Multifunctionality in Agriculture and its Agents: Regional Comparisons

Abstract

Drawing on a multidisciplinary survey carried out in three contrasting areas of the Rhône-Alpes Region in France, this article investigates how the concept of multifunctionality has been understood and appropriated. After a retrospective look at French agricultural policy, the first part presents our analytical framework, which is inspired by the sociology of action. The second part analyses the socio-political issues of farming in each area and the compromises established around the various functions attributed to agriculture. The third part highlights the different ways of considering and practising farming, as well as the social expectations towards agriculture. This regional comparison shows that professional identities are constructed at local levels in different places: the farms and their neighbourhood, local groups and agricultural organisations. Local agreements on agriculture and the construction of professional identities take into account multifunctionality in specific ways, which depend on the social and economic relationships that the farmers have established with their fellow citizens.T he concept of multifunctionality was introduced in various international negotia-

Professionalization of agriculture and distributed innovation for multifunctional landscapes and territorial development

“…Given the risks we confront-the increasingly tangible nature of personal health and ecological risks (water quality, climate change, biodiversity)-and the search for new types of accountability mechanisms in the wake of widespread state and market failures, it would seem that there will be increasing demand for professionalization of agriculture (See Dufour et al 2007 for an analysis of professionalism in French agriculture). Additional opportunities for farmers to make claims and deliver added value in agrifood systems lie in animal rights, human rights (i.e., worker safety, immigration considerations) and integrity of artisanal or quality products.…”

Gestionar desde la territorialidad: ¿cómo integrar la multifuncionalidad y la participación social en la legitimación del regadío?

“…Fruto del vínculo difícilmente indisociable entre la disponibilidad hídrica y la actividad agrícola se han configurado unos paisajes resultantes de la mezcla entre la práctica ancestral del regadío tradicional y la apuesta por nuevos proyectos de riego en dominios de secano. Un marco donde conviven sistemas de riego tradicionales que después de un estado de (medio) abandono se ha modernizado con el fin de adaptarse a las demandas de carácter ambiental y afianzar con ello la multifuncionalidad del regadío desde su carácter patrimonial y/o lúdico (Dufour et al, 2007).…”

Changes in the Management of the Irish Uplands: A Case-Study from the Iveragh Peninsula

“…Pluriactivity refers to the involvement in off-farm paid employment by either the farm operator and /or spouse. Agriculture no longer derives its legitimacy solely from its economic role in producing raw agricultural materials, but also from the provision of landscape and ecosystem services, public goods and the production of social and cultural ties (Dufour et al, 2007 'traditional' agriculture in maintaining the considerable environmental and aesthetic assets of the European countryside, along with its social cohesion.…”

“…The lack of enthusiasm for multifunctional agriculture is not confined solely to the peripheral Iveragh. A comprehensive study undertaken in France by Dufour et al (2007), found that multifunctionlism had greatest support among researchers and agri-administrators, rather than among farmers on the ground, whose identity is still strongly linked with farming and producing a product, rather than selling a service or an image. Similarly, a recent study in Belgium found that only 5% of total income in the farming sector comes from diversified activity of which the major part is linked to agri-tourism and direct sales (Van Huylenbroeck, et al, 2007).…”