Multifunctionality of Agriculture: A Review of Definitions, Evidence and Instruments

Huylenbroeck, Guido Van; Vandermeulen, Valerie; Mettepenningen, Evy; Verspecht, Ann

doi:10.12942/lrlr-2007-3

Cited by 202 publications

(177 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…Short supply chains build the major "deepening" activity. This vertical integration steps out of and differentiates from traditional long food chains [4,28,31,[47][48][49][50][51]. Locally embedded value chains reduce, firstly, dependency on global markets and, secondly, contribute to a stronger multifunctionality of agriculture [42].…”

Section: City-proximitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Location Matters: Determinants for “Deepening” and “Broadening” Diversification Strategies in Ruhr Metropolis’ Urban Farming

Pölling

Mergenthaler

2017

Sustainability

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Consumer-oriented diversification activities, such as direct sale ("deepening") as well as tourism services and care farming ("broadening"), are common business strategies of farms within urban areas. This empirical study investigates determinants of urban farming's diversification decisions by analyzing a dataset of 123 farmers in German Ruhr Metropolis. Binary logit models are used here as econometric method to determine characteristics influencing the decision to diversify. Farm characteristics, which encourage the implementation of "deepening" strategies, are: larger farm sizes, high-value production, organic farming, and livestock production. By contrast, the consumer-oriented "broadening" strategies tourism services and care farming prevail on smaller farms and on farms with horses and higher grassland shares. Agricultural extension services increase the odds to diversify. The results of the conducted binary logistic regressions show increasing odds and predicted probabilities for "deepening" and "broadening" activities when approaching the city. Farms' location advantages close to cities can be used best when applying consumer-oriented "deepening" or "broadening" strategies; namely, direct sale or other short supply chains, tourism services, and care farming. Viable business strategies of urban farming support a forward-looking integration into urban economy, society, and decision-making.

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Section: City-proximitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Location Matters: Determinants for “Deepening” and “Broadening” Diversification Strategies in Ruhr Metropolis’ Urban Farming

Pölling

Mergenthaler

2017

Sustainability

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“…Wilson (2007) criticizes that the multifunctionality term is a broad and confusing conceptualization, depending on the research field, from agricultural economy, geography and including rural sociology. It distinguishes between the multifunctional agriculture concept (Van Huylenbroeck et al, 2007), related to economic sense, and multifunctionality from a wider perspective of landscape and ecology (Brandt & Vejre, 2004), based on broader and holistic interpretations. In the first case, agriculture is an economic activity and the joint production of market products (foods and raw materials) with other goods and services, which results in a positive approach to multifunctionality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the functionality of agricultural systems: social preferences for multifunctional peri-urban agriculture. The “Huerta de Valencia” as case study

Marques-Perez

Segura

Álvarez

2014

Span. j. agric. res.

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The debate on the multifunctionality of agriculture and its connections with territorial policies are the basis of the most appropriate approach to legitimize public interventions in the agricultural sector. The main obstacle of this public intervention is to know the goods and services provided by agricultural systems and elicitation of the social preferences for them. We created a descriptive approach for the multifunctionality of agricultural systems that is based on the review of the scientific literature focused on multifunctionality and the goods and services of agricultural systems. The review shows a large variety of activities and approaches, which can be grouped by their economic dimension, social dimension and environmental dimension. Multicriteria techniques, such as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), can help elicit the priorities and the relative importance of different functions attributed by the society as a whole. The authorities can take into account these results to inform and support their political decisions. This paper describes a methodological approach to determine the Social Welfare Function by using AHP. The proposed methodology is applied to the “Huerta de Valencia”, a rich peri-urban agricultural system with a variety of resources, around which there is an open political-institutional debate to define a protection scheme. The results are very interesting and useful to enrich this debate.

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“…Conversely, studies on MFA consider these functions as agricultural activity outputs and prefer farm-centered approaches [5]. From a farm point of view, multifunctionality refers to the provision of multiple joint products by an activity or a combination of activities [13,14]. For farms as business units, the distinction between commodity and non-commodity outputs is very important, since not all functions can be valued through the market.…”

Section: Agricultural Multifunctionality and Provision Of Ecosystem Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining Multifunctionality and Ecosystem Services into a Win-Win Solution. The Case Study of the Serchio River Basin (Tuscany—Italy)

Rovai

Andreoli

2016

Agriculture

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Post-war development-characterized by intensive processes of urbanization, concentration of agriculture on the most fertile lands, and abandonment of mountainous and marginal areas-brought about negative environmental and socio-economic consequences. They have been particularly severe in terms of increase of hydrogeological risk, which is high in most Italian regions. Over time, there has been an increasing awareness of the multiple functions played by agriculture in terms of provision of Ecosystem Services (ES), which contribute fundamentally to human well-being. In particular, some ES provided by farmers may help to reduce the hydrogeological risk of territories prone to landslides and floods. In this framework, the paper presents as a case study the project "Farmers as Custodians of a Territory." This project was implemented in the Serchio River basin, Tuscany (Italy), and combines a multifunctional farm strategy of diversification with the provision of Ecosystem Services related to the hydraulic and hydrogeological protection of the river-basin territory. Although this case study should be read within the framework of the theories of agricultural multifunctionality and ES provision, it nevertheless took a very pragmatic and innovative approach, which differentiates it from most of the case studies given in the literature. Results of our analysis show that, by involving farmers as custodians of the territory, it is possible to reach a "win-win" solution characterized, on the one hand, by better services for the community at a lower cost for the Land Reclamation Consortia involved with hydrogeological risk prevention, thus improving the effectiveness and efficiency of ES provision; and on the other hand, by improving the economic situation and survival chances of local farms.

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Multifunctionality of Agriculture: A Review of Definitions, Evidence and Instruments

Cited by 202 publications

References 86 publications

The Location Matters: Determinants for “Deepening” and “Broadening” Diversification Strategies in Ruhr Metropolis’ Urban Farming

The Location Matters: Determinants for “Deepening” and “Broadening” Diversification Strategies in Ruhr Metropolis’ Urban Farming

Evaluating the functionality of agricultural systems: social preferences for multifunctional peri-urban agriculture. The “Huerta de Valencia” as case study

Combining Multifunctionality and Ecosystem Services into a Win-Win Solution. The Case Study of the Serchio River Basin (Tuscany—Italy)

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