Farmers’ action space to adopt sustainable practices: a study of arable farming in Saxony

Abstract

The urgency to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and natural resource degradation requires major changes in agricultural practices. Agricultural policy in Germany has so far failed to generate such changes; meanwhile, public demands for new regulations are met by widespread farmers’ protests. Against this background, an improved understanding of the factors influencing farmers’ uptake of sustainable agricultural practices is necessary. This study introduces the concept of action space to analyze the role of barriers to change which lie beyond farmers’ perceived immediate control. We apply this conceptual framework to the case of diversified crop rotations in Saxony (Germany) and combine semi-structured interviews and a survey to identify key barriers to change and their relative weights. We find that farmers feel rather strongly restricted in their action space to implement diversified crop rotations for sustainable agriculture. The most important barriers pertain to the market environment, which severely limits the feasibility of many crops. In addition, limited regulatory predictability as well as regulatory incoherence and limited flexibility restrict farmers in their action space. The role of resource availability within the farm businesses as well as availability and accessibility of knowledge is ambiguous between interview and survey results. The analysis of interactions indicates that multiple barriers form a self-reinforcing system in which farmers perceive to have little leeway to implement sustainable practices. These results emphasize the need to create an enabling market and regulatory environment in which sustainable practices pay off.

Exploring farmers’ support needs for the adoption of agri-environmental practices: an application of the theoretical domains framework

“…To a large extent the findings presented here match and complement the findings from previous literature on behavioural barriers and enablers of environmentally friendly farming. For instance, Gütschow et al (2021) highlight the importance of increasing policy coherence, providing additional financial incentives (including, possibly, investment support) and reducing the bureaucratic burden in efforts to increase the uptake of agrienvironmental practices. The TDF analysis suggests that, in addition, training activities and a better demonstration of the benefits of agri-environmental practices could increase their uptake.…”

Farmers’ resilience to climate change through the circular economy and sustainable agriculture: a review from developed and developing countries

“…Besides that, this practice results in lower total costs of crop production (Mohring, Finger and Dalhaus, 2022). Gutschow, Bartkowski and Felipe-Lucia (2021) found that implementing diversified crop rotations as a CC mitigation strategy could be more economically viable. According to a survey among German farmers, most environmental-friendly practices are not perceived as a 'business-viable' strategy as they limit revenue margins and threaten the agribusiness's survival level (Gutschow, Bartkowski and Felipe-Lucia, 2021).…”

“…-Farmers are also aware to improve the environment (Maharjan, Gonzalvo and Aala, 2022a;Mohring, Finger and Dalhaus, 2022). -Although economic profits were found to be essential (Gutschow, Bartkowski and Felipe-Lucia, 2021;Schukat and Heise, 2021), knowledge, environmental resistance, and legislative issues were barriers for farmers in implementing sustainable agriculture practices (de Lauwere, Slegers and Meeusen, 2022). -An article has mentioned circular agriculture (de Lauwere, Slegers and Meeusen, 2022).…”

Wind erosion in European agricultural landscapes: More than physics

“…Farmers are often constrained by economic and legal factors, which in extreme cases may lead to path dependencies preventing the adoption of erosion-reducing practices. Involving them in transdisciplinary research efforts would allow taking their 'action space' to adopt such practices better into account (Gütschow et al, 2021). This would help design policies that maximize available synergy and co-benefit potentials between climate change adaptation, wind erosion control and the multiple private and public benefits provided by agricultural landscapes (e.g.…”