‐level variables from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). Selected variables are used to assess three key ecological dimensions of farming: total input intensity; degree of circularity (reliance on own‐produced versus external inputs); and avoidance of the use of specific inputs of concern for the environment and consumers. The combination of these aspects is considered as a measure of the farm proximity to a full agroecological approach. The typology allows comparison of farms across farm types, countries and years. We briefly present the method and discuss two key aspects: 1) how the proposed farm typology can inform policymaking in the context of a new EU policy framework; 2) how it can inform the foreseen transformation of the FADN into a Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN). We suggest that the use of a typology approach under the new FSDN provides useful information on the impacts of the implementation of agroecological practices with an acceptable additional effort in terms of data collection.
To meet global demands towards food security, safety as well as sustainable agriculture and food systems innovative approaches are inevitable. Despite the growing body of literature in both innovation research and in values and aims, what has been explored to a lesser extent is the bridging link between these areas. This study represents a first step in addressing this relationship. Policy- and decision-makers foster sustainable innovation in agriculture, since on-farm innovation and innovation adoption have attracted their attention as a means of enhancing competitiveness as well as socially and environmentally benign farming also benefiting rural areas. By using a negative binomial model we explore the relationship between farmers’ innovativeness and those values and aims which guide farmers’ farm-management decisions as well as other farm/farmer characteristics. Based on a sample of 174 Austrian farmers agricultural education is found to be an essential driver of innovativeness. Regarding the different values we find that self-direction and hedonistic values, in contrast to achievement and economic, are associated with more innovative capabilities. In conclusion, we see a need to foster self-direction and hedonistic narratives in policy and extension service, together with reducing the focus on an economic angle to promote farmers’ innovation capabilities.
The aim of this paper is to elicit the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for the improved provision of public goods (PGs) by agriculture in a region of intensive agricultural production, embodying many of the environmental problems related to agriculture within and outside the European Union (EU). Our analysis was based on a participatory approach, combining the involvement of local stakeholders and a discrete choice experiment (DCE) in the Marchfeld region in Austria. We estimated a random parameters logit model (RPL), including interactions with socio-demographic factors, to disentangle preference heterogeneity and find a positive MWTP of the local population for all three PGs analyzed: (i) groundwater quality; (ii) landscape quality; and (iii) soil functionality in connection with climate stability. Furthermore, MWTP varies considerably with respect to age, farmers/non-farmers and locals/incomers. Further research could combine the results of this demand-side valuation with those of a supply-side valuation, where the opportunity costs of different management options for farmers are estimated. Based on such a cost-benefit analysis and further participation of local stakeholders, new governance mechanisms for the smart and sustainable provision of PGs by agriculture could be developed for the Marchfeld region and for comparable European regions.
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