Overcoming barriers to crop diversification uptake in Europe: A mini review

Abstract

Crop diversification (CD) encompasses practices such as extending crop rotation, cover cropping and intercropping practices, and growing minor crops. It has attracted increasing interest because it can produce both private benefits for farmers, including improved crop and soil health, and reduced inputs, and public goods for society, including greater biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and climate resilience. Nevertheless, CD is not widely practiced in Europe. This paper uses a conceptual framework based upon the literature on barriers to agricultural innovation and CD to guide a systematic-like literature review of existing review articles on the barriers to CD in Europe and a review of research from the European Crop Diversification Cluster, comprising six EU research projects. We compare barriers to CD uptake and identify opportunities to accelerate CD uptake, drawing four main conclusions. First, the barriers to CD are influenced by many factors: the specific crop, cropping method, geographical region, the farmer, the supply chain or market, and the institutional environment. Second, the barriers to CD uptake are interconnected and occur at multiple points along the supply chain; addressing barriers to CD uptake therefore requires a simultaneous and coordinated approach. Third, the inclusion of farmers' perspectives in the CD cluster research revealed novel barriers and solutions demonstrating that participatory and transdisciplinary agricultural research is needed to understand the on-farm reality and its influence on CD uptake. Lastly, farmers' decision-making warrants greater attention. The results highlight that farmers' decision-making is unpredictable and likely to focus on utility rather than profit maximization.

A mixed-methods approach to examine farmers’ willingness to adopt protein crops

“…During the interviews, farmers mentioned that they were not influenced by financial farming goals in their decision, although they are convinced that an increase in profitability of these crops would lead to overall higher adoption rates. A review study found mixed results for the lack of profitability as a barrier to adopting crop diversification, indicating that the effect of financial goals is not always significant in farmers’ decision-making (Brannan et al, 2023), supporting the results of the survey. However, they identified profitability more often as an enabler of adoption (Brannan et al, 2023), which underpins the results from the interviews.…”

“…A review study found mixed results for the lack of profitability as a barrier to adopting crop diversification, indicating that the effect of financial goals is not always significant in farmers’ decision-making (Brannan et al, 2023), supporting the results of the survey. However, they identified profitability more often as an enabler of adoption (Brannan et al, 2023), which underpins the results from the interviews. According to Magrini et al (2016), farmers underestimate the profitability of legumes as they do not consider the benefits for subsequent crops.…”

“…This is also reflected in the fact that the surveyed farmers indicated the need for more research on cultivation and marketing. Previous research also identified the lack of suitable legume varieties and lack of market opportunities, resulting in the lack of economy of scale benefits, as major barriers to legume production (Brannan et al, 2023; Ferreira et al, 2021). The discrepancy between the growing market of plant based foods and the lack of market opportunities for certain protein crops could potentially be explained by the shortage of research for these crops, while on the other hand the shortage of research can be explained by the lack of market opportunities, resulting in a vicious circle (European Commission, Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, 2019).…”

Advancing Agricultural Crop Recognition: The Application of LSTM Networks and Spatial Generalization in Satellite Data Analysis

“…By integrating these techniques, we can refine classification accuracy, anticipate future trends, and delve deeper into the socio-economic implications of observed crop patterns. Collaborative research, involving farmers, agricultural experts, and regional authorities, can further enrich the study, offering a multi-dimensional perspective [78].…”

Concepts of trait diversity – the key to effective IPM for resilience in arable systems?

“…This is particularly important when considering the practicality of implementing diversity in field conditions in terms of sowing, managing and harvesting a mixed crop. A major barrier to uptake of crop diversification strategies is lack of appropriate knowledge amongst farmers and the perceived risks and uncertainties of diversifying (Brannan et al, 2023). We assumed, therefore, that a more diverse crop will be perceived as more complex to manage, even if this might not be the case in practice (Table 1).…”