L1D89

(1.2)
L1T76 (48%): farmers (16%)

L1T117 (5%): schemes (15%), scheme (12%), adoption (8%)
titleabstract

AGRICULTURAL STRUCTURAL-CHANGE - IMPACT ON THE RURAL ENVIRONMENT (1990) 🗎🗎

Current farm practices contribute to a wide array of environmental problems: the monoculture of many agricultural regions, the problem of soil erosion, the contamination of ground water resources by nitrate and pesticide, wildlife habitats lost or subject to fragmentation. Over 50% of the EC's total land area is used by agriculture. Assumed are links between settlement and farm structure, rural culture, related values and environmental quality. This paper attempts to identify key indicators and relationships to predict what the environmental impact of certain structural changes will be. Is there a correlation between farm size or type and environmental impact? An example is the decreasing linkage between animal husbandry and crop growing. Is there a correlation between degree of pluriactivity and the structure of land use? The majority of small farms in the F.R.G. have additional off-farm income. The predominance of small farms is characteristic of the few charming rural areas left. Does that imply that large farm units mean necessarily infrastructural changes, loss of crop diversity and more monotonous landscape? Finally, the question of the impact that different policy measures have on the direction and intensity of agricultural change is examined. A major conclusion is that environmental policies need to be an integral part of regional development and agricultural policies.

LAND DEGRADATION ISSUES IN CANADIAN AGRICULTURE (1990) 🗎🗎

Recent technical developments in farming have exacerbated problems of land degradation and downstream watercourse pollution. The latter justifies governmental intervention more than on-farm costs or food security. Several intervention alternatives could be employed, each having different implications for private and public acceptability, administrative feasibility, and workability. To date, Canadian public intervention has relied on universally-applied financial incentives and voluntary compliance. The inherent limitations are that differences among farmers in conservation effort are not considered. A targeted approach is suggested as one means of incorporating inter-farm and inter-farmer differences, thereby raising the potential for eliciting greater conservation effort.

AGRICULTURAL CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE AREAS (1991) 🗎🗎

The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy has been primarily directed at reducing the disproportionate share of the European Community's budget absorbed by the agricultural sector, but it has also permitted the introduction of environmental objectives. This is seen most explicitly in the provision for the establishment of Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) that was introduced by the Community in 1985 and implemented in Britain by the Agriculture Act 1986. By mid-1988 12 such areas had been designated in England and Wales, within which payments are offered to farmers who agree to maintain the traditional farming practices which have given them their distinctive character. This paper considers the relationship of the ESA initiative to other policies designed to protect areas of high landscape or wildlife value and examines the practical problems involved in its implementation in the context of the Pennine Dales ESA. A number of potential weaknesses in the way in which ESA policy is being implemented are identified and it is concluded that its likely contribution to the achievement of both agricultural and environmental objectives remains uncertain.

FERTILIZER USE AND ENVIRONMENTAL-POLICY IN AGRICULTURE - A SOCIOECONOMIC STUDY IN GREECE (1991) 🗎🗎

The growing interest in environmental impacts of agriculture calls for effective agricultural policies to confront the expanding use of chemical fertilizers. Environmental policies in agriculture should be based on evidence concerning the factors influencing fertilizer usage. A hierarchical loglinear analysis of some social and economic factors showed that age, education, farm size, and employment status, all exert an independent effect on fertilizer usage. In addition, age and education exert a joint effect on fertilizer usage. It is found that the categories most likely to use high rates of application of fertilizer, at least in Greece, are full-time farmers 56 to 65 years old, well-educated or with small-sized holdings. The EECs socio-structural policy for agriculture is examined in the light of the above findings. It is concluded that the policy could form the core for an effective environmental policy in agriculture. However, areas are pointed out for the formulation of improved policy with avoidance of mistakes.

EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL PESTICIDES ON HUMANS, ANIMALS, AND HIGHER-PLANTS IN DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES (1991) 🗎🗎

Undesirable side effects that result from the indiscriminate use of agricultural pesticides in developing countries are widespread. This has captured the attention of health workers, governments, and environmental protection agencies. In fact, the potential health effects of long-term exposure to humans, animals, and higher plants are of great concern. This study examines the effects of agricultural pesticides on such living forms and explores modes of action, and presents strategies to minimize the deleterious effects of pesticides to living forms in developing countries.

FROM AN AGRARIAN TO AN ENVIRONMENTAL, FOOD, AND NATURAL-RESOURCE BASE FOR AGRICULTURAL POLICY - SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE CASE OF THE EC (1991) 🗎🗎

The agriculture of the European Community (EC) has experienced significant changes in the last decade. From a situation of deficiency in agricultural and food production, the twelve-nation community has shifted to a situation of food overproduction. This change has also been characterized by a rapid decrease in the agricultural labor force and a decrease of its importance in the employment structure which has manifested itself in fewer, more efficient farms. This alteration of structural conditions has led to the emergence of a new set of agricultural issues. This article discusses these changes by underscoring the decline of agrarian-based issues and the emergence of environmental, food, and natural resource-based issues. It is maintained that EC agricultural policies have been instrumental in both the resolution of agrarian-based issues and in the creation of new problems embodied in the environmental, food, and natural resource-based policies. The combination of the demise of agrarian-based policies and the emergence of environmental, food, and natural resource-based policies is also employed as a theoretical perspective from which the evolution of the agricultural sector in the EC can be interpreted.

THE POLLUTER PAYS PRINCIPLE AND ITS RELEVANCE TO AGRICULTURAL POLICY IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES (1992) 🗎🗎

The Polluter Pays Principle has widespread acceptance as a principle of environmental policy but historically has had little application in the agriculture sector, despite its growing significance as a source of pollution. The origins of the principle and some of the difficulties of applying it in practice are discussed, as is the question of how far agriculture can be considered a special case with regard to the principle. Some current policy developments in European countries are outlined and the use of taxes and charges on fertilizer inputs in EFTA countries is examined briefly. New directions in policy are discernible; the Polluter Pays Principle no longer seems irrelevant to agriculture, particularly in the intensive livestock sector.

AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL-REGULATION IN THE NETHERLANDS - A CASE-STUDY OF THE CROP PROTECTION PLAN (1993) 🗎🗎

Environmental regulations oblige the Agricultural Knowledge System in the Netherlands to adjust to the concept of sustainability after a long period of serving productivity. This paper examines how agricultural research, extension and education reacted to the introduction of the Crop Protection Plan (sharp reduction of chemical inputs). Research in a horticultural region provided the data for an appraisal of a variety of reactions in the knowledge system and among growers. The development of scientific knowledge is based on linear models and focuses on ready-made recipes for adoption. Extension workers often seem to know little about integrated agriculture, cannot step out of their customary 'expert' role, and seem unwilling and unable to work as facilitators with farmers in a joint search for alternatives. Farmers are seen as adopters or users of science-based rules. The case study suggests that growers are willing and able to search for more sustainable methods of production, but so far this resource has not been sufficiently tapped to develop a knowledge system supporting more sustainable forms of agriculture.

EUROPEAN FEATURES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - A CONTRIBUTION TO THE DIALOG (1993) 🗎🗎

Within the framework of agricultural policy-making, the world-wide demands for sustainable development in general are related to the sustainable development of rural areas in particular. According to the definitions of sustainability, four fundamental aspects are considered: (1) food security; (2) employment and income generation; (3) environmental and natural resource conservation; (4) people's participation and empowerment. Different priorities may be set in the implementation of these aspects, expressing different attitudes toward nature, society and the ethical decisions involved. In line with these differences, different strategies for agricultural development are favoured, each with specific consequences for rural development. In this paper, we consider some of the basic features of the above-mentioned problems, focusing on technical aspects but touching upon some underlying social and ethical issues as well. We compare basic requirements of sustainable development with some features of recent strategies, such as integrated agriculture (integrated pest management and integrated plant nutrition systems) and low external input sustainable agriculture (LEISA). Special attention is given to the principles underlying autonomous ecosystem management (AEM), as applied in organic types of agriculture (OA). By aiming for the multi-purpose efficiency of the agro-ecosystem and its subsystems, OA complies with the requirements for a sustainable use of natural resources. Its impact on the environment, nature and landscape meet the requirements of European Community (EC) and national policies. Its economic performance is remarkably similar to that of comparable conventional farms. Yields tend to be somewhat lower than those of high external input agriculture (HEIA), but enough to meet the EC's efforts to diminish overproduction, and OA seems to meet society's need for sufficient good-quality food. Also, higher labour demands in organic agriculture, labour diversification and upgrading at the farm, and the social networks between farmers and consumers make a significant contribution to sustainable social development. This presentation of various development perspectives can widen the options for choices. Far from offering a blueprint or turnkey solution, these considerations are meant as a contribution to a challenging dialogue on agriculture's role in sustainable rural development.

ELICITATION OF FARMING AGENDAS IN A COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT (1993) 🗎🗎

Agricultural and environmental issues are currently the subject of a great deal of debate. Many feel that policies affecting farming and the countryside are formulated without sufficient research into their full implications. In this paper a semi-structured interview technique is used to highlight the complexity of the agenda facing a small section of the farming community. Current policy is creating high levels of uncertainty within farming, forcing the farming community into an economic straight-jacket based on short-term survival. It is concluded that policy-makers need to be aware of the complexity of the farming agenda and that a policy framework needs to be constructed which gives clear long-term objectives to farmers and encourages the diverse practice which is central to long-term continuity. The need to develop improved techniques for eliciting information about farming agendas will be seen as a central requirement of this framework.

AGRICULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND THE STATE - THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRO-ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY-MAKING IN THE NETHERLANDS (1993) 🗎🗎

Agro-environmental policy formation is described as an interaction between the agricultural policy community and the environmental policy network. The agricultural policy community is defending its monopoly in the agricultural sector and its corporatist structure. The environmental policy network develops strategies to gain more influence in this semi-closed domain of agriculture. Agro-environmental policy formation can be seen as a subtle interweaving of environmental and agricultural biases. On the basis of a case study of the 'region-oriented approach' in a Dutch region, an illustration is provided of agro-environmental policy formation in practice. This study shows that the insulated and integrated character of the agricultural policy community is disappearing, in favour of processes of self-regulation at the regional level. Secondly the Ministries of the Environment and Agriculture are developing a common frame of reference. One of the results of this process is alienation from and conflicts with their respective constituencies.

HELPING SMALL FARMS AND KEEPING EUROPE BEAUTIFUL - A CRITICAL-REVIEW OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL CASE FOR SUPPORTING THE SMALL FAMILY FARM (1993) 🗎🗎

This article examines the case for supporting small farms an environmental grounds and seeks to clarify some of the terms and definitions being used in this important debate. It distinguishes between strong and weaker arguments in favour of supporting small farms and concludes that, while there is little evidence to suggest a functional relationship between farm size and environmental sensitivity, small farms may be environmentally sensitive by default or simply by association. Moreover, there is also some support for the idea that the loss and amalgamation of small farms in some locations may trigger environmentally damaging land use, landscape and ecological change. As a category, however, the term 'small farm' is too broad to be useful in targeting public policies. Other, more precise targets must be identified if the 'conservation dividend' of farm policy reform is to be directed into areas where it will do most good.

ISSUES AND OPTIONS FOR AGRI-ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY - AN INTRODUCTION (1994) 🗎🗎

An overview of papers in this special feature is presented, which sets out to interpret agri-environmental policy options within an economic framework. The discussion focuses on the contrast between these policy options, which emphasize positive incentive payments, and environmental policy in the wider economy, where the 'polluter-pays principle' is taken as an influential guideline. It is argued that positive payments are justified where the rural environment is viewed as a by-product of agriculture which remains external to the market system. On the other hand, clearly negative external effects, such as nitrate pollution, are more appropriately dealt with using penalty-based options. More recent analyses which recognize that producers, consumers and government agencies operate in the face of costly and incomplete information show that a more complex structure of incentives, penalties and monitoring mechanisms could have advantages. Many of the options for agri-environmental policy considered here benefit from these advantages.

GOVERNMENT POLICIES FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE (1994) 🗎🗎

Recent changes in the focus of agricultural policy in the UK have sought to achieve a balance between food production, the socioeconomic interests of rural areas, rural environmental conservation and rural outdoor recreation. A twin-track approach for policies for the countryside has emerged. The first track focuses on ensuring that farmers who benefit from EC support schemes protect and/or enhance the environment on their holdings (environmental cross-compliance), and on providing penalties for farmyard pollution of water-courses. The second track involves introducing schemes for rewarding positive environmental activity over and above the requirements of good agricultural practice. The many UK policy innovations under these headings form the core of the environmental plan submitted to Brussels in July 1993.

THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY AND THE GENERAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES CONCERNED WITH AGRICULTURE IN THE EUROPEAN-COMMUNITY AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR FERTILIZER CONSUMPTION (1994) 🗎🗎

This paper traces the major developments in the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and related environmental policy and examines their impact on the use of crop nutrients, The objectives of the CAP were set out in the Treaty of Pome in 1957 and have not been explicitly revised, The Community has, however, progressed from being a significant importer to a major exporter of food, Various changes in the policy measures/reforms, have been implemented, each to control the continuing increase in farm output, The latest of these in May 1992 reduced commodity prices towards world market levels, introduced 15% set aise for arable land, as well as agreeing a number of agri-environmental measures, Further changes are anticipated following the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and as new trade agreements are reached with the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, Inevitably, existing farm systems will be subject to careful reappraisal, The Community's environmental objectives were added to the Treaty in 1987 with the passing of the European Single Act, The interaction between agriculture and the environment has been a prominent concern, The Directive 91/676, which seeks to protect water against pollution caused by nitrate from agricultural sources, is the first Directive to have a major direct impact on farm practice, The Fifth Environmental Action Plan for 1993-2000 'Towards Sustainability' selects agriculture as one of five industries for specific attention, The plan seeks an extensification of agriculture and a reduction in the use of chemicals, Changes in the amount of plant nutrients from both farmyard manure and mineral fertilizers used in agriculture are quantified, Methods of determining the efficiency with which they are utilized are assessed, New advisory techniques which will improve the efficiency of nutrient use on the farm are considered, as are the implications for the future demand for nutrients from mineral fertilizers, This paper is the view of the European Fertilizer Manufacturers Association.

AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AND ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTIONS IN THE MANCHE-DEPARTEMENT (1994) 🗎🗎

This paper analyses and explains the various perceptions of the environment held by farmers in the French Departement of the Manche, in the context of the implementation of two agro-environmental measures emanating from the Common Agricultural Policy. Over the last ten years, several developments have contributed to the emergence of environmental problems in this area. After an analysis of these problems, the results of a farmer survey are presented. Farmers' perceptions of the environment seem to be connected to their professional identity, and their position in local society. The plurality of attitudes shows that refusal to participate in the implementation of agro-environmental measures certainly does not reflect a lack of interest in environmental problems. Unwillingness may also have its origin in contradictory ideas about the role of agriculture.

THE IMPACT OF ESAS ON LOWLAND FARMING (1994) 🗎🗎

This paper focuses on the impact of the first and second round of ESAs on lowland farms in the UK, and looks in detail at a number of socioeconomic issues. Although farm incomes are generally enhanced, the impact upon farming practices and agricultural production is fairly limited except where arable land is converted to grass. The paper then considers the role of EASs within the general context of agricultural policy reforms, concluding that they are likely to remain important but that close attention is required to ensure that payments and prescriptions are kept in line with the general economic environment.

A MULTIOBJECTIVE APPROACH TO INTEGRATING AGRICULTURAL ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES (1995) 🗎🗎

Agricultural nonpoint source pollution of soil and water resources is a major societal concern. Because of unabated NPS pollution, and despite more than a decade of policy, research and intervention, the relationship between agricultural production and environmental performance is still the subject of ongoing debate. Invariably, the environmental objectives conflict with one another and the policy choices involve significant trade-offs. The trade-off between soil erosion and water quality is a typical example of this contradiction. This paper describes a theory and conceptual framework for integrated agricultural economic and environmental modelling using a multicriteria decision-making approach grounded in multi-attribute utility theory. The empirical analysis and policy exercise evaluates policy trade-offs using a watershed-based model. The intent is to develop and implement a framework for policy analysis that provides for a better understanding of why some environmental problems persist despite evolving policies, technologies and market incentives. The multi-objective decision-making model is empirically verified for a specific eastern Iowa watershed. Two key results stand out from empirical analysis. There is a significant trade-off between economic and environmental goals, and even between environmental goals; therefore, a comprehensive analysis with reasonable compromise will give an ideal solution. Incorporating environmental objectives encouraged more environmentally sound cropping practices. In particular, environmentally sustainable crop rotation practices such as corn-soybeans-hay/oats was chosen more frequently by the model. (C) 1995 Academic Press Limited

BENEFITS OF ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE AREA POLICY IN ENGLAND - A CONTINGENT VALUATION ASSESSMENT (1995) 🗎🗎

The Environmentally Sensitive Area scheme represents a response to contemporary concerns about the need to support traditional farming practices in areas where these have contributed to distinctive landscapes, wildlife habitats, and the preservation of archaeological and historical features. ESAs incur substantial costs, both financial and social. This study uses contingent valuation methods to estimate the benefits of ESAs, for both use and passive use values, and compares these to costs of ESAs.

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF AGRO-ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN FRANCE AND EUROPE (1995) 🗎🗎

As part of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, agro-environmental measures are introducing a social control on agricultural practices in several European countries. Focusing chiefly on the French case, but with cross-national comparisons, this paper analyses the development of ambiguous social concern about environmental degradation linked to farming activities. Several causes are examined: the crisis of the productive agricultural model, renewed urban pressure on countryside uses and overall development of environmental anxieties. The article stresses the fact that farmers are given the ambivalent parr of being at the same time damaging and managing the environmental qualities of the countryside. In conclusion, it questions the durability of public support to a policy based on local compromises and leading to greater territorial differentiation.

RECRUITING THE NEW CONSERVATIONISTS - FARMERS ADOPTION OF AGRI-ENVIRONMENTAL SCHEMES IN THE UK (1995) 🗎🗎

Financial incentives available to farmers under the Government's relaunched agri-environmental policy (AEP) promise to recruit more farmers into conservation schemes than ever before. The success of these voluntary schemes, which offer payments in return for farmers agreeing to desist from certain damaging operations or carry out environmentally sensitive ones, is widely proclaimed, chiefly with reference to the promising levels of enrolment that have already been achieved under the Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) programme. Increasingly, however, attention is focusing on the environmental benefits that are being achieved on the ground and their longer-term durability. This paper reports on a survey of 101 farmers in South East England conducted with a view to investigating the level of engagement of those currently enrolled in such schemes. Focusing on the motivational aspects, it points to wide variations in the level of commitment and sympathy with the wider objectives of AEP schemes and places farmers on a participation spectrum ranging from the most resistant non-adopters at one end to the most active adopters at the other. The policy implications of this categorisation are explored and recommendations made for pushing more farmers towards the active end of the spectrum.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL POLLUTION-CONTROL IN FINLAND (1995) 🗎🗎

The polluting effect of agriculture is defined nowadays as one of the most difficult environmental problems in Finland. This article deals with the development of agriculture-oriented environmental policy in Finland. In particular the definition of the water pollution problem and the official measures to combat it are examined. The state and the interest organization of farmers are regarded as the main actors in policy making. After an analysis of the extent and modes of regulation of agricultural pollution control, it is concluded that the Finnish agricultural policy community has succeeded in maintaining what is regarded as the most desirable model of agro-environmental policy. At the target level there have been demands for ecological modernization and even for decreases in agricultural production for environmental reasons, but on the other hand, the means of implementation of agro-environmental policy are based permanently on the voluntary response of farmers.

GERMAN AGRI-ENVIRONMENTAL SCHEMES .2. THE MEKA PROGRAM IN BADEN-WURTTEMBERG (1995) 🗎🗎

The MEKA programme in Baden-Wurttemberg is one of Germany's most recent agri-environmental schemes. Prescriptions of the MEKA programme are briefly described and compared with other agri-environmental schemes in the EU. Participation of farmers in Baden-Wurttemberg is analysed, and a more detailed case study of the MEKA programme from the district of Heidenheim, eastern Baden-Wurttemberg, is presented. Overall, participation rates have been high and farmers have welcomed the scheme. The district of Heidenheim appears to be particularly suited to the scheme, as it already lies within a water protection zone enforcing stringent environmental regulations. Consequently, landholders joining MEKA do not have to change farm management practices to a large extent. Many financially marginal farms are currently only surviving because of regular payments provided through programmes such as MEKA. However, the voluntary nature of MEKA means that success still depends on the goodwill of farmers. A more important weakness of MEKA is that it only aims at maintaining the status quo with regard to conserving the countryside, and that it does not offer enough practical incentives for the rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems. It can, however, be argued that MEKA could provide a blueprint for future agri-environmental schemes in the EU, particularly because of its specific targeting policy which allows almost every landholder to participate.

Farmer environmental attitudes and ESA participation (1996) 🗎🗎

This study analyses the importance of farmers' environmental attitudes for (non)-participation in the Cambrian Mountains ESA scheme. It highlights that age, education, length of residency, farming philosophy and the existence of remnant semi-natural habitats on farms are important variables explaining farmers' dispositions toward conservation and participation behaviour in the ESA scheme. An expansion of Morris and Potter's (1995) concept of a 'participation spectrum' is suggested that also considers the position of a farm on a spectrum of ESA eligibility. It is argued that farmers' environmental attitudes are most relevant on farms of marginal ESA eligibility where conservation-oriented attitudes may tip the balance toward participation. In order to increase participation, it is suggested that policy makers and those administering the Cambrian Mountains ESA scheme specifically target this group of non-participants. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd

Traditional farming and agro-environment policy in Southwest England: Back to the future? (1996) 🗎🗎

This paper examines the findings of research undertaken in the Southwest of England during 1992-1993, the aim of which was to explore the socio-economic and geographical circumstances of farms participating in agro-environment schemes. The research found that 'traditional' farming was crucial to the schemes, in terms of scheme objectives and the profile of participants. As such,'traditional' farming systems could be said to represent an ideal type of environment friendly farming system, and one that, in the Southwest at least, current agro-environment schemes in some way help to support. The paper concludes that traditional farming systems should form a much larger and more focused part of agro-environment policy. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd

Estimating the supply of conservation goods in Britain: A comparison of the financial efficiency of two policy instruments (1996) 🗎🗎

Rapid uptake of agreements in Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) compared with negotiated management agreements on Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), has lead to renewed interest in obtaining public conservation goods through agreements in the U.K. Economic comparisons between these two instruments are made using a simple supply model. The paper reviews the legal/administrative basis for management agreements, states relevant theory, and compares these two means of securing conservation goods. Conclusions regarding the difference in public expenditure on these mechanisms are established and information on transactions costs presented. The conclusion is that SSSI are more cost-effective than ESAs.

Response to Pennsylvania's Agricultural Preservation Programs (1996) 🗎🗎

Agriculture is the leading industry in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. At the same time, encroaching development has pressured prime agricultural land to change uses, a change usually considered irreversible. Some regions of Pennsylvania have used zoning to control and plan for the development of agricultural land, but these decisions have not always been agreed on. In response to conflicts over zoning and calls for more effective restrictions of development of prime agricultural soils, the state government implemented agricultural preservation programs designed to ensure the future viability of Pennsylvania's agriculture. While response has been reported as favorable, most reviews relied on voters' support of a state referendum to fund agricultural preservation programs. Few have examined local responses to the implementation of these programs. This paper explores local community responses to agricultural preservation and the state's programs in three regions of Pennsylvania which differ in levels of urban presence and pressure. Using secondary sources, qualitative data, and general population surveys, this analysis provides implications about strategies of agricultural preservation in a state which leads in such efforts.

Efficacy of standards vs incentives for managing the environmental impacts of agriculture (1996) 🗎🗎

The environmental impacts of agriculture depend on both the longrun and shortrun production decisions of farmers. In the longrun, technologies and quasi-fixed factors are selected and put in place through investment. In the shortrun, production plans are made and implemented conditionally upon available technologies and quasi-fixed factors. An important implication is that the environmental effects of agricultural activities result from an integration of economic decisions, private good production practices and biophysical processes. Viewed from a system perspective, these processes transform a set of private and environmental inputs into a set of private good and environmental outputs. It follows from this logic that the environmental impacts or performance of agriculture result not only from the nature of available technologies, but also how those technical opportunities are exploited in response to market and public policy incentives and constraints. This paper presents results of an application of such an integrated model of biophysical and economic processes to evaluate the potential responsiveness of water quality impacts of agricultural field crop practices to changes in economic incentives. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited

Common cause or common concern? The role of common lands in the post-productivist countryside (1997) 🗎🗎

The aim of this paper is to contribute towards a better understanding of the contemporary position of commons as a land resource, and to evaluate whether commons have a distinct role to play in today's 'post-productivist' countryside. Following the government's recent recognition of the multi-functional role of commons, the paper sets out to investigate whether this can be achieved through existing agri-environmental schemes. A case study of commons in the Cambrian Mountains (Wales) enables an assessment of the compatibility of one recent agri-environmental scheme, the ESA scheme, with commons management. It is concluded that new legislation and policy are needed, and that agri-environmental policy may provide an opportunity to develop a framework within which the management of common land can be improved to meet conservation and amenity as well as farming objectives.

Towards environmentally beneficial farming? An evaluation of the countryside stewardship scheme (1997) 🗎🗎

Concern over the impact of agriculture on the environment has led to the implementation of a range of agri-environmental schemes by the UK government. Significant here is the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, introduced in 1991 and identified in the 1995 Rural White Paper as the cornerstone of the government's attempts to resolve agri-environmental problems. In spite of the potential of schemes like Countryside Stewardship to encourage environmentally beneficial farming, questions remain about their effectiveness in this respect. This article evaluates the impact of Country side Stewardship through an analysis of the local geography of response to the scheme within Cheshire. It explores the reasons behind the pattern of uptake of the scheme and examines the effect of the scheme on conservation and land use. The article concludes with an evaluation of the effectiveness of Countryside Stewardship in particular and agri-environmental policy in general in achieving the goals of environmentally beneficial farming.

Agriculture and the Greek rural environment (1997) 🗎🗎

THIS PAPER CONSIDERS the relations between agriculture and the environment in Greece. Such relations have been marked by the intensification of agricultural production in recent years, a process which has not been uniform, since in some areas it played a decisive role, whereas in others it was not adopted promptly, and regions were left in the margins of intensification. Understanding the evolution of the relationship between agriculture and the environment and its territorial differentiation will allow us to put given situations and problems into perspective. Only within such a context is the formation of procedures and rules feasible, enabling agri-environmental problems to be resolved. The aim of this paper is to reveal the basic forms of this relationship and not to offer detailed information about the agriculture and the environment in Greece. The paper starts with a global observation and an overview of the country, gradually focusing on the environmental problems caused by agricultural activities in mountainous and semi-mountainous areas, as well as in the plains. We are led to the rediscovery of the 'traditional' way, as far as it applies in Greece, of differentiating amongst regions. This is a complex classification, based on the conditions particular to the country, thus incorporating the geomorphological and, in some cases, climatic factors, as well as human presence as defined by historic and socio-economic parameters. Such a classification has been tested on numerous studies and lends itself to this level of analysis, having sufficient statistical data. The availability of data brings us to another methodological problem requiring further clarification. In Greece, the attempt to quantify phenomena related either to agriculture or the environment, or even to their relationship, is not a simple and easy task. The statistical and research data necessary for quantitative description and analysis are not always sufficient and, in some cases, inappropriate for the realization of this task. For example, the percentage of the active female population in agriculture is systematically underestimated due to lack of clarity in the respective census question, or owing to misunderstanding about to the whole concept of female labour supply in agriculture. Moreover, lack of uniformity over census systems adopted by the civil service when recording data related to these issues, causes confusion over the real size of specific statistical parameters. Furthermore, serious problems are raised by omitting to record significant environmental parameters. What is more, monitoring networks required for observing particular phenomena are either not systematically watched (e.g., the quality of underground waters), or have been installed recently, and therefore do not cover the phenomenon thoroughly (e.g., the quality of surface waters). As a result, it is impossible to assess whether important changes that have is taken place in Greek agriculture in recent years have influenced these phenomena. The recent collapse of the systems recording significant agricultural parameters has been highly revealing. In 1992, one of the consequences of the deregulation of the fertilizers and pesticides market was the suspension in the operation of the existing system used by the Ministry of Agriculture to record the trade and use of fertilizers and pesticides. This situation is alarming since it involves activities considered to play a crucial role in the creation of environmental problems in the rural world. Similar problems arise during the collection of research data for assessing the condition of the environment insofar as this is affected by agricultural activities. The biggest hurdle is the non-existence of data, or the local character of available information, which is not always representative of the entire country. Thus one cannot record the existing situation accurately, nor reach a general conclusion, the only means of by-passing this shortcoming being the analysis of agricultural systems, techniques and practices that exert environmental pressure. Before proceeding to the analysis of the relations between agriculture and environment and in order for them to be better understood, it would be wise to offer an overview of the main characteristics of the Greek natural environment.

Providing new environmental skills for British farmers (1997) 🗎🗎

New environmental policies in agriculture require farmers to develop new skills for the way in which they farm. This presents significant challenges for the providers of education, information, training and advice-the Agricultural Knowledge Network (AKN). Currently, farmers have, at best, an ambivalence towards the environment and as a result, interest in the acquisition of new environmental skills is low. Certain characteristics of the British AKN exacerbate this. It too is trying to adjust to environmental imperatives but remains predominantly production oriented in terms of both staffing and skills offered. The increasing market orientation of the British AKN also underplays the provision of environmental skills transfer and an increasing range of skills providers is confusing and off-putting for farmers. To improve farmers' environmental skills the AKN needs to be better co-ordinated and have clearer mechanisms of quality control. Both farmer involvement in environmental policy formulation and compulsory reskilling as part of environmental schemes will improve farmers' ability to adjust to environmental imperatives in agricultural policy. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.

Voluntary regulation and farmers' environmental behaviour in Denmark and The Netherlands (1997) 🗎🗎

Dutch and Danish governments have applied a combination of voluntary and compulsory measures over the past decade in order to promote the development of more eco-friendly agriculture. This has brought the post-war intensification process in both countries to a halt, and to some extent even resulted in extensification. Voluntary environmental regulation aims at informing, educating and advising farmers or at influencing then values and attitudes. Such measures are often regarded as unimportant and inefficient, but recent surveys among farmers in Denmark and the Netherlands, and analysis of farmer study group schemes in both countries, question this assumption. A process of change in farmers' behaviour and attitudes can be observed, and voluntary measures seem to have played an important part. Farmers in close contact with extension, farmers participating in study groups, and 'green' farmers have shifted more quickly and decisively to eco-friendly methods than other farmers.

Factors influencing farmer participation in the environmentally sensitive areas scheme (1997) 🗎🗎

This study investigates factors influencing farmers' motivations for participation in the Cambrian Mountains ESA scheme (Wales, U.K.). Emphasis is placed on analysing whether significant correlations exist between ESA participation and specific factors. A behavioural approach is used for analysis, largely based on Brotherton's classification into ''scheme factors'' (e.g. payments) and ''farmer factors'' (e.g. age of farmer), but which expands this classification by including the ''information environment'' of a farmer and ''dynamics within the farm district'' - variables which this study shares with some actor-network approaches. While size and existence of remnant wildlife habitats were strongly correlated with overall participation, payments offered by the scheme, information provided by ADAS, scheme flexibility, the ''successors factor'' and dynamics within the district were of particular importance for participation on farms of marginal ESA eligibility (i.e. small farms lacking substantial semi-natural habitats). Age, education and length of residency were important for explaining differential entering of specific habitats (especially broadleaved woodlands) into the ESA scheme, while scheme duration, dependence on the farm for income, tenure and the general information environment of the farmer did not influence overall participation. The paper concludes by arguing that a behavioural approach offers a valuable insight into farmers' decision-making behaviour with regard to participation in agri-environmental schemes, and that this study may be seen as a starting point that could be expanded through the use of related methodologies. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.

Towards a geography of agri-environmental policies in England and Wales (1997) 🗎🗎

Agri-environmental policies have become increasingly prominent measures in the farm sector of England and Wales. This major development has not escaped the attention of agricultural geographers, but little work has emerged which overtly explores the geographical consequences of agri-environmental policy on land use patterns and countryside conservation. Understanding this geography is important in the evaluation of the unevenness of post-productivist processes in the countryside. Using different 'scales' of analysis and specific examples, this paper examines published literature, secondary and primary data to tease out the geographical impacts of agri-environmental policy. Each scale of analysis informs the interpretation of agri-environmental policy impacts in different ways. A national scale analysis provides a general impression of farmers' interest in conservation and their receptiveness to agri-environmental schemes. However, numbers of farmers enrolled gives little idea of the quality of environmental practices undertaken and any subsequent modifications to land use patterns. Moving to a regional scale permits greater sensitivity to interactions between scheme characteristics and factors peculiar to farming in a locality. A wide variety of agri-environmental policy outcomes emerge, demonstrating that a meso-scale analysis is a useful aid to detailed research into the geography of agri-environmental policy. Farm and field scale approaches show that existing studies concentrate on processes of adoption and less on outcomes 'on the ground'. However, a selection of complex patterns at these scales are highlighted. Micro-scale aspects of agri-environmental policy deserve far more attention from agricultural geographers, although integrative research which draws upon insights gained from each scale is advocated to understand fully the geographical impacts of agri-environmental policy on land use patterns. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.

Evaluating the environmentally sensitive areas: the value of rural environments and policy relevance (1998) 🗎🗎

Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) have come to take a central place in agri-environmental policy. An important evaluation of the scheme has sought to estimate the value of two ESAs using the contingent valuation method. This paper assesses this evaluation and argues that in practice the method failed to establish a clear and realistic description of the likely outcome of the policy. In a number of respects, the evaluation assumes that the policy will be successful prior to the analysis. These concerns are supported by the evidence available from monitoring studies. In consequence the evaluation is of limited use for the purposes of policy decision-making. There is a need to define the likely outcomes of policy more realistically, recognising the inevitable uncertainty, and to investigate the values of conservation at the margin in order to make such evaluations more relevant to policy development. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Agenda 2000 debate and CAP reform in Great Britain. Is the environment being sidelined? (1998) 🗎🗎

This paper considers the environmental implications of the CAP reforms proposed in Agenda 2000, The CAP has been widely criticized for its financial profligacy and the creation of conditions which encourage environmentally damaging farming practices. Although the CAP was reformed in 1992 there has been growing pressure for further radical reform. In Agenda 2000 the European Commission present a set of revised policy objectives for agriculture which build upon the reforms of 1992. Empirical data from a representative sample of 558 British farmers is used to determine the environmental impact of the 1992 reforms and assess potential impact of Agenda 2000 proposals. The survey found that the environmental benefits of the reforms in the arable sector were minimal and that predictions of a move toward more extensive crop production using fewer inputs had not materialized. In the livestock sector dairying continued the pre-reform trend of specialization and intensification while the majority of beef and sheep producers remained unaffected by the introduction of stocking density regulations. It is concluded that the proposals contained within Agenda 2000 are Small unlikely to result in a more environmentally benign agriculture unless specific environmental goals are articulated and accompanied by appropriate policy mechanisms. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science ltd. All rights reserved.

Watershed development programmes in India - Emerging issues for environment-development perspectives (1998) 🗎🗎

Conservation of rain water and checking soil erosion is central to the attainment of economic as well as financial sustainability of dryland agriculture. Integrated Watershed Development Programme is the major policy instrument for achieving this goal. The approach, though quite comprehensive, however, has come at a time when the global environmental concerns have become quite strong. In turn, this has exerted significant influence in changing the central thrust as well as the composition of watershed development programmes in India. It is the contention of this paper that the global environmental concerns have diverted attention for productivity concerns and therby resorting to some of the softer options emphasising indigenous technology, low cost measures and participatory institutional development. It is argued that external forces have deviated the policies front making substantial investments in land which farmers otherwise cannot afford to make on their own. Also, a participatory approach for project implementation, per se, may not bring desired results in terms of enhancement of productivity and livelihood security. Finally, given the options, farmers prefer yield augmenting technologies and are willing to pay for the cost. This in turn also helps bringing more effective (interactive)participation in the SWC-programme.

Farmers and the implementation of the EU nitrates directive in Spain (1998) 🗎🗎

Farming practices and their implications for the environment have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years with mounting pressures on farmers to reduce pollution and achieve higher environmental standards. The Nitrates Directive is an outstanding example, at EU level, of the pressure on farmers to redirect agriculture toward greater sustainability. This paper examines the implementation process of the Nitrates Directive in Spain, analysing the causes of the delay in implementing the directive, and examining farmers' views of nitrate pollution and their attitudes toward environmental regulation of their activity.

Measuring heterogeneous preferences for preserving farmland and open space (1998) 🗎🗎

Public preferences for environmental policies often vary among individual citizens according to their socio-economic characteristics and attitudes toward environmental programs. Most researchers account for socio-economic characteristics when conducting public preference surveys, but do not account for differences in preferences that transcend socio-economic categories. Identifying the public's attitudes regarding environmental programs and the role they play in shaping individuals' preferences for policy alternatives can assist policy makers in developing programs that are consistent with public expectations. This paper uses factor analysis and a discrete choice model to describe differences in public preferences that result from different attitudes regarding the goals of programs designed to preserve farmland and open space. Results describe policy implications that are not apparent when using models that address socio-economic characteristics alone. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

An approach to Baltic Sea sustainability (1998) 🗎🗎

One may understand the Joint Comprehensive Programme to restore the ecological balance of the Baltic Sea, which was initiated and has been signed by the Baltic Littoral States and the European Community, as confirming the target of environmental sustainability. The paper seeks to answer three questions and proposes a program for participatory action. The first questions it broaches are: (a) is the target of environmental sustainability socially feasible; (b) how can ecological economics support decision making processes in complex systems such as the Baltic Sea and its watershed area, where uncertainty is an important process variable; and (c) how can a program be designed so as to combine environmentally and socially based targets. In other words, how should social processes be designed to make 'sustainability' into a regulatory principle for policy making. This paper proposes one conceivable way of organizing processes in which the social players can participate in the decision making process. It also supports the idea of designing input-output scenarios for economic sectors and subregions for supporting target setting on the local, subregional and watershed scales and to monitoring such processes. Finally, the paper suggests a system for applying the polluter-pay-principle in the Baltic Sea region. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Managing diffuse environmental contamination from agricultural pesticides: An economic perspective on issues and policy options, with particular reference to Europe (1998) 🗎🗎

There an widely held concerns over environmental contamination from agricultural pesticide applications, and a current policy objective in many Western European countries is to reduce usage levels. However, it appears that existing arrangements to control usage, and thence contamination, are inadequate to achieve the levels of environmental quality currently demanded; policy innovation and reform are needed. This review examines some of the problems of controlling pesticide contamination, and the potential policy instruments for achieving pesticide use reduction for environmental improvement. Particular attention is given to the role of market mechanisms to achieve environmental policy aims, especially through the introduction of financial incentives for producers to switch to integrated pest management practices involving the use of less pesticides. Instruments such as input taxes seem administratively and politically feasible, but need careful design and implementation if environmental objectives with regard to pesticides are to be achieved. Environmental economics can make an important contribution to practical agri-environmental resource management if linked with more explicit acknowledgement of the characteristics of agro-ecosystems. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Environmental benchmarks for agriculture? Clarifying the framework in a federal system - Australia (1998) 🗎🗎

Increasingly, liability for environmental damage is being allocated to those responsible for it, and the use of environmental auditing as a means of managing this process in non-agricultural industry is expanding. This paper describes a framework which clarifies the nature of the roles and responsibilities of all people making decisions which affect the environmental impact of agriculture, as a preliminary step in the development of benchmarks or standards in a federal system of government to audit progress towards the achievement of ecologically sustainable agriculture in Australia. It is argued that farmers make many decisions which have significant environmental consequences on their farm - what we have termed localized impacts. It should be possible to derive various benchmarks or standards against which the effectiveness of farmers in dealing with their localized environmental impacts may be measured and assessed, Other environmental effects associated with agriculture, whilst observable on the farm, may be traced back to decisions made by others, in local, regional, state or federal management agencies. Decisions of such agencies affect the functioning of whole ecological and hydrological systems, and are observable as widespread environmental impacts - what we have termed systemic impacts, Consequently, it should be possible to derive a series of benchmarks and standards relevant to the responsibilities of decision makers in the various spheres. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Estimating the supply of environmental benefits by agriculture: A French case study (1998) 🗎🗎

There has been an increasing public interest in promoting the supply of environmental benefits by agriculture. The Environmentally Sensitive Area scheme addresses this challenge by offering farmers voluntary agreements: entrants are compensated for complying with a package of prescribed farming practices designed to secure conservation goals. This paper emphasizes the uptake of agreements from two perspectives: (i) ex post, it considers why some eligible farmers join a proposed scheme and why some do not, (ii) ex ante, it discusses how non-eligible farmers would behave if they were proposed a well-defined scheme. Ex post perspective refers to farmers' actual behaviour which is observed by the environmental agency, whereas the ex ante perspective is related to their contingent one. A single economic model is derived to deal with both cases. Econometric results from a French case study with respect to wetland preservation are given. There is some consistency between the empirical results obtained in both cases, and to some extent it may be argued that contingent behaviour predicts the actual one.

Agri-environmental indicators: issues and choices (1998) 🗎🗎

There is currently considerable interest in devising and incorporating indicators into (amongst other things) agricultural and agri-environmental policies. The urgency of this process is increasing ahead of the impending World Trade Organization's inaugural scrutiny of such policies, and the perceived need for further reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, Yet consensus on indicator terminology, let alone methodologies and data sources, is far from complete. This paper reviews briefly some of the issues relating to agri-environmental indicators. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental stewardship in UK agriculture: A comparison of the Environmentally Sensitive Area programme and the Countryside Stewardship Scheme in South East England (1998) 🗎🗎

Research into the adaption of Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS) has typically sought to identify the defining characteristics of participants add the 'barriers to entry' that dissuade others from joining. More recently, attention has focused on the motivation of participants and non-participants in helping to understand patterns of participation. This paper compares the pattern of participation in two distinct schemes operating in South East England. Indirect evidence suggests that scheme design and implementation is influencing the type of farmer joining and their motivation for doing so. Results from a survey of farmers also support the idea that the schemes are recruiting from different sections of the farming community. ESA farmers are largely motivated by financial gain, whereas those enrolling land in the Countryside Stewardship Scheme have more clearly defined conservation motives. Although there is also a 'core' of resistant non-participants, further changes to the design and delivery of policy could encourage a large number of 'potential enrolers' to join. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Research needs and methods for decentralised economic planning (1998) 🗎🗎

International debates on food and agricultural policy increasingly endorse the principles of the free market and stress the responsibilities of national governments for active policies to manage development, to achieve food security and to safeguard the environment. This paper argues that consequently policy-oriented research needs to establish databases and develop models, in which both rural and urban households figure prominently and in a properly gee-referenced manner. This will enable the policy analyst to design policies and to monitor their effect on a regional basis. The paper emphasises that policy-oriented research should provide a nationwide perspective, because in relation to sustainability, as far as environmental economics is concerned, virtually all theory and theory-based policy guidelines have been formulated for national economies in their totality. With respect to the representation of agricultural production itself, we discuss a class of spatial estimation techniques that can deal with missing data and account for qualitative observations, and that can make full use of spatially explicit information on crop yield potentials as generated by agro-ecological models. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ecological principles in agricultural policy: but which principles? (1998) 🗎🗎

There are increasing calls to base farming and agricultural research policy on ecological principles. One such principle, the relation between crop species diversity and stability, is reviewed, Parallels are drawn between species-poor early successional vegetation and the management of annual crops by traditional farmers. Traditional management is based on the central of succession, and the exploitation of the competitive strategies characteristic of early-successional species. The existence of apparently stable pure stands in natural vegetation confirms the sound ecological strategy of simple and productive annual cropping. Farmers' ecological knowledge also encompasses the value of introduced crops and varieties. Changes are recommended in international agricultural research policy, with the need to redefine sustainability and to adopt ecological principles more relevant to annual crop production. Suggestions are made to apply specific traditional ecological knowledge of farming to agricultural research and policy. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The end of the traditional agricultural society - and what is to follow? A status report of the so-called Agriculture Report (1998) 🗎🗎

The "primary sector" of the society in Europe's regions is phasing out, but we do not know all of the consequences yet. Will there be a "mixed rural society" with an agricultural minority running farms under improved locational conditions, or will rural areas face a "subsistence crisis" for an unknown proportion of its population, which is partly already obvious, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe? On the other hand the efficiency of market-oriented producers has increased markedly, so that costs decreased for the consumer, but the incomes of must of the producers, too. This is why the rest of the "primary sector" is forced to accept additional nonagricultural tasks and functions, such as services on both the private (touristic) and public (communal) level. Agricultural politics should support this development in order to guarantee the farmers a status of "multifunctionality", not only for their own care but for the benefit of the society as a whole.

Integrating agricultural research and policy analysis: Analytical framework and policy applications for bio-economic modelling (1998) 🗎🗎

Interdisciplinary approaches to identify suitable incentives for enhancing sustainable natural resource use require an analytical framework that satisfies both practical purposes of policy support and disciplinary requirements regarding the specification of underlying technical and behavioural relations. Different approaches for agricultural policy analysis are distinguished according to the nature of problems addressed and the analytical procedures applied. Major drawbacks of more disciplinary analysis can be circumvented through functional integration of these approaches. The methodological foundations of an integrated bio-economic modelling framework for the simultaneous appraisal of agro-ecological and socioeconomic parameters are presented, and assumptions on farm household decision making regarding crop and technology choice, labour use, market exchange and price responsiveness are discussed. Implications of this integrated approach are analysed against the background of policy discussions on land markets, incentives for innovation, and public investment for agricultural intensification. Policy analysis for sustainable land use proves to be critically dependent on the specification of the linkages between decision-making procedures regarding resource allocation by farm households and their supply response to changes in the economic and institutional environment. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Methodological issues in valuing the benefits of Environmentally Sensitive Areas (1999) 🗎🗎

This paper replies to a number of concerns raised by Hedge and McNally (1998) regarding the monetary valuation of Environmentally Sensitive Area schemes using the contingent valuation method. In addition to clarifying a number of concerns regarding the methodology of the original case study, this paper reports a more formally structured theoretical methodology for evaluating Environmentally Sensitive Areas and raises a number of issues regarding the nature of policy evaluations in the public sector. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

An ecological-economic model for agri-environmental policy analysis (1999) 🗎🗎

Operational models of economic activity, particularly at the farm scale, have become commonly used, and widely accepted methods and applications exist. Operational models of ecological systems probably have less of a history but processes of species interaction and succession are well documented. Relationships between economic farm-scale variables and resultant ecological diversity, however, are less well documented as are modelling frameworks which combine both economic and ecological operational systems. This paper explains how a utility maximising economic modelling framework may be linked to an ecological modelling system with the objective of allowing 'ex ante' assessment of the ecological impact of certain key agricultural management parameters. Two models, initially designed for independent analyses, are introduced. Data pertaining to a survey of farm sites are used to demonstrate the types of relationships which emerge between agricultural management parameters and grassland vegetation. A specific case-study site is selected for ecological and economic assessment under potential policy scenarios. The results of the analysis highlight the relevance of such an integrated modelling system for environmental policy decision support. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

In situ conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: a UK perspective (1999) 🗎🗎

The value of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) is discussed and the contribution of the UK's agri-environmental schemes to the conservation of these genetic resources reviewed. It is concluded that the UK's agri-environmental conservation schemes do not prioritise the conservation of genetic diversity of wild relatives of agricultural crops. Surveys of the distribution of genetic variation are required so that PGRFA can be safeguarded by incremental amendments to existing conservation schemes, by adopting new schemes and by altering the contract between the conservation body and farmers to allow farmers to contract as groups rather than individuals. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing the success of agri-environmental policy in the UK (1999) 🗎🗎

This paper considers alternative means for assessing the success of "agri-environmental" policy (AEP), which has become an increasingly-important aspect of agricultural and environmental policy throughout Europe, and which has probably developed more extensively in the UK than elsewhere. After a brief description of the main elements of AEP in the UK, we consider two broad classes of assessment method, those based on efficiency and those based on effectiveness. The latter class of methods has dominated appraisal so far in the UK, primarily through participation measures. We outline the limitations of these, and then consider evidence of policy efficiency gained through cost-benefit analysis techniques. Finally, we suggest how a combined approach could be used to appraise three possible changes to UK agri-environmental policy. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Rural Environment Protection Scheme of the Republic of Ireland (1999) 🗎🗎

Agricultural modernisation has had an impact on the Irish environment but official policy to address this developed only slowly. The reform of the EU CAP provided the incentive for the formulation of the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS). This is a wide-ranging scheme to promote environmentally friendly farming through application of 11 measures and six supplementary measures. Significant characteristics of the REPS include its: universal availability, voluntary nature, comprehensiveness, payment limitation, tailoring to individual farms and inclusion of training. There has been a high level of adoption, with participation being greatest in the small-farm west with its cattle and sheep enterprises. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Consultation on the countryside premium scheme: creating a 'market' for information (2000) 🗎🗎

This paper explores the agri-environmental policy network in Scotland, focusing on the public consultation concerning a new agri-environmental scheme. It applies one of the standard frameworks of market analysis, structure-conduct-performance (SCP) analysis, to explore how the interactions between policy actors, and particularly the provision of information, affect policy outcomes. An important stage in policy development is gathering information for the design and implementation of subsequent policy measures. In the UK, there has been increasing use of public consultation procedures as a means to obtain information from interest groups and individuals. This can be considered in terms of the government issuing a request or 'demand' for information, which is then 'supplied' by interested parties; a 'market' for information is thus created. In the spring of 1996, a consultation was undertaken by the Scottish Office Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries Department (SOAEFD), over a proposed new agri-environmental scheme, the Countryside Premium Scheme. This paper reports the results of an analysis of this consultation in terms of an information 'market'. This 'market' appeared to have an oligopolistic structure, with some barriers to entry, and involved considerable costs to the groups involved. Agricultural and environmental interest groups both appeared to have some impact on the policy outcome, though the type of impacts differed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The transition to environmental agriculture in Europe: Learning processes and knowledge networks (2000) 🗎🗎

Environmental policies in agriculture have now been fully incorporated into policy throughout Europe both within and outside of the European Union. One of the cornerstones to the successful implementation of these policies is both the willingness and ability of farmers to implement them. Many actors influence both the formulation and implementation of such policies, from governments through pressure groups and the agricultural knowledge networks (AKNs) in various countries, to farmers themselves. In assessing the principal objectives of all of these actors, it can be seen that none has environmental goals as their principal objective, and the development of policies is thus both difficult and a residual priority. This situation is likely to be ameliorated not through a focus on more effective policy instruments for agri-environmental polices, but through adjustments of administrative structures for both their development and in carrying them out.

A comparative analysis on intensification and extensification in mediterranean agriculture: dilemmas for LFAs policy (2000) 🗎🗎

Despite the low degree of production intensification relatively to northern countries, rising overall trends in the intensification process are apparent in the plains of the lowland of Mediterranean countries, following the extensification (in the sense of abandonment of traditional/extensive production systems) in mountainous communes. This development, which implied a number of other changes in the Mediterranean farm sectors and was strengthened by the CAP, has had serious negative implications for the environment of both the uplands and the lowlands. Current trends in the CAP point to an increasingly restrictive farm price policy which, in some cases, is likely to affect negatively production and incomes. This could lead to further abandonment of production in certain less-favoured zones of particular nature conservation value, with severe negative impacts on biodiversity and landscapes. On the other hand, measures which are aimed to combat abandoment and marginalization in mountainous communes (e.g. the sheepmeat regime or the LFAs Regulation) have often led to overexploitation of marginal land with equally negative environmental implications. This paper attempts to highlight the contradictions and dilemmas which agricultural policy faces in trying to achieve less intensive agricultural practices and to promote and preserve extensive ones, mainly in mountainous-LFAs-of the Mediterranean region. Due to the limited statistical information available, the analysis is qualitative and based mostly on a review of the literature rather than on original research. The conclusions make clear what policy makers have increasingly come to recognise (as is reflected in recent proposals for reform in the CAP): that such policy conflicts can be resolved if there is more focused support to specific parts of LFAs and if environmental conditions are attached to any policy measure. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Valuing environmental policy options: A case study comparison of multiattribute and contingent valuation survey methods (2000) 🗎🗎

This paper describes a promising new evaluation approach, called a "value integration survey," that uses the objectives and tradeoffs expressed by participants to value environmental policy options. This constructive technique, which builds on the interactive elicitation process of decision analysts, assists stakeholders in clarifying their values and in agreeing on a policy alternative. The paper compares this multiattribute valuation method to contingent valuation surveys, describes the sequence of respondents' tasks, and presents results from a case study comparison of contingent valuation and value-integration survey methods in the context of valuing options for fire control in Oregon's old-growth forests.

Promoting farmer uptake of agri-environment schemes: the Countryside Stewardship Arable Options Scheme (2000) 🗎🗎

The theory of diffusion and adoption of innovation was used to gain an understanding of farmer attitude towards and willingness to participate in the Arable Field Margins option of the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, and to assess the effectiveness of actions to promote participation amongst arable farmers. Informal interviews, followed up by a telephone survey, confirmed that for CS arable options to be attractive, they must be perceived to be practical, offer adequate environmental and financial reward, and fit in with a predominantly commercial farm business purpose. Appropriate promotional pathways were identified for each stage of the adoption process to encourage farmer participation, emphasising the importance of change agents and communications channels. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Challenges and options for the UK agri-environment: Presidential address (2000) 🗎🗎

After fifteen years of agri-environment policy it is now appropriate to take stock of these policies. This is important because these policies are scheduled to expand in the coming decade, their benefits are likely to continue growing and the demand for benefits is also likely to expand. This paper therefore reviews the current agri-environmental situation, isolating some of the current challenges to the schemes implemented in the UK, and compares main options for their amelioration. Finally it focuses particularly on the "end of contract Problem" arising-from the weak sustainability of the policy benefits from short-term voluntary contracts.

Using modulation to green the cap: the UK case (2000) 🗎🗎

The Agenda 2000 reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), agreed in 1999, give significant new discretion to Member States, including the scope for them to apply modulation to direct payments to farmers. Modulation means that up to 20% of payments can be redirected into the CAP's accompanying measures, including agri-environment schemes. This paper examines the rationales for applying modulation, and the potential benefits and problems associated with the measure. It examines the case of the UK in particular, and concludes that modulation currently provides a useful means of re-orienting and greening the CAP. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Integrating agri-environment policy farming systems and rural development: Tir Cymen in Wales (2000) 🗎🗎

This paper examines a conservation scheme in Wales called Tir Cymen (tidy land in Welsh) as a means of exploring the extent to which policies designed primarily to support habitat, landscape, biodiversity and conservation are commensurate with goals to maintain viable rural communities, including viable agricultures. Maximizing the broader rural development impacts of conservation schemes, it is argued, is a vital ingredient in the pursuit of sustainable rural development, particularly in regions where many farm businesses are likely to be already highly dependent upon subsidy support. It is argued, through the presentation of the Tir Cymen case, that conservation policies can, if appropriately designed and regionally embedded, go some way to mitigating both the 'farm problem' and the 'rural problem', and are therefore capable of a sustainable and desirable rural development impact commensurate with the new rural development paradigm.

Financial imperative or conservation concern? EU farmers' motivations for participation in voluntary agri-environmental schemes (2000) 🗎🗎

Based on a large transnational research project that involved questionnaires with 1000 farm households in nine EU countries and Switzerland, this paper investigates factors influencing farmers' participation in agri-environmental schemes (AESs). Analysis of motivations for AES participation highlights that complex patterns of AESs are in operation. Pronounced geographical differences in farmers' reactions towards schemes can be identified, with responses by farmers from northern member states often differing from those in Mediterranean countries, and with arable farmers often responding differently fi-om grassland farmers. Yet, the study also highlights that much common ground exists and that conceptual frameworks for the understanding of farmers' participation in AESs developed in the United Kingdom can be successfully applied outside the British context. Common participation patterns include the importance of financial imperatives and 'goodness of fit: and the influence of similar sets of factors such as farm size, tenure, or farm type. The growing importance of conservation-oriented motivations for AES participation across Europe suggests the emergence of a 'new hypothesis' which highlights that the financial imperative for participation does not necessarily exclude an often equally important environmental concern. The paper concludes by indicating where current agri-environmental policy (AEP) may be failing adequately to address structural and socioeconomic characteristics of targeted farming populations, and by arguing that understanding participation decisionmaking is only the first step in an attempt to assess the 'effectiveness' of AEP. Further comparative research is needed to investigate in detail more complex indicators of scheme success, in particular what effects scheme participation has on farmers' incomes, farmers' environmental attitudes, and on the environmental quality of the countryside targeted by AESs.

Can sustainable tropical forestry be made profitable? The potential and limitations of innovative incentive mechanisms (2000) 🗎🗎

This paper assesses the potential and limitations of a range of "innovative" incentive mechanisms (IIMs) to make forest management and conservation more profitable for forest users. It classifies IIMs into three approaches: the fiscal or transfer payments approach; market-based solutions involving public good values; and the property rights approach. An essential complement to any IIM is regulation or control; at the international level, regulation creates the necessary demand for IIMs which attempt to capture global externalities, while at the national level, effective regulation is a vital concomitant of fiscal market-based instruments. Efforts to encourage sustainable forestry should also be complemented by policies which make forest-degrading activities less attractive, particularly by tackling extra-sectoral causes of forest degradation and investing in social capital and labor-intensive agriculture. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Farm-level constraints on agri-environmental scheme participation: a transactional perspective (2000) 🗎🗎

Voluntary agri-environmental schemes based on management agreements characterise much agri-environmental policy across the EU at present, and have expanded following the implementation of Regulation 2078/92 in all member states. Schemes generally motivate individual farmers to contract with government agencies to produce countryside goods in return for compensatory payments. Hence, farmers' decisions to participate are central to achieving policy objectives. An enhanced understanding of farmers' attitudes to and perceptions of schemes and their implementation would be of value for policy development. Recent transactions-cost research has observed that such schemes involve potentially heavy transactions costs, for both the state and farmers. In addition to reducing scheme cost-effectiveness, the transactions costs incurred by farmers can form a significant constraint on participation in schemes, with adverse effects on the supply of conservation goods. This paper considers behavioural and transactional perspectives on scheme participation. Some new data on the transactional burdens experienced by farmers when participating in schemes is examined from the perspective of identifying ways to improve policy transacting to ease constraints on participation where these exist. At the level of the individual participant, the development of agri-environmental one-stop-shops in member states for all schemes would allow transactions-cost economies, saving on the overhead costs of applying to different schemes with different objectives, as well as allowing a more integrated, less confused approach to participation. The longer-term value of farmer networks and capacity-building for agri-environmental management is important too. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modelling farmer entry into the Environmentally Sensitive Area schemes in Scotland (2001) 🗎🗎

The probability and rate of farmer entry into the Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) scheme were investigated by multinomial logit and duration analysis respectively. Models were based on a survey of 490 farmers sampled fr om across all ten ESAs in Scotland. The results indicated a number of generic factors as important in explaining the entry decision. Non-entrants were less aware of and less informed about the scheme than entrants. The probability of entry was increased where the scheme prescription fitted the farm situation and the costs of compliance were low. The duration analysis suggested several factors accelerating scheme entry: an interest in conservation, more adequate information and more extensive systems.

The concept of joint production and ecological economics (2001) 🗎🗎

Joint production is suggested as one of the conceptual foundations of ecological economics. The notion of joint production springs immediately from the application of thermodynamics, and has a long history in economic analysis. Considerations of joint production give rise to philosophical concerns relating to responsibility and knowledge. The concept of joint production is easily comprehensible, and is also constitutive and supportive of a range of concepts current in ecological economic thought. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Farmer participation in agri-environmental schemes: Towards conservation-oriented thinking? (2001) 🗎🗎

This paper argues that the possible shift towards conservation-oriented attitudes of farmers through agri-environmental scheme participation should be seen as a key indicator for assessing the 'effectiveness' of agri-environmental policy. Through the analysis of two agri-environmental schemes in the UK, the ESA and Countryside Stewardship schemes, the study suggests that schemes attract different types of farmers and have different results with regard to shifting farmers' attitudes towards conservation. The paper concludes that there is little evidence yet that the ESA scheme is contributing to changes in farmers' attitudes towards conservation, largely because the scheme is aimed at maintenance rather than change. The Countryside Stewardship scheme, meanwhile, generally enrols more conservation-oriented farmers and also shows greater potential for shifting farmers' attitudes, mainly because it is aimed at enhancement of wildlife habitats which often require farmers to change farm management practices. Results indicate that future policies should put more emphasis on scheme monitoring and farmer environmental education in order to help move farmers along the conservation spectrum. In the ESA scheme, management agreement tiers that require more substantial changes to farm management practices towards conservation-oriented farming should be made compulsory in order to ensure that farmers are not only 'reacting' to schemes, but that also help farmers re-think their environmental management practices. The Countryside Stewardship scheme should be Further expanded because of its appeal to conservation-oriented farmers and the resulting potential for sustainable environmental conservation of the countryside.

The role of agroforestry networks in landscape socioeconomic processes: the potential and limits of the contingent valuation method (2001) 🗎🗎

Agroforestry networks can be a means to achieve landscape amelioration. Some authorities of the Lagoon of Venice drainage basin (Italy) are planning, amongst other actions to control pollution in the Lagoon, to reintroduce agroforestry by means of a GIS-supported design procedure. The goals of this paper were to assess (i) the contingent valuation (CV) (willingness to pay and willingness to accept) of agroforestry networks and its relationship with socioeconomic and agroforestry role variables, (ii) the coherence between agro-economic policies and farmers expectations, (iii) the relationship between the value of agroforestry as a "shared good" and water quality (non-point source pollution). Respondents associate a positive value/preference to the agroforestry network implementation, although this value is strongly affected firstly by their identity with the landscape and secondly by their income. The motivations of farmers' evaluation are precise and the agroforestry network is considered not only as an "ethical object" but also as a concrete element of their own cultural and economic world. In this case the contingent value (in particular, in terms of acceptance) increases with the farmer's economic capacity, and the farmer's valuation is not linked only to the "good" but also to the "service" offered for implementing it. The expectations of farmers regarding an agroforestry plantation were lower than European Union incentives at the time of survey, and a lack of results in this field is probably linked to poor information and to bureaucratic difficulties. Even if there is general knowledge on water quality, there is little awareness on the non-point source pollution control effect of agroforestry buffer plantations, either in the common people or in those who are environmentally trained (e.g. planning university students). In every case the agroforestry "shared good" evaluation is high enough to permit efficient and supported intervention policies. These results confirm that landscape choices strongly involve issues of identity, perceived rights and evaluation capacity that cannot be simply resolved in terms of preference cost benefit analyses, but a clever use of the CV allows an identification of these same limitations and a partial estimation of them. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Transgenic crops and the environment: missing markets and public roles (2001) 🗎🗎

The rapidity of change has left scant opportunity for investigation of the consequences of adoption of transgenic crops on long-term ecosystem or economic system functioning. Economic theory suggests that, if the "Biotechnology Revolution" is left to market forces alone, there will be neglected public goods. Theory and limited empirical evidence suggests that there are significant incentives for private firms to discount and neglect certain environmental impacts and to develop products that meet mainly the needs of those able and willing to pay. Negative distributional impacts on rural societies and economies will not normally enter the private calculus nor will the long-term problems of insect and plant resistance. Thus, there is a strong case for enhanced public roles with respect to the use of transgenic crops, The adoption of the precautionary approach in public policies addressing transgenic crops is one alternative to better reflect public concerns.

Agri-environmental policy in Spain. The agenda of socio-political developments at the national, regional and local levels (2001) 🗎🗎

EU agri-environmental legislation provides that every Member State may enact its own regulations specifying standards and environmentally sensitive areas. Thus Member States have substantial scope for adapting basic principles and implementing them in their own way. This has enabled competing interest groups to promote their own priorities. Spanish environmental policy has been influenced by its membership of the EU and by the political interests of Spain's Regional Governments. Before EU agri-environmental legislation came into force, environmental considerations were virtually ignored when shaping farming policy. The agri-environmental measures were the last of the new CAP accompanying measures to be introduced into Spanish agriculture, the national basis for their application being laid down in 1995. Only two of the seven types of measures provided in Regulation 2078/92 have been adopted at a national level. The other five have been incorporated, very unevenly, into regional programmes designed to help environmentally sensitive areas. Only 6 out of 66 programmes had been developed and implemented by the end of 1998. Local effectiveness of regional measures is low as a result of scheme factors (lack of policy coordination, competition from other CAP subsidies) and attitudinal factors (farmers' scepticism and reluctance of the agricultural authorities). (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Economic crisis, small farmer well-being, and forest cover change in Indonesia (2001) 🗎🗎

Field research was conducted on 1,050 Indonesian households to understand the effects of the Asian economic crisis on the well-being of small farmers outside of Java and on their forest-clearing practices. The main findings are: (a) most farmers perceived themselves as worse off during the crisis than before, challenging the claim that farmers with export income would be better off and (b) forest clearing by farmers increased significantly during the crisis to expand rubber holdings and other tree crops, with the aim of increasing future income security. Among the policy lessons are that crop diversification and targeted aid can minimize impoverishment and avert increased forest clearing following macroeconomic destabilization. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interpreting and reinterpreting agri-environmental policy: Communication, trust and knowledge in the implementation process (2002) 🗎🗎

The role and importance of street-level bureaucrats in policy implementation is now widely recognised. So far as the EU's agri-environmental policy is concerned, however, a focus on the attitudes and behaviour of programme recipients (farmers and other land managers) has tended to obscure the role of street-level bureaucrats responsible for extending and advising on schemes and the impact of their interpretive frameworks and communication practices on policy outcomes. This paper draws on interviews with extensionists and advisers in England and Finland in order to explore the different interpretations, which these actors bring to the implementation of agri-environmental policy and to reflect on the implications of this for the way environmental advice is currently being offered to farmers within the agri-environmental network.

Nutrient pollution: An economic perspective (2002) 🗎🗎

Although the phenomenon of nutrient pollution can be studied using models from the environmental sciences, understanding both the human causes and the human effects of nutrient pollution requires a study of economics. The economic dimensions of the problem of nutrient over-enrichment and the role that economics can and should play in the evaluation and design of policies to reduce nutrient pollution relate to understanding the causes of nutrient pollution, setting targets for reduction or improvement, and designing policies to meet those targets. We summarize the incentives created by alternative policy approaches, including both voluntary approaches (based on education, subsidies, and implicit threats of more stringent policies) and mandatory approaches (such as regulations, taxes and marketable permits).

Agricultural multifunctionality in the WTO - legitimate non-trade concern or disguised protectionism? (2002) 🗎🗎

The extent to which the multifunctionality of agriculture can justify continuing domestic subsidies to farmers that may be trade distorting in their effects. has emerged as a key bone of contention in the current World Trade Organization (WTO) agriculture trade talks. Supporters of multifunctionality point to the contribution of agriculture in terms of food Security, rural development and environmental protection. In this paper. we focus on the environmental component in order to examine three interconnected questions. First, how robust is multifunctionality as a policy concept? Second. if multifunctionality is a reality, how, valid is the claim made by European negotiators that the liberalization of agricultural policy and the abolition of blue box subsidies threaten the joint production of food and environmental goods in rural space? Third, what are the precise implications of this analysis for agri-environmental policy design. and the likely compatibility of the European Union's favoured model with current and future WTO disciplines? We conclude that, while multifunctionality is a genuine, and in some respects, unique, Feature of European agriculture. it is in relation to the perceived threat of extensive agricultural restructuring to biodiversity and landscape values in the European Union that the concept has been most fully realized. This has profound implications for policy design. suggesting a need to retain some element of income support in the policy mix in order to defend environmental assets against the extreme consequences of farm structural change. We conclude by exploring what these deductions might mean for the future course of the WTO talks and for the long-term design of agri-environmental policy in industrialized countries. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agricultural adjustment: adoption of and adaptation to policy reform measures by large-scale commercial farmers (2002) 🗎🗎

The 1992 reform of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy included an 'Accompanying Measure' that sought to coordinate the agri-environmental programmes of member states alongside initially voluntary and later compulsory set-aside measures designed to restrain agricultural production. These reforms have been seen as signalling a transition from a productivist to post-productivist philosophy in agricultural policy, although survey evidence is less than conclusive that this change of direction has permeated through the industry at the grassroots level. This paper reports on results from a farmer survey that shows contrasting responses according to whether policy measures are compulsory or voluntary. Commercial farmers are more willing to volunteer participation in optional agri-environmental schemes, where they feel they have greater control over its effects on farming operations but respond by adapting their implementation of compulsory set-aside to suit their own agricultural production purposes. Such a response casts considerable doubt over whether large-scale commercial farmers can be regarded as having made a transition to post-productivism. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pesticide environmental indicators and environmental policy (2002) 🗎🗎

A current concern in many European countries is the environmental impact of agricultural pesticide usage and appropriate policy development to reduce impact. Currently, relatively hazardous pesticides that might be targeted for replacement by other products or management practices are not positively identified, with consequently few incentives for farmers to choose the least environmentally-risky chemicals. There is a lacuna in terms of widely-agreed operational environmental indicators, and an urgent need for comparative environmental assessment tools for pesticides, for use by both agriculturists and policy-makers. Such a system could, for example, provide a basis on which to differentiate an eco-tax according to the environmental threats posed by each product, and thus improve policy effectiveness. The heterogeneity of pesticide chemicals should be taken into account more explicitly in policy design. Through a comparison of different approaches covered in the literature on pesticide environmental classifications, this paper assesses the feasibility of developing environmental banding to improve the effectiveness of pesticide policy. A more pragmatic approach lies in the development of pesticide groupings rather than a continuous scale of environmental burden, i.e. focusing on broad similarities and differences rather than precise individual ordering. In particular, hazard indicators should be considered further, as a first stage in progress towards comprehensive environmental impact measures. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Are farmers prosocial? Determinants of the willingness to participate in a Swedish catchment-based wetland creation programme (2003) 🗎🗎

Voluntary participation in programmes for environmental protection is an increasingly important tool for accomplishing environmental policy objectives. Based on data obtained from a questionnaire to a random sample of farmers, an empirical analysis is carried out of motives for their willingness (or reluctance) to participate in a catchment-based programme for wetland creation in an agricultural district in Southern Sweden. It is concluded that besides private profitability, various public and private environmental benefits are of importance for farmers' willingness to participate. Implications for communication and implementation strategies of programmes based on voluntary participation are discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Re-assessing agrarian policy and practice in local environmental management: the case of beef cattle (2003) 🗎🗎

There are policy pressures to make agriculture more environmentally sustainable and to give a more local expression to agri-environmental priorities. This paper considers these moves, with particular reference to the beef sector, and speculates on the further policy responses required to facilitate benign local agri-environmental management. The UK beef sector is characterized by its complexity and diversity but four major systems can be identified operating at varying levels of intensity. Of these, suckler herds and grass-rearing systems have long been associated with high natural value forms of agricultural land management. Many of the cherished habitats and landscapes of the UK are dependent upon grazing for their ecological and amenity value. However a combination of the BSE crisis, the strength of sterling and the recent Foot and Mouth epidemic threatens the sustainability of these high nature value grazing systems. The importance of grazing to 50 selected Sites of Special Scientific Interest is highlighted in the paper. Survey work identified a wide range of systems to be particularly vulnerable to changes in profitability in the beef sector, including: coastal grazing marsh, wet acidic grassland/marshland, upland moor and heath, calcareous grassland and neutral grassland. To maintain these systems requires agricultural policy to be more sensitive to local conditions than currently appears to be the case. There is little policy support for beef farmers in a regional context, still less giving special prominence to those farming within particular biotopes. Nor has there been sufficient policy encouragement to markets for traditional and local beef breeds. The continuing pressure for CAP reform offers further opportunity for policies to be devolved to regions and localities. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Role, models and restrictions of decentralisation of the agri-environmental and rural development policies in the EU (2003) 🗎🗎

In the field of agri-environmental policies, there has been increasing anonymity, centralisation, and a low level of transparency of decision-making processes. As possible measures to combat these adverse development trends, it is, a.o., recommended to decentralise and flexibilise agri-environmental policies. At regional and local levels, the development of innovative co-ordination mechanisms and co-operative structures is as important as the quest for suitable methods of participation and for conflict resolution, i.e. social learning processes. This article presents three institutional approaches that were tested within the GRANO research project. Their concrete activities, results and potential abilities are highlighted and discussed for the field of soil erosion. The studies suggest that both Agri-Environmental-Forums (AEF) and Environmental Co-operatives are able to integrate the actors' preferences and values into the discussion and to respond better to regional distinctions when designing measures. However, the AEF seem to be most suitable for determining regional environmental objectives and appropriate measures, whereas Environmental Co-operatives prove advantageous for implementation of these measures in a co-operative way. The attempt to implement Auctions (or tendering procedures) for Ecological Services indicates that the general concept would work but it also shows that most individuals still have profound concerns. To sum up, all approaches seem to flexibly accompany this process.

Livestock, locality and landscape: EU regulations and the new geography of Welsh farm animals (2003) 🗎🗎

Geographers and policy-makers alike have, until recently, ignored the importance of specific breeds of livestock in agricultural systems. However, the European Union has recently introduced a series of regulations aimed at protecting breeds of livestock with a local tradition. Some British rural agencies, notably the Countryside Council for Wales, have begun to consider how these measures can be included within rural development plans. Based on current thinking in 'new animal geography', this article highlights the conceptual and practical problems of defining and identifying breeds for inclusion in these policies. Through detailed mapping, it is demonstrated that Welsh livestock breeds tend to exhibit three distinct geographical patterns. These patterns have been reshaped by agricultural policy, increasingly to meet the goals of agri-environmental conservation. Through the case study of Wales, the paper concludes that applied geography can be used to increase the effectiveness of these policy measures, especially given their new emphases on breed and locality. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

European agri-environmental policy for the 21st century (2003) 🗎🗎

The present paper reviews the development of agri-environmental policy in Europe and assesses its prospects. While it does so from a predominantly UK perspective, there are many common features of the experience and policy choices across the majority of Member States. The first generation of agri-environmental measures applied command-and-control regulation for the prevention of pollution. Second-generation measures pay farmers for providing environmental public goods. The emphasis on 'amenity' derived from the maintenance of agricultural production systems contrasts with policy approaches in Australia and the USA. Well-designed incentive schemes constitute 'quasi-markets' for public goods, correcting for a pre-existing market failure. Problems in the delivery of policy include poor spatial targeting and a lack of clarity between environmental and income support objectives. Various changes will be required in order to increase the environmental effectiveness and efficiency of agri-environmental mechanisms.

Agri-environmental instruments for an integrated rural policy: An economic analysis (2003) 🗎🗎

The new Rural Development Regulation of the EU reflects the shift of attention within rural areas from agricultural production towards rural development and embraces both farmers and non-farm residents. While agricultural production is required to comply with environmental standards, rural areas also have to fulfil the growing demand for landscape, outdoor recreation and wildlife conservation. This paper develops a model of a rural area where farmers and non-farm residents live together. A central government uses a combination of two-policy instruments - direct compensation payments and public services aimed at encouraging farmers to adopt environmentally beneficial practices and at the same time to increase the provision of countryside amenities and the sustained vitality of the rural area. The optimal mix of the policy instruments is evaluated under various governmental objectives. The analysis suggests that a combination of direct payments to farmers with the supply of local public services is a promising tool for rural policy development initiatives in the EU.

Social capital and farmers' willingness to adopt countryside stewardship schemes (2003) 🗎🗎

The EU provides farmers with incentives to adopt Countryside Stewardship Schemes (CSS) using subsidies in the framework of the agri-environmental regulation of the EU (2078/92), now included in the more general regulation on rural development. In this paper, a case study of 36 farmers in the village of Bierbeek was carried out to investigate the determinants of the willingness to adopt a scheme involving taking care of arable field margins in particular. Bivariate and multivariate logit analysis confirmed not only the importance of personal, structural and financial factors, but also showed the importance of social capital. Farmers who are more open to both professional and non-professional contacts are more likely to adopt a CSS. Hence, government and extension agencies should undertake more efforts to involve farmers as much as possible in activities of a professional and/or non-professional nature to stimulate them to adopt sustainable farming practices.

A small step forward: Environmental protection provisions in the 2002 farm bill (2003) 🗎🗎

The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 ("2002 Farm Bill") is the latest in a long succession of federal legislation designed both to provide income security to American farmers and to address the environmental consequences of agriculture. The 2002 Farm Bill represents an advance in agricultural environmental policy, both in program design and resource allocation. Unfortunately, as in previous iterations, the Bill's farmer income support provisions unnecessarily create additional environmental harm, while the Bill's environmental provisions suffer from a lack of comprehensiveness and from their predominantly voluntary nature. This Comment concludes by recommending changes to address these limitations when the Bill comes up for reauthorization in 2007.

Integrated agribusinesses and liability for animal waste (2003) 🗎🗎

Contamination of surface and ground water by animal waste residues is a major environmental problem in the United States. Legislation has been designed to protect water quality, but its effectiveness has been limited. The paper argues that the legislation has not adjusted to recent changes in the structure of livestock production systems, in particular contract farming and industrialization of agriculture. The paper proposes policy reforms that increase liability of large agribusiness firms, also known as integrators, for the negative environmental side effects caused by their producers' livestock operations. The reforms should also extend the liability to all participants in animal production and consumption activities. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Resolving conflicting ecological and economic interests in the Korean DMZ: a valuation based approach (2003) 🗎🗎

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between South and North Korea has served as a sanctuary to diverse biological resources since the Korean War ceased in 1953. During winter season, flocks of cranes (Grus spp.) converge in the rice field along the DMZ. All other refuges for cranes that winter in South Korea were destroyed, due mainly to wilful industrial expansion in the past few decades. The presence of cranes in this region is attributed to the residual rice grains left behind by harvesters. This winter habitat is, however, very fragile, for a number of reasons. First, the local formers regard the cranes as a potential threat in their livelihood rather than as an ecological member sharing the same ecosystem resources. Second, exercising property rights, the landholders have actively advocated an industrial development program. Third, it is difficult to legally impose the notion of wildlife preservation even if there is a perception among the general public that the crane is worth preserving. This study sought to formulate a policy measure to guide the local egalitarian farm economy to ecological economy in which farmers,and cranes are the harmonized co-users of the ecosystem resources. Valuation based approach is employed in our study to show that bio-diversity is not in conflict with local economic well-being but, in fact, essential to it. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The effects of the industrialization of US livestock agriculture on promoting sustainable production practices (2003) 🗎🗎

US livestock agriculture has developed and intensified according to a strict productionist model that emphasizes industrial efficiency. Sustainability problems associated with this model have become increasingly evident and more contested. Traditional approaches to promoting sustainable agriculture have emphasized education and outreach to encourage on-farm adoption of alternative production systems. Such efforts build on an underlying assumption that farmers are empowered to make decisions regarding the organization and management of their operations. However, as vertical coordination in agriculture continues, especially in the animal agriculture sectors, this assumption becomes less valid. This paper examines how the changing industrial structure in four US livestock sectors (poultry, hogs, beef, and dairy) affects possibilities in each for promoting more sustainable production practices. Comparisons between the sectors are based on the relative ability to employ an intensive pasture or alternative (deep-bedded) housing system, which are widely seen as sustainable livestock alternatives. While the highly integrated poultry sector appears impregnable to traditional sustainable agriculture approaches, the cow-calf sub-sector of the beef industry, non-feedlot dairy operations, and small parts of the hog industry, especially in the Midwest, still retain some potential for effectively targeting the farmer. Building on the presentation of barriers and opportunities in the four livestock sectors, the paper concludes by evaluating several structurally-oriented approaches to promoting a more sustainable livestock agriculture that should complement more traditional approaches. They include developing alternative coordinated networks in livestock agriculture, pressing integrators to permit more sustainable production practices, and working for legislation that shifts more decision-making within integrated systems towards growers.

On the use of targeting to reduce moral hazard in agri-environmental schemes (2004) 🗎🗎

This paper investigates the role of targeting in the context of agri-environmental schemes involving monitoring and penalties. By separating participants into a target and a non-target group the aim of targeting is to reduce the moral hazard problem. The paper analyses three approaches to targeting which have different implications for the level of monitoring resources and the focus is on reducing the extent of cheating by participants in the nontarget group. By complementing the adoption of targeting with appropriate adjustments to the monitoring/penalty parameters, it is shown how such an approach can exploit the risk aversion of participants to completely eliminate cheating by those participants in the nontarget group. The implementation of such a system of targeting is discussed in the context of existing agri-environmental policies.

Agri-environmental stewardship schemes and "multifunctionality" (2004) 🗎🗎

The United Kingdom introduced the first agri-environmental scheme in the European Union in 1986. Since then, the United Kingdom has developed and implemented several other schemes that also feature stewardship payments to improve agriculture's environmental performance. In this article, lessons learned from the United Kingdom's agri-environmental programs are identified. Using the concept of "multifunctionality," which increasingly is influencing agricultural policy in Western Europe, the authors examine key issues associated with potential major expansions of stewardship payment schemes on both sides of the Atlantic.

Building a catchment-based environmental programme: a stakeholder analysis of wetland creation in Scania, Sweden (2004) 🗎🗎

The Kavlinge River Programme is a catchment-based initiative in Scania, Sweden, for converting agricultural land into wetlands in order to reduce nutrient emissions to the sea. The design and implementation of this programme are analysed, following a stakeholder analysis methodology. The most important components of the establishment and implementation of the Kavlinge River programme were found to be the following: (1) the existence of an overarching policy objective, (2) devotion and endurance found among a few local officials and local politicians, (3) a willingness among municipalities included in the catchment area to find compromises and funds, (4) the combination of traditional Swedish agri-environmental policy instruments and a trustful and constructive atmosphere in which the target group (farmers) is treated as an equal in negotiations, and (5) the existence of a mediating agent between authorities and the target group.

The economics of soil productivity: Local, national and global perspectives (2004) 🗎🗎

Soil degradation is a mounting problem on many smallholder lands in developing countries. Economic analysis has been an important tool in addressing this problem, beginning with assessments of the financial attractiveness of investing in soil conservation works. Data compiled from 67 studies of the financial attractiveness of conservation technologies suggest that many can provide positive net returns at the farm level (64(.)2 percent). While such studies have made a valuable contribution, economists have been exploring additional applications of economics to the problem, such as the development of new perspectives under the guise of ecological economics. As a result, this paper argues it is an opportune time to assess progress in the field of economic analysis of soil degradation and to consider the policy ramifications of this research. Key issues are grouped into farm-level considerations, national policy linkages and global issues. A number of policy implications emerge. Clearly, devising effective incentives at the farm or community (collective action) level must be a priority. As part of this effort, even more attention should be paid to the influence of macroeconomic and sectoral policies on soil productivity. Since soil degradation is also a problem with global ramifications, there is a clear rationale for intervention at the international level via mechanisms such as international transfers. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

Agricultural economics and distributional effects (2005) 🗎🗎

The paper examines the main issues surrounding distributional effects in the domains of natural resource management and land policies, agricultural technology and research policies, agricultural market and trade policies, and consumer-oriented policies, including standards, subsidies, and labeling. Agriculture is drifting into an ever more drastic bifurcation at a global level and within many countries. Correcting that bifurcation will require large investments in rural areas and rural people, in institutions, and in information and biological technologies accessible by the poor in the world's smallholder sector. Large and growing national and international inequalities related to agriculture and rural areas threaten peace, growth, and sustainable development.

Lessons from agri-environmental policies in other countries for dealing with salinity in Australia (2005) 🗎🗎

Approaches to environmental policy for the agricultural sector have involved education programs, direct regulations, and market mechanisms. The effectiveness of these policies has varied depending on the characteristics of the environmental issue and incentives facing producers. This paper reviews, and provides examples of, agrienvironmental policy options and points out the scenarios under which the instrument would be most effective. The paper concludes with recommendations on determining the policy solutions to the problem of salinity in Australia.

Slippage effects of the conservation reserve program: Reply (2005) 🗎🗎

Given that the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) costs taxpayers $2 billion per year and remains the largest conservation program in U. S. history, Roberts and Bucholtz are to be commended for revisiting the slippage issue. However, their central point that regional variation in CRP acreage is endogenous is inconsistent with CRP implementation rules and data. Thus, it is not surprising that the null hypothesis of exogeneity cannot be rejected by statistical tests.

Developing effective policies for the sustainable development of ecological agriculture in China: the case study of Jinshan County with a systems dynamics model (2005) 🗎🗎

This paper focuses on a search for concrete policy measures to facilitate the overall sustainability of ecological agricultural development at a county level. For this purpose, a system dynamics model (AISEEM) has been developed to explore the potential long-term ecological, economic, institutional and social interactions of ecological agricultural development through a case study of Jinshan County in China. The model provides an experimental platform for the simulation and analysis of alternative policy scenarios. The results indicate that the diversification of land-use patterns, government low interest loans and government support for training are important policy measures for promoting the sustainable development of ecological agriculture, at least in the case study context. In addition, the study reveals that environmentally sound technology (e.g., biogas project) alone cannot sufficiently induce farmers to adopt ecological agricultural practices. Limited availability of information, risk aversion and high transaction costs are major barriers to the adoption of alternative agricultural practices. In this regard, the importance of capacity building and institutional arrangements are emphasised through the development of an improved policy-making process on agricultural sustainability. This case study highlights the importance of combining the ecological economics analytical framework with the system dynamics modelling approach as a feasible integrated tool to provide insight into the policy analysis of ecological agriculture, and thus set a solid basis for effective policy making to facilitate its sustainable development on a regional scale. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Europeanisation of agri-environmental policy: a case study of water quality in the Lithuanian karst zone (2005) 🗎🗎

To protect water quality in its karst region, Lithuania has introduced a set of restrictions on farming practices. These restrictions were developed by a small technocratic elite and follow a 'narrow and deep' zonal management approach. Regulations are enforced by state agencies that have some degree of continuity in personnel at the local level from the late Soviet period but effective implementation and monitoring has been made more difficult by the land reform process. The latter has drastically increased the number of farms and created an extremely diverse set of actors in rural areas with contrasting farm sizes, degrees of specialisation and levels of education. In an attempt to move beyond a reliance solely on a command approach, one policy entrepreneur has attempted to stimulate organic farming in the karst zone, turning use restrictions into a 'marketing asset'. Europeanisation of water policy has necessitated a move beyond 'narrow and deep' zonal management particularly with regard to the implementation of the Nitrates Directive. Implementation of the directive has revolved around a bilateral debate between the EC and a small number of key officials and experts in Lithuania who have drawn heavily on expertise from Scandinavian countries. Lithuanian officials have faced a problem of being unable to distinguish nitrate pollution caused by agriculture from other sources and this has contributed to a decision to designate the whole country as a nitrate-sensitive zone. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The evolution of nature conservation policy in the Czech Republic - challenges of europeanisation in the White Carpathians Protected Landscape Area (2005) 🗎🗎

The White Carpathians Protected Landscape Area (PLA) typifies large areas of grassland in the Central and East European countries which, to maintain their exceptional nature conservation and landscape value, rely on the continuation of traditional farming practice. Current domestic policies in the Czech Republic recognise the need for an incentive-based approach. However, achievement of policy goals is hampered by a number of factors including a lack of harmonisation between policy instruments, faulty policy design, uncertainty over property rights to farmland and a lack of engagement with local communities, including farmers. The requirements of European Union accession raise severe challenges to policy development, administration and monitoring. However, it is argued they will also present an opportunity for greater participation by local actors and for increasing the level of co-operation between governmental institutions in policy development. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Transaction costs of pesticide policies in Vietnam (2005) 🗎🗎

Vietnam faces a number of important environmental and resource issues, including deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and water and air pollution. In developing countries the conflict between growth and protecting the environment is particularly acute. This article provides an overview of existing agri-environmental policies and institutions in Vietnam. It then analyzes policy instruments that have been employed to reduce pesticide pollution and discusses the factors affecting the magnitude of transaction costs associated with those policies. A major factor is the large number of enterprises involved, both farms and input suppliers.

Explaining landholders' decisions about riparian zone management: The role of behavioural, normative, and control beliefs (2005) 🗎🗎

Water quality is a key concern in the current global environment, with the need to promote practices that help to protect water quality, such as riparian zone management, being paramount. The present study used the theory of planned behaviour as a framework for understanding how beliefs influence decisions about riparian zone management. Respondents completed a survey that assessed their behavioural, normative, and control beliefs in relation to intentions to manage riparian zones on their property. The results of the study showed that, overall, landholders with strong intentions to manage their riparian zones differed significantly in terms of their beliefs compared to landholders who had weak intentions to manage their riparian zones. Strong intentions to manage riparian zones were associated with a favourable cost-benefit analysis, greater perceptions of normative support for the practice and lower perceptions of the extent to which barriers would impede management of riparian zones. It was also evident that willingness to comply with the recommendations of salient referents, beliefs about the benefits of riparian zone management and perceptions of the extent to which barriers would impede riparian zone management were most important for determining intentions to manage riparian zones. Implications for policy and extension practice are discussed. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Different perspectives on cross-compliance (2005) 🗎🗎

Cross-compliance has proven its effectiveness, as can be shown by looking at the Swiss experience with cross-compliance since 1999. Besides describing the existing cross-compliance practices in Switzerland, the paper shows different perspectives on the efficiency and fairness of cross-compliance. It concludes that transaction cost advantages justify cross-compliance only in few cases. Usually, it will be more efficient to decouple social and environmental policy. The strong support for cross-compliance by the Swiss population is explained by a perceived unfairness in the distribution of property rights between farmers and society. If property rights would be redistributed, there probably would be no more need for cross-compliance.

Participatory technology, policy and institutional development to address soil fertility degradation in Africa (2005) 🗎🗎

At global scale nutrient flows are unbalanced, resulting in huge surpluses in Western Europe versus negative balances in Africa. Existing policy and socio-economic environments in different parts of the world are the major cause of this situation. At lower spatial scales, a much more complex and diverse picture emerges. In Sub-Saharan Africa, different levels and causes of soil fertility decline are found among agro-ecological zones, soil types, farm systems, wealth groups, urban-rural households, cash and food crops, home fields and bush fields. Technology development has been the traditional response to address nutrient imbalances in general, and soil fertility decline in Africa in particular. Farm households have continued to develop and adapt existing technology to changing situations. National and international research institutions have followed a variety of changing approaches of which the recently developed participatory approaches have yielded some impressive results in isolated cases. These efforts have, however, not led to the necessary massive reversion of the trend in soil fertility decline. The Dutch policies on nutrient use and the Indonesian policy to adopt Integrated Pest Management are two examples, associated with such major trend reversions. This suggests that promoting and supporting participatory technologies have limited impact when no attention is paid to participatory policy development and implementation. In order to mobilise farm households in a trend reversion, a number of conditions should be met such as stable prices for agricultural outputs, better input/output prices ratios, influence of land users on the research agenda and private-public initiatives focused on smallholders. This observation calls for the establishment of interactive landusers-science-policy triangles at various scales (local, national and international) in which joint learning and mediating may lead to more informed decision making, more focused design of an agricultural sector policy, implementation of policies by effective institutions, and appropriate technology development and implementation. Interventions need to be reoriented: less technology development, more policy influence and institution building. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The impact of marketing systems on soil sustainability of agriculture in developing countries: a method and an application (2005) 🗎🗎

This article is concerned with soil-sustainability problems of agriculture in developing countries, in particular with soil erosion. The aim of our study is to develop a comprehensive model that explains the adoption Of Sustainable agricultural practices with respect to soil conservation. Our approach includes the following special features: (a) the model is comprehensive in that it includes a large number of institutional, personal-social, economic, and physical explanatory variables; (b) particular attention is paid to the influence of marketing systems on the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, which to our knowledge has been neglected in past research; (c) the concept of adopting sustainable agricultural practices (ASAP) is differentiated into a limited number of basic components of soil conservation; and (d) the model is estimated by Principal Component Regression, which enhances efficient estimation of the impact of many explanatory variables on ASAP. Our model is applied to Cabuyal hillside farming in Colombia. The application demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed model. ASAP is differentiated into three basic components: soil-disturbance control, soil-protection practices, and run-off control. It appears that soil-distarbance control is particularly influenced by farmers' characteristics, such as education and managerial variables. The second component, soil-protection practices, appears to be strongly influenced not only by farmers' managerial variables but also by their relationship with their environment, in particular marketing institutions. The third soil-conservation component, run-off control, is influenced by the physical characteristics of the plot and by the available farm labor. Our empirical results demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed model in designing agricultural policies, because it can determine which variables are more likely to influence the adoption of a specific type of soil conservation.

Canada's environmental farm plans: transatlantic perspectives on agri-environmental schemes (2006) 🗎🗎

Evaluation of Ontario's Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) scheme, launched in 1993, provides an opportunity for comparisons with agri-environmental measures instituted in the European Union and other parts of North America. The EFP has a strong 'bottom-up' dimension in that it is farmers' organizations that have been central both to the scheme's instigation and to its ongoing management. This has affected the nature of the actions taken by individual farmers participating in the scheme. These actions are reviewed, especially in terms of the participants' attitudes towards stewardship of the land, environmental outcomes, cross-compliance measures, barriers to participation and the role of statutory regulation. Some contrasts are drawn with the greater 'top-down' controls exerted in several EU agri-environment schemes, with the latter's promotion of extensification and the changing role of farmers as 'producers of countryside' in a multi-functional agricultural system. The diffusion of EFP schemes throughout Canada is noted and is cited as confirming the maintenance of fundamentally different attitudes to the development of farm-based environmental actions compared with those adopted in the EU.

From market to multifunctionality? Land stewardship in Australia (2006) 🗎🗎

Recent assessments of Australia's land and water resources have revealed widespread patterns of serious decline, much of it directly associated with agricultural practices. The environmental degradation associated with agriculture has both biophysical and socioeconomic underpinnings. While there have been calls to attend to the sustainability 'crisis' of Australian agriculture, policy settings remain firmly locked onto a productivist trajectory. We consider the implications of contemporary policy settings for farmland sustainability against the background of debates as to the meaning of 'multifunctionality'. The discussion is then turned to the Land Stewardship project, a strategic policy initiative within the State of Victoria that was looked to as a means of redressing environmental degradation in agricultural landscapes while also being attentive to rural community and economic issues. Towards the end of the paper we reflect on the question of how the Land Stewardship project aligns with theorizations of multifunctionality.

Ontario's environmental farm plan: Evaluation and research agenda (2006) 🗎🗎

This paper analyses the operation of the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) scheme in Ontario, Canada, a voluntary agri-environment scheme established in 1993. Previously unpublished data and interviews with farmers, leaders of farmers' organisations and government officials are used to detail participation rates, geographical spread and method of operation. Largely developed by farmers' organisations, the scheme has focused on soil management, water quality and storage/disposal of agricultural wastes. The environmental actions associated with these activities are discussed, revealing both successes and limitations. Distinctions are drawn with agri-environmental schemes in the European Union, and a broader context for the EFP is provided with respect to the proposed post-productivist transition of agri-food systems and the need to examine the way these systems are regulated. A need for further systematic research is proposed, specifically with respect to barriers to participation, the voluntary nature of the scheme, financial incentives and the resultant environmental impacts. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Are stated preferences convergent with revealed preferences? Empirical evidence from Nigeria (2006) 🗎🗎

The debate on the relevance of monetary valuation of environmental goods has often hinged around the convergence of stated and revealed preferences, and in turn the actual money choices of respondents. in this paper, we report two separate experiments conducted in southeastern Nigeria to compare irrigators' stated willingness to pay for a river basin restoration scheme designed to mitigate soil and water pollution problems in their farms with their actual expenditures to mitigate the same pollution problems. We found that the farmers' stated and revealed preferences were significantly correlated but yielded significantly different means at 5% level. While econometric analysis reveals a systematic association between key socioeconomic variables and farmers' stated WTP, lending credence to the CVM within its theoretical framework, analysis of the qualitative follow-ups reveals inconsistencies in some farmers' stated and revealed preferences that cannot be satisfactorily explained on the basis of economic theory alone. While individual utility maximisation was a dominant driver of both stated and revealed preferences for most farmers, lack of environmental awareness, information complexity, risk aversion and peer pressure were seen to limit the ability and willingness of the least educated segment of the sample to make apparently rational economic decisions in both markets. Overall, the results question the use of convergent and/or theoretical validity arguments for justifying and/or criticising the use of stated preference experiments in environmental policy. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reconsidering conceptualisations of farm conservation activity: The case of conserving hay meadows (2006) 🗎🗎

Changes to agri-environmental policy, with an emphasis on encouraging more environmentally friendly farming practices, have been paralleled in the last two decades by a body of research into agri-environment scheme adoption. To date much of this research has considered conservation behaviour as a static issue across whole farms, and viewed participation decisions as solely a present-day issue. Based on an in-depth case study from the Peak District (UK) this paper considers the case of hay meadows-an important cultural, ecological and agricultural feature of the landscape which has been seriously threatened by changing farm practices during the last century, and which now features as a conservation option in the main agri-environment schemes. Drawing on material from semi-structured interviews on 62 farms, and participant observation on 20 farms, the paper discusses how hay meadows represent a unique case for conservation and considers the limitations of existing conceptualisations of scheme adoption for understanding hay meadow conservation. In particular, the paper examines how current conservation decisions are constrained by, and intersect with, past managements that affect the "eligibility" of meadows for scheme adoption. A model is developed which places meadow types of different eligibility against conservation styles to illustrate how different conservation scenarios are created. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A methodology for integrated economic and environmental analysis of pollution from agriculture (2006) 🗎🗎

This paper presents a methodology for analyzing the effect of policies focused at reducing pollution from agriculture. Such a methodology must take into account that agricultural pollution is an effect of a large set of interacting processes, covers many different substances, and may vary substantially due to shifts in natural and economic conditions. Thus, the methodology must both cover the specificities of the different processes/disciplines involved and foster integration across these in a consistent way. The basic challenge is to cover the non-linear fine-scale variations at different levels of land-based production systems. Our methodology is founded on the idea of partitioning. It implies structuring and simplifying existing variation in space and time into partitions that are considered homogeneous. These partitions are organized in a hierarchy, and the different processes involved are modeled at the relevant level. We have concluded that analyses with fairly high level of resolution are preferable. This way it is also possible to combine a systems perspective with disciplinary integrity. A modeling structure - ECECNIOD (2.0) - based on the developed principles is documented. The paper also shows the ability of this structure to simulate choice of farming practices and emissions that are well in accordance with observations from four Norwegian regions with very different agricultural and natural conditions. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Australian farmers' and food processors' values (2006) 🗎🗎

Purpose - The aim of this exploratory study was to examine and compare a range of business values held by farmers and food processors. Design/methodology/approach - Questionnaires with a section on business values were posted to 200 farmers and 200 food processing businesses in Victoria, Australia, with response rates of 44 per cent (n = 69) and 31 per cent (n = 48), respectively, achieved. Findings - The most important of the 28 value items for farmers were high quality produce, honesty, and caring for employees. For processors, the most important values were quality products, customer value, and caring for employees. Between group differences reached statistical significance for one-third of the items. In particular, processor businesses valued innovation and convenience products more highly and had a stronger process orientation than did farming businesses. Environmental sustainability, caring for the community, and providing healthy products were more integral to farming than processing businesses. Research limitations/implications - The main limitation was the small sample sizes, although it is likely that response bias was not high. Future research could survey a larger sample of food industry representatives and examine the values held by other food industry sectors. Practical implications - This information could increase the effectiveness of communications with industry groups on a range of issues and in the formulation of appropriate health and environmental policies. Originality/value - To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to compare the values of fanners; and food processors. This information is particularly important for those in the food industry and health and environmental policy makers.

Negotiating the boundary between state-led and farmer approaches to knowing nature: An analysis of UK agri-environment schemes (2006) 🗎🗎

This paper explores the role of knowledge in the development of more environmentally sustainable farming systems in the UK and specifically seeks to reveal the porosity of the boundary between state-led and farmer approaches to knowing nature. Its empirical focus is two government sponsored 'agri-environment schemes-the Countryside Stewardship scheme and the Environmentally Sensitive Area scheme-which offer financial incentives to farmers and other land managers who agree to undertake environmentally beneficial practices. As a framework for analysis, the paper draws on the notion of 'knowledge culture', with agri-environment schemes represented as an emerging 'policy knowledge culture' that is seemingly distinct, in its approach to knowing nature, from pre-existing 'agrarian knowledge cultures'. Data are derived from two large scale, countrywide surveys of agreement holders in the two agri-environment schemes. These reveal that alongside some resistance to the policy knowledge culture of AES, there is also negotiation and interchange taking place between knowledge cultures, and the policy knowledge culture is adapting to and accommodating aspects of the other. As such, the paper contests the findings of previous studies which assert that the codified knowledge of agri-environment schemes always wins out in the implementation of scheme agreements, with the subsequent marginalisation of other knowledge(s). In turn, it suggests that policy knowledge cultures can give voice to farmers' ways of knowing nature with benefits both for them and nature itself. The paper concludes with some reflections on the extent of knowledge culture transformation and offers some policy recommendations. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mixing economic and administrative instruments: the case of shrimp aquaculture in Thailand (2006) 🗎🗎

Economic instruments offer the potential to reach pre-determined environmental goals at a lower aggregate cost than less incentive-based measures, but administrative underpinnings crucial to the effective functioning of economic instruments may be lacking in developing countries. For this reason, pragmatic analysts and policymakers often advocate the use of so-called 'mixed' instruments that combine incentive mechanisms with improved administrative arrangements. This paper explores such possibilities with reference to intensive shrimp aquaculture, which dominates shrimp farming and is an important economic sector in Thailand. This activity has been cited as a major contributor to environmental degradation in Thailand and several other countries through destruction of mangrove forests, salinization of land, sludge disposal, and, in particular, water pollution. An analytical model is presented that highlights some of the key opportunities and limitations of mixed instruments applied to shrimp aquaculture. Mixed instruments are then proposed and evaluated.

Stakeholder participation in the design of environmental policy mixes (2006) 🗎🗎

This paper presents a new approach to the development of environmental policy, relying on the combination of several instruments to achieve different objectives and on the active involvement of the stakeholders in the policy development process. The development of an innovative system of environmental policy instruments for sustainable management of pig farming in a municipality in Portugal is used to illustrate the proposed approach. The system is based on the adoption of a policy mix, combining a command and control approach, established through a regulation for the pig farming sector, with economic instruments (a sustainability fund and a tradable pig raising rights system) and voluntary approaches (an eco-label for meat products from farms with superior sustainability performance). The design of the instruments has followed a participatory and transparent approach, where the stakeholders were actively engaged in the decision making process. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Farming and landscape management: How French farmers are coping with the ecologization of their activities (2006) 🗎🗎

In Europe, an increasing share of public subsidies for food production is being transferred towards the production of goods and environmental services. Today, farmers hesitate between the quest for technical and economic performance, which has been the paradigm of their professional activities since the 1960s, on one hand, and taking account of the environmental concerns that have been imposed since the middle of the 80s, on the other. Is it possible for farmers to continue to work according to the paradigm of the producer of agri-food goods, and how do they react to the ecologization of their activities? In this paper, we will see the difficulties and sources of tension induced by landscape maintenance in the daily professional practice of the farmers. We will see that the professional identity of the farmers is profoundly brought into question by these changes (substitution of strictly "agricultural issues" by more general concerns such as "rural issues," substitution of the farmer by the "ecologized" peasant...). The topic of landscape reveals social strains between farmers. It also raises the question of the legitimacy of farmers to define the sense of their activities by themselves. Finally we will see that environmental orientations do not systematically open up new prospects for all farmers; they sometimes contribute to increase the inequalities between farmers (financial support proportional to land property, marginalization of farmers who are less socially integrated...).

Factors affecting European farmers' participation in biodiversity policies (2006) 🗎🗎

This article reports the major findings from an interdisciplinary research project that synthesises key insights into farmers' willingness and ability to co-operate with biodiversity policies. The results of the study are based on an assessment of about 160 publications and research reports from six EU member states and from international comparative research. We developed a conceptual framework to systematically review the existent literature relevant for our purposes. This framework provides a common structure for analysing farmers' perspectives regarding the introduction into farming practices of measures relevant to biodiversity. The analysis is coupled and contrasted with a survey of experts. The results presented above suggest that it is important to view support for practices oriented towards biodiversity protection not in a static sense - as a situation determined by one or several influencing factors - but rather as a process marked by interaction. Financial compensation and incentives function as a necessary, though clearly not sufficient condition in this process.

Quantifying public preferences for agri-environmental policy in Scotland: A comparison of methods (2007) 🗎🗎

This paper compares two methods for determining policy priorities for reform of Scottish agricultural support. Multifunctional agriculture attempts to establish a new balance between traditional commodity support and payment for the production of non-market goods and services that are increasingly demanded by the public. Supplying non-market goods presents particular problems for optimal policy design, not least the elicitation of consumer demand for those goods. From public focus groups, a range of attributes was derived as central to the Scottish public's preferences for future agri-environmental reform. This information was then combined in two separate survey methods using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and choice experiments (CE). Both applications suggest that the public has defined preferences and a willingness to pay (using general income taxation) to affect changes beyond the status quo, and that policy payments should be targeted towards both environmental and social benefits. The divergent preference orderings derived from the alternative methods can be considered in the light of previous methodological debates on question framing, bounded rationality and respondent uncertainty. We speculate about the validity of alternative methodologies for informing particular policy questions. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

From burgers to biodiversity? The McDonaldization of on-farm nature conservation in the UK (2007) 🗎🗎

This paper uses George Ritzer's account of McDonaldization - the socially transformative process of rationalization - to undertake a critical analysis of agri-environment schemes, the dominant form of on-farm nature conservation in England. Drawing on a wide range of evidence, including social surveys of the participants and non-participants of agri-environment schemes, government files, and interviews with government officials, the four key dimensions of McDonaldization - efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control (through non-human technologies) - are applied to the analysis of agri-environment schemes. The irrationalities emerging from a McDonaldized approach to nature conservation are discussed together with their implications for farmers, nature, and society. In conclusion, the paper points to the emergence of alternative models of on-farm nature conservation that may offer ways of resisting and displacing the McDonaldized version.

Does cost-share replicate water quality trading projects? Implications for a possible partnership (2007) 🗎🗎

Water Quality Trading (WQT) and federal conservation programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) employ incentive payments to encourage agricultural best management practices (BMPs). In many cases, WQT and EQIP are encouraging the same types of farmers to implement the same types of BMPs using similar incentive payments. A number of analysts have recommended that WQT partner with EQIP to recruit farmers, yet the literature lacks an analysis of whether EQIP could adequately substitute for WQT's project selection process. In this article, we systematically compare the project ranking procedures used by WQT and EQIP and suggest which partnership structures might be most appropriate.

Costs and benefits of on-farm nature conservation (2007) 🗎🗎

The costs of on-farm nature conservation is an important issue in Dutch agriculture. As nature is a public good, nature conservation cannot do without subsidies from the government. The question of how much farmers should receive in subsidies in order to keep farms engaged in conservation activities is highly topical. In this article, the questions of how much farmers should receive in subsidies and what other factors motivate or demotivate farmers to participate in on-farm nature conservation are addressed. The study was carried out for a particular region in the northern Netherlands and was initiated by the concerns that farmers organisations had about the level of subsidies for landscape conservation as a major form of nature conservation on dairy farms in this region. In this study, both a normative model and a survey were employed. A normative economic dairy farm model was first used to determine differences in income between a typical farm involved in landscape conservation and a typical farm not involved in landscape conservation. Results from the model show that the farm involved in conservation earned a lower income than the farm not involved in conservation. This was due to the first farmer's smaller scale, lower intensity and lower productivity. The lower income, however, was compensated for by conservation subsidies. Next, a survey concerning on-farm nature conservation in general was carried out among the farmers in this area. From the survey results, it appeared that the majority of the respondents were satisfied, at least to some extent, with the level of subsidies for on-farm nature conservation. Moreover, the survey also revealed that the farmers' commitment to their natural environment strongly motivates farmers to get involved in on-farm nature conservation schemes, whereas the uncertainty about regulations and the feeling of being controlled too much demotivate them. The results show the complementarity of the two methods. The findings of the survey confirm the main findings of the normative model calculations, and, moreover, the survey reveals that in addition to monetary compensation, other factors play a role for farmers in the decision to get involved in on-farm nature conservation. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A consistent valuation and pricing framework for non-commodity outputs: Progress and prospects (2007) 🗎🗎

The non-commodity outputs of multifunctional agriculture are richly detailed in terms of type, quantity, quality, and accessibility to demanders. An ideal valuation and pricing framework must be sensitive to these details, while dealing consistently with programs varying widely in scale and scope. A consistent valuation and pricing framework is outlined, in which multifunctional agriculture programs generate values (not directly, but via effects that modify the quantity and quality of valued services), and these values (reflecting quantity, quality, and location of services produced) are implemented at the farm level as green prices. Economic valuation methods for non-commodity services are introduced, the empirical literature is summarized, methods of generalizing from that literature are discussed, and the current state of empirical knowledge is assessed. Some strategies are suggested for systematically assessing the economic value of non-commodity outputs of agriculture, and some principles for effectively implementing MFA policy at the farm level are offered. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An approach to optimise the establishment of grassy headlands in the Belgian Walloon region: A tool for agri-environmental schemes (2007) 🗎🗎

Farming in Europe is constantly changing as environmental concerns have increasingly been taken into account since the mid 1980s and emphasis has been put on agri-environmental matters throughout all European countries. For instance, in Wallonia (Belgium), as a result of the provisions of the Government Decree on agri-environmental measures, farmers are increasingly encouraged to adopt environmentally friendly practices such as the creation of grassy headlands in their fields. As European agriculture is changing, tools are needed to monitor the evolution of agricultural practices, to control policy application and to advise farmers. In this framework, we present a new approach to optimise the establishment of grassy headlands in cultivated fields. Using a Geographic Information System (GIS), we identify exact locations where farmers can introduce grassy headlands in accordance with legal specifications and environmental concerns and calculate the total length of grassy headland that farmers can establish considering the features of their farm and parcels and for which they can receive subsidies. It indicates a potential, which could serve as a calculation baseline for an indicator. Wallonia was chosen as study area because a digitised parcel plan has been available from the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) since 1997. The methodological approach proposes a new valorisation of this spatial information layer and can be considered as an example of application providing relevant information for several intervention levels: national or regional decisionmakers, advisors and individual farmers. Since all EU Member States had to set up their own GIS-based land parcel system starting in 2005, our approach may be useful as is or in similar applications in other countries. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Joint submissions, output related payments and environmental co-operatives: Can the dutch experience innovate UK agri-environment policy? (2007) 🗎🗎

This paper describes three relatively recent innovations in the Dutch agri-environment programme which have helped nature management to be contiguous with natural features allowing the landscape to be managed whole rather than piecemeal - and thus generate higher quality and greater scope in environmental management. The. first two, joint submissions by neighbouring farmers and payments related to the level of environmental output delivered, are scheme innovations. The third, Environmental Co-operatives ( EC) - clubs of neighbouring farmers that inter alia co-ordinate and help manage the scheme innovations - is an institutional innovation. None has an equivalent in the UK. Evidence from interviews with farmer and non-farmer members, policy makers, academics and other interested parties show the role EC play in overcoming some of the postulated problems of the two scheme innovations. Not all the problems have been overcome, and cost-bene. fit analyses have not been conducted, nevertheless there is sufficient evidence to suggest that these innovations have benefited all actors involved: farmers, the government, the environment and the rural economy. Analysis of UK agri-environment policy using actor network theory ( ANT) suggests the UK government will need to show similar levels of trust in and commitment to the farming community before these innovations could be introduced in the UK.

Environmental co-operatives as instruments for delivering across-farm environmental and rural policy objectives: Lessons for the UK (2007) 🗎🗎

This paper assesses the potential of environmental co-operatives (EC) to deliver environmental benefits and an integrated and strengthened rural economy in the UK. It is based on research into Dutch EC, which have about 10,000 members, of which a quarter are non-farmers. The paper details the benefits EC have delivered to their members, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, the environment and the rural economy using evidence drawn from interviews with farmer and non-farmer members, farmer non-members, policy makers and academics connected with seven EC. It pays particular attention to the benefits and disadvantages of allowing non-farmer membership. It is argued that EC would be a valuable additional instrument to help deliver landscape-scale environmental, regional and rural policy objectives. However, Dutch EC have received important political and, particularly in their start-up stage, financial support, and similar support would be needed in the UK-it is argued this may be more readily available if UK EC will offer non-farmer membership. Appropriate support could be provided through developments to the Environmental Stewardship Scheme's higher level tier, by safeguarding and extending the spirit of the LEADER plus programme (which explicitly supports collective action) to the delivery of environmental benefits, and/or by encouraging the development of locally based social enterprises. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An institutional transactions approach to property-rights adjustment: an application to Spanish agriculture (2007) 🗎🗎

European agriculture is undergoing major institutional changes, which are of great relevance to our understanding of the role of agriculture in rural development. They are also taking place in contexts in which agricultural development seems to be continuing within the traditional modernisation paradigm. This is the case for agriculture in Spain. The authors develop a theoretical scheme based on the concepts of institutional transactions and institutional arrangements which may be relevant across a variety of contexts. This approach is applied through an analysis of Spanish agriculture, concentrating on (a) changes introduced through the regulation of the environmental impacts of agriculture, (b) new schemes for the control of food quality and altered relations in the food-marketing chains, and (c) shifts deriving from changes to the major support mechanisms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Spanish agriculture is becoming increasingly embedded in the food-production process, and this is associated with a dissipation of property rights from the production sector. The analysis illustrates the usefulness of the approach, although identification of the specific nature of some institutional transactions remains uncertain. Applications in other countries and at more local levels will facilitate regional and international comparisons of the restructuring processes underway in differing contexts.

Local diffusion networks act as pathways to sustainable agriculture in the Sacramento River Valley (2007) 🗎🗎

Greater sustainability is one of the main goals of agricultural and natural resource policy in California and worldwide. "Diffusion networks," which consist mainly of connections among producers, local outreach and education agencies and agricultural organizations, provide critical pathways for achieving sustainability. We analyzed the role of diffusion networks in the context of agricultural water-quality management in the Sacramento River Valley. Data from a survey of more than 1,200 agricultural producers demonstrates the role of diffusion networks in increasing satisfaction with environmental policies, participation in water-quality management programs and the implementation of sustainable agricultural practices.

Factors Determining Citizen's Attitudes Towards Agri-Environmental Property Rights (2008) 🗎🗎

The purpose of this paper is to contribute further insights into individuals' agri-environmental attitudes. In particular, the empirical analysis focuses on how citizens think agri-environmental property rights should be assigned. This has been done by surveying how individuals consider the environmental policy should promote the implementation of a group of agri-environmental measures, allowing us to examine the determinants of individuals' opinions about this matter. Results indicate that higher level of income and education support the implementation of obligatory agri-environmental measures with no financial support (property rights should rest on society) except for measures to improve public access to land for leisure activities and ecological farming which are seen more of the voluntary kind (property rights should rest on farmers). Additionally, rural residency has strong significant effect on agri-environmental attitudes as rural residents are more likely to support the implementation of voluntary (with/without financial support) agri-environmental measures. On the whole, this research proves to be a valuable tool to identify factors determining individuals' attitudes towards agri-environmental property rights which can certainly help policymakers to provide customized, better response to social demands on this matter.

Understanding the Scope of Farmer Perceptions of Risk: Considering Farmer Opinions on the Use of Genetically Modified (GM) Crops as a Stakeholder Voice in Policy (2008) 🗎🗎

In the beginning, policy debates between critics and advocates of genetically modified (GM) crops focused on scientifically determined risks. Ten years later, the argument between environmentalists or consumers and regulators or industry has changed into a discussion about the implementation of more democratic policymaking about GM farming. A notable omission from the political debate about food biotechnology in the United States, however, is the opinion of farmers who cultivate the GM crops. Policymakers should value practical knowledge based on experiences from farmers, not only scientific industry reports or consumer product opinions. This project uses in-depth interviews to create an original mail survey that uses the practical discourse of farmers in order to explore the relationship of farmer attitudes and GM agriculture. Although national research indicates that larger yields are the most common reason for GM adoption, qualitative information suggest that the potential of GM crops to increase revenue per acre does not truly reflect all the concerns of modern farmers. For example, farmers who use GM seeds indicate that they constantly question the social impacts of their agricultural practices. As such, GM policies should be restructured as a political rationalization of both economic modeling and political theory because this research suggests that farmers' business decisions are utility calucations that consider economics without ignoring environmental and political contexts. Farmers' concerns about non-economic risks suggest that they need more information about GM crops and that governmental policies should respond to their interests, as they are more democratic or pluralistic than industry or consumer arguments.

Towards a planning support system for environmental management and agri-environmental measures - The Colorfields study (2008) 🗎🗎

The author, present the beginnings of a planning support system (PSS) for agri-environmental measures exemplified by a virtual implementation of Colorfields and blooming strips on model farms, based on real-world data. This paper starts with an introduction to the Colorfields, a concept for transdisciplinary and Sustainable landscape design of set-aside land. Colorfields comprise of blooming strips of flowering annual or biennial plants, which are designed and drilled in pattern on fallow land creating Land Art. The temporary scenic arrangements of the Colorfields combine the advantages of ecological strips, e.g. providing habitats for insects (especially bees), improving soil fertility through the cultivation of intercrops, with improvements of the social recognition of farmers as producers of pleasant landscapes instead of monoculture fields. The prototype of the PSS uses two software tools of different scientific origin, the bio-economic modeling system MODAM and the landscape visualization system Lenne3D, which are linked based on geo-data. The resulting system helps to assess the economic effects and visualizes the effects of the specific landuse patterns under different scenarios. The economic assessment of blooming strips on arable land and of one Colorfield on fallow land shows that these measures prove to be profitable from an economic viewpoint assuming the Current area payments for the obligatory European Union set-aside program. Furthermore, the visualizations enable the design to be tested virtually by exploring the resultant scenery. They provide artists, planners and stakeholders including farmers with a tool to virtually wander through landscape scenarios supporting a collaborative design and a shared vision for the community. The results of the two model farms and previous Case Studies for Colorfields demonstrate how current policy conditions could be used for the improvement of environmental and scenic qualities. Furthermore, the ability of the tools, MODAM and Lenne3D, suggests to support and prornote these activities. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social perceptions of agri-environmental property rights - The Andalusian case (2008) 🗎🗎

This paper uses the 2005 "Survey on Individuals' Opinion on Rurality and Agriculture in Andalusia. Agrobarometre 2005" to empirically investigate the relevance of agri-environmental property rights as dynamic social institutions upon which the agriculture-environment-society relationship is based. Gaining a better understanding on individuals' perceptions of agri-environmental property rights will be of particular relevance to contribute agri-environmental policy evaluation and development. Results indicate the existence of an increasing environmental awareness among individuals in Andalusia who support the implementation of eco-compatible practices among farmers.

Case study of agri-environmental payments: The United Kingdom (2008) 🗎🗎

The Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) program, when launched in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1986, was the first agri-environmental program in the European Union (EU). This program grew to a total of 43 designated ESA schemes in the UK as a whole, 22 of which were in England. A variety of agri-environmental payments programs were created to supplement and complement the ESA schemes in years to follow. The most prominent of these in England was the Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS), established in 1991. The CSS was available to farmers outside the ESAs, and like the ESA program, was intended to protect valued landscapes and habitats and to improve public enjoyment of the countryside. By 2003, over 10% of England's agricultural land was enrolled in either ESA or CSS agreements. These voluntary agreements were long-term contracts (usually for 10 years) between the government and farmers to provide environmental services. Several major evaluations of the ESA program and the CSS were conducted over the years, and the results of many of those evaluations and the lessons derived are synthesized and summarized in this article. Both the ESA program and the CSS proved to be generally effective in enrolling many farmers in the entry-level contract tiers, thereby halting or slowing degradation of rural landscape and other environmental features. However, the schemes did not generally offer sufficient economic incentives to attract high levels of enrollment in the intensive farming areas. Also, the schemes were limited in their success in enrolling farmers in higher payment tiers, tiers that required more substantial changes in farming practices. The high crop and livestock-related payments received by farmers under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) contributed to the disincentives to participate, especially in higher tiers. Following the latest (2003) reforms of the EU's CAP, England's ESA program and CSS are being replaced by a new, consolidated package of schemes that draws on lessons learned over the past 15-20 years with these two flagship programs. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Factors affecting farmers' participation in agri-environmental measures: A northern Italian perspective (2008) 🗎🗎

Agri-environmental measures play an important role in Italian rural areas, as shown by the financial commitment to the Rural Development programmes. However, in contrast with other European Union (EU) countries, policy-makers still have limited experience on how farmers approach environmental incentive schemes. This paper casts new light on this issue from a northern Italian perspective. The rationale of the farmers' decision-making process is explored using two multinomial models. The first explains the probability of non-participation or participation in one of three specific agri-environmental measures. The model outcomes show that labour-intensive farming types and high dependency of household income on farming activity constrain farmers' participation, whereas previous experience, easy-to-implement environmentally friendly farm practices and adequate compensation of extra costs encourage participation. The second model explores the effect of farmers' attitudes and beliefs on their predispositions towards participation in any of the schemes. The results highlight that, besides income factors, the farm's future in the business, and the relationship with neighbouring farmers and their opinions on environmentally friendly practices all have significant effects on adoption of agri-environmental measures. The paper concludes by suggesting that farmers' attitudes and beliefs, as well as the local behavioural influences, have to be taken into account when designing and communicating agri-environmental measures.

Eco-conditionality as an instrument of agricultural policy to sustainable development in Mexico (2008) 🗎🗎

Eco-conditionality is an instrument of public policy that subordinates the delivery of incentives (i.e. payments or subsidies) with cross-compliance and definite objectives for a kind of environmental structure. The purpose of this work is to discuss the viability of propelling a policy that includes the application with the concept of eco-conditionality in order to contribute to sustainable rural development in Mexico. The work includes: 1) analysis of the evolution of eco-conditionality from the experience of the European Union with the Common Agricultural Policy; 2) discussion of the primary agro-environmental problems in Mexico; and 3) the presentation of a proposal to reform the agricultural policy in this country that emphasizes the transformation of the program PROCAMPO towards the inclusion of agro-environmental measurements. In conclusion it is viable to propel an agro-environmental policy based on the focus of the multi-functionality of agriculture and the application of eco-conditionality as a way to contribute to sustainable rural development in Mexico.

Exploring farmers' cultural resistance to voluntary agri-environmental schemes (2008) 🗎🗎

Studies throughout Europe have suggested that voluntary agri-environmental programmes often engender very little change in attitudes towards productivist agriculture among conventional farming communities. This study examines why this may be so, using case studies from Hessen, Germany and Aberdeenshire, Scotland. By constructing a conceptual framework based on Bourdieu's notions of capital we explore how farming activities are able to generate symbolic capital, and compare this with the symbolic value of conservation work. We find that voluntary agri-environmental work returns little symbolic capital to farmers as, by prescribing management practices and designating specific areas for agri-environmental work, such schemes fail to allow farmers to develop or demonstrate skilled role performance - thus inhibiting the development of embodied cultural capital. We conclude by suggesting that entrepreneurial production-target based agri-environmental schemes may be ultimately more effective in changing long-term behaviour.

Agricultural nonpoint source water pollution policy: The case of California's Central Coast (2008) 🗎🗎

Nonpoint sources of pollution, primarily from agricultural sources, are a major cause of water quality impairment. Yet policies to address this issue remain underexplored in the literature. This article first reviews the agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution policy literature and categorizes its major findings. The North American literature, in particular, rarely analyses NPS policies already in force, and pays even less attention to overcoming implementation barriers to reaching desired environmental outcomes. Second, this paper evaluates a newly adopted policy approach that addresses nonpoint sources of nutrient contaminants in the surface waters of one of the United States' most agriculturally productive and environmentally pristine areas, California's Central Coast. The article then reveals the political, budgetary and technical barriers faced by farmers, regulators, and other stakeholders. The article concludes by arguing that more analyses of implemented policies designed to address agricultural NPS pollution will better inform both local-level and federal policymakers towards the successful creation and implementation of policies that achieve environmental outcomes. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Earmarked: The political economy of agricultural research appropriations (2008) 🗎🗎

Since 1965 a significant portion of the US Department of Agriculture's extramural research budget has been earmarked by Congress for particular research projects. We analyze the process by which a minority of Congress induces the USDA to carry out its budgetary suggestions. We present evidence demonstrating the influence that appropriators possess over the allocation of earmarked grants. Finally, we argue that this program provides an excellent illustration of path-dependence in government policy, and that an understanding of the special grants program may shed light on the decline of science at the USDA and Congress's reluctance to increase agricultural research funding.

Why are ecological, low-input, multi-resistant wheat cultivars slow to develop commercially? A Belgian agricultural 'lock-in' case study (2008) 🗎🗎

The use of multi-resistant cultivars allows a significant reduction in fungicide use in low-input cropping systems. However, many major wheat cultivars used in Europe remain sensitive to frequent diseases and require fungicide protection. This paper aims at understanding the factors explaining the low level of adoption of multi-resistant wheat cultivars in Wallonia (Belgium). Cultivar adoption has been an important topic of research, but few analyses have been done in Europe in the past decades. We used a systems approach combining a survey among stakeholders in the food chain and a systematic analysis of the publications of extension services. We identified twelve factors impeding wider adoption of multi-resistant cultivars. These factors explain why current wheat-cropping systems are maintained in a 'pesticide lock-in' situation, an economic concept that could be used more frequently to study agricultural innovations. Considering these intangible 'barriers' to current and forthcoming innovations is a first step towards a more comprehensive policy to promote sustainable agriculture. Similarities between Wallonia and France are discussed and methods of promoting wide use of resistant cultivars; are proposed. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

From 'weak' to 'strong' multifunctionality: Conceptualising farm-level multifunctional transitional pathways (2008) 🗎🗎

Building on normative conceptualisations of multifunctionality as a decision-making spectrum bounded by productivist and non-productivist action and thought, this paper analyses farm-level multifunctional agricultural transitions. First, the paper suggests that it may be possible to categorise different farm types along the productivist/non-productivist multifunctionality spectrum, and that transitional potential from weak to strong multifunctionality often differs between different categories of farms and types of farm ownership. Second, the paper conceptualises multifunctional transitional processes at farm level over time, and introduces the notions of multifunctional path dependency and decision-making corridors, the latter of which can be understood as 'bundles' of decision-making opportunities bounded by productivist and non-productivist action and thought. The analysis suggests that system memory plays an important role in defining the likelihood of multifunctional actions, and argues that transitional ruptures-sudden breaks in transitional pathways-often characterise farm-level transitions. The paper concludes by highlighting the methodological challenges awaiting future researchers of multifunctional agricultural transitions. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Farm-level constraints on the domestic supply of perennial energy crops in the UK (2008) 🗎🗎

There are a number of estimates of the land area that could potentially be dedicated to perennial energy crops such as short rotation coppice (SRC) willow and miscanthus in the UK, but little is known about how farmers will respond to the opportunities presented by these relatively novel crops. Perennial energy crops face competition from other, arguably more flexible, uses of farmland, and if not seen as attractive propositions to individual farmers, they will not be grown. Farmers' decisions are therefore a key constraint on potential supply. This paper reviews the policy background and considers whether policy is based on any consideration of likely supply response, before presenting outcomes of focus groups composed of farmers who already grow or are considering growing perennial energy crops. There appear to be a number of barriers to adoption. In addition to concerns over the security of contracts, the current high wheat price increases the opportunity cost of committing land to perennial energy crops. There are also worries about the impact of willow roots on field drains and the cost of returning the land to other uses. This paper outlines a number of issues of importance to policy makers and suggests future research needs. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The evolution of Australia's natural resource management programs: Towards improved targeting and evaluation of investments (2009) 🗎🗎

This paper examines the evolution of Australia's natural resource management programs over the past two decades. The story is one of major paradigmatic shifts with implications for the design and operation of similar programs worldwide. Since 1983, Australian Governments have approved the National Soil Conservation Program, the National Landcare Program, the Natural Heritage Trust, the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality and a new program called Caring for Our Country. These programs have seen a transition from the early days of attitude change to the creation of new regional institutions and direct payment systems for environmental stewardship. Despite these advances recent audit reports have mirrored those from the United States and the Europe. They identify problems of ineffective targeting, monitoring and evaluation of expenditure. This paper considers the efficiency and effectiveness of alternative program designs in Australia. Two major design improvements are suggested: (a) systems for linking expenditure to outcomes and (b) adopting standardised metrics for valuing outcomes. This will permit the application of benefit-cost and cost-effectiveness analysis and, ultimately, improved returns on investment. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The multifunctionality of agriculture and contractual policies. A comparative analysis of France and the Netherlands (2009) 🗎🗎

The process of CAP reform has reorientated the development of agriculture, more towards the principles of rural development and agricultural multifunctionality. These transformations have been accompanied by a shift in the principles and tools used by policy-makers, necessary to implement these new orientations. The emergent contractual policies represent a renewal of public intervention in agriculture. This article explores the implementation of these policy instruments in two countries, France and the Netherlands. The content and implementation of these policies differs greatly between the two countries, reflecting their different conceptions of multifunctionality. The Netherlands limited the scope of the policy instrument to nature and landscape protection, while France adopted a wider definition of multifunctionality. These differences are partly explained by the particularities of the national context to which those policies have been applied. France is characterized by an institutionalized system of co-management, in which farmers' organizations work closely and have a privileged relationship with the state. Although this mode of governance is weakening and becoming vulnerable, it proved to be highly effective during the 1990s and contributed to the adoption of a broad vision of multifunctionality. By contrast, the selective definition of multifunctionality within Dutch policy is partly due to the co-evolution of strong environmentalist sympathies, together with a liberalization of agricultural management. These divergences are perceptible in the policies that were adopted as well as in the configurations of power that were at stake during the policy-making processes. (c) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Conceptual development of a harmonised method for tracking change and evaluating policy in the agri-environment: The Agri-environmental Footprint Index (2009) 🗎🗎

An aggregated farm-level index, the Agri-environmental Footprint Index (AFI), based on multiple criteria methods and representing a harmonised approach to evaluation of EU agri-environmental schemes is described. The index uses a common framework for the design and evaluation of policy that can be customised to locally relevant agri-environmental issues and circumstances. Evaluation can be strictly policy-focused, or broader and more holistic in that context-relevant assessment criteria that are not necessarily considered in the evaluated policy can nevertheless be incorporated. The Index structure is flexible, and can respond to diverse local needs. The process of Index construction is interactive, engaging farmers and other relevant stakeholders in a transparent decision-making process that can ensure acceptance of the outcome, help to forge an improved understanding of local agri-environmental priorities and potentially increase awareness of the critical role of farmers in environmental management. The structure of the AFI facilitates post-evaluation analysis of relative performance in different dimensions of the agri-environment, permitting identification of current strengths and weaknesses, and enabling future improvement in policy design. Quantification of the environmental impact of agriculture beyond the stated aims of policy using an 'unweighted' form of the AFI has potential as the basis of an ongoing system of environmental audit within a specified agricultural context. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Internalization of agri-environmental policies and the role of institutions (2009) 🗎🗎

Recent investigations have indicated that environmental and conservation policies frequently fail to reach anticipated aims, which raises concern over the cost-effectiveness of governmental policy-related expenditure. The limited effectiveness of policies is often attributed to methodological aspects of policy implementation. However, an alternative reason can be the limited internalization of policies, so that these are only implemented to a minimum level to attain benefits or avoid penalties. It is postulated that increased internalization of policies can considerably improve their effectiveness and that suitable institutional arrangements exist to support such increases in internalization. In this paper, we review the available literature on internalization and its institutional aspects, and propose a framework, based on self-determination theory, for evaluation of potential internalization by farm managers that are expected to implement policies. This method was applied to a small case study for dairy farmers in the nationally important landscape of the Northern Friesian Woodlands, The Netherlands. The results showed that organic farmers were internally motivated for nature conservation and had strong institutional links. They were more likely to internalize the goals of environmental policy schemes than conventional farmers who focused predominantly on financial rewards. We suggest that policy developers promote internalization of policies by tuning policy instruments to the specificities of farmers' motivations to preserve farmers' nature and to focus on institutional support to help internalization. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Policy for organic farming: Rationale and concepts (2009) 🗎🗎

Since the mid 1980s, organic farming has become the focus of significant attention from policy-makers, consumers, environmentalists and farmers in Europe and state institutions have become increasingly involved in regulating and supporting the organic sector. Reflecting the multiple goals for organic farming and for agricultural policy, a varied and complex range of policy measures have been developed and implemented to support the organic sector. However, balancing societal and consumer/market goals and balancing institutional and private stakeholder interests in the organic sector present particular challenges for policy-making. The key issues of current organic farming policy addressed in this special issue therefore specifically consider the two different dimensions of policy development - the dimension of policies and the dimension of politics. This paper provides an introduction to the special issue by outlining organic farming policy development in the EU, providing the basic concepts of organic farming policies in Europe and introducing the key themes of the papers published in this special issue. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Accounting for farmers' production responses to environmental restrictions within landscape planning (2009) 🗎🗎

Environmental planning aims to safeguard and foster the ecological functionality of agricultural landscapes. In order to reach a sustainable development of agricultural landscapes, in addition to ecological objectives socio-economic ones also need to be considered. In this context, the authors draw attention to three points. First, whenever ecologically sensitive areas ("ecological sites") are used for agricultural production, it is necessary to take account of the fact that farmers tend to adapt to environmental requirements by production responses outside the ecological site itself. Second, in order to identify the socially most "desirable" land-use responses it is necessary to supplement the above-mentioned environmental objectives by socio-economic ones. Third, when choosing an appropriate model for such multi-criteria decision analysis, the question of substitutability between criteria is of utmost importance. The paper discusses the above-mentioned issues against the background of a case study of environmental planning for an ecologically very valuable agricultural landscape in Germany, the Bayerisches Donauried. Two models of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) are applied, one based on the "single synthesizing criterion" method, and the other one based on the "synthesis by outranking" method. The models serve to evaluate four different land-use options, using criteria mainly derived from landscape functions and weights gained from interviews with major stakeholders. The paper presents the models' results concerning the ranking of the different land-use options and discusses the implications for agri-environmental policies and rural development planning. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Commonage land and farmer uptake of the rural environment protection scheme in Ireland (2009) 🗎🗎

This paper looks at some of the factors which may influence REPS participation among commonage farmers in the west of The Republic of Ireland and on the impact REPS has had on participating farmers' income and on their environmental practices and attitudes. Commonage is land held in common ownership on which two or more farmers have grazing rights. There are about 4500 commonages in Ireland and they are important to Irish agriculture, to conservation of the uplands, in managing the environment and in sustaining rural livelihoods. The study reveals that sheep farmers are less likely to join REPS than cattle farmers and that being in receipt of other sources of State income acted as a deterrent to participation. REPS appears to have had a positive impact on participants' income and seems to have been Successful in changing farmer practices in a more environmentally benign direction, when doing so imposed no additional costs on the farmer. Environmental awareness among all farmers appears to be poor although REPS farmers display more appreciation of the degraded state of commonage than do non-REPS farmers. Farmers preference for a continuation of the status quo with respect to commonage management and a lack of discontent with respect to the distribution of past commonage rights points to the potential of building on a more co-operative approach to environmental management. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Policy directions for agricultural land use in Australia and other post-industrial economies (2009) 🗎🗎

Farming has been the basis to work, culture and social forces for millennia. It still dominates the lives of most of the world's poorer people, but in post-industrial western countries agriculture's contribution to national economies is now minor. Nevertheless, most OECD countries' agricultural policies are aimed at maintaining the size of this sector even where this conflicts with its economic significance or adversely affects the environment. Australia has a first world economy, but a third world export profile, with 20% of its export value derived from agriculture. Although it is efficient in agricultural man-power, this sector consumes 70% of the water and 60% of the land resources of the continent to produce food for an estimated 55 million people. Agricultural policies maintain the productivity of the sector, but are ineffective in stemming the associated environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and rural population decline. As in other post-industrial societies, Australia needs to re-define what its agriculture sector represents, environmentally and socially. This will require greater reappraisal of property rights, public and private benefits and legal structures supporting both. More effective alternative policies are needed for large tracts of unproductive farmland where environmental and social decline are endemic. This paper explores alternative options that offer more balanced prospects in the face of current paradoxes, including paying farmers directly for stewardship services, providing better incentives for retiring non-productive areas from agricultural land use, and retiring watersheds, streamlines and other areas of essential environmental function from agricultural production for better biodiversity conservation. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An application of DPSIR framework to identify issues of pollinator loss (2009) 🗎🗎

This paper is an attempt to apply the Driving forces-Pressures-State-Impact-Responses (DPSIR) framework to identify the issues of pollinator loss. The linkages between the significant pressures on insect pollinators, their underlying socio-economic driving forces and responses, with the focus on Europe, are addressed in the study. A review of literature revealed the shortage of empirical studies that prove direct links between policy responses and specific pressures on the pollinators. Based on written evidence and expert judgement, land use practices and the use of agrochemicals were regarded as the most significant pressures on different functional groups of pollinators. As demonstrated in the study, agricultural and rural development policy has been the key driving force of these pressures. The application of the DPSIR framework proved to be useful in identifying the pathway of human pressures on pollinators. The study also concludes that there is further need for specific empirical research on the effects and effectiveness of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) measures (agri-environment measures in particular) to support farming practices that facilitate the protection of the environment and the prevention of pollinator loss. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Scaling down the European model of agriculture: the case of the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme in Ireland (2009) 🗎🗎

Recent reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy have led to much discussion of the European multifunctional model of agriculture in both policy and academic circles. Accordingly, European agriculture provides numerous social and environmental benefits and as a result should be supported through a system of payments which directly target those benefits. The agri-environmental measures specified under pillar II of the Common Agricultural Policy are supposed to exemplify the multifunctional model of agriculture, and the macro-level debates surrounding the introduction and evolution of these measures have been the subject of much scholarly research. However, very little research has been conducted into how the actors responsible for implementing these measures at the local level react to the macro-level definitions and interpretations of agri-environmental problems and their solution. This article examines the specific case of the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme in Ireland, focusing on how this scheme is viewed by diverse actors (farmers, government officials, and environmentalists) in the environmentally sensitive area known as the Burren, how these views complement or contradict the narrative of multifunctional agriculture promoted at the EU level of governance, and how this narrative is mediated by a national agri-environmental policy community. Results suggest the need to consider how policy narratives and instruments prominent at the macro-global level of governance enter into the life-worlds, cultures, and ecologies of a variety of actors at the national and local levels of governance, and in the process are reinterpreted, resisted, and transformed.

Expanding the solution set: Organizational economics and agri-environmental policy (2009) 🗎🗎

The market failure paradigm dominates agri-environmental research and policy. Organizational economics provides an alternative framework for analyzing agri-environmental problems and points to alternative solutions. In this paper, the traditional approach of creating markets for environmental goods and services is critiqued and set aside to provide space for an organizational analysis. From an organizational perspective, the relationship between the state and agricultural agents is viewed as grounded in an over-arching exchange relationship including elements of cooperation and trust. Such a collaborative exchange relationship may prove useful in supporting exchange between agricultural agents and the state leading to the provision of ecological goods and services. Highlighting the potential of organizational economics, the analysis suggests that agri-environmental research and policy go further in accounting for. and investigating, the unique organizational modes of exchange governing the production of food, fiber, and ecological goods and services. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An integrated approach for ex-ante evaluation of public policies for sustainable agriculture at landscape level (2009) 🗎🗎

An integrated methodological framework for ex-ante evaluation and planning of public policies for sustainable agriculture at agro-landscape level is proposed. The components of the framework are to: (I) determine the private, i.e. farmers', and public benefits associated to agro-landscapes, consisting of an agricultural land-use system, according to its performance for several market and non-market functions. Market forces determine the market benefits and preferences of society the non-market benefits; (2) explore and select potential sustainable agro-landscapes based on the private and public benefits associated with possible land-use alternatives; (3) define efficient public policy mechanisms for improving social net benefit of agro-landscapes. The framework is illustrated with a case study in a small dairy farming dominated agro-landscape in The Netherlands, with gross margin, landscape quality, nature value and environmental health as the analysed ecosystem functions. Alternative landscapes consisting of hedgerow configurations and grassland management practices were explored, yielding a set of alternatives representing the solution space in terms of change in private and public benefits. Policy mechanisms were defined to move from the current to a desired landscape based on changes in social net benefits. Moreover, the necessity of a modification in the current agri-environmental support was analysed for each landscape. The analysis considered all farmers in the agro-landscape jointly. The results for the case study showed potential prototypes of landscapes and their performance compared to the current landscape. Extension was the most efficient policy mechanism to promote the change to the socially optimum landscape alternative. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Managing invasive alien species with professional and hobby farmers: insights from ecological-economic modelling (2009) 🗎🗎

Biosecurity is a great challenge to policy-makers globally. Biosecurity policies aim to either prevent invasions before they occur or to eradicate and/or effectively manage the invasive species and diseases once an invasion has occurred. Such policies have traditionally been directed towards professional producers in natural resource based sectors, including agriculture. Given the wide scope of issues threatened by invasive species and diseases, it is important to account for several types of stakeholders that are involved. We investigate the problem of an invasive insect pest feeding on an agricultural crop with heterogeneous producers: profit-oriented professional farmers and utility-oriented hobby farmers. We start from an ecological-economic model conceptually similar to the one developed by Eiswerth and Johnson [Eiswerth, M.E. and Johnson, W.S., 2002. Managing nonindigenous invasive species: insights from dynamic analysis. Environmental and Resource Economics 23, 319-342.] and extend it in three ways. First, we make explicit the relationship between the invaded state carrying capacity and farmers' planting decisions. Second, we add another producer type into the framework and hence account for the existence of both professional and hobby fanners. Third, we provide a theoretical contribution by discussing two alternative types of equilibria. We also apply the model to an empirical case to extract a number of stylised facts and in particular to assess: a) under which circumstances the invasion is likely to be not controllable; and b) how extending control policies to hobby farmers could affect both types of producers. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stakeholder involvement in agri-environmental policy making - Learning from a local- and a state-level approach in Germany (2009) 🗎🗎

Recent European regulations for rural development emphasise the requirement to involve stakeholder groups and other appropriate bodies in the policy-making process. This paper presents two cases involving stakeholder participation in agri-environmental development and policy making, targeted at different policy-making levels. One study was undertaken in Lower Saxony where a local partnership developed and tested an agri-environmental prescription, which was later included in the state's menu of agri-environmental schemes. In Sachsen-Anhalt, state-facilitated stakeholder workshops including a mathematical model were used to optimise the programme planning and budget allocation at the state level. Both studies aimed at improving the acceptance of agri-environmental schemes. The authors gauge the effectiveness of the two approaches and discuss what lessons can be learned. The experience suggests that the approaches can complement one another and could also be applied to rural policy making. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

What motivates farmers to participate in the Nova Scotia environmental farm plan program? Evidence and environmental policy implications (2009) 🗎🗎

Program stakeholders are interested in better understanding farmers' experience, and factors that affect firmer participation in the relatively new Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) program, implemented in several provinces in Canada. To increase relevance of the research findings to EFP program administrators and policy makers, the research methods emphasised determining whether relationships exist among program-related variables, and how such relationships affect farmers' decision choices and behaviour. Traditional farmer and farm attributes that have contrasting effects in agricultural innovation adoption and conservation management (namely age, and formal education completed), were not associated with EFP program participation. Farm income, years of farming experience, and type of agribusiness managed were associated with participation in the Nova Scotia EFP program. Although program participants tended to have higher incomes, overall, non-financial considerations dominated monetary considerations in Nova Scotia farmers' reasons for participating in the Nova Scotia EFP. Helping to publicize positive firm stewardship practices was reported as the most important reason for participating in the EFP scheme, followed by its use to help improve relationships with non-farming neighbours, and to comply with government environmental regulations. In contrast, and somewhat a surprising finding, minimizing potential farm environmental risk, program administrators' raison detre for promoting the NS EFP, was ranked the lowest, with no respondent rating that as a "very important" or ''extremely important" reason for participating in the EFP program. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Review of Agri-Environment Indexes and Stewardship Payments (2009) 🗎🗎

Agri-environment programs aim to secure environmental and social stewardship services through payments to farmers. A critical component of many agri-environment programs is an agri-environment index (AEI) used to quantify benefits and target investments. An AEI will typically comprise multiple indicators, which are weighted and combined using a utility function, to measure the benefit of investment options (e. g., projects, farms, regions). This article presents a review of AEIs with 11 case studies from agri-environment programs in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. We identify a generic procedure used to define AEIs and explore the implications of alternative methodological approaches. We conclude that AEIs have become an extremely important policy instrument and make suggestions for their improvement.

Deciding how to decide on agri-environmental schemes: the political economy of subsidiarity, decentralisation and participation in the European Union (2009) 🗎🗎

Since 1992 the provision of agri-environmental schemes (AESs) has been obligatory for member states of the European Union. However, decisions concerning the actual design of schemes and measures are left to member states who have to integrate this policy within their administrative structures and to comply with the general rules laid down in the EU rural development regulations. Over time, the respective council regulations have increasingly encouraged member states to design agri-environmental policy in a sub-national, decentralised and participatory way. However, the response to these opportunities has been quite diverse amongst the member states. This paper presents the results of a unique expert survey in nine different member states, focusing on decentralisation and participation. The results show that the way in which decisions are made affects the environmental effectiveness of AES. In particular, the involvement of actors at a local level and the participation of environmental NGOs have a positive effect on the environmental effectiveness of AES. Therefore, it is not surprising that most actors involved in decision making surrounding AESs are in favour of further decentralisation and participation in order to tackle agri-environmental problems. However, actors from the agricultural administration and agricultural associations, which are the most influential groups in terms of the design of AESs, oppose extending participation to the local level and to environmental associations.

Investigating farmers' preferences for the design of agri-environment schemes: a choice experiment approach (2009) 🗎🗎

In recent decades agri-environment schemes (AES) have become an increasingly important tool for policy makers aiming to reverse the post-war decline in environmental quality on agricultural land. The voluntary nature of such schemes means that the decision of farmers to participate is central to achieving policy objectives. Therefore, this paper uses a choice experiment approach to investigate the role that scheme design can have on encouraging farmers to participate. Choice data was gathered from a survey of farmers in 10 case study areas across the EU and analysed using both mixed logit and latent class models. In general, farmers were found to require greater financial incentives to join schemes with longer contracts or that offer less flexibility or higher levels of paperwork. It was also observed that a large segment of farmers ('low resistance adopters') would be willing to accept relatively small incentive payments for their participation in schemes offering relatively little flexibility and high levels of additional paperwork, when compared to a contrasting segment of 'high resistance adopters'.

Ex post environmental evaluation of agri-environment schemes using experts' judgements and multicriteria analysis (2009) 🗎🗎

Assessing the environmental impact of agri-environment schemes (AESs) is complicated by the lack of both specific measurable objectives and dedicated environmental monitoring of the impacts. A methodology to estimate the environmental performance of AESs was applied in nine EU case study areas, and reduced the complexity of scheme structure into elements that were assessed by experts. Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) techniques helped produce aggregated judgements about single objectives or measures. Expert panels assessed the link between environmental measures and objectives by scoring specific criteria that reflect important factors for delivering environmental effectiveness: valid research models for measures (cause-and-effect); quality of implementation by farmers and institutions; extent of participation and degree of spatial targeting. Multi-criteria analysis enabled comparison of the degree to which environmental effectiveness (estimated from the criteria scores) within a scheme was achieved across environmental objectives of different importance. There were considerable differences in overall environmental performance across different case study areas, and the experts' scores identified scope for improvement in one or more criteria in most measures. Higher priority environmental objectives (as assessed by stakeholders) did not necessarily demonstrate highest environmental performance. We discuss implications for learning how to improve the design and evaluation of AESs.

Promoting Multifunctionality of Agriculture: An Economic Analysis of New Approaches in Germany (2009) 🗎🗎

In the early and mid-1990s, a number of policies to support the multifunctionality of agriculture, e.g., agri-environmental schemes (AESs), started to be implemented in Europe. Based on experiences with their implementation, new approaches have since been developed to advance these policies, and other new opportunities have arisen to further strengthen the multifunctionality of agriculture. Here we present three innovative approaches for supporting agricultural multifunctionality in Germany: participatory and local approaches for developing AESs, voluntary co-operative agreements (CAs) between farmers and water suppliers, and the combination of the impact mitigation principle with environmentally friendly farming. We evaluate these new policies in terms of their ability to improve the cost-effective provision of environmental benefits. We do this by applying a framework that encompasses an analysis of the cost-effective allocation of resources for producing environmental benefits and of the implementation and decision-making costs. Our analysis suggests that for locally developed AESs and CAs, there is a trade-off between more cost-effective resource allocation and better monitoring, on the one hand, and higher decision-making costs, on the other. When combining the impact mitigation principle with farming, we expect to find savings in terms of production, decision-making and implementation costs.

Are farmers' decisions to work off the farm related to their decisions to participate in the conservation reserve program? (2009) 🗎🗎

Since both working off the farm and participating in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) remove important resources from US agricultural production, we utilize two econometric specifications to test hypotheses regarding whether these two decisions by farmers are independent. We find statistical evidence that decisions to participate in CRP and work off the farm are correlated. Characteristics of farm households and farm operations affect both decisions directly and indirectly, as do local economic conditions and participation in other farm programs. To illustrate their importance, we simulate the combined direct and indirect effects of changes in decoupled payments and farm size on the probabilities of farm households engaging in these two activities. We also illustrate that the probability of engaging in these two activities depends on whether the farm is located in a state, or local agricultural district or participates in a related farmland retention program.

Livelihood Change and Livelihood Sustainability in the Uplands of Lembang Subwatershed, West Sumatra, Indonesia, in a Changing Natural Resource Management Context (2009) 🗎🗎

This paper analyzes livelihood change and livelihood sustainability of households in the upland part of the Lembang subwatershed, West Sumatra, in response to changes in the natural resource management context during the last decade. Using the sustainable livelihood framework (SLF), we measured livelihood changes at two separate points in time, 1996 and 2006, and assessed their environmental, economic, social, and institutional sustainability. We found that people with a low income had less access to capital assets than people from middle- and high-income groups. Our analysis revealed, however, that access to capital assets increased over time, and that poor households experienced economic improvement, indicating an overall increase in economic sustainability. Environmental sustainability, however, is threatened by intensive agricultural practices such as high agrochemical input and intensive soil tillage on steep slopes, leading to pollution and soil erosion. Social sustainability is also a matter of concern: while social exclusion has been reduced, income inequity has increased. Institutional sustainability is likely to remain uncertain, as local institutions for natural resource management are still weak, despite the fact that decentralization has been implemented during the last 8 years. External facilitation is needed to improve the livelihood of upland people while, at the same time, enhancing the sustainability of watershed management. Strengthening local institutions, conserving natural resources, and promoting environmentally sound agricultural practices are the three most important policies to be promoted within the watershed.

Runoff and soil erosion in arable Britain: changes in perception and policy since 1945 (2010) 🗎🗎

The realisation that runoff and soil erosion was a problem came late to Britain and policies to tackle the problem have evolved slowly and may well have a taken a different route to that in other countries. The perception of soil erosion and runoff in Britain by three interest groups (researchers, policy makers and farmers) has changed over time since the 1940s. Prior to 1970 none of the groups considered erosion and runoff were problems. From then to 1985 researchers found that erosion was widespread. Between 1985 and 2005 researchers not only confirmed that erosion was a problem, but that runoff and its impacts (muddy floods and pollution of water courses by sediment, phosphate and pesticides) were also problems. These widespread and costly economic and environmental impacts led policy makers to tackle the problems of erosion and runoff. From 2005 farmers have had to keep their land in 'Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition' by, amongst other things, attempting to curtail erosion and runoff, to comply with regulation in order to receive subsidy. Policy change was also stimulated by changes in the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy and the passing by the EU of the 'Water Framework Directive'. Policy, if it is to be evidence based, will always lag behind research. There is a continuing need for field-based monitoring to assess if regulation is working, to ensure compliance, and as a basis for future policy. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How cost-effective are result-oriented agri-environmental measures?-An empirical analysis in Germany (2010) 🗎🗎

Agri-environmental measures (AEM) are the central area-based measures of the second pillar of the Common European Agricultural Policy. Cost-effectiveness of AEMs has to be improved. In this paper a newly designed AEM called result-oriented incentive is empirically analysed for the first time concerning its impacts on environmental effects and cost. Result-oriented financial incentives are linked directly to the desired environmental objectives and allow farmers to choose the most efficient way of management to reach them on their own. In this paper. we present the results of 90 interviews with farmers who have participated in a result-oriented AEM in Baden-Wuertternberg (Germany). We investigated potential advantages (flexibility, innovation, higher intrinsic motivation and improved continuous adaptation). In addition, we researched disadvantages (transaction costs involved in control efforts, risk for farmers). Our results show that such kind of AEM has a positive impact on cost-effectiveness. However, the concrete design and the implementation process of these AEMs play a crucial role for their successful application. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The introduction of Entry Level Stewardship in England: Extension or dilution in agri-environment policy? (2010) 🗎🗎

Agri-environment schemes were introduced in the mid-1980s. Their primary objectives have developed from initially aiming to hold back intensification towards stimulating environmental enhancement. The introduction of Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) in England represents a third stage in seeking to extend the coverage of schemes across the majority of agricultural land. This aims to influence land use along the whole of the intensive margin. The ELS offers a wide range of options for which farmers are awarded points. Selection of options equivalent to 30 points per ha in lowland areas entitles farmers to a payment of 30 pound per ha. By September 2007, 4.4 million ha had been entered into the scheme, equivalent to 47% of the agricultural area. From amongst the options on offer. 34% of points were for boundary options. 20% for intensive grass options, 16% for management plans and 13% for options taking arable land out of production. The choice of options varies across the country with a higher proportion of the agricultural area entered in the East. Entry into the scheme is associated with total agricultural area, cereals farming, larger farms, a lower proportion of area in Environmentally Sensitive Area and Countryside Stewardship schemes and grazing livestock numbers. While the ELS has introduced a large number of new entrants into agri-environment schemes, the extent of the environmental impact is uncertain. Given the large number of options available, it is likely that farmers will have chosen options that involve relatively little change and incur limited cost. At the same time, it would be surprising if the environmental gains were of the types most valued within local areas. The ELS approach implies that public goods provided from agricultural land should be paid for irrespective of what would have happened in the absence of the scheme. While this may be a fairer approach, it may also undermine the idea of land stewardship and imply that payments will continue to be required in the long term in order to sustain provision. The ELS does establish a framework within which incentives could be targeted to deliver specific benefits within particular contexts and suggestions are made as to how policy might be developed for this. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Economics of Water Quality (2010) 🗎🗎

This article surveys selected contributions of economics to the literature on water pollution and the regulation of water quality. While not a comprehensive review, the article highlights water pollution issues to which economics has made important contributions, as well as areas in which further research might illuminate critical questions from the perspective of theory, empirics, or applied policy analysis. The focus is on drinking water regulation and provision; water quality standards in local, national, and transboundary settings; and the issue of policy instrument choice for water quality regulation.

How to build multifunctional agricultural landscapes in the US Corn Belt: Add perennials and partnerships (2010) 🗎🗎

Conservation of ecosystem services in agricultural regions worldwide is foundational to, but often perceived to be in competition with, other societal outcomes, including food and energy production and thriving rural communities. To address this tension, we engaged regional leaders in agriculture, conservation, and policy from the state of Iowa (USA) in a participatory workshop and follow-up interviews. Our goal was to determine constraints to, and leverage points for, broad-scale implementation of practices that use perennial vegetation to bolster ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. Qualitative analysis of workshop and interview data highlighted the complexity involved in achieving multi-objective societal outcomes across privately owned, working landscapes especially as the Corn Belt region enters a period of rapid reorganization driven by the demand for bioenergy crops. These leaders indicated that initiatives focusing on perennials have the potential to span differences between conservation and agricultural interests by blurring the distinction between working lands and protected areas. Landscape change that transcends private property boundaries to accomplish this goal is dependent upon: (1) facilitation of vertical and horizontal forms of social capital between social actors from different scales and perspectives, and (2) scale appropriate mechanisms that increase the value of perennial practices for farm owners and operators. Our data highlight the adaptive capacity of regional actors to act as intermediaries to shape macro-scale markets, technologies, and policies in ways that are compatible with the needs, the capabilities, and the conservation of local human and natural resources. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing German farmers' attitudes regarding nature conservation set-aside in regions dominated by arable farming (2010) 🗎🗎

This paper presents an analysis of the attitudes of farmers towards a policy approach that combines the instrument of set-aside of farmland with agri-environmental measures under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for achieving nature goals. One of the stated objectives of current agricultural and environmental policies is to give greater consideration to issues of nature conservation in agricultural landscapes. To fulfil this objective, there is an urgent need to develop approaches that, on the one hand, are capable of delivering tangible improvements in the ecological situation and nature conservation in agriculture and, on the other hand, are structured in such a way that farmers are willing to put them into practice. In addition, such approaches need to be economical and affordable for society. The Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) has developed the concept of nature-conservation set-aside, especially for landscapes that are under predominantly arable use. Conservation set-aside refers to parts of arable farmland especially well suited to nature conservation, which are mandatorily withdrawn from agricultural production (for those who claim payment) and on which ecologically valuable habitats are created through specific management activities. To determine what kind of problems might arise for farmers in the course of implementing this concept as an agri-environmental measure, a survey was carried out in four largely arable regions of Germany. The results of this survey show the attitudes of German farmers regarding set-aside farmland for nature conservation in regions dominated by arable farming, and they demonstrate which factors influence the implementation of conservation set-aside. (C) 2010 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Understanding and influencing behaviour change by farmers to improve water quality (2010) 🗎🗎

Diffuse pollution from agriculture remains a significant challenge to many countries seeking to improve and protect their water environments This paper reviews literature relating to the provision of information and advice as a mechanism to encourage farmers to mitigate diffuse pollution The paper presents findings from a literature review on influencing farmer behaviour and synthesises three main areas of literature psychological and institutional theories of behaviour, shifts in the approach to delivery of advice (from knowledge transfer to knowledge exchange), and the increased interest in heterogeneous farming cultures These three areas interconnect in helping to understand how best to influence farmer behaviour in order to mitigate diffuse pollution They are, however, literatures that are rarely cited in the water management arena The paper highlights the contribution of the 'cultural turn' taken by rural social scientists in helping to understand collective and individual voluntary behaviour The paper explores how these literatures can contribute to the existing understanding of water management in the agricultural context, particularly: when farmers question the scientific evidence, when there are increased calls for collaborative planning and management, and when there is increased value placed on information as a business commodity The paper also highlights where there are still gaps in knowledge that need to be filled by future research possibly in partnership with farmers themselves Whilst information and advice has long been seen as an important part of diffuse pollution control, increasing climate variability that will require farmers to practice adaptive management is likely to make these mechanisms even more important (C) 2009 Elsevier B V All rights reserved

Victorian catchment management approaches to salinity: learning from the National Action Plan experience (2010) 🗎🗎

Given the limited budgets of environmental programs in Australia, spatially explicit, asset-based approaches to investment planning are likely to result in more cost-effective environmental outcomes than less-targeted approaches. The conclusion of the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP) provided opportunity to explore the compatibility of Victorian Catchment Management Authority (CMA) dryland plans with an asset-based approach, with a view to providing guidance on how to improve practices for new programs. In 2008, we reviewed plans for dryland areas of eight Victorian CMAs against the following criteria: 1) identification of spatially explicit assets; 2) asset prioritisation; 3) level of threat considered; 4) capacity to influence the threat; 5) linkage between intervention and asset protection; 6) consideration of landholder adoption circumstances; 7) whether the intervention was based on analysis of public and private benefits; and 8) whether research and development gaps were identified. Gaps in knowledge were identified in all plans. Overall, two regions had plans that were moderately consistent with a spatially explicit, asset-based approach. There was a generally positive response from CMAs regarding the implementation of such an approach, with strong indications of the need to consider multiple environmental threats. We conclude that clear guidance or recommendations from governments will he needed to achieve widespread adoption of spatially explicit, asset-based approaches in Victoria and other states.

A Generic Bio-Economic Farm Model for Environmental and Economic Assessment of Agricultural Systems (2010) 🗎🗎

Bio-economic farm models are tools to evaluate ex-post or to assess ex-ante the impact of policy and technology change on agriculture, economics and environment. Recently, various BEFMs have been developed, often for one purpose or location, but hardly any of these models are re-used later for other purposes or locations. The Farm System Simulator (FSSIM) provides a generic framework enabling the application of BEFMs under various situations and for different purposes (generating supply response functions and detailed regional or farm type assessments). FSSIM is set up as a component-based framework with components representing farmer objectives, risk, calibration, policies, current activities, alternative activities and different types of activities (e.g., annual and perennial cropping and livestock). The generic nature of FSSIM is evaluated using five criteria by examining its applications. FSSIM has been applied for different climate zones and soil types (criterion 1) and to a range of different farm types (criterion 2) with different specializations, intensities and sizes. In most applications FSSIM has been used to assess the effects of policy changes and in two applications to assess the impact of technological innovations (criterion 3). In the various applications, different data sources, level of detail (e.g., criterion 4) and model configurations have been used. FSSIM has been linked to an economic and several biophysical models (criterion 5). The model is available for applications to other conditions and research issues, and it is open to be further tested and to be extended with new components, indicators or linkages to other models.

Preserving Characteristics of the Agricultural Landscape through Agri-Environmental Policies: The Case of Cultivation Terraces in Greece (2010) 🗎🗎

Landscapes are made from different components and elements, some of which are characterized through their presence and patterns. The assessment of this character is performed via the identification of landscape characteristics. For agricultural landscapes, such characteristics can be natural elements or elements of farming systems. Their preservation can be of great importance in Europe today, and agri-environmental measures have been used towards this goal. One such characteristic in Greece is cultivation terraces, today widely neglected, as the cultivations they supported are abandoned or modernized. This paper discusses the effectiveness of an agri-environmental policy measure for the reconstruction of cultivation terraces in Greece, with regard to existing practices of farmers. A picture for the whole country is presented and farmers' practices are discussed with greater detail through research with farmers that have been supported on the island of Lesvos. Findings from Lesvos reveal that only part-time and 'hobby' farmers have participated and that they acknowledge the productive, conservation and symbolic value of terraces. In this context, although these farmers are actively farming the fields, terraces appear to have lost their original functional role in agricultural production and they are mainly maintained as a decorative element of the form of the landscape by farmers who can afford such concerns.

Environmental grants and regulations in strategic farm business decision-making: A case study of attitudinal behaviour in Scotland (2010) 🗎🗎

This paper addresses the question of farmer responses to agri-environmental programming in light of the Single Farm Payment, focusing on the role of environmental regulations and grant schemes in strategic farm decision-making. Utilising Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour in a qualitative case study of farmers in Upper Deeside, Scotland, it was found that farmer respondents actively consider environmental regulations and grant opportunities as part of their decision rationale in making investments in farm development, such as agro-industrial building construction or securing additional land. Fulfilling agri-environmental regulations is constructed by respondents as being part of ensuring farm viability. while eligibility for agri-environmental schemes is impacting on how tenanted land is valued. The author identifies three mechanisms facilitating farmer up-take of environmental schemes, and makes a case for consideration of farmers as experts in producing environmental outcomes while maintaining economic sustainability of farming operations. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

European rule adoption in Central and Eastern Europe: a comparative analysis of agricultural water management in Serbia (2010) 🗎🗎

Regulation of Serbian agriculture's water use is analysed as a basis for wider debate on European rule adoption. Three models that seek to explain patterns of non-compliance are assessed: external incentives; policy learning/lesson drawing; and Mediterranean syndrome. Although such models tend to be presented as competing frameworks, evidence suggests that this is inappropriate. Survey and interview data reveal a substantial implementation deficit for environmental regulation in Serbia, and this has several characteristics in common with the Mediterranean syndrome. In this case, problems of compliance with European rules cannot be divorced from domestic regulatory failure.

Club Provision of Public Goods: The Example of Upland Commons Councils (2010) 🗎🗎

The classification of goods as private, public, club and common pool resource (CPR) (based on their properties of excludability and rivalry in consumption) is used to analyse changes to upland farming agricultural policy priorities, away from objectives considered to be 'in the public good' to the provision of 'public goods'. Unregulated upland commons are CPRs that produce private goods (e.g. food) and public goods (e.g. landscape and biodiversity). But, local associations with effective powers to exclude farmers with no grazing rights and regulate grazing by farmers with grazing rights change them into club goods. Private goods are marketable, so there is an incentive for commoners to produce them at the expense of public good. To readdress this balance in favour of public goods, the agreement of all commoners is needed, for example, to enter the commons into an agri-environmental scheme. Government can intervene to increase public good provision from uplands; their choice of instrument being principally influenced by ecological effectiveness (ability to produce the type and quantity of the good required) and transaction costs. This paper discusses the decision of government to intervene through legislation that empowers local associations in England and Wales by introducing commons councils against a background of changing agricultural support programmes for upland farming. The reasons why land managers may support this institutional reform are reviewed, and the importance of the financial model used to underpin the work of commons councils is discussed. There is no reason why similar legislation could not be used to support the club provision of public goods in lowland areas, which exhibit environmental characteristics similar to upland commons.

Implications of CAP reform for land management and runoff control in England and Wales (2010) 🗎🗎

WTO negotiations, as well as problems associated with intensive agriculture, such as overproduction, dependency on high levels of subsidies, diffuse pollution, soil degradation and loss of wildlife, have led to a reconsideration of agricultural policies in Europe. In April 2005, the new common agricultural policy (CAP)-reform came into force in the United Kingdom, decoupling financial support to farmers from agricultural production. Farm income support payments are now linked to compliance with standards (cross-compliance rules) which protect the environment, animal health and welfare. In the light of these policy changes, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 36 farmers in five catchments in the UK to explore interrelationships between CAP-reform, agricultural land management and runoff-related problems. Results from three catchments are specifically highlighted because of their relevance for soil policy. The CAP-reform appears to facilitate and accelerate changes in the agricultural sector that were already happening. It is likely that upland livestock farms will extensify further, which will reduce environmental burdens such as diffuse pollution, soil compaction and runoff. The uptake of agri-environment schemes by individual farmers has increased since the CAP-reform. However, additional impacts are limited as there is a tendency among participants to enter these schemes based on existing features and practices. Although most farmers interviewed for this study appear to recognise the need to reduce soil erosion and diffuse pollution, they are less convinced they should be held responsible for controlling storm-water runoff from farmland that might contribute to flooding downstream. However, there are opportunities to achieve several objectives simultaneously, including improved soil management, runoff control and reduced pollution. Lessons can be learned from farmers' opinions about CAP-reform, from successful interventions that aimed to reduce soil erosion and diffuse pollution, and also from failures. Recommendations are made for improvements to the current agri-environment schemes and to promote land management practices with less environmental burden. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We know where the shoe pinches: a case study-based analysis of the social benefits of pesticides (2010) 🗎🗎

Most published material relating to pesticides focuses on negative effects. Previous work by the authors has linked pesticides to a range of benefits, but not to wider social outcomes. In this study, a case is made that, if used properly, pesticides can result in a range of social benefits. To characterize social outcomes for individuals, families, other groups and communities, the authors undertook the development of an analytical framework to categorize the potential outcomes, a review of the literature and an examination of specific cases in production systems using pesticides. Four categories of use were explored: livestock disease vector control, subsistence farming, transition from subsistence to cash crop farming and commercial farming. The last two showed very strong positive associations, with benefits being manifested in increased income and reduced risk, plus the ability to hire labour and provide employment opportunities. Other outcomes were the evolution of more complex community facilities, such as schools and shops, and improved health. One unexpected finding was that there appeared to be an association between the use of pesticides and cooperation (that is, farmers working together in purchasing, spraying and/or marketing). Many of the case studies supported the hypothesis that farm businesses using pesticides were associated with the development of administrative skills that spilled over into other aspects of people's lives. Although the sample was small and there was a risk of an inherent bias towards those with a vested interest in maintaining their current farming systems (including pesticides), these case studies support the authors' hypothesis that there are social benefits from pesticide use.

Coastal Ecosystems and Agricultural Land Use: New Challenges on California's Central Coast (2010) 🗎🗎

This article uses the Central Coast region of California as a case study to examine the challenges of protecting coastal ecosystems near areas of intensive agricultural production. Coastal water quality and biodiversity are greatly impacted by regional land use. Agricultural land use can have significant impacts on water quality through erosion and the runoff of agricultural chemicals. While the Central Coast region of California is a center for intensive agricultural production, it is also home to the largest marine sanctuary in the United States. This combination has resulted in intensive efforts from government agencies and conservation organizations to reduce pollution associated with agriculture. Efforts have focused on education and incentives, but are recently facing increasing challenges stemming from new standards created by the produce industry in response to food safety concerns. Personal interviews with crop growers were used to explore these challenges and to better understand the range of possible environmental impacts resulting from new food safety standards. Results indicate that substantial management changes are taking place that are likely to impact regional water quality and wildlife. This case study also explores the role of policy networks in shaping management decisions and illustrates how certain approaches to addressing agricultural pollution may be vulnerable to external policy changes.

Does intensity of change matter? Factors affecting adoption of agri-environmental schemes in Spain (2010) 🗎🗎

Agri-environmental schemes (AES) are the main policy instrument currently available in the EU to promote environmentally-friendly farming practices. However, the rate of adoption of these measures is still relatively low in southern Europe, and understanding how these rates can be increased is still an open issue. The goal of this paper is to increase that understanding by testing whether the factors which determine AES sign-up decisions are influenced by the intensity of change in farming practices that are brought about by adopting the scheme. A micro-economic model reflecting farmer AES sign-up decisions is proposed and applied to two schemes in Spain respectively requiring major or minor intensity of change in practices by surveying farmers eligible for both schemes. The results show that farm structural factors play a role when major practice change is required by the scheme, yet when dealing with minor change, individual farmer characteristics play a more determining role. Social capital and farmer attitude are important factors in both the AES surveyed. Therefore, it may be concluded that improving agronomic design would be an important tool to improve farmer participation in AES where major change is involved, whereas improved targeting and extension would help uptake for AES involving a lesser degree of change.

How "green" are small wineries? Western Australia's case (2010) 🗎🗎

Purpose - In the wake of growing concerns about environmental issues in rural areas, some studies present environmental stewardship as a positive way for food producing businesses to benefit from consumer groups receptive to environmentally friendly growing practices However, very little is reported on how winery operators, including those of small wineries, go about addressing environmental sustainability The present exploratory study seeks to broaden the understanding of this area from a group of small winery operators from emerging Western Australian wine regions Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative approach in the form of face-to-face and telephone interviews among 42 participating wineries was chosen for this exploratory study Findings - While participants' comments suggest they are currently Involved in different ways to be environmentally sustainable, the study also identifies environmental threats affecting some winery operators severely Such issues include latent water concerns and government agencies' action in the form of forest fires near vineyards that can cause great losses to winery entrepreneurs Research limitations/implications - Despite several useful insights identified in this study, with an excess of over 200 small wineries in Western Australia, the limited number of participating businesses may not allow for making generalisations about the state's or nation's wine industry Practical implications - Some of the issues identified in this study illustrate that it is not only up to wineries to follow environmentally friendly initiatives Moreover, such issues need to be addressed to guarantee support for the industry in areas where climatic issues or human action pose potential threats Originality/value - The study examines environmental sustainability from small winery operators' perspective, a dimension that to date has been under researched, particularly in Western Australia

Meta-analysis of institutional-economic factors explaining the environmental performance of payments for watershed services (2011) 🗎🗎

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are a relatively new economic policy instrument, and the factors that drive and explain their environmental performance are poorly understood. Here a meta-analysis of causal relationships between the institutional design and environmental performance of 47 payments for watershed services (PWS) schemes worldwide showed a significant effect on environmental achievement of the terms and conditions of scheme participation, including the selection of service providers, community participation, the existence and monitoring of quantifiable objectives, and the number of intermediaries between service providers and buyers. Direct payments by downstream hydropower companies to upstream land owners for reduced sediment loads were identified as a successful PWS example. No other significant explanatory factors, such as specific type of watershed service, age or scale of implementation of the PWS scheme were detected. The results are highly dependent on the reliability of the input variables, in particular the measurement of the environmental performance variable. Despite efforts to find quantitative information on the environmental performance of existing PWS schemes, such empirical evidence is lacking in many of the schemes studied. International monitoring guidelines are needed to facilitate comparisons, identify success factors and support the future design of cost-effective PWS schemes.

Public and private agri-environmental regulation in post-socialist economies: Evidence from the Serbian Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Sector (2011) 🗎🗎

Using primary survey data and interview evidence this paper analyses the implementation and enforcement of public and private environmental regulation in the Serbian Fresh Fruit and Vegetable (FFV) sector. This provides a basis for engaging in a wider debate on the nature of agri-food regulation in post-socialist economies. Depictions of the restructuring of agri-food supply chains as a shift from public to private regulation are rejected. Rather two distinct supply chains co-exist: a small number of export oriented producers operate subject to extensive private regulation while the majority of FFV farmers occupy regulatory voids, immune to both private and private control. Those farmers operating under extensive private regulation are more likely to obey appropriate public regulation. Findings highlight the differentiated nature of regulatory regimes that can co-exist within a national production sector. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Transition pathways towards a robust ecologization of agriculture and the need for system redesign. Cases from organic farming and IPM (2011) 🗎🗎

The growing criticism of intensive agricultural practices that lead to a deterioration of natural resources and a decrease of biodiversity has progressively led to more environmental constraints being put on agricultural activities through an "ecologization" of agricultural policies. The aims of these policies have been to protect environmentally sensitive areas, to improve groundwater quality and, more recently, to develop organic farming and/or reduce pesticide use. However, these efforts are still a far cry from a robust ecologization of agricultural practices. In order to identify the conditions for the implementation of such an ecologization, the changes in practices from conventional agriculture towards organic farming and integrated pest management (IPM) are investigated using a sociological study of farmers' trajectories, coupled with the ESR (Efficiency-Substitution-Redesign) framework developed by biological and agricultural scientists. This combined approach reveals that a robust ecologization of agricultural practices requires us to take into account the specific and variable tempo of farmers' trajectories and to redesign not only technical agricultural systems but also interactions within larger agrifood systems. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The land cost of agrarian sustainability. An assessment (2011) 🗎🗎

Improving the sustainability of farms often incurs additional costs for farmers. These costs come from allocating land to the maintenance of the ecological processes (energy and material flows, natural population regulation) required for the agroecosystem to function. Since these costs are not recovered on the markets, farmers see a fall in profits, the financial viability of their farms is compromised, and they suffer the consequences of the environmental services they are providing. All this makes it essential to implement government policies designed to compensate farmers for their efforts. The issue of how to assess sustainability has generated widespread debate within ecological economics, specifically as to whether it is possible to place a monetary value on it and if so, how this should be done. In a previous article we showed that agrarian sustainability involves a land cost, therefore this cost can be translated into monetary values. The purpose of this study is to develop this concept in practical terms by applying it to organic farming. We calculated the land cost of agrarian sustainability (LACAS) in order to compare organic versus conventional management in olive farming, as this crop is grown extensively in Spain and other Mediterranean countries. The results show that the agro-environmental subsidy is not enough to encourage olive growers to make the conversion from conventional to organic methods, because the land cost of sustainability is not adequately offset. They also show that improving agroecosystems can allow the land to take on more functions without increasing the land cost. In our case, encouraging the multifunctionality of the land has permitted a reduction in this cost. The LACAS could be a useful tool, not only for drawing up government policies designed to support organic farming, but also for improving the sustainability of the agrarian sector. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

"Effectively organic": Environmental gains on conventional farms through the market? (2011) 🗎🗎

Qualitative field research in England identified a cohort of farmers practicing what they self-defined as 'effectively organic' or 'semi-organic' farming. Utilising Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour as a framework for analysis, reducing inputs was found to be primarily a response to financial pressures, also reflected in changing substantive norms towards balancing risks and potential returns against investment, rather than optimising production. However, despite the apparent ease of converting to organic farming from low input practice, formal conversion to organic farming was not found to be the automatic outcome of this trajectory: instead, organic farming was identified as only one of a number of options for increasing the financial viability of the farming operation, which included other niche markets, pluriactivity and contracting land to and from other farmers. The affiliation of low input farmers with organic production denotes positive attitudes towards both organic farming and environmental practices, but a lack of understanding about organic farming techniques. The author argues that due to declining returns/input ratios, future conversion to organic farming may reflect the value placed on other aspects of organic production, such as increased labour, risk reduction and environmental ideals, and highlights the environmental implications of the ongoing 'cost price squeeze' on farming households. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agri-Environmental Policy Measures in Israel: The Potential of Using Market-Oriented Instruments (2011) 🗎🗎

This paper examines the possibilities of developing agri-environmental policy measures in Israel, focusing on market-oriented instruments. A conceptual framework for developing agri-environmental policy measures is presented, first in very broad lines (mandatory regulations, economic instruments and advisory measures) and subsequently focusing on economic instruments, and specifically, on market-oriented ones. Two criteria of choice between the measures are suggested: their contribution to improving the effectiveness of the policy; and the feasibility of their implementation. This is the framework used for analyzing agri-environmental measures in Israel. Israel currently implements a mix of mandatory regulations, economic instruments and advisory measures to promote the agri-environment. The use of additional economic instruments may improve the effectiveness of the policy. When comparing the effectiveness of various economic measures, we found that the feasibility of implementation of market-oriented instruments is greater, due to the Israeli public's preference for strengthening market orientation in the agricultural sector. Four market-oriented instruments were practiced in a pilot project conducted in an Israeli rural area. We found that in this case study, the institutional feasibility and acceptance by stakeholders were the major parameters influencing the implementation of the market-oriented instruments, whereas the instruments' contribution to enhancing the ecological or economic effectiveness were hardly considered by the stakeholders as arguments in favor of their use.

The rural development in the context of agricultural "green" subsidies: Czech farmers' responses (2011) 🗎🗎

The study compares the role of agricultural green subsidies in rural development of the Czech Republic before and after joining the European Union (EU) in 2004. We use the perspective of multifunctional agriculture and contribute to the research on the contemporary trends in Czech agriculture by using the data collected through surveys in 2000 and 2006, as well as 2008 comparative statistical support, to ask if there have been significant changes and improvements in farmers' evaluations of these programs. The empirical case study results show some positive changes connected with the participation in the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). In spite of improvements, farmers continue to cite two primary weaknesses and constraints - administrative procedures and shifting program guidelines - that were evident prior to joining the EU. It can be assumed that the environmental subsidies in the Horizontal Rural Development Plan 2004-2006 have had an effect on the stabilization of the livelihoods of rural inhabitants. In general, there is a positive shift of valuation of the CAP among farmers in the Czech Republic.

How Green are Communities? Explaining Differences between Swiss Municipalities in Environmental Stewardship on Farmland (2011) 🗎🗎

ZINGG E., MANN S. and FERJANI A. How green are communities? Explaining differences between Swiss municipalities in environmental stewardship on farmland, Regional Studies. While a lot of research has explained on-farm factors for the adoption of environmental stewardship, this paper focuses on local factors that explain both the subscription to agri-environmental programmes and the prevalence of organic farms. It is shown and explained that a high yield potential decreases the likeliness of adopting environmental stewardship practices and farming organically, whereas it is increased by a strong tourism sector and local residents' pro-environment preferences. The results indicate the high relevance of local social expectations for farming decisions.

Environmental Care in Agriculture: A Social Perspective (2011) 🗎🗎

At its beginning, the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) did not include measures to guide farmers in preserving ecosystems. At the same time, the social context on the 1960s and 1970s did not encourage environmental care to become a priority. Since the 1980s, new social concern expressed alarm over ecology, recognizing that agriculture can pollute. These social changes moved the CAP to add measures that linked agriculture and environment. In order to study if the EU decision-makers have designed a CAP which responds to a new ethic that incorporates environmental care and social demands, two questions rise: whether the social image of agriculture as a polluting activity has changed; and whether farming performs the environmental functions demanded by society. To answer the previous questions, we have reviewed the environmental aspects added to the CAP, then a poll has been conducted and cluster method and classification tree models have been used to group respondents according to their opinions. The results show that the society ascribes great relevance to the environment for the future sustainability of the region, but they are not satisfied with the role of agriculture in producing environmental outputs.

Assessing the compatibility of farmland biodiversity and habitats to the specifications of agri-environmental schemes using a multinomial logit approach (2011) 🗎🗎

Farmers participating in agri-environmental schemes (AESs) that are aimed at protecting biodiversity should ideally make decisions relating to the ecological management of their farms based on the habitat types found on their farms. In reality, a variety of economic, demographic, farm and farmer characteristics influence all the management decisions made by farmers, including those relating to AESs. In Ireland, the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) requires that farmers choose at least 2 biodiversity undertakings (BUs) from a menu as part of their AES contract. Using a multinomial logit model, the likelihood of farmers choosing different BUs was estimated using data from the 2007 National Farm Survey as a function of georeferenced habitat data. A comparison was then made between the probable selection of BUs with what would be considered the optimal selection from an ecological perspective. The results indicate that farmers' most likely choices of BUs only sometimes equates with the optimal ecological choices. This highlights deficiencies in the design of REPS, knowledge of which is very timely, given the imminent replacement of REPS by a new AES. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The tyranny of taste: The case of organic rice in Cambodia (2011) 🗎🗎

Fair-trade and organic products are often sold at price premiums justified by smaller production volumes that are associated with greater social and environmental responsibility. The consumption of these products confers on the consumer a greater sense of morality and usually a claim to better taste. This paper tells the story of attempts to promote organic/fair-trade rice production by de facto organic Cambodian farmers for export to North American and European markets in order to assist poor farmers to trade their way out of poverty. It demonstrates that instead of promoting sustainable agriculture and fair trade between developed and developing markets, organic/fair-trade projects may impose First World consumer ideals and tastes that are out of step with the larger realities of agrarian transition in Cambodia and the wider region of developing Southeast Asia.

Special Interests, Regulatory Quality, and the Pesticides Overload (2011) 🗎🗎

Pesticides overuse is a serious threat to ecosystems and wildlife, human health, and agricultural sustainability. So far, however, social scientists have not produced systematic evidence on the political-economic determinants of pesticides overuse. We argue that the agrochemical industry, as a profit-motivated interest group, will only mobilize politically to avoid reductions in pesticides use when regulatory institutions are potentially capable of correcting a market failure. If regulatory institutions are weakened by corruption or other factors, pesticides overuse occurs with or without the influence of the agrochemical industry. We test this interactive theory systematically against quantitative data on pesticides use in 24 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, 1991-2003. Using corruption and other indicators to capture bureaucratic quality, we find substantively large and statistically robust interactive effects. The agrochemical industry is a crucial determinant of pesticides use in nations with low corruption, whereas the agrochemical industry has no effect on pesticides use under corrupt regulatory institutions. Troublingly, these results imply that reduced corruption may not improve actual regulatory effectiveness unless political institutions can somehow constrain the influence of special interests.

Path Dependence and the Modernisation of Agriculture: A Case Study of Aragon, 1955-85 (2011) 🗎🗎

This paper explains how technological developments and changes in production encouraged and drove the processes of agricultural modernisation that occurred in the second half of the twentieth century, taking the region of Aragon in north eastern Spain as a case study. The main agricultural macro-variables reveal a surge in output, coincident with a far-reaching restructuring of production, in which livestock and animal feeds played a key role. The relative success of this high speed agricultural transformation was largely due to technological progress and the development of Aragon's trade links before 1936. Meanwhile, the earlier development of irrigation schemes, the capitalisation of farms and experimentation with different seed varieties allowed the region to adapt quickly to the new Green Revolution technologies that came to the fore after 1950. At the same time, established trade links allowed a swift transition to livestock and related produce destined for fast developing agro-industrial regions, like Catalonia and Valencia. As in other countries, technological and trade path dependency also explain the polarisation of agricultural development within Aragon itself, and in particular the success of the provinces of Zaragoza and Huesca in contrast to failure and depopulation in Teruel. The experience of Aragon may thus be useful to understand the dynamics of other less developed regions currently in the throes of transformation.

Incentives and regulations to reconcile conservation and development: Thirty years of governance of the Sami pastoral ecosystem in Finnmark, Norway (2011) 🗎🗎

Incentive-based mechanisms are regarded as efficient instruments to reconcile conservation and development. This win win objective has been difficult to accomplish; cross-compliance has, therefore, been suggested as a mechanism to ensure sustainability. Cross-compliance, which requires producers to conform to production regulations and environmental standards to qualify for direct payments, has been a popular instrument in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform. Since 1990, cross-compliance has been the main characteristic of policy design in Sami reindeer husbandry in Finnmark, Norway. All direct transfers to the Sami pastoralists have been connected to harvesting demands to decrease the number of reindeer and to conserve pastures. The content of these incentive-based mechanisms are decided through negotiated agreements with the Sami Reindeer Herders' Association of Norway (NRL), and the regulation of reindeer numbers and access to pastures are delegated to co-management boards. Despite the participation of the Sami pastoralists in shaping these policies, win win objectives have not been achieved. Although the cross-compliance program could have been improved by payment for graded results, the lack of regulations by the administration or co-management boards is more likely to be the cause of failure to reach sustainability. Despite the long-term failures of the cross-compliance program, policies have been slow to change. We might attribute this delay to the NRL's strong position in the negotiated agreements. In general, we argue that the success of the cross-compliance program depends on a well-functioning governance system that can implement regulations and sanctions if incentives do not work as intended. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Involvement: a novel approach for understanding responses to nutrient budgeting (2011) 🗎🗎

The New Zealand dairy industry has responded to concerns about the impact of dairying on the environment by implementing a range of voluntary policy initiatives. One initiative emphasises that all dairy farmers have systems to manage nutrient inputs and outputs, with the completion of a nutrient budget as a measure of achievement. The research outlined in this paper was designed to explore the effort farmers put into responding to the policy in order to determine their involvement in nutrient budgets. Qualitative interviews with 20 dairy farmers were undertaken. The results suggest that involvement with the current policy is low. Further work is required to determine whether and how involvement could be increased to help industry and policy makers with the next stage of this initiative. This research demonstrates that understanding how involved farmers are in an issue is one way of highlighting possible policy adoption drivers and barriers during the implementation process.

What do agri-environmental measures actually promote? An investigation on AES objectives for the EU 2000-2006 rural development program (2011) 🗎🗎

This paper provides an analysis of the importance implicitly attached by local stakeholders to different environmental objectives in agri-environmental schemes in Europe. For at least 20 years, increasing the sustainability of agriculture has been a major policy concern in Europe. However, the relative importance of specific objectives of agri-environmental schemes is rarely quantified, and this strongly affects the ability to assess the actual effectiveness of such schemes. This paper adopts a methodology based on the use of the concept of weight as a quantitative measure of the importance of each objective. The objectives have been identified using a hierarchical grid of indicators based on the EU framework for the mandatory evaluation of agri-environmental schemes. The quantification of weights was based on a questionnaire submitted to more than 70 stakeholders in 10 case study regions in different EU countries. The results highlight different regional profiles, denoting strategies with very different objective-related agri-environmental scheme specialisations, with some programs focusing on specific individual environmental issues such as landscape and biodiversity, and others focusing on several environmental objectives. Such results emphasise the need to integrate academic and institutional evaluation exercises in the measurement of the policy priorities, hence enabling to provide robust evaluations of policy effectiveness.

Creating culturally sustainable agri-environmental schemes (2011) 🗎🗎

Evidence is emerging from across Europe that contemporary agri-environmental schemes are having only limited, if any, influence on farmers' long-term attitudes towards the environment. In this theoretical paper we argue that these approaches are not 'culturally sustainable', i.e. the actions are not becoming embedded within farming cultures as part of conventional 'good farming' practice. We propose (following Bourdieu) that, in order to culturally embed the environmental values, beliefs and knowledges that underlie such schemes, policy-makers need to devise approaches that allow the creation of cultural and social capital within farming communities rather than simply compensating for economic capital lost. We outline the theoretical basis of our position and discuss how the contemporary agri-environmental approach of paying for specified environmental management services restricts the ability of such schemes to generate cultural and, thereby, social capital. Finally, we outline two possible ways of accounting for cultural capital in scheme creation: either through the development of measures of cultural capital that enable its incorporation into contemporary economic models or through a major revision to the way we construct and apply agri-environmental schemes. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Azinphos-methyl (AZM) phase-out: Actions and attitudes of apple growers in Washington State (2011) 🗎🗎

The Environmental Protection Agency's phase-out of the pesticide azinphos-methyl (AZM) has encouraged the transition of apple pest management toward more environmentally and socially sustainable practices. This study reports on results of a 2009 survey of conventional apple growers in Washington State. Growers were asked about their approaches and attitudes toward the AZM phase-out and barriers to the adoption of reduced-risk insecticides (AZM-alternatives) as part of their integrated pest management (IPM) programs. Chi-square and analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques were used to examine relationships between actions and attitudes toward the phase-out and grower characteristics. Results showed that Washington apple growers have begun eliminating AZM and adopting AZM-alternatives. However, larger growers (in terms of acreage and income) and growers more familiar with Washington State University's (WSU's) educational resources were more likely to have already reduced their AZM use. These results suggest that larger farms can play an important role in increasing the sustainability of conventional agriculture, despite a common association of sustainable agriculture with small farms. Results also suggest that agricultural extension services could be well served to extend their outreach to smaller growers and others lagging in the transition to more sustainable apple pest management.

Adaptive Capacity and Social-Environmental Change: Theoretical and Operational Modeling of Smallholder Coffee Systems Response in Mesoamerican Pacific Rim (2011) 🗎🗎

Communities who rely directly on the natural environment for their survival typically have developed risk management strategies to enable them to avoid dangerous thresholds of change to their livelihoods. Development policy appropriate for natural resource-based communities requires an understanding of the primary drivers of social-ecological change, the ways in which affected households autonomously respond to such drivers, and the appropriate avenues for intervention to reduce vulnerability. Coffee has been, and still remains, one of the most important commodities of the Mesoamerican region, and hundreds of thousands of smallholder households in the region are dependent in some way on the coffee industry for their livelihood stability. We used the Analytical Network Process to synthesize expert knowledge on the primary drivers of livelihood change in the region as well as the most common household strategies and associated capacities necessary for effective response. The assessment identified both gradual systemic processes as well as specific environmental and market shocks as significant drivers of livelihood change across the region. Agronomic adjustments and new forms of social organization were among the more significant responses of farmers to these changes. The assessment indicates that public interventions in support of adaptation should focus on enhancing farmers' access to market and technical information and finance, as well as on increasing the viability of farmers' organizations and cooperatives.

The farmer as a landscape manager: Management roles and change patterns in a Danish region (2011) 🗎🗎

Rural landscapes are mainly maintained and changed through farmers' decisions and practices. As a landscape manager the farmer has many different roles of which three roles related to the farm as a whole is investigated in this paper: producer, owner and citizen. Although most farmers take landscape decisions in all these three roles production based decisions are assumed to be more important for full time farmers than for hobby farmers who have their main income outside the farm and who may consider their farm more as a living place than as a production place. Based on a large survey carried out in Hvorslev, Eastern Jutland, Denmark in 2008 farmers' landscape practices are analysed in relation to their background, occupational status and view of their farms as a production place versus a living place. Altogether 377 farmers were interviewed and some comparisons are made to a similar survey in the same area in 1996. It was found that a significant proportion of farmers are hobby farmers who mainly see the farm as a living place and who to a large degree have different landscape practices than full time farmers have. The findings indicate that more research is needed to fully understand the reasons for and implications of the differences in landscape management practices.

Reducing the external environmental costs of pastoral farming in New Zealand: experiences from the Te Arawa lakes, Rotorua (2011) 🗎🗎

Decades of nutrient pollution have caused water quality to decline in the nationally iconic Te Arawa (Rotorua) lakes in New Zealand. Pastoral agriculture is a major nutrient source, and therefore this degradation represents an external environmental cost to intensive farming. This cost is borne by the wider community, and a major publically funded remediation programme is now under way. This article describes the range of actions being taken to reduce nutrient loads from internal (lake bed sediments) and external (primarily diffuse) sources in the lake catchments. The high economic cost and uncertain efficacy of engineering-based actions to reduce internal nutrient loads is highlighted. Major changes to land management practices to control diffuse nutrient pollution are required throughout New Zealand if the need for costly and lengthy remediation programmes elsewhere is to be avoided. More action to educate farmers and the public about eutrophication issues, development and enforcement of environmental standards, and further consideration of the use of market-based instruments are proposed as ways to correct the current market failure.

SYSTEM OF ECOLOGICAL POLICY INSTRUMENTS CONCERNING CHEMICAL PROTECTION OF CROPS (2011) 🗎🗎

The article studies the ecological policy instruments which are applied for regulation of circulation of chemical means for crops protection in Ukraine. Positive and negative aspects of the existing system of the environmental policy instruments in the field of the chemical means of crops protection and their circulation are determined along with the prospects of its development.

POLICY MEASURES FOR AGRICULTURAL SOIL CONSERVATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND ITS MEMBER STATES: POLICY REVIEW AND CLASSIFICATION (2011) 🗎🗎

Agricultural soils are being increasingly targeted by European Union (EU) policy measures including measures within the Common Agricultural Policy. Member states have implemented a variety of measures at the national and regional level, which regulate the use of soils or offer incentives for the adoption of soil conservation practices. However, information on the specific purposes and implementation of these measures is difficult to access and no comprehensive overview is available. We have elaborated a classification system for agricultural policies that allows the analysis of their impact on soil conservation. Each policy was defined as a set of singular policy measures. The policy measures were described with their attributes i.e. the soil quality objectives within the policy and the technical measures required. This classification system was applied to establish a policy inventory on the regulatory framework concerning agricultural soil conservation in the EU-27. Data were gathered through a voluntary online survey completed by experts from national and regional ministries, administrative bodies and research institutes. More than 50 experts and institutions from 24 EU Member States participated in the survey and more than 400 policy measures were entered into the database. The survey enabled a detailed and comparative analysis of the interrelationships among soil conservation practices, soil degradation processes and policy measures across member states at the national or regional level. Most policies, however, did not lead to the achievement of specific environmental goals that allowed for evaluation. In many cases, similar soil protection problems were addressed using different policy options. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Developing environmental policy indicators by criteria - indicators on the public goods of the Swedish agricultural landscape (2011) 🗎🗎

This paper presents a methodology for developing state indicators, reflecting the provision of environmental public goods from agricultural landscapes. The methodology involves a structured use of meta-criteria and criteria for developing indicator variables and indicators, along with a coherent set of indicators. These indicators are aimed at providing a basis for determining agri-environmental payments to farmers. They are estimated at the object level, that is, per field or field element, so payments can be set that lead to an efficient resource allocation, structure of incentives and production. We find that, according to the criteria assessments for the Swedish agri-environmental situation, it is best to use a set of seven composite indicators on arable fields, permanent grasslands, linear elements, point elements, forest edges, bio-rich trees and relics. By estimating the indicators in two case study areas, we show that environmental services vary considerably between objects, indicating that value-differentiated payments may work as an efficient instrument in practical policy making.

The limitations of environmental management systems in Australian agriculture (2011) 🗎🗎

The efficacy of government-supported programs to encourage improved management of land and water systems associated with agricultural land in Australia has been mixed. The broad approach of Australian governments is reviewed briefly. Evidence is presented from case assessments of a program to promote adoption of environmental management systems (EMSs) to improve environmental outcomes from agricultural practices. EMSs are systems implemented to manage the environmental impacts and ameliorate environmental risk associated with business activity. Data are presented on reported EMS activity and experience of four selected groups of farmers in Victoria, south-eastern Australia, representing broad-acre cropping, beef and dairy farming. The pro-environmental behaviours of farmers were mediated through voluntary adoption of government and industry sponsored EMSs, often with financial incentives and other support. Findings from the study were that adoption of EMS practices with sufficient public benefits is unlikely to occur at sufficient scale for significant environmental impact. Farmers more readily adopted practices which were financially beneficial than those which had a positive environmental impact. Although the focus on voluntary market-based instrument (MBI) type programs is popular in western countries, enforcing regulation is an important, but usually politically unpopular, component of land use policy. The comparative advantage of EMSs differed for the industries studied, but overall there were insufficient market drivers for widespread EMS adoption in Australia. Environmental outcomes could be more effectively achieved by directly funding land management practices which have highest public net benefits. Having a clear and unambiguous management objective for a particular land management policy is more likely to achieve outcomes than having multiple objectives as occurs in a number of international programs currently. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mobilisation capacity for agri-environmental management (2011) 🗎🗎

The integration of environmental concerns into agricultural policies through agri-environment measures (AEM) - has seen a fast development across Europe. This paper conceives AEM as an evolving instrument, a product that takes shape, gets diffused and taken up in, by and through networks of relations. Success then depends on the mobilisation or active participation of all those who may support and develop it. Using the examples of the Flanders' and Walloon regions of Belgium, the paper sets out to examine the mechanisms by which mobilisation for agri-environmental management develops, and by doing so, to gain a better understanding of mobilisation capacity as a concept to be used for evaluating policy implementation in this area. The study follows AEM along the various trajectories of implementation (design, distribution, application). The findings reveal how mobilisation capacity is gradually built-up by the interplay between AEM and the networks it connects to. The case illustrates well how such interactions occur all the way from administration offices to farmers' fields, and that their nature can be very different (e.g., formal and informal, durable and short-lived, expected and unexpected). It is concluded that in evaluating actor-networks, one should look at them in an open and fluid manner, that is, not to privilege any particular configuration or form of attachment over the other, not take intentions and objectives as a starting point but instead address the opportunities for synergies, and be aware that any network built around the instrument may change its content and the way it functions. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agriculture and Water Pollution: Farmers' Perceptions in Central Mexico (2011) 🗎🗎

Agricultural nonpoint discharges represent a major problem in Mexico. However, the perception of farmers toward water-quality issues is critical for the potential acceptance of environmental measures. In order to assess farmers' perceptions on water quality and agricultural practices, questionnaires were given to 145 farmers in an irrigation district in Central Mexico. It was found that farmers do not reckon water quality in the Lerma River to be a serious environmental problem and the stated willingness to diminish the use of pesticides and fertilizers depended on farm size. Smaller farmers were more reluctant to adopt sustainable practices than bigger ones. Therefore, differentiated agro-environmental policies might be more effective for dealing with non-point source water pollution.

A participatory framework for conservation payments (2011) 🗎🗎

This paper describes a participatory framework used in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala to analyze the future viability of different conservation measures in a cloud forest area. It presents how in the case of conservation initiatives, participatory developed instruments could provide the incentive for farmers to reinforce or introduce conservation measures in their farming systems to preserve habitats, reduce species disruptions and alleviate poverty. A model's architecture was created with stakeholders of different settings of the region of study. Together, baseline-scenarios and policy-scenarios on land use and income generation were developed. The paper investigates the potential impacts of different policy measures for conservation and poverty reduction through the instrument "payments for environmental services". Aim was to integrate social, economic and environmental aspects. In the paper, (1) farming systems' characteristics are described; (2) conservation activities are defined and standardized; and (3) policy recommendations out of different scenarios are given. The paper discusses the possibilities of compensating farmers for the affecting costs of already existing conservation activities by introducing a participatory developed policy instrument that captures the needs of the different farming systems. I suggest that acceptance or rejection of these payments is related to the farm-level strategies for coping with risk. I presuppose that if farmers see an advantage in producing environmental services because it signified an increase in their income and a decrease of risk, they will adopt and augment conservation techniques in their farming systems (Herrador and Dimas, 2000, 2001). Main findings show that the amount of on-farm production is very significant for the classification of farming systems. Further, scenario for land use and income changes were seen as main drivers for conservation. The paper concludes showing that including in the modeling the economic disparities of the different farming systems and the active participation of stakeholders supports the acceptance and implementation of this policy instrument to promote agricultural landscapes with biodiversity and watershed conservation. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Landscape and agriculture under the reformed Common Agricultural Policy in Greece: Constructing a typology of interventions (2011) 🗎🗎

A critical review of the European Union (EU) environmental and rural policies suggests that in the case of environmental policy an almost complete segregation between nature and areas where human activity is acceptable seems to be the main rationale. However, when agricultural and rural development policy measures are examined the focus seems to be on the integration of environmental conservation efforts in all activities across space. At the same time the scope of this policy is gradually widening from a strictly sectorial (agricultural) to a policy for the management of rural space. The above and the gradual integration of spatial elements in policy making could explain the increasing emphasis on rural landscape issues. The paper focuses on three cases of public intervention in three areas of Greece: A) The Amfissa olive grove (Sterea Hellas), where support from the first pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and a local agri-environmental measure, complement the existing landscape protection regulations of archaeological and land planning legislation; B) the Anthili plain (Sterea Hellas) where a production support lead to an intensification process with negative impacts on the landscape, and finally C) Santorini (Cyclades), where the incentive based policies implemented, due to the absence of a robust land use regulatory framework, seem to have been ineffective.

Optimising the effect of policy instruments: a study of farmers' decision rationales and how they match the incentives in Danish pesticide policy (2012) 🗎🗎

Economic modelling generally assumes that businesses are profit maximisers. However, behavioural economics holds that businesses pursue multiple objectives and may even sacrifice some profit. This has implications for the effectiveness of incentive-based environmental policies. Using Danish farmers as a case, this paper examines whether non-economic rationales may trump economic ones in farmer decisions, and, unlike previous research, we quantify how widespread non-economic values are compared to more economic values. Data derive from a survey (1164 responses) of Danish conventional farmers' decision rationales regarding their use of pesticides. Using cluster analysis, we show that some farmers are more economically motivated while other farmers are more focused on optimising yield and pay less attention to expenditures and crop prices. Furthermore, we find that the two groups differ in their response to policy instruments; farmers who focus on yield indicate less responsiveness to economic policy instruments. The results imply that it is important to implement a broad array of policy instruments to match different farmer rationales.

Refining perception-based farmer typologies with the analysis of past census data (2012) 🗎🗎

Perception-based typologies have been used to explore the decision making process of farmers and to inform policy design. These typologies have been criticised, however, for not fully capturing true farmer behaviour, and are consequently limited for supporting policy formulation. We present a method that develops a typology, using a social survey approach based on how farmers perceive their environment (e.g. birds and agri-environmental schemes). We then apply time-series census data on past farm strategies (i.e. land use allocation, management style and participation into agri-environmental schemes) to refine these typologies. Consequently, this offers an approach to improving the profiling of farmer types, and strengthens the validity of input into future agricultural policies. While the social survey highlights a certain degree of awareness towards birds with respect to farmer types, the analysis of past farm strategies indicated that farmers did not entirely follow their stated objectives. External factors such as input and output price signals and subsidy levels had a stronger influence on their strategies rather than stated environmental and social issues. Consequently, the refining of farmer types using this approach would aid the design of policy instruments, which integrate ecological issues within planning. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The intrinsic features of Environmental Management Systems that facilitate adoption and encourage innovation in primary industries (2012) 🗎🗎

This paper examines the theoretical underpinnings of the adoption of innovations, and applies this knowledge to the uptake of Environmental Management Systems (EMS) amongst Australian farmers. We examine the specific features of the EMS process that might encourage or inhibit EMS adoption. We also consider elements of the EMS process to assess their utility in promoting adoption of various other innovations. We evaluate the EMS process in the light of two characteristics previously found to influence adoption of improved natural resource management practices - 'relative advantage' and 'trialability'. Drawing on literature, and our research and experience with farmers, we conclude that there are inherent features of EMS that promote the adoption of new practices, and that the elements of the EMS process actually create an on-going process of culture change as it is implemented. We believe that the EMS process offers significant advantages to farmers seeking to improve production whilst simultaneously meeting societal expectations for enhanced natural resource management. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mussels and Yachts in Loch Fyne, Scotland: a Case Study of the Science-Policy Interface (2012) 🗎🗎

We report an application of the Science and Policy Integration for Coastal System Assessment (SPICOSA) Systems Approach Framework (SAF) to Loch Fyne, a fjord in western Scotland. The issue was the potential for conflict between shellfish aquaculture and recreational use for yachting. This was investigated by building an ecological-economic model to simulate: (1) release of modern anti-fouling compounds by recreational boats; (2) dilution of these in the upper layers of the loch by exchange with the sea; (3) their effects on photosynthesis by phytoplankton; (4) the role of phytoplankton (along with non-algal particulate matter) in providing food for mussels; (5) the growth of seeded mussels to harvest, determining (6) the cash input to farms, offset by their costs and allowing (7) the farm revenue to be compared with that from marinas used to berth the yachts. It was concluded from simulations that no noticeable effect on mussel harvest would occur (from this route) for any likely number of yachts berthed in the loch. The application took place in consultation with a local environmental forum and a small reference group of public officials; we reflect on it in the context of a 3-component schema for the science-policy interface and changes in the culture of UK science.

The Sustainability of Agriculture in a Northern Industrialized Country-From Controlling Nature to Rural Development (2012) 🗎🗎

The concept of sustainability has been a part of theory and practice in agriculture for a long time, but the diverse roots of the concept have led to a number of different definitions of sustainable agriculture. This paper provides an overview of the policy development of sustainable agriculture in Finland by examining internal and external discourses of sustainability and the evolution in different dimensions of sustainability. We show that the debate on sustainability within European Union's Common Agricultural Policy and Finnish agri-environmental policy are reflected in attempts to implement and monitor sustainability in agriculture in Finland. However, indicators suggest a largely non-sustainable condition. This has contributed to a shift in policy objectives from sustainable agriculture to sustainable rural development, especially in the EU context. As there are commonly trade-offs between the economic, ecological and social dimensions of sustainable development, future developments in sustainable agriculture will inevitably be characterized by continuous redefinitions of problems, paradigm revisions and reassessments of actions already taken.

The Role of Farm Advisors in Multifunctional Landscapes: A Comparative Study of Three Danish Areas, 1995 and 2008 (2012) 🗎🗎

This study investigates the influence of farm advisors on farmers decisions regarding Multifunctional landscape commons, a concept covering environmental and landscape values that benefit the public but which depend on farmers management practices. The influence of advisors is analysed by combining data about the source of advice with evidence of land use and landscape changes and participation in subsidy schemes. The study compares three agricultural areas in Denmark. Structured interviews were carried out with all farmers possessing more than 2 ha land in 19956 and in 2008. Vertical, production and business-oriented advisory services predominate, together with legal and organisational spatial competence networks. A new group of hobby farmers and pensioned farmers tend not to be included in traditional advisory networks, leaving them to carry out landscape changes and multifunctional landscape commons without professional guidance and consultancy. This means the horizontal coordination among farmers, that is, the territorial competences, decrease.

Assessing the 'wicked problems' associated with the quality of groundwater used in irrigation: a case study from the North China Plain (2012) 🗎🗎

Studies on the quality of groundwater have moved beyond the physical realm of contamination and purification, towards the economic concerns of choice and the management of the problem. With these approaches the complex biophysical processes are assessed from the users' perspective and the policy outcomes that could be used to resolve the problems of groundwater contamination are evaluated. However, in a set of unrelated studies, it has been found that attempts by governments to resolve the problems of groundwater contamination in agriculture have a poor record of success. This could be because the problem is too extensive and diverse to handle or it could be a case of poor policy selection. Taking an example from the North China Plain to illustrate some of the major issues raised in this study, it is concluded that the problem itself is unresolvable on a large scale. In other words, groundwater contamination can be defined as a 'wicked problem', i.e. unresolvable by applying pure science, closely linked with social issues, and for which there are no optimal solutions. In this situation, the best solution is possibly to encourage farmers to live with and handle the problem as they best see fit.

The economics of coping strategies and financing adaptation action in India's semi-arid ecosystems (2012) 🗎🗎

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a bottom-up perspective about the operational and policy challenges of undertaking adaptive action in water-scarce environments of India. Design/methodology/approach - A cross section of 112 small, medium and big farmers drawn from three semi-arid villages of rural Bangalore District were surveyed to assess their dependence on natural habitats and elicit information on costs and benefits of undertaking adaptation activities. Also explored were the possible impacts of institutional financing systems and publicly funded programs on adaptation action in the study area. Findings - Small farmers in the study zone were conservation oriented and relied on a variety of terrestrial and aquatic habitats for cultivation operations. On the other hand, commercial and semi commercial farmers who practiced resource intensive cultivation systems were not conservation oriented and were reluctant to go beyond "modest" adaptation activities. Similarly loans provided by local financial institutions to support agricultural operations were designed to maximize crop yields than minimize input use. On the other hand, the conservation programs that were undertaken on common property resources though supportive of public adaptation action, had poor spill-over effects on private adaptation. Originality/value - The value of this paper lies in the interesting results it presents about a group of farmers in three semi-arid villages of South India. The originality of the paper lies in the key policy issues it raises on climate financing in the light of ground level evidence. The paper proposes a compensation regime to incentivize adaptation.

Producer perceptions and information needs regarding their adoption of bioenergy crops (2012) 🗎🗎

The availability of reliable information tailored to the needs of producers has a central role in the innovation decision process in agriculture. The authors explored the information needs and preferences for delivery formats and channels of farmers in the state of Illinois, USA, as they consider introducing bioenergy crops in their current production systems. We used surveys and focus groups to target farming populations from northern, central, and southern regions of the state to identify characteristics of potential adopters and evidence of regional differences. In addition, we examined farmers' planning in response to energy uncertainties, and their opinions regarding the optimal crop to meet energy demands. Across the state, 24% of respondents were identified as potential adopters of bioenergy crops; regions within the state showed similar results. The likelihood of adoption increased 16 times if the farmer was categorized as a potential user of alternative fuels and increased two times for each new crop planned for the coming growing season. Four main areas of information needs were identified and categorized as (1) understanding agronomy and markets, (2) concerns and supporting policies, (3) market readiness and business uncertainty, and (4) operational advantages. Though no interaction of region by adopter was found, there are clear statistical differences among regions and potential adopters regarding information needs. Conferences, meetings and field days (venues with a high level of interaction among stakeholders) are preferred delivery formats. Other farmers, neighbors and friends, as well as university and extension services, were the most valued sources of information. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring the social benefits of agri-environment schemes in England (2012) 🗎🗎

Recent decades have seen sustainable development emerging as a core concern of European Union (EU) policy. In order to consider how policies can contribute more positively to the goals of sustainable development, major EU policies must undergo an assessment of their potential economic, environmental and social impacts. Within the agri-environment sector, this is reflected in the increasing requirement for EU Members States to monitor and evaluate the socio-economic as well as the environmental and agricultural impacts of their agri-environment programmes. Whilst some research has looked at the more easily quantifiable economic impacts of agri-environment schemes (AES), there is a paucity of research exploring the social dimensions. In this paper, four areas where social impacts of AES can be assessed are suggested: namely impact on on-farm employment; income security; human capital through skills and training development; and social capital development through extension of knowledge networks and flows. These areas are explored in detail using the results of a survey of Environmental Stewardship schemes in England. The results show that the level of social benefit is differentiated by scheme and farm type. The more demanding Higher Level Stewardship schemes help to develop human capital and increase networks, and dairy farmers in particularly have extended their advisory networks in order to participate in AES. The paper concludes that through the exploration of the social impact of AES it may be possible to identify ways to more closely link social and environmental stewardship objectives and thereby contribute to sustainable agriculture. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The influence of farming styles on the management of the Iveragh uplands, southwest Ireland (2012) 🗎🗎

The links between farming practices and biodiversity is well established. This paper develops a farm typology based on eighty hill sheep farmers on the biodiversity rich uplands of the Iveragh peninsula, SW Ireland. Despite outward appearances considerable diversity was found to exist within their livelihood strategies and farming styles. Using a combination of a detailed farm management survey and grazing state evaluation, the farms were classified into four distinct types environmental stewards, support optimisers, traditionalists and production maximisers. Our results suggest that knowledge of the different farming styles is critical for more effective biodiversity conservation and for the design of more targeted agricultural and agri-environment policies. We suggest the need to move away from the 'one size fits all' approach, which on the Iveragh currently rewards the most overgrazed farms with the highest agri-environment payments. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental evaluation of agri-environment schemes using participatory approaches: Experiences of testing the Agri-Environmental Footprint Index (2012) 🗎🗎

The Agri-Environment Footprint Index (AFI) has been developed as a generic methodology to assess changes in the overall environmental impacts from agriculture at the farm level and to assist in the evaluation of European agri-environmental schemes (AES). The methodology is based on multi-criteria analysis (MCA) and involves stakeholder participation to provide a locally customised evaluation based on weighted environmental indicators. The methodology was subjected to a feasibility assessment in a series of case studies across the EU. The AFI approach was able to measure significant differences in environmental status between farms that participated in an AES and non-participants. Wider environmental concerns, beyond the scheme objectives, were also considered in some case studies and the benefits for identification of unintentional (and often beneficial) impacts of AESs are presented. The participatory approach to AES evaluation proved efficient in different environments and administrative contexts. The approach proved to be appropriate for environmental evaluation of complex agri-environment systems and can complement any evaluation conducted under the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework. The applicability of the AFI in routine monitoring of AES impacts and in providing feedback to improve policy design is discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agroenvironmental management system - a technique for increasing the natural value of agroecosystems (2012) 🗎🗎

Agriculture in the Czech Republic plays an important role in the degradation of individual components of the environment. Reduction of soil fertility, contamination of surface- and groundwater, reduction of biodiversity and damage caused by it are proven. The agrarian landscape does not provide the appropriate ecosystem functions. It is not attractive for life of the inhabitants of rural areas, and the permeable landscape attractive for investors. It is also not permeable and attractive for investors. The farmers are offered applicable and functional techniques, technologies and procedures. These are not used and exploited in an appropriate rate. Based on the analysis of business environment, there was found that the reason is the absence of the agroenvironmental management system in operative management of agricultural subjects. For the need of the possible implementation of the appropriate system into practice, there was developed a branch standard and subsequently a methodology for the application of agro-environmental management system on the basis of a general tool for environmental management. The methodology was developed, then implemented and tested under the conditions of a concrete farm. Before the implementation of requirements, there were established environmental indicators which were evaluated before and after the introduction of the proposed system. The results of the subsequent monitoring of the chosen environmental indicators of environmental status confirmed the functionality and accuracy of the developed management tool that can also be seen as the best available technique for the implementation of the current and prepared agricultural policy.

The impact of agricultural innovation system interventions on rural livelihoods in Malawi (2012) 🗎🗎

This study, conducted in central Malawi, assessed the way a research intervention using an agricultural innovation system affected rural livelihoods. Propensity score matching was used to establish one village as a control, against which the impact of the intervention on two study villages [0] could be measured. Using the Enabling Rural Innovation intervention as a case study, it was established that rural livelihood outcomes pertaining to crop and livestock production, household income, asset ownership and fertiliser use were significantly improved by this intervention. In-depth analysis, however, demonstrated that although the participating households had more robust livelihoods during the intervention, when the research programme was phased out the effect was reduced. The authors recommend that local agricultural extension officers should receive more capacity building and budgetary support to ensure proper understanding of agricultural innovation systems concepts and correct application so as to sustain their positive effects.

The Effect of Mandatory Agro-Environmental Policy on Farm Fertiliser and Pesticide Expenditure (2012) 🗎🗎

EU farmers are subject to mandatory cross-compliance measures, requiring them to meet environmental conditions to be eligible for public support. These obligations reinforce incentives for farmers to change their behaviour towards the environment. We apply quasi-experimental methods to measure the causal relationship between cross-compliance and some specific farm environmental performance. We find that cross-compliance reduced farm fertiliser and pesticide expenditure. This result also holds for farmers who participated in other voluntary agro-environmental schemes. However, the results do not support our expectations that farmers who relied on larger shares of public payments had a stronger motivation to improve their environmental performance.

Soil Conservation in Transition Countries: the Role of Institutions (2012) 🗎🗎

Degradation of agricultural soils is a serious concern in transition countries in the EU. We investigate similarities and differences between the soil conservation policy frameworks of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and the former German Democratic Republic and their implementation. Our focus is on the differences in institutional arrangements, i.e. formally existing policies, property rights, informal institutions and governance structures. We conducted comparative case studies based on a framework of institutional analysis, using literature survey, document analysis and in-depth stakeholder interviews. Results show that among the determining factors for policy effectiveness are property rights regimes and land-use rights, traditions in the provision of advisory services, farmers' previous experience with soil conservation practices and policies, perceived threat of enforcement, and trust in administrative authorities. We conclude that the existence of similar legislation and a common policy framework does not guarantee similar outcomes because institutional arrangements and their evolution play a major role in the effectiveness of agricultural soil conservation policies. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Designing watershed programs to pay farmers for water quality services: Case studies of Munich and New York City (2012) 🗎🗎

While preserving water quality by contracting with farmers has been examined previously, we analyze these arrangements from a different perspective. This study uses a transaction cost framework, in conjunction with detailed case studies of two water quality payment schemes, to examine factors that increase and decrease transaction costs in order to improve policy choice as well as policy design and implementation. In both the Munich and New York City cases, agreements with farmers to change land management practices resolved the water quality problems. In Munich, factors including lack of rural/urban antipathy, homogeneous land use, utilization of well-developed organic standards, and strong demand for organic products decreased transaction costs. Using existing organic institutions addressed a range of environmental issues simultaneously. Factors that decreased transaction costs in both cases included: highly sensitive land was purchased outright and the existence of one large "buyer". Adequate lead time and flexibility of water quality regulations allowed negotiation and development of the watershed programs. Tourism and eco-labels allow urban residents to become aware of the agricultural production practices that affect their water supply. We conclude with recommendations based on the experiences of these cities, both of which have been proposed as models for other schemes. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Why do farmers behave as they do? Understanding compliance with rural, agricultural, and food attribute standards (2012) 🗎🗎

Agricultural production experiences a shift in underlying institutions during the last years.. Importance of private stakeholders like retailers, processors, consumers as well as tax payers is, emerging. Eligibility for single farm payments and marketing of products is linked to compliance with, diverse codes of practice and standards. Voluntary certification schemes are not only relevant with, respect to agriculture's traditional activity (i.e. food production), but is also highly relevant in case of, rural policies. Examples are the EU's agri-environmental schemes, aimed at preserving biodiversity, landscape elements, etc., which are characterized by voluntary participation and the contractual, commitment to apply certain standards. However, these relationships are highly characterized by, information asymmetries. Economic literature offers several approaches to analyse similar relations. The classical approach bases on the assumption of utility maximising agents that will comply with, rules as long as the net utility of compliance will be higher than the net utility of an offence. Recent, evidence challenges this result. Experiments show that people behave more honest than the classical, deterrence model predicts. Main objective of the paper is to compare the various approaches to explain, compliant behaviour. Additionally, an outlook for empirical applications of the theoretical framework, developed here is given to motivate further research. However, our outlook shows that the selection of, appropriate variables to analyse compliance empirically is open to debate. (C)d 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The potential for collaborative agri-environment schemes in England: Can a well-designed collaborative approach address farmers' concerns with current schemes? (2012) 🗎🗎

There is increasing recognition that whilst agri-environment schemes in England have had discernable benefits, their success in relation to certain species and resources has been inhibited by the piecemeal implementation of Environmental Stewardship (ES) on the basis of single farm agreements. In this paper we examine the receptivity of farmers to the idea of landscape-scale, collaborative agri-environment schemes (cAES) based on semi-structured interviewing in three English case-study areas. Using qualitative sociocultural interpretation we argue that a lack of communication and mutual understanding between farmers; a cultural imperative for independence and timeliness, and; alternative interpretations of risk amongst farmers present potential barriers to cAES. We also argue, however, that if designed appropriately, cAES have the potential to overcome certain concerns that farmers hold about the existing ES schemes. In particular, cAES are likely to gain support from farmers where they are seen to offer greater flexibility; scope for farmer involvement in scheme design; locally targeted and clearly defined aims, and; demonstrable benefits that can be monitored as a record of success. We provide policy recommendations and suggest that cAES have the potential to deliver greater environmental benefits, whilst at the same time encouraging farmers' participation in, and satisfaction with, agri-environment schemes. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Conservation policy in traditional farming landscapes (2012) 🗎🗎

Many traditional farming landscapes have high conservation value. Conservation policy in such landscapes typically follows a preservation strategy, most commonly by providing financial incentives for farmers to continue traditional practices. A preservation strategy can be successful in the short term, but it fails to acknowledge that traditional farming landscapes evolved as tightly coupled socialecological systems. Traditionally, people received direct benefits from the environment, which provided a direct incentive for sustainable land use. Globalization and rural development programs increasingly alter the social subsystem in traditional farming landscapes, whereas conservation seeks to preserve the ecological subsystem. The resulting decoupling of the socialecological system can be counteracted only in part by financial incentives, thus inherently limiting the usefulness of a preservation strategy. An alternative way to frame conservation policy in traditional farming landscapes is a transformation strategy. This strategy acknowledges that the past cannot be preserved, and assumes that direct links between people and nature are preferable to indirect links based on incentive payments. A transformation strategy seeks to support community-led efforts to create new, direct links with nature. Such a strategy could empower rural communities to embrace sustainable development, providing a vision for the future rather than attempting to preserve the past.

Implementing Cross Compliance for Agriculture in the EU: Relational Agency, Power and Action in Different Socio-Material Contexts (2012) 🗎🗎

The cross compliance instrument is an EU wide policy mechanism that ties the payment of the remaining agricultural subsidies to compliance with environmental, animal welfare and food safety standards. Policy negotiations concerning the exact nature of the conditions in individual Member States draw on different environmental and economic circumstances and differing interpretations of farmers' role in the rural environment. This article reports on two case studies of decision-making concerning the national cross compliance rules in England and Finland. Actor Network Theory is employed in order to understand how socio-economic and environmental contexts combine to influence and constrain interviewed decision-makers and the propositions they make regarding power and action in the implementation of the cross compliance mechanism. The approach uncovers some significant differences in the normative logic of how cross compliance is interpreted and delivered in the studied countries and highlights how baseline environmental standards imply very different obligations for farmers in different member states. It is evident that a more flexible policy approach is needed to achieve a minimum level of environmental protection throughout the EU.

Implementation of the EU Nitrates Directive in the Republic of Ireland - A view from the farm (2012) 🗎🗎

This paper employs Q methodology to investigate farmer opinions on the operation of the EU Nitrates Directive regulations after the first 4 years of National Action Programme phase and explores the level of acceptance and refutation of measures from the view of farmers' own knowledge and experience of land stewardship. Results indicate 4 main opinion groups. A "Constrained Productionists" group remains unconvinced about the appropriateness of certain measures from a farm management, environmental and water quality perspective. A second group, "Concerned Practitioners", shares some of these concerns but are generally more positive regarding other farm management and environmental benefits accruing from the regulations. A third group, "Benefit Accepters", indicates quite an environmentalist position and is generally very positive towards regulation implementation and associated environmental and farm management benefits. The final group, "Regulation Unaffected", has some concerns but are mostly unaffected by the regulations. Results suggest that there is a growing acceptance among some farmers of environmental benefits accruing from the regulation but scepticism remains around the validity of certain measures, especially, in the area of temporal farm practices. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impact of environmental policies on the adoption of manure management practices in the Chesapeake Bay watershed (2013) 🗎🗎

Pollution in the Chesapeake Bay is a problem and has been a focus of federal and state initiatives to reduce nutrient pollution from agriculture and other sources since 1983. In 2010 EPA established a TMDL for the watershed. Producers may voluntarily respond to intense and focused policy scrutiny by adopting best management practices. A detailed analysis of water quality best management practices by animal feeding operations inside and outside the watershed yield insight into this relationship. Our findings support the hypothesis that farmers will adopt water quality measures if links are made clear and there is an expectation of future regulations. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Framework for improvement of farmland biodiversity in Japan (2013) 🗎🗎

The first agri-environmental programme in Japan, which started in 2011, is aimed at the conservation of biodiversity on farmland in Japan. For its smooth enforcement, a framework is required in which biodiversity conservation is visible and clear to farmers and the public. Such programmes will be effective when options can easily be adopted and the concept is appropriate and regionally specific for the farmers. While the result-oriented payment approach provides biodiversity's concrete contribution to the improvement of farm settings, entry-level incentives are also necessary to encourage farmers' initial participation, as biodiversity has an environmental value as public goods.

Equity Impacts of Environmental Policy (2013) 🗎🗎

This article surveys recent literature on the equity impacts of environmental policy. We focus on studies that look at the distribution of costs and benefits of alternative environmental policies. We also examine potentially important trade-offs between efficiency and equity that arise in the context of environmental policy, as well as transition effects. In many of the applications surveyed here, environmental policies can be regressive. Strategies are discussed to reduce this regressivity through the use of revenues from certain policy instruments. With regard to the distribution of the benefits of environmental policy, we conclude that there is a need for more spatially disaggregated studies that simultaneously capture the spatial and socioeconomic impacts of environmental policy.

Market Instruments for the Sustainability Transition (2013) 🗎🗎

This review examines environmental market instruments-policies that pursue environmental or conservation goals by modifying conditions in existing markets or creating new ones, thereby providing flexibility and incentives for decentralized responses. We review these instruments' theoretical basis, historical development, major current enactments and proposals, and empirical studies of their effects. We consider experience with these instruments in the context of the increased demands that may be imposed on any policies by the pursuit of a large-scale transition to sustainability. Under these conditions, challenges likely to be particularly prominent for market instruments will include managing distributive effects when policies are enacted, effectively adapting policies under advancing knowledge, managing the tension between cost-reducing expansion of the scope of market instruments and the maintenance of environmental effectiveness, and designing systems to build complementarity between market incentives and related normative systems. Each of these implies priorities for research and policy experimentation.

Farmer Attitudes toward Proactive Targeting of Agricultural Conservation Programs (2013) 🗎🗎

Calls for improved targeting of conservation resources are increasingly common. However, arguments for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of agricultural conservation programs through proactive targeting are often tempered by questions regarding political feasibility. Such questions rest on an assumption that there will be resistance to these approaches, whether from farmers, farm groups, or elected officials, yet there is little research-based evidence supporting that assumption. Analysis of data on Iowa farmers' attitudes toward targeted conservation indicates that most farmers support targeted approaches. Specific factors associated with endorsement of targeted approaches include awareness of agriculture's environmental impacts, belief that farmers should address water quality problems, having experienced significant soil erosion, belief that extreme weather will become more common, participation in the Conservation Reserve Program, and belief that farmers who have natural resource issues are less likely to seek conservation assistance. Concerns about government intrusion were negative predictors of support for targeted approaches.

Bureaucratic Slippage and Environmental Offset Policies: The Case of Wetland Management in Alberta (2013) 🗎🗎

Environmental trading programs are seen as promising tools for fostering sustainable development, yet little is know about how decision-making practices in these emerging policy spaces influence program outcomes. This study quantifies wetland compensation outcomes in Alberta, Canada, and compares these outcomes to statements made in government-issued compensation guidelines. Contrary to guideline intent, we found a strong tendency to skip over wetland avoidance in favor of compensatory payments for wetland loss; that compensation sites are frequently located outside the watershed of impact; and that distances between impact and compensation sites often exceed what is considered reasonable under the guidelines, without commensurate increases in compensation ratios. Agency capture was found to drive these implementation failures, and mechanisms producing capture in this case include overhead governance and organizational goal ambiguity. This study suggests that greater attention must be given to agency context if environmental trading programs are to be effective tools for managing environmental resources.

Enhancing the sustainability of commodity supply chains in tropical forest and agricultural landscapes (2013) 🗎🗎

The rapid expansion of the production of agricultural commodities such as beef, cocoa, palm oil, rubber and soybean is associated with high rates of deforestation in tropical forest landscapes. Many state, civil society and market sector actors are engaged in developing and implementing innovative interventions that aim to enhance the sustainability of commodity supply chains by affecting where and how agricultural production occurs, particularly in relation to forests. These interventions - in the form of novel or moderated institutions and policies, incentives, or information and technology - can influence producers directly or achieve their impacts indirectly by influencing consumer, retailer and processor decisions. However, the evidence base for assessing the impacts of these interventions in reducing the negative impacts of commodity agriculture production in tropical forest landscapes remains limited, and there has been little comparative analysis across commodities, cases, and countries. Further, there is little consensus of the governance mechanisms and institutional arrangements that best support such interventions. We develop a framework for analyzing commodity supply chain interventions by different actors across multiple contexts. The framework can be used to comparatively analyze interventions and their impacts on commodity production with respect to the spatial and temporal scales over which they operate, the groups of supply chain actors they affect, and the combinations of mechanisms upon which they depend. We find that the roles of actors in influencing agricultural production depends on their position and influence within the supply chain; that complementary institutions, incentives and information are often combined; and that multi-stakeholder collaborations between different groups of actors are common. We discuss how the framework can be used to characterize different interventions using a common language and structure, to aid planning and analysis of interventions, and to facilitate the evaluation of interventions with respect to their structure and outcomes. Studying the collective experience of multiple interventions across commodities and spatial contexts is necessary to generate more systematic understandings of the impacts of commodity supply chain interventions in forest-agriculture landscapes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Uncertainty, ignorance and ambiguity in crop modelling for African agricultural adaptation (2013) 🗎🗎

Drawing on social constructivist approaches to interpreting the generation of knowledge, particularly Stirling's (Local Environ 4(2):111-135, 1999) schema of incomplete knowledge, this paper looks critically at climate-crop modelling, a research discipline of growing importance within African agricultural adaptation policy. A combination of interviews with climate and crop modellers, a meta-analysis survey of crop modelling conducted as part of the CGIAR's Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) programme in 2010, and peer-reviewed crop and climate modelling literature are analysed. Using case studies from across the crop model production chain as illustrations it is argued that, whilst increases in investment and growth of the modelling endeavour are undoubtedly improving observational data and reducing ignorance, the future of agriculture remains uncertain and ambiguous. The expansion of methodological options, assumptions about system dynamics, and divergence in model outcomes is increasing the space and need for more deliberative approaches to modelling and policy making. Participatory and deliberative approaches to science-policy are advanced in response. The discussion highlights the problem that, uncertainty and ambiguity become hidden within the growing complexity of conventional climate and crop modelling science, as such, achieving the transparency and accessibility required to democratise climate impact assessments represents a significant challenge. Suggestions are made about how these challenges might be responded to within the climate-crop modelling community.

More food, more forests, fewer emissions, better livelihoods: linking REDD plus , sustainable supply chains and domestic policy in Brazil, Indonesia and Colombia (2013) 🗎🗎

The triple, intertwined challenges of climate change, the conversion of tropical forests to crop lands and grazing pastures, and the shortage of new arable land demand urgent solutions. The main approaches for increasing food production while sparing forests and lowering carbon emissions include sustainable supply chain initiatives, domestic policies and finance, and REDD+. These approaches are advancing largely in isolation, separated by different scales of intervention, performance metrics and levers for shaping land user behavior. As a result of this disconnect, farmers are receiving few, if any, positive incentives to forgo legal forest clearing and to invest in more sustainable production systems. These three approaches could become mutually reinforcing through integrated, performance-based incentive systems operating across regions and scales, linked through a shared metric of jurisdiction-wide performance introduced here as the Jurisdictional Performance System.

Policy Instruments for Water Quality Protection (2013) 🗎🗎

We examine policy instruments for ambient water quality protection. One objective is to illustrate the unique and complex informational challenges that must be addressed in constructing instruments that are effective and efficient for point and nonpoint sources. A second objective is to describe developments in real-world policies. Crucial to solving contemporary water quality challenges and improving the efficiency of water quality protection are reducing nonpoint pollution and efficiently integrating point management and nonpoint management. Accordingly, particular attention is given to instruments for nonpoint sources and to instruments that integrate point and nonpoint management. Our review of the literature in this area indicates that practical approaches will necessarily be second best but that careful instrument design and coordinated control across all sources can enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of water pollution control.

Market Integration, Livelihood Transitions and Environmental Change in Areas of Low Agricultural Productivity: A Case Study from Morocco (2013) 🗎🗎

Rural areas of the developing world have become increasingly integrated into the world economy through both production and consumption during the last decades. This growing integration shapes the development of communities and influences their relationship to the natural environment. Where livelihoods are constrained by resource limitations and the productivity of labor in farm activities is low, it may result in a shift to nonfarm activities, which may under some conditions improve wellbeing and relieve pressure on natural resources. The possibility of such a "win-win" development pathway has important implications for development and environmental policy. In this article we use original qualitative and quantitative data to examine environmental and social changes during the last half century in a rural area of Morocco, seeking evidence of such a pathway. While our case study supports the hypothesis that nonfarm diversification in a context of resource scarcity allowed people to improve their material living conditions, the effects of economic integration and nonfarm diversification on the environment were mixed.

Ecosystem Service Delivery in Wales: Evaluating Farmers' Engagement and Willingness to Participate (2013) 🗎🗎

This paper reports on the findings of a project undertaken by the Wales Rural Observatory to investigate factors influencing farmers' willingness to participate in the delivery of ecosystem services through the current agri-environment framework and prospective future mechanisms. The analysis draws on 50 in-depth interviews with farmers across Wales, including case-study groups where ecosystem service delivery is being piloted. The results show increased levels of potential engagement with environmental schemes, due to the perceived financial benefits in an increasingly difficult economic climate. However, there are still significant barriers present with the communication of policy aims. In particular, a more considered negotiation of the compatibility between food provisioning and other ecosystem services is needed, as the majority of the farmers interviewed remain committed to food production and were unwilling to compromise these priorities even for short-term financial gain. This was explained through reference to their sense of identity and family priorities. They were also critical of the government's current approach to food and environmental policy. As a consequence, a more coherent sustainable land management strategy is recommended to maximize the synergies between different goods and services and reduce inconsistencies across the production chains surrounding farm businesses.

Studies on Agri-environmental Measures: A Survey of the Literature (2013) 🗎🗎

Agri-environmental measures (AEM) are incentive-based instruments in the European Union (EU) that provide payments to farmers for voluntary environmental commitments related to preserving and enhancing the environment and maintaining the cultural landscape. We review the AEM literature and provide an overview of important research topics, major research results and future challenges as discussed in the available literature concerning these measures. This review contributes to the existing literature by attempting to equally consider ecological and economic perspectives. The reviewed articles are analyzed regarding their regional focus, topics and methods. The analytical section of the article seeks to discuss commonly asked questions about AEM on the basis of results from reviewed studies. The vast amount of available literature provides valuable insights into specific cases and reveals a complex picture with few general conclusions. The existing research is usually either biased toward ecological or economic perspectives and fails to provide a holistic picture of the problems and challenges within agri-environmental programming (e. g., multiple measures, multiple target areas, legal aspects, financial constraints, transaction costs). Most empirical studies provide detailed insights into selected individual measures but are incapable of providing results at a level relevant to decision-making, as they neglect the role of farmers and the available AEM budget. Predominantly economic approaches often only consider rough assumptions of ecological and economic processes and are also not suitable for decision-making. Decision-support tools that build on these disciplinary results and simultaneously consider scheme factors and environmental conditions at high spatial resolution for application by the responsible authorities are rare and require further research.

Environmental services coupled to food products and brands: Food companies interests and on-farm accounting (2013) 🗎🗎

Much research has been carried out on governmental support of agri environmental measures (AEM). However, little is known about demands on and incentives from the commercial market for environmental contributions of the farmers. The factors farm structures, level of remuneration and legal framework have been thoroughly investigated. However, demands of the food industry for environmentally friendly goods(1) and their effects on farmers' decisions have not yet been analyzed. Leading companies in the food industry have observed an increasing consumer awareness and, due to higher competition, see an additional need to communicate environmental benefits which result from either organic production methods or agri-environmental measures. To address this research deficit, two case studies were carried out. The first case study is a survey aimed at the industrial food producers' demands with regards to the environmental performance of supplying farms. Concurrently, within a second survey farmers were questioned to find out what conditions are required to implement agri-environmental measures beyond cross compliance and document their environmental performance. This article presents the outcomes of the first case study. The results show that food companies have an interest in the documentation of environmental benefits of supplying farms for their marketing strategies. Provision of support by finance or contract-design is also seen as appropriate tool to promote an environmentally friendly production. In turn the food producers' demand and support for documented environmental services can have a positive influence on farmers' decisions for implementation and documentation of these services. Thus, the surveys provide essential findings for further development of documentation strategies for environmental benefits within the supply chain. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Compensation, conservation and communities: an analysis of direct payments initiatives within an Indonesian marine protected area (2013) 🗎🗎

Conservation practitioners are increasingly faced with the need to compensate resource users because of restrictions imposed on access and use of natural resources. The idea that direct payments may facilitate compensation more effectively than a programme based upon income substitution is questioned through examining two direct payments initiatives in an Indonesian marine national park. Elite capture of the direct payments process was facilitated in a context characterized by malleable state institutions and powerful private business interests, thereby disadvantaging key resource-dependent groups. The ecological benefits of direct payments initiatives and of protected areas were compromised through the emphasis on business priorities rather than environmental criteria. These difficulties were mitigated through taking account of existing practices regarding resource access, ensuring equal distribution of benefits and introducing new systems gradually over a period of time through trusted individuals, thereby facilitating the acceptance of direct payments initiatives amongst key user groups.

Integrating rural development and biodiversity conservation in Central Romania (2013) 🗎🗎

Unlike most parts of the European Union (EU), Southern Transylvania (Central Romania) is characterized by an exceptionally high level of farmland biodiversity. This results from traditional small-scale farming methods that have maintained extensive areas of high nature value farmland. Following the post-socialist transition, Southern Transylvania faces serious challenges such as under-employment and rural population decline, which put traditional farming at risk. With Romania's accession to the EU in 2007, Southern Transylvania became part of a complex multi-level governance system that in principle provides mechanisms to balance biodiversity conservation and rural development. To this end, the most important instruments are the 'Natura 2000' network of protected areas and EU rural development policy. Structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with town hall representatives from 30 villages in Southern Transylvania and local EU experts revealed that EU policies are often poorly aligned with local conditions. To date, the implementation of EU rural development policy is strongly focused on economic development, with biodiversity conservation being of little concern. Moreover, relevant EU funding opportunities are poorly communicated. Bridging organizations should be strengthened to foster the implementation of a rural development strategy that integrates local needs and biodiversity conservation.

Farmers' perceptions of biodiversity: Lessons from a discourse-based deliberative valuation study (2013) 🗎🗎

In agricultural landscapes farmers have a large impact on biodiversity through the management decisions they apply to their land. Farmers' perceptions of biodiversity and its different values influence their willingness to apply biodiversity friendly farming practices. The results of a discourse-based, deliberative biodiversity valuation are presented in this paper. Organic and conventional farmers' perceptions of the different values of biodiversity were analyzed across three European countries. Focus group methodology was used to explore how farmers perceive biodiversity and how they assess its values. Our results suggest that farmers' perceptions of biodiversity are strongly embedded in their everyday lives and linked to farming practices. Besides recognizing the importance of species and habitat diversity, farmers also acknowledge wider landscape processes and attach value to the complexity of ecological systems. Organic farmers tended to have a more complex and philosophical approach to biodiversity and they were relatively homogeneous in this aspect, while conventional farmers showed larger heterogeneity. Ethical and social values were important for all farmers. Economic value was more dominant in the conventional focus groups. The discourse based deliberative valuation method is worth applying in relation to biodiversity for two reasons. First, this method is able to reflect the heterogeneity of non-scientist participants and the context in which they are embedded, which both have a great impact on the results of the valuation. Second, deliberation upon the importance of biodiversity makes possible to understand the competing perceptions of biodiversity and to include different value aspects in the valuation process. The policy oriented consequence of the research can be drawn from the observation that farmers have a strong acknowledgement of ethical and social biodiversity values. This suggests that soft policy tools could also foster biodiversity sensitive farming methods, complementary to mainstream monetary incentives. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How do policy options modify landscape amenities? An assessment approach based on public expressed preferences (2013) 🗎🗎

Facing the changes in the agricultural sector as well as new growing demands from society in relation to the European countryside, new questions emerge as to the management of the agricultural landscapes. The multiple combination of production with the support of multiple functions is a challenge for present day management. Tools are needed that make it possible to assess how a certain landscape can support in particular cultural and amenity functions, those that directly depend on the public preferences. The objective of this paper is to describe the proposed Landscape Amenity Model (LAM), a landscape amenities evaluation tool developed within the framework of the Integrated Project SEAMLESS. The LAM is based on the calculation of the Index of Function Suitability (IFS) for a given landscape, based on the distance between that landscape and the preferred landscape, as expressed by different users. The paper goes further in applying IFS namely by examining two different approaches for deriving land cover pattern preferences by users, either gathered from questionnaire surveys or expert panels in two case-studies, one in Portugal and another in France, respectively. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Incentivising collaborative conservation: Lessons from existing environmental Stewardship Scheme options (2013) 🗎🗎

Agri-environment schemes (AESs) in England typically address environmental management at the farm-and field-scales, but there is increasing evidence that incorporating the landscape-scale would increase scheme effectiveness. Lessons on incentivising collaboration across farm boundaries are drawn from telephone interviews with holders of 18 Environmental Stewardship Scheme (ESS) agreements containing the Higher Level Stewardship (HIS) option HR8; "Supplement for Group Action". This option is more likely to be included when (i) the ESS agreement replaces a previous AES agreement and when (ii) negotiations are assisted by an external organisation. The large degree of flexibility HR8 contracts are allowed is essential to successfully address the wide range of site-specific contractual problems encountered. The number of stakeholders and their range of interests, rather than the land area covered by the agreement are the major determinants of transaction costs on large-area agreements. Although most commonly used in upland moorland agreements, the use of HR8 in lowland agreements shows great inventiveness and demonstrates the potential for extending the use of boundary-spanning options. Suggestions are presented for developing boundary-spanning management options and for incentivising collaborative conservation through a revised ESS. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

To Cheat or Not To Cheat: Moral Hazard and Agri-environmental Policy (2013) 🗎🗎

This Address examines the moral hazard problem in agri-environmental policy. It begins with a theoretical analysis of moral hazard in this context, including the identification of eight potential causes of cheating behaviour among farmers. But is cheating behaviour among farmers actually a problem for agri-environmental policy? And if it is, which are the statistically significant causes of concern? The answer seems to be: we don't know as there are currently no empirical analyses of the moral hazard problem and its causes in agri-environmental policy. On this basis I analyse a set of policy solutions - to a problem for which we have no evidence of its causes or extent!

Result-oriented agri-environmental schemes in Europe and their potential for promoting behavioural change (2013) 🗎🗎

Increasing interest is being shown in result-oriented agri-environmental schemes. Such schemes have the advantage of encouraging farmers to innovate to produce environmental goods - thus promoting the development of new skills and knowledge and, theoretically, ensuring that farmers are paid for provision rather than for performing management behaviours that may, or may not, lead to provision. In Europe a number of projects have trialled result-based payments over the last decade and calls for a stronger connection between agri-environmental payments and outcomes are growing. However, while the amount of information available on result-oriented schemes is increasing, there is currently no overview of the approach in the literature. This paper seeks to address this gap through a review of existing literature. It discusses why we might consider the use of result-oriented schemes, outlines two key 'problem areas' (the increased risk schemes represent to farmers, and the difficulties of developing and monitoring indicators), and, finally, proposes a framework for examining the strength of results orientation based on three dimensions - proportion of result-oriented payments, sensitivity of payments, and duration of schemes/payments. Although economic and ecological arguments are outlined, our focus in the analysis is on how the result-oriented approach is likely to institute cultural/social change, and how to optimise schemes to ensure cultural embeddedness. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perception of Forest Values in the Alpine Community of Trentino Region (Italy) (2013) 🗎🗎

Values are generally defined as social facts that orientate individual and collective actions, and consequently influence political, economic and social systems. The evaluation of natural resource values is considered an important instrument to support decision making in environmental policy. The forest is an important renewable resource that provides a mix of social, economic and environmental values for society. The paper presents a survey method to collect and analyse individual preferences relating to three macro-categories of forest values. The survey method was tested in the Trentino region (north-east of the Italian Alps) and will soon be extended to other areas. The results of the questionnaires provided evidence that the forest economic value is perceived as least important, while the environmental values were appreciated the most. Regarding the principle social variables, males tended to give higher scores to all three macro-categories compared to females. Moreover, people with a low education also gave higher scores to all three categories in comparison to the more educated individuals.

Farmer perceptions of bird conservation and farming management at a catchment level (2013) 🗎🗎

The future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Europe suggests support for a "greening" of production related payments, however, the loss of set-aside and the increasing freedom to respond to market prices raises doubts on the actual consequences for farm-related ecology. Voluntary Agri-Environmental Schemes (AES) are believed to play a key role in the conservation of ecological attributes of farming landscapes. Nevertheless, the options proposed within these schemes are directed beyond a single objective and the level of participation remains low. This paper presents a fine-grained approach for examining the behavioural intentions of farmers within a catchment with regards to the moral consideration of specific ecological aspects of farming, such as the preservation of birdlife. The findings indicate that most farmers hold strong values towards birds living on their land and have incorporated this within their decision-making. Nevertheless, very few respondents intend to participate in these schemes in the future and this is due to some misinterpretations of the underlying ecological requirements for providing suitable habitats and bird population trends. In addition, the stated need by farmers for more measures focused on bird conservation implies a requirement for increasingly directed financial rewards and for proposing guidance that fits within current farm management. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Incorporating agri-environment schemes into farm development pathways: A temporal analysis of farmer motivations (2013) 🗎🗎

This paper aims to capture the complexity and dynamic nature of motivations for participation in agri-environment schemes (AESs). Specifically, it examines the extent to which decisions about family farm participation in Tir Gofal (TG), a whole farm AES in Wales, can be traced to long-term motivations for farm continuity; and how Tir Gofal fits into dynamic farm development pathways that farmers follow to ensure their continuity. It reports the findings from narrative style interviews with 25 TG agreement holders and 12 non-agreement holders across Wales. The results show that the continuance of the family farm is an important goal for agreement and nonagreement holders alike, and this is linked to enduring commercially or traditionally oriented values. Three broad sets of development pathways were identified and the extent to which TG fits in with these pathways is considered, with particular reference to different periods in the farm life cycle. The paper concludes that incorporating a temporal dimension into the wider question of farmers' participation in agri-environment schemes can help to improve understanding of farmers' behaviour particularly given the variety of possible opportunities currently open to, and used by, family farms. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental regulations in the hog farming sector: A comparison of Catalonia, Spain and Manitoba, Canada (2013) 🗎🗎

This article examines the governance structures for managing the location and operation of Intensive Livestock Farming Operations (ILFOs). The article focuses on the hog sector and compares two very different jurisdictions: Manitoba, Canada and Catalonia, Spain. Both are regions that have witnessed recent increases in hog production, including increasing spatial concentration of ILFOs and an increase in size of those ILFOs. Policy has both fostered and sought to manage the increased production. The paper draws on the literature on regulatory regimes, environmental regulation, and political economy to frame the comparative case studies of the impacts of environmental regulations on hog production. Following a brief background description of restructuring, the changing legislative frameworks for Manitoba and Catalonia are described. The paper concludes that environmental policy in Manitoba and Catalonia has been more successful in managing overall production (e.g., manure management, and location of operations) than in limiting total production. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Toward effective nature conservation on farmland: making farmers matter (2013) 🗎🗎

Until now the main instrument to counteract the loss of biodiversity and landscape quality in the European countryside has been agri-environment schemes (AES), which offer short-term payments for performing prescribed environmental management behaviors. In our opinion this approach is, in its current set-up, not a sustainable way of enhancing biodiversity and landscape quality. Here we will argue that conservation in agricultural areas is also a social challenge. To change farmers' behaviors toward more sustainable conservation of farmland biodiversity, instruments should aim to influence individual farmer's motivation and behavior. We should aim to place farmland biodiversity in the hands and minds of farmers.

Carbon blinkers and policy blindness: The difficulties of 'Growing Our Woodland in Wales' (2013) 🗎🗎

The need for climate change mitigation has led to a recent upsurge in policies aimed to deliver re-afforestation across the globe, but with mixed successes observed depending upon the levels of private land ownership and ability of governments to engage land managers. This paper evaluates a new government-led scheme in Wales, which is intended to increase woodland cover from 14% to 20% by 2030 to offset the greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. As the scheme is primarily intended to promote woodland creation on farms, the analysis of the paper focusses upon the question of how to incentivise farmers, and the reasons why difficulties have been experienced engaging land owners in the scheme. Whilst a number of recommendations are made from this policy evaluation, the paper also demonstrates that key lessons have not been applied from existing literature on farmers' behaviour and environmental scheme uptake, and that policy makers are not integrating practice across departmental divisions. As such, the paper suggests that the new focus on carbon sequestration has acted as a distraction to the development of a more robust governance strategy that builds on previous successes and failures in agri-environment policy. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Farmer support for extending Conservation Compliance beyond soil erosion: Evidence from Iowa (2013) 🗎🗎

Conservation Compliance, which since its inception in 1985 has led to substantial reductions in soil erosion by linking eligibility for some Farm Bill programs to erosion control on highly erodible land, is at a critical juncture. Agricultural economic and budget factors have reduced the effectiveness of compliance incentives, and numerous groups are calling for enhancement of incentives and/or for extension of compliance beyond erosion control to cover concerns such as water quality impairment. This study analyzed survey data measuring Iowa farmers' support for four increasingly stringent Conservation Compliance scenarios ranging from the current configuration to a requirement that all farmers control nutrient runoff regardless of participation in Farm Bill programs. Overall, the results indicate that Iowa farmers have a generally positive view of Conservation Compliance policy, both as currently configured and in potentially more stringent and extensive forms. Farmers with stronger conservationist identities and attitudes were more likely to endorse increasing the scope and stringency of Conservation Compliance, while farmers who expressed greater levels of concern about the property rights implications of government intervention and those with more productivist orientations were less likely to support such policy changes. Taken as a whole, the results suggest that most Iowa farmers think that Conservation Compliance is a good idea, should be continued, and should be extended to more farmers and other resource concerns.

The State's Role in Water Quality: Soil and Water Conservation District Commissioners and the Agricultural Status Quo (2013) 🗎🗎

The continued transformation of farmland in Iowa is intimately linked to the state-a collection of policies, bureaucracies, and procedures-which has offered concessions and subsidies to those that farm the land. These initiatives are designed to encourage farmers to alter their farming methods and the landscape to develop better conservation ethics, prevent soil erosion, and improve water quality. Local-level nominally elected politicians, Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) commissioners, are the primary point of contact farmers have with the state. While SWCD commissioners are charged with evaluating farmers' eligibility for government assistance, they have become more than implementers of social policy. Through the establishment of funding priorities, SWCD commissioners are also de facto policy creators. In this research, we find that instead of challenging and shaping the way farmers work their land, SWCD commissioners often implicitly support intensive agricultural production, reaffirming methods of production that exacerbate soil loss and degrade water conditions. As local representatives of federal government, SWCD commissioners play a critical role in whether the agricultural status quo is maintained or challenged. Listening sessions with SWCD commissioners reveal that instead of linking farmers' production methods to environmental degradation, many SWCD commissioners support intensive agriculture's anti-conservationist behaviors by giving priority to increased crop yields without regard for soil and water impacts.

Farmers and conservation programs: Explaining differences in Environmental Quality Incentives Program applications between states (2013) 🗎🗎

Despite its economic and social benefits, agriculture is now a leading source of water pollution in the United States. While significant research effort has attempted to understand adoption of conservation practices on agricultural lands, relatively little research has explored the operation of specific agri-environmental policies in the United States. This research attempts to gain an understanding of how differing agricultural and sociopolitical contexts across the United States influence attempted participation in national agricultural conservation programs. Application rates in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) differ across the 50 states, indicating potentially important differences in state setting that influence behavior of individual farm operators. A variety of agricultural and sociopolitical measures were included in a fractional logit model to assess factors contributing to varying rates of application to EQIP. Significant explanatory variables included high sales farm prevalence, tenancy rates, and views on federal environmental spending. There also appears to be a large regional effect, with states in the Southeast, Mountain West, and Northeast having higher application rates than those in the Corn Belt. The results of this analysis indicate that certain types of farmers are more likely to seek participation in this large agricultural conservation program. Further research is needed to assess the role of government agencies (federal, state, and local) in influencing participation rates and what role individual political opinion may play in decisions related to federal cost share programs.

Considering the source: Commercialisation and trust in agri-environmental information and advisory services in England (2013) 🗎🗎

Recent decades have seen the emergence and increasing prominence of a range of public and private sector providers of agricultural information and advice, owing to state transition away from direct provision of agricultural advisory services. In this paper, we evaluate the establishment of trust in agri-environmental agricultural advisory services in England. Qualitative field research was undertaken with farmers, advisors and promoters engaged in four contrasting agri-environmental advisory initiatives. Findings suggest that longevity and expertise in service provision are more important than the public, private or charitable status of specific advisory service in engendering trust. Consistent funding allocated to well-known agencies or their affiliates is thus more likely influence farmer behaviour in the short term than 'contract' advisory projects awarded to novice service providers. Study participants also put their trust in services that were perceived as 'impartial' or actively 'pro-agriculture'. However, we suggest this 'pro-farmer' orientation can negatively impact on environmental outcomes: advisors may be incentivised to provide information on the easiest access to agri-environmental grants, rather than the actions with the most environmental benefit. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Investigating the influence of the institutional organisation of agri-environmental schemes on scheme adoption (2013) 🗎🗎

In this paper, the objective is to assess the influence of the institutional organisation of AESs on farmers' participation in the schemes. The literature reveals that the institutional organisation of AESs can influence participation in the schemes and that this participation rate is an important indicator of the schemes' eventual environmental effectiveness. The paper describes several alternative ways to design and implement AESs, and two study regions were chosen in which several of these alternatives have been applied in practice: the region of Flanders, in Belgium; and the state of Arkansas, in the US. On the basis of the results obtained one could argue that farmers are generally more in favour of a flexible approach towards AESs, in which they have the freedom to decide on contract terms and the related payment. However, although this could have a positive effect on the environmental effectiveness of the schemes, it could also significantly increase the transaction costs. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Territorial dimensions of agro-environmental measures and LFA in rural development policy in the Czech Republic (2013) 🗎🗎

Outlined by the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), the rural development policy enables the application of the territorial dimension. The goal of this paper is the analysis and determination of the appropriateness of the CAP development policy tools specifically within the Czech Republic. Furthermore, there is emphasis on the compliancy with the EU territorial cohesion objectives. The analyses concentrate on the agro-environmental measures (AEM) and less-favoured areas (LFA) support. In addition, payments during the 2004-2006 periods are evaluated. Relevant statistical indicators that include geographical, demographical, and economical are designated. Testing and verification of the indicators undertakes comparative examination based on municipal size-categories. The results of this process indicate that AEM and LFA schemes do not benefit the underdeveloped municipalities as intended by the EU territorial cohesion objectives. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agri-environment schemes: Farmers' acceptance and perception of potential 'Payment by Results' in grassland-A case study in England (2013) 🗎🗎

The implementation of a 'Payment by Results' (PBR) approach to agri-environment schemes (AES) can further increase their ecological and economic efficiency. The aim of this case study was to assess farmers' perception and acceptance of potential PBR using the example of England and to evaluate aspects of importance to the implementation of PBR. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 32 farmers in the English region of 'Yorkshire and The Humber'. A semi-standardised questionnaire, which included an example-PBR-option for maintaining and enhancing species-richness in grassland, was developed. The results show that the majority of farmers in this case study accepted PBR. Acceptance was significantly influenced by farmers' age, experience with AES, farm size and abundance of pre-existing environmental features. If PBR was introduced, farmers would seek more advice. However, the actual willingness of farmers to join a full PBR scheme instead of an action-based option is still questionable. An approach combining a maintained with an enhanced PBR element with different target levels emerged as a possible way forward. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rethinking agri-environmental schemes. A result-oriented approach to the management of species-rich grasslands in France (2014) 🗎🗎

Recent evaluations of agri-environmental schemes have questioned the effectiveness of using management prescriptions to achieve intended outcomes. This paper explores an alternative approach to the delivery of biodiversity objectives to French farmers. It presents an analysis of an innovative collaborative programme focusing on ecological results rather than management prescriptions. In particular, the argumentation to which this new focus has given rise within the community of nature managers is examined. It reveals the re-shaping of the notion of grassland habitats which has been carried out by innovators and has allowed a reconciliation of biodiversity conservation goals with farmers' work and values. In this sense, the 'Flowering Meadows' programme combines the creation of a public good with the generation of a public for that good. The effectiveness and potential of the result-based approach are discussed, with emphasis given to the design of the outcome and possible future policy developments.

Landscapes of Intersecting Trade and Environmental Policies: Intensive Canadian and American Farmlands (2014) 🗎🗎

Farming in Canada and the USA is dominated by row cropping concentrated in central regions. Using the Corn Belt of Iowa and the Lake Erie Lowlands of Ontario-sources of pollution affecting the Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes-as exemplary regions, this paper provides a retrospective review of the landscape effects of policies and practices related to environmental stewardship and agricultural trade. Conservation policies and typical farm practices are described and compared for the two regions with an emphasis on lasting beneficial environmental outcomes. Connections among land cover changes, environmental consequences, and changes in environmental and trade policies and programs are considered along with future changes in farm management, trade liberalisation, and farm revenue sources. The paper concludes with prospective ideas of how policies and practices can maintain or enhance environmental benefits within intensively farmed landscapes as best approaches for agriculture.

Agricultural Landscape Sustainability under Pressure: Policy Developments and Landscape Change (2014) 🗎🗎

Agricultural landscape sustainability is affected by combinations of agricultural developments and various forms of urbanisation. This paper analyses how public policy, including spatial planning, has responded over time and affected these two drivers which intersect in various ways depending on the regional context and local conditions. Using data from recent Danish studies, the paper shows how a large proportion of farmers perceive their farm more as a living place than as a production place. Most of these farmers are hobby farmers with an urban income who have moved from an urban setting to the rural landscape. As such, these hobby farmers represent a form of urbanisation, usually termed 'counter-urbanisation', and they manage the landscape differently to full-time farmers, while they also affect demand for land and thus price levels. Furthermore, long-term and recent developments in public policy as responses to changing agricultural landscapes are analysed and discussed. With a focus on counter-urbanisation, the paper discusses how agricultural policies, environmental policies and spatial planning policies are poorly integrated and-when viewed together-fail to respond to the intersecting dynamics of agricultural developments and urbanisation. The paper proposes a collaborative landscape planning approach to ensure policy integration and to promote agricultural landscape sustainability.

Using business simulation games in regulatory impact analysis - the case of policies aimed at reducing nitrogen leaching (2014) 🗎🗎

In the past, regulatory impact analysis was predominantly based on the rational-choice-assumption of a completely informed and exclusively profit-maximizing homo oeconomicus. Real economic actors, however, are multiple-goal and boundedly rational decision-makers. An exclusive reliance on rational-choice models therefore generates the risk that both the pace and the type of behavioural adaptations to changing institutional environments are misjudged. Against this background, this article addresses three questions. First, can we use business simulation games as a convincing but low-cost experimental tool for policy analysis? Second, how do intentionally varied nitrogen extensification schemes impact the behaviour of students who participate in an explorative business simulation study? Third, do nitrogen reduction policies that are framed as voluntary as opposed to prescriptive schemes have a different impact on behaviour even if they lead to the same profits respectively? In our business simulation game, the student-participants take the role of farmers who are confronted with different policy measures aimed at reducing nitrogen loads. The student-farmers react very differently to different measures even though all measures have an identical impact on profitability. This is an indication that the behavioural changes that can be achieved per Euro of the taxpayers' money, and therefore the cost efficiency (and smartness) of regulatory measures, are contingent on their specific design.

Incentives for promoting agricultural clean production technologies in China (2014) 🗎🗎

Since the start of this century Chinese agricultural priorities have greatly changed. Food security is no longer the sole target of agricultural development, and increased attention is now focused on environmental protection and stable growth of farmers' incomes. However, implementation of agricultural clean production practices has been slow, despite their official promotion, at least partly because of farmers' hesitancy to adopt them due to fears that they would lose income. In various countries subsidies have successfully countered such hesitation. Therefore, we have surveyed Chinese farmers' willingness to pay for environmental protection and accept compensation for potential losses of net income in relation to identified characteristics, subsidies and other incentives to encourage agricultural clean production in China. The results indicate that financial support from government at all levels is essential for its effective promotion in the long term, although farmers are willing to adopt environmental protection measures, and make some contribution to their costs as responsible citizens. Subsidizing farmers who voluntarily participate in agricultural insurance and adopt cleaner production practices is regarded as fair and equitable to avoid unacceptable reductions in their profits and life quality. The results also show that reasonable and targeted incentives could make broad contributions to cleaner agricultural production in China. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Result-oriented agri-environmental schemes in Europe: A comment (2014) 🗎🗎

Result-oriented agri-environmental schemes offer some potential advantages that merit exploration. However, supporting the caution expressed by Burton and Schwarz in an earlier issue of this journal, this short note offers some additional observations on the need to retain a broader perspective of options for improving scheme performance through a mixed approach: a result-oriented approach will not by itself address all current design weaknesses and improvements may not necessarily require a payments-by-results approach. For example, better spatial targeting, payment differentiation and monitoring are equally compatible with action-oriented schemes. Moreover, achieving innovation and flexibility may require appropriate advisory support, which again is not restricted to a result-oriented approach. (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluating the use of an environmental assurance program to address pollution from United States cropland (2014) 🗎🗎

Voluntary market-based programs have been proposed as cost-effective means to reduce environmental impacts associated with agriculture. This study examines a relatively new program in Michigan USA, the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP), and explores how it might serve to reduce nutrient pollution associated with intensive corn production. Interviews with corn farmers were used to explore reasons for program participation, the extent of management changes, and opinions regarding program effectiveness. Results indicate that most farmers enrolled in the program had already satisfied the majority of the requirements, therefore few changes were made that would result in environmental improvements. Interviews also revealed that in almost all cases, corn farmers were unable to market their products as MAEAP verified. Participation was largely driven by goals to avoid law enforcement and minor financial benefits through insurance discounts. Farmers indicated that a lack of monitoring and enforcement reduced the perceived effectiveness of the program. Most farmers favored direct payments through government conservation programs over MAEAP. This case illustrates the limitations of voluntary and market-based programs to address agri-environmental problems and supports the use of multiple policy approaches. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Transparent Process for "Evidence-Informed" Policy Making (2014) 🗎🗎

Political institutions are keen to use the best available scientific knowledge in decision-making. For environmental policy, relevant scientific evidence can be complex and extensive, so expert judgment is frequently relied upon, without clear links to the evidence itself. We propose a new transparent process for incorporating research evidence into policy decisions, involving independent synopsis of evidence relating to all possible policy options combined with expert evaluation of what the evidence means for specific policy questions. We illustrate the process using reforms of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy currently being negotiated. Under the reform proposals, 30% of direct payments to farmers will become conditional upon three "compulsory greening measures." Independently, we compiled and evaluated experimental evidence for the effects of 85 interventions to protect wildlife on northern European farmland, 12 of which correspond to aspects of the compulsory greening measures. Our evaluation clearly indicates evidence of consistent wildlife benefits for some, but not all, of the greening measures. The process of evidence synopsis with expert evaluation has three advantages over existing efforts to incorporate evidence into policy decisions: it provides a clear evidence audit trail, allows rapid response to new policy contexts, and clarifies sources of uncertainty.

Predicting pro-environmental agricultural practices: The social, psychological and contextual influences on land management (2014) 🗎🗎

Pro-environmental agricultural approaches have been developed, but their uptake has not been sufficient to mitigate environmental degradation. A lack of suitable theoretical frameworks limits research on farmers' environmental behaviours, and there has been little integration of social sciences in the agricultural adoption literature. This paper details a predictive model of pro-environmental agricultural practices, drawing on psychological frameworks: Value-Belief-Norms and Theory of Planned Behaviour. Dry-land farmers in Central New South Wales, Australia (n = 422), were surveyed about behaviours deemed to have positive impacts on the environment by local natural resource management authorities. A rigorous measure of complex land management practice is developed in relation to native vegetation, weeds, soil, stock, and perennials. The model was able to predict 52% of the variance in complex behaviour. Contextual factors, values, attitudes, and norms are identified as important predictors. Results suggest skills and abilities, environmental constraints, biospheric values, and a sense of being able to control one's destiny are significant precursors to pro-environmental practices. The NRM policy context and policy implications are discussed. Holistic strategies and social learning processes are identified as beneficial for farmer well-being and environmental outcomes. Crown Copyright (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reducing nitrogen fertilizer application as a climate change mitigation strategy: Understanding farmer decision-making and potential barriers to change in the US (2014) 🗎🗎

Nitrogen fertilizer use in agriculture is associated with water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. While practices and programs to reduce nitrogen fertilizer application continue to be developed, inefficient fertilizer use persists and little is known about farmer decision-making regarding application rates. The purpose of this study was to explore farmer decision-making in the context of reducing the application of nitrogen fertilizer as a climate change mitigation strategy and to assess barriers to reduced application and participating in a potential offsets program. Research methods included mail surveys, interviews, and focus groups with corn farmers in Michigan, United States (US). Results indicate that potential barriers to increasing nitrogen use efficiency for climate change mitigation include: perceptions about climate change, limited access to information and technological tools, and constraints imposed by the political economy of US agriculture. Education programs, government subsidies or cost-sharing programs, and including influential market and political actors in discussions about fertilizer use and climate change mitigation may address some of these barriers. Policies and programs focused on nitrogen fertilizer use and climate change mitigation in agriculture should be aware of these barriers and how they might be addressed. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

One federal policy, four different policy contexts: An examination of agri-environmental policy implementation in the Midwestern United States (2014) 🗎🗎

Much research attention has been given to devolved environmental policies and variation in state adoption of environmental policies. Less attention has been paid to variation in top-down federal policies, including in the agri-environmental arena. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is the largest working land conservation program in the United States, incentivizing the adoption of conservation practices on active agricultural land through cost-share and technical assistance. While the program is federal, state offices of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are charged with implementing the program in their state. Qualitative interviews (n = 26) were conducted with NRCS personnel in four Midwestern states to explore similarities and differences between state administrative outputs. Program outputs are determined through a mixture of national, state, and local administrative processes and are driven by dissimilarities in state resource concerns and agricultural systems. The process by which farmers apply for cost-share funding through EQIP is largely the same across states, but states vary in several important outputs, especially resource and conservation practice priority, as well as state and local partnerships. Outreach methods do not tend to vary between states; NRCS districts typically rely on passive recruitment and word-of-mouth recruitment. Divergence in state EQIP outputs constitute a significant difference in the policy context in which farmers make conservation decisions in the Midwest, which has implications for research concerning farmer behavior. While federal policies implemented across the states offer some level of consistency in the setting in which individual land managers make decisions, variation may still exist in many policies that results in different policy outputs. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Why do we need to integrate farmer decision making and wildlife models for policy evaluation? (2014) 🗎🗎

Environmental and agricultural policy instruments cause changes in land-use which in turn affect habitat quality and availability for a range of species. These policies often have wildlife or biodiversity goals, but in many cases they are ineffective. The low effectiveness and the emergence of unwanted side effects of environmental and agricultural policies are caused by over-simplistic assumptions in the design of policy instruments as well as difficulties with predicting behaviours of policy subjects. When considering wildlife in agricultural landscapes, policy's performance depends both on human (farmers) actions, which the policies aim to affect, and wildlife responses to land-use and management changes imposed by farmers. Thus, in order to design effective agri-environmental policies, detailed ex-ante assessments of both of these aspects are necessary. Due to the restrictive assumptions and technical limitations, traditional agricultural economic and ecological models fall short in terms of predictions of impacts of agri-environmental measures. The feedback situation between policy, human behaviour and ecological systems behaviour can confound these approaches, which do not take systems complexity into account. Therefore, a solution that integrates both feedback interactions and the differing scales at which these interactions take place is needed. For this, we suggest developing integrated policy assessment tools comprising of simulated farmer decision making, on-farm land-use and wildlife responses in the form of spatially explicit, dynamically connected agent-based models. Although complex and necessitating true inter-disciplinarity, these approaches have matured to the point where this endeavour is now feasible. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

European agricultural landscapes, common agricultural policy and ecosystem services: a review (2014) 🗎🗎

Since the 1950s, intensification and scale enlargement of agriculture have changed agricultural landscapes across Europe. The intensification and scale enlargement of farming was initially driven by the large-scale application of synthetic fertilizers, mechanization and subsidies of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Then, after the 1990s, a further intensification and scale enlargement, and land abandonment in less favored areas was caused by globalization of commodity markets and CAP reforms. The landscape changes during the past six decades have changed the flows and values of ecosystem services. Here, we have reviewed the literature on agricultural policies and management, landscape structure and composition, and the contribution of ecosystem services to regional competitiveness. The objective was to define an analytical framework to determine and assess ecosystem services at the landscape scale. In contrast to natural ecosystems, ecosystem service flows and values in agricultural landscapes are often a result of interactions between agricultural management and ecological structures. We describe how land management by farmers and other land managers relates to landscape structure and composition. We also examine the influence of commodity markets and policies on the behavior of land managers. Additionally, we studied the influence of consumer demand on flows and values of the ecosystem services that originate from the agricultural landscape.

Hybrid knowledge for understanding complex agri-environmental issues: nitrate pollution in Italy (2014) 🗎🗎

Although agri-environmental policies have been launched by the European Union to mitigate environmental pollution and sustain agricultural development, there is not much understanding of how to manage the asymmetries between the objectives and the effectiveness of the implementation of the policies on local scale. The nitrate directive (ND) is an emblematic case in this context. This research focused on the role of 'hybrid knowledge' (scientific and local) and the process of knowledge integration in understanding the nitrate problem as an agri-environmental issue emerging from a complex set of biophysical and social factors. We conducted an integrated analysis of a case study on nitrate pollution in an intensive dairy district under Mediterranean conditions. A participatory action research approach was applied to elicit stakeholders' knowledge and perspectives and to create new learning spaces among farmers, researchers and policy makers at case study scale. We explored the effectiveness of social learning triggered due to participatory field experiments, by bringing together stakeholders to generate new 'hybrid knowledge' for agri-environmental sustainability. The dramatic shift from the initial defensive position of farmers to an agreement on concerted actions proved that the integration between local and scientific knowledge may contribute to an increase in the effectiveness of the ND.

What drives sustainable biofuels? A review of indicator assessments of biofuel production systems involving smallholder farmers (2014) 🗎🗎

The contribution a biofuel production to sustainable development in rural areas requires policy and practice that understands the opportunities and risks faced by smallholder farmers. Potential opportunities for smallholders include access to markets, access to employment, local infrastructure developments and spill over effects such as new agronomic knowledge. Potential threats include loss of land entitlements, social exclusion, environmental degradation, dependency upon the biofuel industry and diminished food security. Although a multitude of issues is acknowledged, many studies are focused on specific issues and knowledge remains fragmented. Further, much of the indicator-based literature does not acknowledge the importance of case-specificity nor the link between the processes and circumstances that drive indicator results. This article reviews indicator assessments of biofuel production involving smallholders and highlights the importance of holistically considering a range of social, economic and environmental criteria. Further this review stresses the need to link drivers with indicators. Drivers include decisions and circumstances of a biophysical, socio-economic and governance nature with relevance at field, farm and higher levels. The link between drivers and indicators is crucial to justify indicators and to identify the scope for policy to influence progress against indicators. A conceptual model is provided that summarises important processes determining sustainability of biofuel production involving smallholders. This model can also be used as a starting point for more detailed analysis capturing and quantifying relationships between specific drivers and indicators on a case-by-case basis. This type of analysis is particularly valuable in regions where biofuel policy and developments are unfolding and multiple stakeholders (e.g. smallholders, companies, NGOs and governments) are involved. We highlight that regulation and certification of biofuel production often needs to be complemented with improvements in governance structures and, that policy targeting smallholder involvement with biofuel production should account for a diversity of smallholder characteristics. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Farmer Participation in U.S. Farm Bill Conservation Programs (2014) 🗎🗎

Conservation policy in agricultural systems in the United States relies primarily on voluntary action by farmers. Federal conservation programs, including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, offer incentives, both financial and technical, to farmers in exchange for adoption of conservation practices. Understanding motivations for (as well as barriers to) participation in voluntary programs is important for the design of future policy and effective outreach. While a significant literature has explored motivations and barriers to conservation practice adoption and participation in single programs, few studies in the U.S. context have explored general participation by farmers in one place and time. A mixed-methods research approach was utilized to explore farmer participation in all U.S. Farm Bill programs in Indiana. Current and past program engagement was high, with nearly half of survey respondents reporting participation in at least one program. Most participants had experience with the Conservation Reserve Program, with much lower participation rates in other programs. Most interview participants who had experience in programs were motivated by the environmental benefits of practices, with incentives primarily serving to reduce the financial and technical barriers to practice adoption. The current policy arrangement, which offers multiple policy approaches to conservation, offers farmers with different needs and motivations a menu of options. However, evidence suggests that the complexity of the system may be a barrier that prevents participation by farmers with scarce time or resources. Outreach efforts should focus on increasing awareness of program options, while future policy must balance flexibility of programs with complexity.

Motivations and experiences in managing rare semi-natural biotopes: A case from Finland (2014) 🗎🗎

Traditional rural biotopes (TRBs) are semi-natural farmland habitats of high nature value formed through traditional agricultural activities, such as grazing and fodder collection. The aims of this study were to 1) understand manager motivations for managing TRBs and their attitudes toward TRB conservation and 2) determine whether TRB managers differ in attitude, motivation for management, experiences or area under management depending on whether their managed TRBs are integrated or separate from their farming systems. Farmers and landowners (N=27) managing TRBs in coastal Finland were interviewed. In addition to quantitative analysis, responses were mapped with DebateGraph for inductive analysis to discern patterns amongst the two groups and to explore a series of questions related to motivations. Although area under management and farming strategy varied amongst managers, they all had a positive view toward the existential value of TRBs. A small group of "TRB entrepreneurs", whose farming strategy was based on grazing primarily rented TRBs was identified. Their farming income was dependent upon direct sale of meat and participation in agri-environmental scheme for TRB management. Desire for open landscape was the primary motivation for managing TRBs and strongly outweighed extrinsic values such as fodder production and AES. Higher TRB: farm ratio was associated with more positive attitude toward TRBs and TRB conservation. No difference was found in motivation for management between the two farmer groups. Although motivations were similar, improved and tailored extension services for TRB managers could promote their conservation management. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agricultural specialisation and the land market: an examination of the dynamics of the relationship in the Swiss Alps, c.1860-1930 (2014) 🗎🗎

From the latter half of the nineteenth century, mixed farming in the Alpine regions of Switzerland underwent a gradual process of specialisation. Cereal crops were phased out in favour of feed crops, livestock, viticulture and fruit farming. This article analyses the way in which the land market was affected by this increasingly specialised primary sector and asks whether this market became more efficient as a result of reduced transaction costs. Surveys have shown that the land market remained bound by the inertia inherent in the nature of landed property in the Alpine area. The connection between agricultural diversification and the land market appears to have been only partial and this suggests that the modernisation of farming did not so much alter the main balance of the market itself, as boost the circulation of plots more directly associated with the process of specialisation.

Motivations for implementation of ecological compensation areas on Swiss lowland farms (2014) 🗎🗎

Swiss farmers receive subsidies for reserving ecological compensation areas on their farms with the aim of encouraging biodiversity, but recent studies have found that the existing system of incentives is insufficient to halt biodiversity loss in the Swiss agricultural landscape. An effective targeting of incentives is needed to motivate farmers to implement conservation measures on farmland. The primary aim of this study is to identify the motivations that contribute to the intention of Swiss farmers to engage in conservation on their farms. Fifteen Swiss lowland farmers were interviewed using qualitative interviews and their responses to questions about their attitudes toward nature conservation were categorised and classified according to Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behaviour. It was found that the farmers' identities and their experiences with past nature conservation measures combine with their expectations of direct benefits, such as financial incentives, and their trust that the measures will produce the desired outcomes, to form a behavioural attitude. The sampled Swiss farmers display a strong sense of fairness, which drives them to comply with subjective norms, although they feel torn between a societal expectation to conserve nature and a wish to appear productive to their peers. We conclude by recommending that any changes to the policy framework should be undertaken in a consultative process and that Swiss lowland farmers be allowed the flexibility to implement measures that Will produce the best conservation outcomes on their farms. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Territorial management contracts as a tool to enhance the sustainability of sloping and mountainous olive orchards: Evidence from a case study in Southern Spain (2014) 🗎🗎

The continuity of farming in traditional sloping and mountainous olive production systems (SMOPS) is at risk, especially in marginally productive areas. The abandonment of olive production on sloping lands would have adverse economic, social, environmental and cultural effects. To tackle this risk of abandonment and to improve the sustainability of traditional SMOPS, we propose the Territorial management contracts (TMC) of rural areas. The potential of this instrument to be specifically applied to organic olive production systems on sloping lands is assessed. The paper then summarises the results of a survey of Andalusian farmers in sloping and mountainous areas aimed at identifying key characteristics of the TMC with the potential to enhance its uptake in target farming communities. Results show that farmers are well-disposed towards TMC, and that issues such as flexibility and external advice need to be considered for its successful implementation. From a policy perspective, the instrument is well aligned with the objectives of the last reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

THE EVALUATION OF AGRI-ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES IN TURKEY AND THE EUROPEAN UNION (2014) 🗎🗎

Agri-environmental policy implementations are usually carried out for the incentive of more environmentally friendly agriculture in the world. Recently, the impact of agriculture on the environment is a significant issue for agricultural policies in Turkey. Turkey and European Union (EU) have taken some approaches towards interfacing between the agricultural and environmental policy. In Turkey and EU, agri-environmental programs have been recognized as eco-friendly ways to support income to farmers. The objective of this study is to present agri-environmental policies (regulations, supports etc.) in Turkey and EU. This study is based on literature review. The main method is to evaluate, synthesize and establish relationships among the researches from the relevant literature. According to the results, there is no major problem about integration of agri-environmental legal obligations between Turkey and EU. Also, similarities and differences between support policies in Turkey and EU have been compared. According to comparison, supports for agri-environmental practices in Turkey and EU are at different levels.

Responding to environmental regulations through collaborative arrangements: Social aspects of manure partnerships in Denmark (2014) 🗎🗎

In livestock-intensive regions of Europe, on-farm application of manure and other fertilisers is being increasingly regulated to protect aquatic environments. This study examined collaborative arrangements between intensive livestock farms in Denmark with surplus manure and farms requiring crop nutrients, in order to manage the manure resource at landscape scale and comply with environmental regulations. The extent of collaborative arrangements for manure among Danish farms was explored at national scale using registry data. This showed that in 2009, 50% of all farms in Denmark, managing 70% of the area, were involved in manure exchange, indicating that collaborative arrangements are widespread. Based on this analysis, a sample of 1500 livestock farmers who had provided manure to others was selected for a survey to determine the nature of the manure arrangements in terms of which farmers make partnerships with, and how the arrangements function in practice. Multivariate analysis (multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis) of 644 respondents was used to identify specific types of manure partnerships. The vast majority of respondents knew their partner before they established the arrangement, either through family, neighbours or their local or professional network. These different social relations played an important role in defining four types of partnerships, differing in e.g. burden sharing of manure transportation and spreading, frequency of communication and transport distance. The four types identified provide additional information about decision-making on manure allocation, which to date is mainly based on spatial-economic models. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Adaptive livelihood strategies employed by farmers to close the food gap in semi-arid south eastern Zimbabwe (2014) 🗎🗎

Rural households in semi-arid areas of southern Africa are confronted with numerous hazards that threaten the household food base. The new wildlife policy of establishing transfrontier conservation areas aims to increase conservation of wildlife resources while improving local livelihoods. This policy can be better appreciated by local people if it embraces knowledge of the adaptive strategies they employ to close the food gap. We assessed how different households responded to the major hazard, drought, in order to gain insight into how these households addressed critical questions of food availability. Informal interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions were conducted to determine how households can be disaggregated according to their livelihood patterns and a questionnaire was applied to learn how each group responded to drought. Data were analysed within the three livelihood types that were identified and described at local level as cattle-based, crop-based and non-farm based. We found that factors that aggravated the effects of drought are specific to the different household types and their responses were also specific to that particular household type. Disaggregation of the livelihood types revealed within and between type relations and interactions that are important to people in order to cope. For example, even though cropping is an important activity across the three livelihood types, specifically in cattle and crop-based types, the non-farm type becomes important in restocking inputs after a serious drought through cross-border trading. Livestock and cross-border trading are important coping strategies for all three livelihood types, with the cattle-based trading cattle, the crop-based trading goats and poultry and the non-farm based linking with markets for trading livestock, drugs and restocked inputs for the cattle-based and crop-based groups. These linkages among livelihood types are important factors in reducing vulnerability to change that only become visible as a result of this disaggregation. We conclude that additional policies of enhancing the resilience of local food systems by stimulating across-border livestock trading and formal market set-up and enhancing systems of adaptation that are already in existence (e.g., crop production in the Banyeni) can add value to the success of transfrontier conservation areas in southern Africa.

Regulating agricultural land use to manage water quality: The challenges for science and policy in enforcing limits on non-point source pollution in New Zealand (2014) 🗎🗎

Non-point source pollution from agricultural land use is a complex issue for the management of freshwater worldwide. This paper presents a case study from New Zealand to examine how predictive modelling and land use rules are being used to regulate diffuse pollution to manage water quality. Drawing on a science studies conceptual framework, the research evaluates the deployment of a numeric regime to enforce compliance with resource limits. It shows that in contrast to claims that a quantitative modelled 'outputs-based' approach would provide certainty and clarity and remove ambiguity in the implementation of resource limits at the farm scale, the opposite is unfolding. It is argued from the case study that in the development of land use policy greater recognition and understanding is needed of the social and political dimensions of numbers and predictive models. This research highlights epistemological, institutional and practical challenges for the workability and enforceability of policy regimes seeking to regulate diffuse pollution that tightly link numbers derived from predictive models to compliance and enforcement mechanisms. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multifunctional Agriculture and Farmers' Attitudes: Two Case Studies in Rural France (2014) 🗎🗎

Understanding farmers' attitudes towards the environment is essential for the implementation of land management policies. Since 2000 conservation policies in France, as in other countries, have introduced the concept of "multifunctional agriculture" whereby farmers are entrusted with responsibility for environmental and landscape conservation in a peasant tradition that the "Green Revolution" largely eradicated. To assess farmers' and other inhabitants' attitudes towards the conservation of nature, we conducted fieldwork for 3 years (2010-2013) in two French municipalities located in a bocage area (farmland with hedges and groves). Results confirm that farmers feel more connected to nature than other rural residents. However, their perception that nature should be under human control, "clean" and "tidy," contradicts many aspects of conservation policies. Our results also highlight differences between organic and non-organic farmers, especially in the acceptance of protection policies, but their perception of nature is very similar. Local history and social dynamics specific to each municipality have a strong influence on their environmental conditions.

Climate-smart agriculture for food security (2014) 🗎🗎

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an appraoch for tranforming and reorienting agricultural systems to support food security under the new realities of climate change. Widespread changes in rainfall and temperature patterns threaten agricultural production and increase the vulnerability of people dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods, which includes most of the world's poor. Climate change disrupts food markets, posing population-wide risk to food supply. Threats can be reduced by increasing the adaptive capacity of farmers as well as increasing resilience and resource use efficiency in agricultural production systems. CSA promotes coordinated actions by farmers, researchers, private sector, civil society and policymakers towards climate-resilient pathways through four main action areas (1) building evidence; (2) increasing local institutional effectiveness; (3) fostering coherence between climate and agricultural policies; and (4) linking climate and agricultural financing. CSA differs from 'business-as-usual' approaches by emphasizing the capacity to implement flexible, context-specific solutions, supported by innovative policy and financing actions.

A conceptual approach to a citizens' observatory - supporting community-based environmental governance (2014) 🗎🗎

In recent years there has been a trend to view the Citizens' Observatory as an increasingly essential tool that provides an approach for better observing, understanding, protecting and enhancing our environment. However, there is no consensus on how to develop such a system, nor is there any agreement on what a Citizens' Observatory is and what results it could produce. The increase in the prevalence of Citizens' Observatories globally has been mirrored by an increase in the number of variables that are monitored, the number of monitoring locations and the types of participating citizens. This calls for a more integrated approach to handle the emerging complexities involved in this field, but before this can be achieved, it is essential to establish a common foundation for Citizens' Observatories and their usage. There are many aspects to a Citizens' Observatory. One view is that its essence is a process that involves environmental monitoring, information gathering, data management and analysis, assessment and reporting systems. Hence, it requires the development of novel monitoring technologies and of advanced data management strategies to capture, analyse and survey the data, thus facilitating their exploitation for policy and society. Practically, there are many challenges in implementing the Citizens' Observatory approach, such as ensuring effective citizens' participation, dealing with data privacy, accounting for ethical and security requirements, and taking into account data standards, quality and reliability. These concerns all need to be addressed in a concerted way to provide a stable, reliable and scalable Citizens' Observatory programme. On the other hand, the Citizens' Observatory approach carries the promise of increasing the public's awareness to risks in their environment, which has a corollary economic value, and enhancing data acquisition at low or no cost. In this paper, we first propose a conceptual framework for a Citizens' Observatory programme as a system that supports and promotes community-based environmental governance. Next, we discuss some of the challenges involved in developing this approach. This work seeks to initiate a debate and help defining what is the Citizens' Observatory, its potential role in environmental governance, and its validity as a tool for environmental research.

Adoption of greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture: An analysis of dairy farmers' perceptions and adoption behaviour (2014) 🗎🗎

The agenda towards greenhouse gas mitigation within agriculture implies changes in farm management practices. Based on a survey of Scottish dairy farmers, this study investigates farmers' perceptions of how different GHG mitigation practices affect the economic and environmental performance of their farms, and the degree to which those farmers have adopted those practices. The results of the farm survey data are used to identify promising mitigation practices for immediate policy support based on their potential for additional adoption by farmers, their perceived contribution to the farm's financial and environmental performance and information on their cost-effectiveness. The study demonstrates the usefulness of including adoption behaviour and farmers' perception of mitigation practices to inform early stages of policy development. This would ultimately contribute to the robustness and effectiveness of climate change mitigation policies in the agricultural sector. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Identifying the Factors That Influence Farmer Participation in Environmental Management Practices in Switzerland (2014) 🗎🗎

This paper identifies the factors that either constrain or facilitate farmer decisions to participate in environmental management practices in Switzerland. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore participation in agro-environmental schemes (AES) and the application of organic farming (OF) in the north of Switzerland. Seventeen factors were found to influence farmer decisions to participate in environmental management practices, demonstrating that their decisions were not solely driven by economic incentives. Social and political factors, household and individual profile characteristics as well as concern for the natural environment were all shown to affect the way in which farmers made decisions, but financial considerations remained important, suggesting that environmental participation resulted mainly from the need to adapt to recent agricultural policy reforms with associated subsidies. Although policy was shown to encourage environmentally-friendly farm management and the achievement of ecological benefits, there is no evidence to suggest that this reflects a long-term shift in 'green' farmer attitudes rather than short-term opportunism.

A metafrontier directional distance function approach to assessing eco-efficiency (2014) 🗎🗎

This paper uses directional distance functions to extend the non-parametric metafrontier approach to efficiency measurement proposed by O'Donnell et al. (Empir Econ 34:231-255, 2008) to the assessment of technological differences in eco-efficiency between groups of producers. Furthermore, eco-efficiency is assessed at the level of specific environmental pressure management. This methodology is applied to a sample of Spanish olive producers that belong to both traditional mountain and traditional plain growing systems. We find great potential for both olive growing systems to reduce environmental pressures. In terms of pressures on natural resources, the most eco-efficient technology is the traditional plain system, while the traditional mountain system is the most eco-efficient when considering pressures on biodiversity. These results might help policymakers design strategies to improve the performance of olive growing and meet the demands of society regarding the economic and ecological functions of this farming activity.

Determinants of wind and solar energy system adoption by U.S. farms: A multilevel modeling approach (2014) 🗎🗎

This article offers the first national examination of the determinants of adoption of wind and solar energy generation on U.S. farming operations. The inclusion of state policies and characteristics in a multilevel modeling approach distinguishes this study from past research utilizing logit models of technology adoption which focus only on the characteristics of the farm operation. Results suggest the propensity to adopt is higher for livestock operations, larger farms, operators with internet access, organic operations, and newer farmers. The results find state characteristics such as solar resources, per capita income levels, and predominantly democratic voting increasing the odds of farm adoption. This research suggests the relevance of state policy variables in explaining farm level outcomes is limited, although in combination best practice net metering and interconnection policies policies designed to encourage the development of small scale distributed applications are shown to increase the likelihood of farm solar and wind adoption. The prevalence of electric cooperatives which are often not subject to state renewable energy policies and often service farms is negatively related with the propensity to adopt and suggests that policy design may be a factor. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

GM Crops, Organic Agriculture and Breeding for Sustainability (2014) 🗎🗎

The ongoing debate about the use of genetically-modified (GM) crops in agriculture has largely focused on food safety and genetic contamination issues. Given that the majority of GM crops have been produced to respond to the problem of crop yield reductions caused by diseases, insects and weeds, the paper argues that in those cases, the currently used GM crops are an unstable solution to the problem, because they represent such a strong selection pressure, that pests rapidly evolve resistance. Organic agriculture practices provide a more sustainable way of producing healthy food; however, the lower yields often associated with those practices, making the resultant healthy food more expensive, open the criticism that such practices will not be able to feed human populations. Evolutionary plant breeding offers the possibility of using the evolutionary potential of crops to our advantage by producing a continuous flow of varieties better adapted to organic systems, to climate change and to the ever changing spectrum of pests, without depending on chemical control.

Does multifunctionality matter to US farmers? Farmer motivations and conceptions of multifunctionality in dairy systems (2014) 🗎🗎

The concept of multifunctionality describes and promotes the multiple non-production benefits that emerge from agricultural systems. The notion of multifunctional agriculture was conceived in a European context and largely has been used in European policy arenas to promote and protect the non-production goods emerging from European agriculture. Thus scholars and policy-makers disagree about the relevance of multifunctionality for United States agricultural policy and US farmers. In this study, we explore lived expressions of multifunctional agriculture at the farm-level to examine the salience of the multifunctionality concept in the US. In particular, we investigate rotational grazing and confinement dairy farms in the eastern United States as case studies of multifunctional and productivist agriculture. We also analyze farmer motivations for transitioning from confinement dairy to rotational grazing systems. Through interviews with a range of dairy producers in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and New York, we found that farmers were motivated by multiple factors - including improved cow health and profitability - to transition to rotational grazing systems to achieve greater farm-level multifunctionality. Additionally, rotational grazing farmers attributed a broader range of production and non-production benefits to their farm practice than confinement dairy farmers. Further, rotational grazing dairy farmers described a system-level notion of multifunctionality based on the interdependence of multiple benefits across scales - from the farm to the national level - emerging from grazing operations. We find that the concept of multifunctionality could be expanded in the US to address the interdependence of benefits emerging from farming practices, as well as private benefits to farmers. We contend that understanding agricultural benefits as experienced by the farmer is an important contribution to enriching the multifunctionality concept in the US context, informing agri-environmental policy and programs, and ultimately expanding multifunctional agricultural practice in the US. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cross Compliance as payment for public goods? Understanding EU and US agricultural policies (2014) 🗎🗎

Cross Compliance (CC) is a mechanism for encouraging farmers to fulfill certain environmental conditions in return for governmental support payments. Introduced to United States (US) and European Union (EU) agricultural policy from the 80s onwards, upcoming new US (Farm Bill 2012) and EU (Common Agricultural Policy after 2013) policies will include CC. Cross Compliance is seen (i) as a policy for enforcing environmental objectives or (ii) as a way to organize and reward agricultural public good production. In recent years, the instrument's effectiveness and efficiency have been criticized. To validate the deviating understandings, we drew back on an economic institutionalist perspective. We found that regarding EU CC as payment for public goods does not generally align with the existing German property rights distribution. In both the EU and US, CC standards above those contained regulatory law have characteristics of a payment for public goods but create severe problems. We conclude that CC, even if useful for triggering and broadening environmental protection efforts, may cause several long-term problems. Therefore, the rights structure should be clearly communicated, law enforcement function should be temporary, the instrument should be included in an overall concept, and payments should be better linked to the environmental output. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Uptake of agri-environmental schemes in the Less-Favoured Areas of Greece: The role of corruption and farmers' responses to the financial crisis (2015) 🗎🗎

Vine-growing in the Less-Favoured Areas of Greece is facing multiple challenges that might lead to its abandonment. In an attempt to maintain rural populations, Rural Development Schemes have been created that offer the opportunity to rural households to maintain or expand their farming businesses including vine-growing. This paper stems from a study that used data from a cross-sectional survey of 204 farmers to investigate how farming systems and farmers' perception of corruption, amongst other socio-economic factors, affected their decisions to continue vine-growing through participation in Rural Development Schemes, in three remote Less-Favoured Areas of Greece. The Theory of Planned Behaviour was used to frame the research problem with the assumption being that an individual's intention to participate in a Scheme is based on their prior beliefs about it. Data from the survey were reduced and simplified by the use of non-linear principal component analysis. The ensuing variables were used in selectivity corrected ordered probit models to reveal farmers' attitudes towards viticulture and rural development. It was found that economic factors, perceived corruption and farmers' attitudes were significant determinants on whether to participate in the Schemes. The research findings highlight the important role of perceived corruption and the need for policies that facilitate farmers' access to decision making centres. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Costs of Implementing Agricultural Soil Protection Policies-Insights from Two German Cases (2015) 🗎🗎

Transaction costs (TCs) are often claimed to be a key determinant of how policies are actually implemented on the ground and what effect they ultimately deliver on soil quality and functions. Focusing on agriculture-related soil protection policies in Eastern Germany, we analyse data from key informant interviews in two case study areas (Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt) in order to provide new evidence that TCs do indeed matter for policy implementation. We systematically map TCs that occur at the policy implementation and operation stages and their drivers. Our data showed that in addition to TCs for information management' and coordination', existing frameworks need to be extended to explicitly consider TCs for enforcement'. Results illustrate that there is a broad range of TCs that are due to the complexity of soils and their management, property rights assignment and administrative processes. To some extent TCs in one policy arena can be reduced; however, often they are only superseded in place and time and, moreover, there are trade-offs between different kinds of TCs. The paper emphasizes that every assessment of effective policy implementation requires a specification of TCs and over what time frame they occur.

Farming Practices and Experienced Policy Coherence in Agri-environmental Policies: The Case of Land Clearing in Finland (2015) 🗎🗎

Environmental problems related to agricultural land use require better functioning solutions. Pressing problems include the increasing nutrient load in water bodies, caused by fertilization and erosion, and carbon emissions caused by various agricultural practices, for example. At a policy level, these issues are tackled via agri-environmental measures, but at farm level, these measures have not attracted as wide support as hoped for. Instead, farmers feel that many agri-environmental measures are incoherent in relation to their practices and goals, and the goals of agricultural policies in general. This type of policy problem can be called experienced policy coherence and it results in poor functioning of the policies. This paper connects practice theory and policy coherence analysis and suggests that a more systematic focus on the practices which the policies aim at influencing is needed in order to design better policies and to approach the problem of policy incoherence experienced by grass-roots actors. The empirical focus is on clearing new arable land and climate emissions in the context of Finnish agriculture. The results show that the different elements of practices identified in practice studies can pinpoint the key issues causing experienced policy incoherence and malfunctioning of policies.

A Review of the Global Pesticide Legislation and the Scale of Challenge in Reaching the Global Harmonization of Food Safety Standards (2015) 🗎🗎

Pesticide use is important in agriculture to protect crops and improve productivity. However, pesticides have the potential to cause adverse human health or environmental effects, depending on exposure levels. This review examines existing pesticide legislation worldwide, focusing on the level of harmonization and impacts of differing legislation on food safety and trade. Pesticide legislation varies greatly worldwide, because countries have different requirements, guidelines, and legal limits for plant protection. Developed nations have more stringent regulations than developing countries, which lack the resources and expertise to adequately implement and enforce legislation. Global differences in pesticide legislation act as a technical barrier to trade. International parties such as the European Union (EU), Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have attempted to harmonize pesticide legislation by providing maximum residue limits (MRLs), but globally these limits remain variable. Globally harmonized pesticide standards would serve to increase productivity, profits, and trade and also enhance the ability to protect public health and the environment. (C) 2015 SETAC

What drives farmers' participation in EU agri-environmental schemes?: Results from a qualitative meta-analysis (2015) 🗎🗎

A better understanding of why EU farmers choose to join agri-environmental schemes (AESs) is vital to help policy makers design programmes that would be more attractive to participants. This paper identifies the key factors influencing farmers' participation in AESs through a qualitative meta-analysis of papers published in peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and 2013. A range of empirical studies that explored factors influencing farmers' willingness to participate in such schemes were selected and systematically analysed. The meta-analysis reveals several key drivers for participation in AESs including fair payments, lower household dependency on agricultural incomes, age and education levels, the presence of a successor and the ability to make progressive rather than step changes to agricultural activities. Of particular importance is the finding that the design of agri-environmental policy is not the only relevant factor influencing uptake but other policies which impact on the farm household and the rural community can also encourage or discourage participation in an AES. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How resilient are farming households and communities to a changing climate in Africa? A gender-based perspective (2015) 🗎🗎

In this paper we examine conditions that underlie vulnerability and resilience possibilities for households and communities that face and respond to climate- and other changes, in nine East and West African countries. We base our analysis on a unique integrated qualitative and quantitative dataset composed of household surveys and village focus group studies carried out across a wide range of environments and agricultural systems. We identify human population growth, commercialization of the economy, and natural resource use policies, in addition to weather, as key drivers of change. We compare the agricultural and livelihood systems of male and female respondents, as well as their productive resources, organization and access to services. Women have less access than men to common property resources, as well as to cash to obtain goods or services. Women control less land than men, the land they control is often of poorer quality, and their tenure is insecure. Women engage in mutual insurance and risk-sharing networks, and benefit from non-agricultural services provided by social support institutions external to the village. Formally registered, public and private external organizations that foster agriculture and livestock production have tremendous anti-women biases, and tend to provide support primarily to men. Policies and strategies are needed to eliminate those prejudices so that men and women increase their resilience and manage well their changing environments. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

What influences farmers' acceptance of agri-environment schemes? An ex-post application of the 'Theory of Planned Behaviour' (2015) 🗎🗎

A better understanding of farmers' behaviour regarding agri-environment schemes (AES) can be one step towards further improving these voluntary schemes. In order to assess farmers' acceptance and perception of agri-environment schemes, the 'Theory of Planned Behaviour' (TPB) was applied ex-post to identify factors influencing farmers' willingness to join agri-environment schemes. This ex-post application is a new approach of using the TPB and also the analysis of farmers' acceptance towards AES by using the TPB has not been done before. In the 'Yorkshire and The Humber' region of northern England, standardized face-to-face interviews were conducted with 32 farmers already participating in an AES. The results demonstrate that the general attitude and acceptance of the English scheme are high. Biodiversity, landscape, and natural resources are perceived to be improved by the scheme and to be valuable. An increase in weeds was perceived as an undesirable outcome. Farmers' families were ranked to have the highest and most positive social pressure on farmers' decisions to join AES. Interestingly, the opinion of other farmers or of the farm advisor did not influence the farmers much. More paperwork and more demanding management requirements would make it much more difficult to join the scheme. The provision of advice and greater consideration of environmental conservation in policy development were perceived to make joining the scheme more attractive. Most of the gained results are confirmed by the literature. This shows that the ex-post application of the TPB is feasible and that acceptance of AES can be analysed by using the TPB.

Providing Context for the Land-Sharing and Land-Sparing Debate (2015) 🗎🗎

Agricultural and environmental policies that encourage multifunctional landscapes are referred to as land sharing or land sparing. Numerous assessments of the preferences for either policy exist, but a systematic evaluation of the impact of landscape or decision contexts has not been performed. We assess the impact of multiple contextual parameters using a simple model of landscape change. Past emphasis on different types of species appears warranted, but also important in determining preferences are the proportion of the landscape initially allocated to agriculture, the management intentions for spared land, crop types, and level of policy effectiveness. Variations in objective and decision criteria were less important but still altered the policy preferences under some circumstances. We provide foundational evidence that context warrants explicit inclusion in assessments of agricultural and environmental policy. Our methodological approach is broadly applicable, but generalizations from this case to others should still be made with caution.

Towards Sustainable Agriculture? The EU framework and local adaptation in Sweden and Poland (2015) 🗎🗎

Agricultural systems can be seen as nested social-ecological systems. European Union (EU) Member States vary considerably in terms of their agricultural, socio-economic and environmental circumstances. Yet, as participants in the common agricultural market, they are subject to a uniform Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). An important question is whether there is enough room for flexibility to sustain diverse agricultural systems and facilitate national targeting of sustainability-promoting measures. This article analyses the institutional arrangements concerning cross-scale interactions and interdependencies at national and regional (EU) levels, focusing on how Poland and Sweden implement CAP funds in relation to sustainable agriculture, in particular the agri-environmental schemes, for the period 2007-2013. What room is there in practice for accommodating national differences and sustainability priorities offered by the EU agricultural policy, and how are the existing opportunities used by the two countries? It is shown that agri-environmental funds are too small to prevent transition towards large-scale farming in new Member States and CAP does not effectively promote transformation towards sustainable practices in the EU. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Reducing deforestation and enhancing sustainability in commodity supply chains: interactions between governance interventions and cattle certification in Brazil (2015) 🗎🗎

A large number of governance interventions are being developed in order to reduce deforestation and enhance the sustainability of commodity supply chains across the tropics. The extent to which individual agricultural commodity supply chain interventions can achieve scale, and environmental or social objectives, depends in part on the ways in which those interventions interact with other interventions. We use a case-study of the new Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) cattle certification program in Brazil to explore the different ways in which governance interventions interact. We examine the broad landscape of policies and programs that affect sustainability in the cattle supply chain in Brazil, and assess whether such interventions support or constrain the scaling up of the SAN cattle program. We conducted semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders from government, private sector, and civil society organizations. We found that multiple interventions are acting in a complementary manner to enhance sustainability and therefore enable the scaling up of the SAN program, by aiding compliance with environmental laws, adoption of good production practices, and improved monitoring. At the same time, limited development, implementation, and complementarity of some interventions could be antagonistic to the SAN program's expansion because they maintain a context in which many actors operate far below the sustainability criteria required by the program. Our holistic approach enables us to identify specific gaps in the complex landscape of governance interventions in Brazil. Greater strategic complementarity and coordination between interventions may catalyze a more coherent and effective pathway to reduced deforestation and enhanced sustainability.

Investigating the regional variation in rules and best management practices for forestry in New Zealand (2015) 🗎🗎

Under the Resource Management Act 1991 (NZ), the interpretation and implementation of environmental policy is primarily the responsibility of local government. The management of forestry operations may be influenced by statutory rules published in regional and district plans, and recommended best management practices (BMPs) published in guidelines. There are concerns that inconsistency between jurisdictions' rules have a negative impact on the forestry industry's financial and environmental outcomes. This research investigated and quantified the variation in Permitted Activity rules and BMPs, for culvert installation and earthworks, between New Zealand's 16 Regional Councils. Significant variation in these regional rules and BMPs existed in both the level of control (i.e., the number of rules and BMPs per council), and the nature of control (i.e., the proportion of rules or BMPs utilised). Further, the rules and BMPs of one council are seldom the same as another. This variation is apparent on both a national scale and when considering only neighbouring pairs of councils.

Assessing the role of economic actors in the production of private and public goods in three EU agricultural landscapes (2015) 🗎🗎

The study analyses the contribution of relevant economic actors to the provision of private and public goods in agricultural landscapes. A method consisting of a multi-sectoral perspective and an integrated approach based on the analytic network process (ANP) and the use of selected local stakeholders is applied. The usefulness of the method is demonstrated in three European case studies in Austria, Italy and Spain. The results show that agriculture and tourism are the sectors that contribute the most and the least, respectively, to the provision of goods and services in agricultural landscapes. Moreover, the results underscore that policy instruments towards such provision need to be targeted differently in different areas and must take into account the different roles of the local actors involved.

Transitional pathways towards input reduction on French field crop farms (2015) 🗎🗎

Reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture has become a key issue in many European countries. How have farmers engaged in this type of process modified their practices and in what respect can this help to design pathways for reducing the use of inputs? To answer this question, we developed a methodology for analysing farmers' trajectories, tracing the dynamics of change towards reduced use of inputs (fertilizers and pesticides) throughout a farmer's career, based on the notion of agronomic-coherence phases (input intensive, rationalized, integrated crop management for one crop, for several crops, integrated production and organic farming). Applying this framework to a sample of 20 field crop farmers in Champagne Berrichonne (Indre, France) allowed us to identify three main types of transitional pathway. These pathways differ with regard to the sequence of the different agronomic-coherence phases, and to performance in terms of input use during the last phase. We also identified key transitional practices which play a pivotal role in the transition from one phase to another. We discuss the role of learning features in the path dependency. In terms of agricultural sustainability, this study contributes to agricultural extension and to the design of transitional pathways towards less input-dependent cropping systems.

Territorial analysis of the diffusion of organic farming in France: Between heterogeneity and spatial dependence (2015) 🗎🗎

This paper discusses the development of organic farming (OF) in France from a collective point of view by focusing on the spatiotemporal diffusion of OF and considering different types of production. Based on the data on aid granted between 2007 and 2010 for conversion to OF (COF), the spatial dynamics of conversion is examined with regard to the distinctive capacities of micro-territories to accommodate farms engaged in OF to a greater or lesser extent. The hurdle model is applied to varying types of COF aid, which are related to different production systems. This allows for both the characterization of the geographical extent of the contracting of COF aid and its local intensity measured by the number of contracts within micro-territories. The spatial structure of COF contracting can be explained both by economic factors relating to the orientation of production systems and by phenomena of spatiotemporal dependence, which demonstrate the importance of producers' experience and of collective capacities. We can therefore speak of path dependence in relation to the establishment and maintenance of market access capabilities and social networks, which determine the potential and effectiveness of the development of organic agriculture at the micro-territorial level. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Communitarian cooperative organic rice farming in Hongdong District, South Korea (2015) 🗎🗎

It is often questioned whether sustainable agriculture by smallholder farmers can phase out conventional agriculture. This paper draws on a case study of organic rice farming in Hongdong District, South Korea, and provides insights into communitarian cooperative organic farming, a collective organic farming model. Various organic farming practices (e.g. integrated rice duck farming) have been collectively adopted by small-scale rice farmers in Hongdong since 1994. Organic rice farming in Hongdong is characterised by place-based cooperatives, community-supported agriculture, and strong community leadership. Hongdong has demonstrated that communitarianism and smallholder cooperatives can work for each other complementarily and therefore that communitarian organic farming through smallholder cooperatives is highly operational. The Hongdong organic farming model is of great relevance to other parts of rice-growing Asia, which are dominated by smallholding farmers, in terms of the twin goals of food security and food safety. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How Local Intermediaries Improve the Effectiveness of Public Payment for Ecosystem Services Programs: The Role of Networks and Agri-Environmental Assistance (2015) 🗎🗎

Large governmental payments for ecosystem services programs (PES) have frequently been criticized for their limited environmental effectiveness. The use of local intermediaries has been considered as one possibility for improving the environmental effectiveness of such programs. German Landcare Associations (LCAs) have been identified as one intermediary that holds the potential to positively influence the implementation of agri-environmental measures (AEMs). This paper empirically assesses the involvement of LCAs in the context of AEM implementation in Germany. An online questionnaire was distributed to all LCAs in Germany. In a first step, we examine if LCAs (1) provide social networks between stakeholders and (2) provide agri-environmental information and assistance to farmers. In a second step, the LCAs assess (3) their perception of how strongly their work influences farmers' participation in PES schemes and (4) if they pursue the spatial targeting of AEMs. In a third step, we relate the relative level of social networks and the provision of agri-environmental information and assistance to their stated influence on farmers' participation in and spatial targeting of AEMs. Finally we derive overall conclusions on how intermediaries can enhance the effectiveness of PES programs in general.

Farmers' Preferences and Social Capital Regarding Agri-environmental Schemes to Protect Birds (2015) 🗎🗎

The steady decline of birds living in cereal steppe lands is a worrying situation that the European Common Agricultural Policy is attempting to remedy through the application of agri-environmental schemes (AES). We assess farmers' preferences towards these AES, which call for a number of environmental practices to protect birds. Using a face-to-face survey in farming communities in Aragon (Spain), and through the estimation of an Ordered Logit model (OL), we assess the ranking of AES attributes, and obtain their economic valuation according to the farmers' preferences. We find that social factors are also important in determining farmers' decisions. In particular, the importance of social trust and expectation of compliance by other neighbours, encourage farmers to sign up to AES. These and other results may be used to design more effective AES and help to solve this important biodiversity problem.

Multilevel Governance, Decentralization and Environmental Prioritization: How is it working in rural development policy in Scotland? (2015) 🗎🗎

Adopting a 'multilevel' governance system and environmental prioritization for the Rural Development Policy (RDP) in Europe are key actions recommended by the European Commission. Member States can decide how and to what extent these actions are incorporated into their RDP design. Through 61 semi-structured in-depth interviews with institutional stakeholders, this study assesses the application of these recommendations in RDP in Scotland. The findings indicate that many barriers to effective implementation and environmental prioritization exist due to rigid centralized policy controls. A lack of regionalized autonomy has hindered the ability of regional actors to effectively prioritize local needs. For future policy design, a successful multilevel governance system will require a clearer link between central regulatory requirements and how these link to practical policy implementation. In addition, recognizing an emphasis on 'policy process' there will be trade-offs in effectiveness by outweighing consideration of actual policy outcomes. Copyright (C) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

The role of policy priorities and targeting in the spatial location of participation in Agri-Environmental Schemes in Emilia-Romagna (Italy) (2015) 🗎🗎

The objective of the paper is to understand the determinants of the spatial location of participation in Agri-Environmental Schemes and, in particular, to understand the interplay between structural determinants, priority criteria and spillover effects in guiding participation. As a first step, the paper seeks to conceptualise the issue based on the existing literature. Thereafter, an econometric model is used to provide an empirical application on data regarding participation in measure 214 of the Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 in an Italian region (Emilia-Romagna). The results show that both priority scores and the spatial dimension are significant in affecting participation. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ecological modernization in US agri-environmental programs: Trends in the 2014 Farm Bill (2015) 🗎🗎

Traditionally applied in industrial production contexts, ecological modernization (EM) can also be applied in the context of agriculture. This paper applies the EM perspective to explain recent trends in U.S. agri-environmental policy, particularly in the context of the 2014 Farm Bill. The most recent policy iteration streamlines the portfolio of conservation programs, increases the emphasis on working lands programs that incorporate environmental protection technologies into agricultural production practices, and increases regional approaches and federal local partnerships. These trends reflect both a continued reliance on incorporation of new technologies by private economic producers as the primary means of ensuring environmental protection as well as an increase in modernized, decentralized governance. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Implementing EU co-financed agri-environmental schemes: Effects on administrative transaction costs in a regional grassland extensification scheme (2015) 🗎🗎

Implementing agri-environmental schemes that are co-financed by the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union require administrative compliance with several regulations. This affects the magnitude and composition of transaction costs incurred by agricultural administrations in terms of working time spent. Distinguishing between scheme-related tasks to achieve the environmental goals of the scheme and tasks necessary to obtain the EU reimbursement, this study investigates a possible trade-off in working time allocation with the help of a multi-task principal-agent conceptual framework. Agricultural county administrations of the German state of Hesse serve as case study. Results show that the highly specified reimbursement-related tasks require most of the administrations' working time. However, several factors exist that enhance the provision of scheme-related tasks, foremost a higher share of professional farmers in the county and a certain level of staffing. Nonetheless, the study also reveals that part of the EU-related monitoring effort is fixed and thus increases per contract costs in counties with fewer participants. The findings suggest balancing the particular incentives to perform the required tasks. This is important as more standardised compliance duties are expected for the new funding period 2014-2020. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Collective agri-environment schemes: How can regional environmental cooperatives enhance farmers' intentions for agri-environment schemes? (2015) 🗎🗎

The effectiveness of agri-environment schemes (AES) in enhancing biodiversity on farmland and creating a long-lasting change in farmers' motivation towards a more environmental-friendly practice is still strongly debated. Applying a regional approach has been advocated widely to make AES more ecologically and socially sustainable. In the Netherlands, some AES are performed collectively by large regional groups of farmers called Environmental Cooperatives (EC). We hypothesise that these cooperatives enhance farmers' intention to participate by facilitating the application of AES, but also by generating group pressure. In the study at hand, we used an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to investigate which factors are associated with farmers' intention to participate in two kinds of collective AES (ditch bank management and the protection of meadow birds). Our results demonstrate that attitude and perceived personal ability to participate in these AES are associated with the intention of farmers to participate in ditch bank management. However, for the protection of meadow birds, social pressure, self-identity and facilitation by the EC also relate to the intention of farmers. We conclude that the facilitation undertaken by ECs positively relates to farmers' intention to participate in collective AES. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Local institutions and farmer participation in agri-environmental schemes (2015) 🗎🗎

Minimizing environmental harm from diffuse water quality impacts from farms is a longstanding problem in agricultural policy. Agri-environmental schemes are programs that apply information-based strategies coupled with financial payments to incentivize farmers to adopt less damaging farming practices. Gaining farmer participation in these programs is often problematic due to the complexity of scheme design and implementation, program rules or conflicting goals of policy-makers and farmers. This study examines the influence of local institutions associated with farming subcultures (such as cooperative harvesting groups or practice norms) and, the "localized" institutions that are introduced to facilitate scheme delivery under decentralized governance (such as regional extension networks). Using the case of the Australian Government's 'Reef Rescue' program, the study draws on focus group interviews with sugarcane growers and agricultural extension officers. The analysis explores how farmers perceive the sponsors and goals of these schemes, their own participation, and any risks and benefits they associate with that participation. Some of the main risks of participation included: possible disruption to local economic cooperation amongst farmers that relied on continuation of shared farming practices; inequitable financial burdens of participation; lost farm productivity; and, interference of central governments in their farm business. The study finds that farmer participation in these national environmental programs is mediated by both local and imported institutions. Together, these institutions buffer the culturally and politically unpalatable aspects of the scheme and increase the financial and cultural gains for farmers. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An uphill struggle against scrub encroachment: Implementation of the alpine pasturing subsidy scheme in Switzerland (2015) 🗎🗎

In Switzerland, there is a long-standing tradition of sending livestock to alpine pastures and since 1980, subsidies have helped maintain this tradition. In its current version, this agri-environmental scheme consists of two instruments: a rather sophisticated stocking target and detailed management requirements. Based on observational data and complemented with interviews, this article provides an evaluation of how this regime has been implemented by cantonal agencies between 2003 and 2008. Implementation difficulties are prevalent particularly concerning the management standards, but enforcement is more stringent if sufficient resources are available. The enforcement of the lower bound of the stocking target is less stringent if under-stocking is common in a canton. Payment schemes that shall sustain traditional pasture management practices are dependent on incentives to countervail the consequences of structural change in agriculture: the decline of cattle sent to the summer farms. Without such incentives, instruments have to be provided (i.e., mandatory management plans based on regional cooperation) that support a controlled abandonment of marginal pastures. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dealing with Uncertainty in Public Preferences for Rural Development Policies: A Contingent Valuation Survey (2015) 🗎🗎

Dominguez-Torreiro M. and Solino M. Dealing with uncertainty in public preferences for rural development policies: a contingent valuation survey, Regional Studies. Rural development programmes are currently envisaged as a means to foster the provision of a broad range of non-commodity outputs emanating from multifunctional rural environments. This paper presents a contingent valuation survey that analyses individuals' perceptions of and willingness to pay for the implementation of a rural development programme in Cantabria, Spain. Uncertainty in individuals' preferences is explicitly acknowledged and introduced into the analytical framework. For that purpose, a comparison is made between the open-ended and the multiple-bounded uncertainty elicitation formats. The expectation of a positive welfare change constitutes a sound argument in favour of regional rural development policies.

The impacts of deterrence, social norms and legitimacy on forest rule compliance in Ghana (2015) 🗎🗎

Compliance is one of the central, but often overlooked challenges that actors face as they seek to devise and implement environmental policies. Therefore this paper draws upon multiple models of rule compliance to assess the factors influencing compliance in the high forest zone of Ghana. Specifically, the paper considers whether compliance with formal laws that prohibit the felling of timber trees, farming in forest reserves and the use of fire to clear land is explained by perceptions of government enforcement, social norms and/or the perceived legitimacy of rules and government officials while controlling for a number of potentially intervening factors, and each other. The results indicate that compliance is affected by deterrence, social norms, and the perceived fairness of laws; but more importantly it demonstrates that the factors affecting compliance vary across the three studied rules. Whereas compliance with the tree-felling rule is driven by government enforcement; compliance with the fire and farming rules appears to be linked to social norms and the fairness of rules. Given that levels of compliance are considerably higher for the bushfire and farming rules; we conclude by suggesting greater attention on the normative aspects of the compliance decision, and legal reforms that might align legislation with the social norms and practices of local users. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Harnessing the biodiversity value of Central and Eastern European farmland (2015) 🗎🗎

A large proportion of European biodiversity today depends on habitat provided by low-intensity farming practices, yet this resource is declining as European agriculture intensifies. Within the European Union, particularly the central and eastern new member states have retained relatively large areas of species-rich farmland, but despite increased investment in nature conservation here in recent years, farmland biodiversity trends appear to be worsening. Although the high biodiversity value of Central and Eastern European farmland has long been reported, the amount of research in the international literature focused on farmland biodiversity in this region remains comparatively tiny, and measures within the EU Common Agricultural Policy are relatively poorly adapted to support it. In this opinion study, we argue that, 10years after the accession of the first eastern EU new member states, the continued under-representation of the low-intensity farmland in Central and Eastern Europe in the international literature and EU policy is impeding the development of sound, evidence-based conservation interventions. The biodiversity benefits for Europe of existing low-intensity farmland, particularly in the central and eastern states, should be harnessed before they are lost. Instead of waiting for species-rich farmland to further decline, targeted research and monitoring to create locally appropriate conservation strategies for these habitats is needed now.

Development of organic farming for the protection of water quality: Local projects in France and their policy implications (2015) 🗎🗎

French public action privileges organic farming in areas with water quality problems as a way to prevent diffuse agricultural pollution. This article compares four projects connecting organic farming incentives with water quality protection. It aims at elucidating how concerned actors compromise with and implement public policy in locally specific ways. Our results show that these projects may come from two logics of public action. The first, supported by water-related actors, aims to improve drinking water quality and is focused on water catchments. The second is backed primarily by actors in agriculture and focuses on re-enforcing actions for the development of organic agriculture, carried out on a larger territorial scale. Actor networks involved in the projects differ according to local contexts, project backers, and objectives. They become more complex over time, leading actors for water, organic agricultural development, and economic production chains to work together. Actors' visions and referentials change, influencing the projects initial objectives. The conclusion discusses such projects' relevance and limits. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Design rules for successful governmental payments for ecosystem services: Taking agri-environmental measures in Germany as an example (2015) 🗎🗎

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to financial environmental policy instruments that have played important roles in solving agri-environmental problems throughout the world, particularly in the European Union and the United States. The ample and increasing literature on Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and agri-environmental measures (AEMs), generally understood as governmental PES, shows that certain single design rules may have an impact on the success of a particular measure. Based on this research, we focused on the interplay of several design rules and conducted a comparative analysis of AEMs' institutional arrangements by examining 49 German cases. We analyzed the effects of the design rules and certain rule combinations on the success of AEMs. Compliance and noncompliance with the hypothesized design rules and the success of the AEMs were surveyed by questioning the responsible agricultural administration and the AEMs' mid-term evaluators. The different rules were evaluated in regard to their necessity and sufficiency for success using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Our results show that combinations of certain design rules such as environmental goal targeting and area targeting conditioned the success of the AEMs. Hence, we generalize design principles for AEMs and discuss implications for the general advancement of ecosystem services and the PES approach in agri-environmental policies. Moreover, we highlight the relevance of the results for governmental PES program research and design worldwide. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

"Flowering Meadows", a result-oriented agri-environmental measure: Technical and value changes in favour of biodiversity (2015) 🗎🗎

Maintaining biodiversity in farming areas has become an important issue. Several public policies, including agri-environmental measures (AEMs), incite farmers to adapt their practices to preserve biodiversity. Yet many authors hold that farmers must undergo a cultural change by developing an environmental ethic and mind-set in order for these changes in practice to be sustainable. Looking at this issue from these two perspectives, via changes to practices and the values and influence of local social contexts, we analysed the implementation of a new result-oriented AEM: the "Flowering Meadows" AEM. Covering the Bauges, Haut-Jura and Vercors Regional Natural Parks in France, the survey was based on semi-structured interviews with farmers and other stakeholders such as environmentalists and local elected officials. We will show how the various actions accompanying this measure (training sessions, the "Flowering Meadows" competition, etc.) led to a consensus on the positive values of biodiversity. Although farmers committed to this measure for a variety of reasons (economic, environmental and social), most welcomed the idea of result-oriented payments, which they interpreted as a sign acknowledging their skills and knowledge. Changes to farming practices have nevertheless been limited to date. Here we show that the "Flowering Meadows" measure's innovation, together with the various actions to promote it, lies in its ability to build a positive social norm with respect to "meadow flowers," seen as a symbol of biodiversity, rather than in its limited impact on changing farming practices. In conclusion, we discuss the potential of result-oriented agri-environmental schemes and their policy implications, as well as their outlooks. The particular way in which a result-oriented AEM is implemented is vital to its success in biodiversity conservation, and we make three recommendations for its improvement: anticipating a two-level payment structure better rewarding farmers who have improved biodiversity; paying particular attention to the formulation of a wording expressing the measure's finality in which all actors, not only environmentalists, may find their place; and keeping flexibility in the measure's implementation to account for the local context (existing networks of actors, intensity and quality of relations between farmers and other stakeholders). Instead of looking exclusively at the payment structure that is, the result- and/or action-oriented AEM our approach encourages a broad perspective on the conception of pro-biodiversity measures at the scale of an AEM scheme combining several actions: the AEM per se, plus other actions including training, education, advising and support for new governance processes. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analysing Perceptions Attitudes and Responses of Winegrowers about Sustainable Land Management in Central Spain (2015) 🗎🗎

This study provides a better understanding of the perspective and attitudes of farmers towards sustainable land management (SLM) practices in central Spain. Farmer's willingness to change from conventional tillage to cover crops in vineyards is seen as an indicator for adoption of sustainable agriculture. Two complementary approaches were used: open interviews (n=25) and surveys (n=64). The portrait of these winegrowers is of mature farmers, owners of their lands and conscious of soil erosion problems (81%), although not on their own lands. They observe soil degradation (45%); however, they are more conscious of problems in their vines or grapes (64%). Only 32% would be willing to use cover crops to avoid erosion. The barriers for adoption were mainly related to water constraints, lack of knowledge and inability to accept production decreases. Results indicate an underlying lack of information on SLM. They show confusion or mistakes regarding the relationship between tillage and erosion. Young farmers are more prone to change practices. Scientific results are not effectively communicated; there are no efficient local structures to provide them with knowledge and advice in their work, including guidance on environmental issues. The EU agri-environment payments cover the costs of SLM practices for avoiding erosion or compaction and increasing SOC. In spite of that, participants do not apply for subsidies to compensate the income foregone. Policy makers, extension services and scientists have to face this situation to tackle the limited knowledge transfer revealed in this study. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Farmers' Willingness to Participate in the Next-Stage Grain-for-Green Project in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China (2015) 🗎🗎

The policy implications for success in the next-stage Grain-for-Green Project (GFGP) in China are analyzed from the perspectives of farmers' willingness. The ecological protection belt of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area was chosen as the case study area, where 1207 valid questionnaire surveys based on participatory rural appraisal were collected in 2012. Our study found that farmers with lower levels of education, older age, and higher livelihood dependency on farmland were more prone to reclamation if the compensation ended. Females and non-migrants were more reluctant to participate in the next GFGP than others. Nevertheless, traditional farming was no longer a preferred livelihood by all respondents. The majority of respondents (74.4 %) wished to be liberated from the low-income farmland work through the next GFGP, and half of them (50.6 %) hoped to get non-cash compensation. The Willingness to Accept (WTA) values of the next GFGP showed significant social heterogeneity and regional difference, with an average of annual RMBAyen16,665 ha(-1), about 4.5 times the local compensation standard in 2000. By revealing some limitations of the uniform nationwide compensation standard system and the single payment form in adapting to evolving socioeconomic conditions, our study highlighted the importance of developing a region-based compensation standard system, integrating the next GFGP into regional sustainable development organically by more comprehensive alternative policy, and bonding a vertical partnership between the local community and the nation. Our study revealed some key elements for success in the future design of restoration projects in China.

Farmer identities and responses to the social-biophysical environment (2015) 🗎🗎

Row crop production in the United States (US) Midwest is responsible for a myriad of water pollution issues in the Mississippi River Basin and the Gulf of Mexico. US federal and state governments have spent billions of dollars since the 1930's to understand and develop biological and geophysical practices that will reduce the negative impacts of agriculture on these landscapes and water bodies. However, significantly fewer resources have been applied to understanding the human factor within this social-ecological system. Recently the social psychological framework known as farmer identity as been used to better understand how farmers view themselves as they perform their role as farmer. To empirically test this concept in the US state of Iowa, a farmer identity question was developed and data were collected as part of an annual survey of Iowa farmers. Four farmer identities (Productivist, Conservationist, Civic-minded, and Naturalist) are identified using principal components analysis and tested for their ability to predict support for farm policy scenarios related to soil and water resource protection. Results show that Productivist, Conservationist, and Naturalist identities were likely to be activated by soil and water policies; and the Civic-minded identity was not activated by soil and water policies in general but was significantly against more money for conservation because it might mean more regulation. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Local Knowledge of Pond Fish-Farming Ecosystem Services: Management Implications of Stakeholders' Perceptions in Three Different Contexts (Brazil, France and Indonesia) (2015) 🗎🗎

This article addresses ecosystem service perceptions in the case of pond fish-farming systems in Brazil, France and Indonesia. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment vision suggests a more integrated reflection on environmental policies with greater adaptability to local knowledge and the development of social learning processes, which tend to promote more sustainable changes in behavior and practice than do sanctions. This study considers a part of the identification of ecosystem services. It shows that perceptions differ with the context, and found few differences depending on the type of stakeholders (fish farmers and other stakeholders). From a methodological viewpoint, this paper opens up new prospects for valuing ecosystem services through a perception study.

Factors affecting adoption of improved management practices in the pastoral industry in Great Barrier Reef catchments (2015) 🗎🗎

Substantial efforts are being made by industry and government in Australia to reduce adverse impacts of pastoral operations on water quality draining to the Great Barrier Reef. A key target is to achieve rapid adoption of better management practices by landholders, but current theoretical frameworks provide limited guidance about priorities for improving adoption. In this study information from direct surveys with landholders in the two largest catchments draining into the Great Barrier Reef has been collected and analysed. Study outcomes have important implications for policy settings, because they confirm that substantial variations in adoption drivers exist across landholders, enterprises and practices. The results confirm that the three broad barriers to adoption of information gaps, financial incentives and risk perceptions are relevant. This implies that different policy mechanisms, including extension and incentive programs, remain important, although financial incentives were only identified as important to meet capital and transformational costs rather than recurrent costs. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring the determinants of emerging bioenergy market participation (2015) 🗎🗎

Individual biomass producers will play a strong role in the emergence of robust and sustainable bioenergy markets. Research on what drives their participation, however, is substantial but fragmented. Despite a recognition of producer heterogeneity, there have also been few comparative analyses of drivers of bioenergy market participation across feedstock types, producer groups, and geographic regions. Through narrative review and network analysis, the following review of the bioenergy market participation literature generates both an increased appreciation of how bioenergy market participation is assessed in existing research and how social network analysis may be further employed as a tool for literature review. Across 41 studies selected for qualitative review and a subset of 22 selected for quantitative review, the analysis reaches two central conclusions. The first pertains to the findings of the literature itself, suggesting that a variety of non-production objectives, structural and social constraints, and market-related attributes influence bioenergy market participation decisions. A second conclusion is that the assessment of these factors varies significantly across the literature for both user group and feedstock type. Further examination of the individual variables within these segments of the literature, as well as of authorship patterns across them, suggests that this variation may rise from differences in the subject matter itself and not from differing perspectives of the researchers undertaking the work. Should disparities in the literature be reflective of actual socio-economic differences in their respective markets, policies or programs targeted to individual feedstock types or user groups may be more effective in encouraging participation than uniform national policy initiatives. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Productivity growth as a barrier to a sustainability transition (2016) 🗎🗎

The need for strong productivity growth is a prominent feature of economic policy debates in Australia. Using the productivity trap concept, this viewpoint explores how in some circumstances the pursuit of productivity growth is a barrier to effective sustainability transitions. This is illustrated by a case study of the Australian baking industry, where the increased market share of small-scale artisan bakers vis-vis industrial bakers has recently led to an overall decline in productivity across the baking sector. Although artisan bakers produce more nutritious products and have the potential to significantly increase the energy efficiency of their operations, their labour productivity is half that of their industrial counterparts. Whilst this is good for employment, public health and the environment, artisan bakers have been denigrated as a 'drain on productivity'. This case study illustrates the potential role of low-productivity goods and services in a sustainability transition in Australia and other developed countries. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sparing or sharing? Differing approaches to managing agricultural and environmental spaces in England and Ontario (2016) 🗎🗎

The ability to balance agricultural production and environmental conservation in the face of increasing demand for food, fuel and fibre poses a major challenge for governments around the world. This challenge is explored in two areas of comparison: Ontario, Canada and England, UK in order to understand how each has balanced agriculture and environment in its land use policies. England and Ontario share similarities that suggest lessons and instruments may be transferrable to achieve similar land use objectives. Through the use of a thematic analysis of policy documentation, from each case study area, themes are identified demonstrating differences in approaches, and underlying policy preferences, associated with balancing agriculture and the environment. Specifically, results suggest that policy makers in Ontario hold a preference for land-sparing and leanings towards the productivist paradigm, whereas the land-sharing approach coupled with evidence of post-productivism is more common in England. The structural similarities of these cases provides insights into less tangible aspects of either context, such as policymaker. preferences, where different approaches have emerged from a similar foundation. Moreover, as England transitions out of the EU, it may draw on the experiences of other jurisdictions in the design of a new suite of agri-environmental policies, with Ontario's approach providing one alternative. Overall, this paper contributes to our understanding of the manifestation of land-sparing/sharing and productivism/post-productivism in real world policy contexts and the relationship between both sets of concepts. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agricultural practices, ecosystem services and sustainability in High Nature Value farmland: Unraveling the perceptions of farmers and nonfarmers (2016) 🗎🗎

Our aim was to examine the perceptions of farmers and nonfarmers regarding the relationships between agriculture and the environment in High Nature Value (HNV) farmland. We performed content analysis of information obtained from five focus groups to derive key items (recording units such as words, phrases and concepts) and classify the derived items into a set of themes: agricultural practices, ecosystem services, and economic and social sustainability. We established the relative importance of each item and the relationships among the items. The farmers were very knowledgeable of ecosystem services (particularly regulation), the interactions among them, and their relationships with agricultural practices, particularly grazing management. Nonfarmers were less knowledgeable of ecosystem services, particularly regulation, and identified fewer relationships with agricultural practices. However, nonfarmers were highly concerned about the provision of quality food products and several cultural ecosystem services, which were discussed in bundles. The provisioning of food with particular quality attributes was revealed to be important for participants and a distinctive feature of HNV farmland. Ecosystem services were frequently interwoven with broad issues of economic and social sustainability. Therefore, a systemic view should be considered when designing agri-environmental policies. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Integrating different understandings of landscape stewardship into the design of agri-environmental schemes (2016) 🗎🗎

While multiple studies have identified land managers' preferences for agri-environmental schemes (AES), few approaches exist for integrating different understandings of landscape stewardship into the design of these measures. We compared and contrasted rural land managers' attitudes toward AES and their preferences for AES design beyond 2020 across different understandings of landscape stewardship. Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with similar proportions of small holders, medium holders and large holders in southwest Devon, UK. Overall, respondents most frequently cited concerns related to the reduced amount of funding available for entry-level and higher-level stewardship schemes in the UK since 2008, changing funding priorities, perceived overstrict compliance and lack of support for farm succession and new entrants into farming. However, there were differences in concerns across understandings of landscape stewardship, with production respondents citing that AES do not encourage food production, whereas environmental and holistic farmers citing that AES do not support the development of a local green food culture and associated social infrastructure. These differences also emerged in preferences for AES design beyond 2020. We adapted a collaborative and coordinated approach for designing AES to account for the differing interests of land managers based on their understanding of landscape stewardship. We discuss the implications of this approach for environmental policy design in the European Union and elsewhere.

Climate change discourse among Iranian farmers (2016) 🗎🗎

Climate change poses a severe threat to agriculture and rural populations around the world, with the potential to devastate lives and livelihoods. Farmers need to adapt their farming methods and land management decisions to reduce the negative consequences associated with climate change. Understanding farmers' beliefs and perceptions regarding climate change is a good starting point for addressing current and future policy. As there is no one-size-fits-all strategy to promote adaptation, local adaptation-support strategies must be tailored to the particular needs and constraints of specific groups of farmers. To determine the policy implications of such strategies, a prudent and cost-effective approach is to categorize farmers into homogenous groupings using Q methodology to establish their perceptual frameworks with respect to climate change. Forty six farmers completed the Q sort procedure in this study. Data analysis identified that there are three different types of farmers' attitudes to climate change: fatalism, support seekers, and technocrats. These findings are critical for decision makers to help them develop more appropriate adaptation strategies for the agricultural sector.

Why are grain-legumes rarely present in cropping systems despite their environmental and nutritional benefits? Analyzing lock-in in the French agrifood system (2016) 🗎🗎

Grain-legume plants fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil and thus do not need nitrogen fertilizers. Therefore, grain legumes can potentially decrease global warming, as nitrogen fertilization is responsible for half of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, grain-legumes have many functional and nutritional properties both as feed and food. Despite the fact that the European Union has granted considerable subsidies to promote grain-legume cultivation, their production continues to fall and there has been no satisfactory explanation as to why. This study provides an answer by showing that a situation of technological lock-in has resulted from the co-evolution of crop systems, based on an agrochemical paradigm, public policies, and market dynamics that promote cereals. This process began with the historical choice by European and French public institutions to relegate grain-legumes to feed in direct competition with imported soybeans. Moreover, interrelated factors, such as breeding selection, public subsidies, and food systems, have favored increasing returns to adoption for cereals to the detriment of grain-legumes. Finally, the evolutionary economics approach used here identified several actions that must be implemented together, such as agricultural cost-accounting methods, nitrogen management, institutional innovations, and market outlets to promote grain-legumes and move towards more sustainable agriculture. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Safeguarding pollinators and their values to human well-being (2016) 🗎🗎

Wild and managed pollinators provide a wide range of benefits to society in terms of contributions to food security, farmer and beekeeper livelihoods, social and cultural values, as well as the maintenance of wider biodiversity and ecosystem stability. Pollinators face numerous threats, including changes in land-use and management intensity, climate change, pesticides and genetically modified crops, pollinator management and pathogens, and invasive alien species. There are well-documented declines in some wild and managed pollinators in several regions of the world. However, many effective policy and management responses can be implemented to safeguard pollinators and sustain pollination services.

Payments for environmental services to promote "climate-smart agriculture"? Potential and challenges (2016) 🗎🗎

Payments for environmental services (PES) have gained wide popularity as approaches to promote environmentally friendly land use or agricultural production practices. Yet academics have also voiced concerns against seeing PES as a panacea. This article discusses whether PES is an appropriate and promising approach to promote so-called "climate-smart agriculture" (CSA) practices, which we define as agricultural production practices that contribute to CO2 emission reductions and/or removals and provide benefits to farmers via increased productivity and profits and reduced vulnerability to climate change. PES appears most promising for the promotion of CSA practices in small-scale farming contexts with low incomes. Effective design, however, requires solid estimates of cost and benefit flows from CSA adoption over time, accounting for differences in socioeconomic and ecological conditions, and addressing the risk of leakage. Funding for such PES will likely have to come from public sources, and seems most promising where synergies with other objectives such as agricultural development, food security, and climate adaptation or other environmental services exist. The potential of alternative approaches for CSA support such as taxation with rebates for CSA practices, CSA-related investment support such as microcredits, and hybrid approaches such as conditional microcredit should be further investigated.

Pesticide lock-in in small scale Peruvian agriculture (2016) 🗎🗎

Despite decades of research into the negative impacts of synthetic pesticides, farmers in Latin America continue to use pesticides at high levels and at a high cost to social and environmental sustainability. In this paper, we present a case study of pest management strategies in small-scale agriculture, focusing on the unsustainable technological lock-in of synthetic pesticides. Of the 196 smallholder farmers we surveyed in the coastal Mala and Omas Valleys of Perdu 22% of respondents experienced pesticide poisoning themselves or by an immediate family member. Additionally, the two most common pesticide categories reported in use are potent neurotoxins. We hypothesized that the farmers in the valleys were locked into synthetic pesticides due to uncertainty, coordination and learning associated with adopting an alternative strategy. Logistic regressions revealed gender (male), consulting an agro-chemical technician, quantity of cultivated land, and apple as a primary crop to be important predictors of synthetic pesticide use. Our findings suggest that these predictors represent the lock-in of synthetic pesticides through network externalities, learning economies and adaptive expectations. We conclude with opportunities to transition to sustainable pest management strategies at the local level in Latin American communities through interventions countering the lock-in of synthetic pesticides. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Whose Life Counts: Biopolitics and the "Bright Line" of Chloropicrin Mitigation in California's Strawberry Industry (2016) 🗎🗎

In the context of the mandated phaseout of methyl bromide, California's strawberry industry has increased its use of chloropicrin, another soil fumigant that has long been on the market. However, due to its 2010 designation as a toxic air contaminant, the US Environmental Protection Agency and California's Department of Pesticide Regulation have developed enhanced application protocols to mitigate exposures of the chemical to bystanders, nearby residents, and farmworkers. The central feature of these mitigation technologies are enhanced buffer zones between treated fields and nearby buildings. Not only do buffer zones inherently privilege neighbors over farmworkers, but the determinations of the size of these buffer zones are also based on acceptable threshold levels and probabilities that allow significant exposures to those they are designed to protect. Moreover, these protocols require human monitors to detect sensory irritation. While the science and technology studies literature is highly useful for understanding the inextricability of science and politics in developing protective measures and is attentive to what counts as data in setting acceptable thresholds, it tends to overlook that social sorting is intrinsic to such regulation. We thus turn to Foucault's biopolitics to make sense of regulations that are designed to protect but inherently allow some to become ill. Doing so illuminates how determinations of the bright line are at once technical-political as well as implicit decisions about whose bodies count.

Factors underlying farmers' intentions to perform unsubsidised agri-environmental measures (2016) 🗎🗎

Over the last decades there is a growing body of literature on how to enhance farmers' participation in voluntary subsidised agri-environmental programmes. However, additional unsubsidised agri-environmental measures that farmers perform are often ignored. The willingness to perform these measures may give a better insight into farmers' motivation for agri-environmental measures than subsidised measures because it likely depends only on farmers' intrinsic motivation and not on extrinsic factors such as a financial compensation. In this study we used an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to investigate which factors are associated with farmers' intention to perform unsubsidised agri-environmental measures. Our results demonstrate that attitude, perceived social norms and perceived personal ability are significantly associated with farmers' intention to perform these measures. However, self-identity is the most dominant predictor of farmers' intentions. Furthermore we found that Environmental Cooperatives (ECs) positively influence farmers' willingness to perform additional unsubsidised measures by means of facilitation and group pressure. We conclude that in order to increase farmers' willingness to perform agri-environmental measures, self-identity should be addressed by means of e.g. benchmarking instruments in combination with commitment making or labelling of environmental friendly identities. Also, ECs are more important for unsubsidised measures than previously assumed - we recommended that they change their focus to include unsubsidised as well as subsidised conservation. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Investigating the drivers of innovation diffusion in a low income country context. The case of adoption of improved maize seed in Malawi (2016) 🗎🗎

To match the rapidly changing demand for food to its supply, agricultural productivity needs to be increased. The adoption of improved agricultural technologies is therefore crucial for sustainable agricultural development. In this paper we investigate the adoption dynamics of improved seed by farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers' expectation is found to be a particularly important element in defining the adoption decision process. The aim of this study is to assess ways to stimulate future expectation. Using survey data from Malawi, we examine the role of expectation in the decision-making process of farmers adopting improved seed. We use these data in a dynamic simulation model to assess historical seed adoption patterns in Malawi and examine how counterfeit seed and branding affect farmers expectations and adoption. The simulation model shows that the presence of counterfeit seed on the market can affect adoption considerably. Our analysis demonstrates, that branding has contributed to seed adoption in Malawi, confirming that it can further stimulate demand of improved seed. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effect of the Common Agricultural Policy reforms on intentions towards food production: Evidence from livestock farmers (2016) 🗎🗎

Reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) contributes to uncertainty in farm planning and a number of studies have examined farmer intentions to possible future support scenarios. This paper extends this literature by examining the effect of past reform on influencing farmer intentions towards the most recent reform of the CAP. Agricultural production-related intentions up to 2020 are assessed for a survey of 1764 livestock based holdings in Scotland. The influence of the Fischler reform is estimated, in addition to a hypothetical payment increase and a payment decrease scenario for the new reforms. The majority of farmers stated a desire to remain on the same trajectory under both business as usual and payment increase scenarios. Under a payment decrease scenario, the number of farmers stating they would exit the industry more than doubled from 4% to 9% and around half the respondents stated they would decrease both herd size and intensity if payments were to decrease. Consequently, this may be some evidence of a loss aversion effect. Response to past reform was found to be a significant predictor of intention to change as well as the identification of a successor within the farm household. This alludes to the path dependency model of transition within agriculture and these factors as possible triggers of change within the farm. We propose that future studies of farmer intentions should include some of these temporally distinct variables to explain change. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The attitude of grassland farmers towards nature conservation and agri-environment measures-A survey-based analysis (2016) 🗎🗎

Grasslands have a multi-layer protection function for nature, biodiversity and climate. These functions can be fostered by an adapted management on grassland farms. Promoting nature protection alongside agricultural production is an aim of European agricultural;policy. However, a number of studies indicate that existing Agri-environment measures (AEM) are not as effective as assumed, mainly because they are not sufficiently used by farmers. We investigated the view of grassland farmers on nature conservation and on existing AEM in four distinct regions on a west to east gradient in the North German Plain. We conducted a survey on 82 grassland farms inquiring basic farm data and asking questions on general agricultural issues and nature protection. The results indicate that the majority of all respondents is generally interested in nature conservation and believes it to be of concern for every farmer. In contrast, only a minority of grassland farmers is using the existing AEM to the full extend on their own farm. By applying the concept of farming styles, we classified' farmers into four groups, namely Traditionalist, Idealist, Modernist, and Yield Optimizer. These farming styles groups differ in farm and management parameters, general attitudes towards agricultural issues, farming objectives and economic success. We found that in our survey the farming styles groups differ in their attitude towards nature conservation. However, they do not differ in the adoption of AEM and have different reasons for not taking part. We state that for a better implementation of AEM into agricultural practice a better communication, which is adapted to, the different ways that farmers manage their farm and think and feel, is needed. Consequently, AEM need to be revised as well. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An applied farming systems approach to infer conservation-relevant agricultural practices for agri-environment policy design (2016) 🗎🗎

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has shown difficulties in meeting its environmental objectives, namely in supporting biodiversity-friendly farming systems that remain under pressure to intensify or abandon. Proposals to address this have ranged from increasing the focus on highly tailored and targeted agri-environment schemes, to promoting broad-brush policies such as those recently implemented in the Greening of the CAP. Both options have been criticised due to questionable cost-effectiveness. Alternatives based on agri-environment policies oriented to support conservation-relevant farming systems have been suggested, but they have faced operational difficulties related primarily to obtaining the necessary data to define farming system typologies. Here we investigated whether a simplified approach based on a coarse farming system typology built from incomplete data on land-use and livestock, such as that available in CAP paying agencies, could be used to infer on a wider range of conservation-relevant farm management practices and, ultimately, to select the farming systems qualifying for premium payments. Based on data collected by a farm-survey on a High Nature Value farmland area in southern Portugal, we show that some farming systems are consistently associated with conservation-relevant practices related to the use of herbicides, stubble grazing, creation of wildlife plots and early cereal harvest. The traditional system involving the rotational production of cereals and sheep grazing on fallows showed the most favourable balance of land uses and farm management practices with positive conservation effects. Results underlined the potential of farming systems as a framework for developing agri-environment policy. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agri-environmental diversification: Linking environmental, forestry and renewable energy engagement on Scottish farms (2016) 🗎🗎

In this paper we broaden the debate on agri-environmental scheme participation to include farm woodland expansion and renewable energy production, developing a conceptualisation of 'agri-environmental diversification'. Utilising structural equation modelling, we assess a telephone survey of 2416 Scottish farmers, undertaken in 2013. Findings demonstrate the path dependencies of farming participants, with those already engaged in each of these activities the most likely to plan to be involved in future. Similar factors have influenced the uptake of all three activities since 2005, and intention to increase involvement by 2020. Farmers who are: younger, better educated, information-seeking, certified as organic, receive subsidies, have non-farming income and plan to continue farming in the medium term, are more likely to plan for future engagement in the three activities. Environmental attitudes are also important, but a stronger relationship was found between observation of environmental gains from agri-environmental schemes and the three forms of agri-environmental diversification, suggesting that scheme involvement enables farmers to learn to produce, recognise and value environmental goods. We argue that when assessed within the broader perspective of agri-environmental diversification, agri-environmental scheme participation may represent an initial step on a farming trajectory that involves multiple forms of agri-environmental engagement. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

A real options analysis of Australian wheat production under climate change (2016) 🗎🗎

A significant portion of the world's agricultural systems currently operate at the extreme end of the climate conditions that are considered to be suitable for crop and livestock production. Under these conditions, even moderate climate changes are anticipated to drive substantial transformational changes to agricultural systems. Transformations require new investments and infrastructure and can leave some assets stranded. These transformations can be partially or wholly irreversible, and hysteresis effects can make switching difficult and mistakes costly to reverse. This study demonstrates how a real options decision framework, Real Options for Adaptive Decisions' (ROADs), can be used to investigate how uncertainties about the climate affect the adaptation and transformation of agricultural systems. By building upon recent developments in the mathematics of stochastic optimisation, we extend traditional economic analyses of agricultural investment decisions based on net present values to better represent incomplete knowledge and uncertainty. We report results from a case study in South Australia that describes the transition pathways farmers might follow as their industries are transformed in response to climate change.

Shifting drivers and static baselines in environmental governance: challenges for improving and proving water quality outcomes (2016) 🗎🗎

Understanding the conditions that enable or constrain success in environmental governance is crucial for developing effective interventions and adapting approaches. Efforts to achieve and assess success in environmental quality improvement are often impeded by changes in conditions that drive outcomes but lie outside the scope of intervention and monitoring. We document how long-term changes in land use, agriculture, and climate act as non-stationary, shifting drivers of change that combine to render water quality management interventions less effective and increasingly difficult to assess. Focusing on the Yahara River watershed of south-central Wisconsin, USA, we ask how baselines influence program modeling, monitoring, and evaluation, as well as adaptation in governance approach. Through historical trend, GIS, and policy and qualitative data analyses, we find that changes in long-term land use and precipitation pattern dynamics exert tremendous pressure on water quality outcomes but are not captured in snapshot baseline assessments used in management planning or evaluation. Specifically, agricultural sector change related to the intensification of milk and manure production is increasingly challenging to address through best management practices, and flashier precipitation associated with climate change makes it difficult to achieve goals and establish a causal connection between management interventions and outcomes. Analysis of shifting drivers demonstrates challenges facing environmental governance in the context of climatic and social-ecological change. We suggest that goal setting, program design, and evaluation incorporate new modes of analysis that address slowly changing and external determinants of success.

SOLVING THE PHOSPHORUS POLLUTION PUZZLE: SYNTHESIS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH (2016) 🗎🗎

Despite the success of efforts to reduce phosphorus (P) pollution from point sources, P from non-point agricultural sources remains a vexing problem with many U.S. water bodies having impairments. Key to solving the P pollution puzzle is to take stock of progress to date, the puzzle pieces available, and the gaps to be filled. In this paper, we synthesize the state of knowledge on P pollution, discuss the state of existing public programs, and review economists' contributions to informing P pollution policies. We review the water quality valuation literature, identifying limitations in the linkages to policy-relevant environmental quality metrics. We examine how and why P is used agriculturally, along with recent advances in market-based policy design and field testing. We survey new knowledge in biology and engineering, including improved understanding of the fate and transport of P. In light of recent learning and persistent knowledge gaps, we recommend directions for economic research to add needed pieces to the puzzle of how to protect our water bodies. Puzzle gaps meriting attention include mechanisms to target public funds more effectively in voluntary abatement programs, policy design for emerging mitigation technologies, new ways to implement performance-based policies, means to leverage social norms and behavioral cues, changes in the "pay-the-polluter" paradigm, and application of state-of-the-art evaluation methods to conservation programs. Beyond the realm of public policy lies that of private supply chains, where establishment of environmental standards holds additional promise. Rich research opportunities exist for economists in tandem with biologists, engineers, and others.

Farmer Transaction Costs of Participating in Federal Conservation Programs: Magnitudes and Determinants (2016) 🗎🗎

Transaction costs may be a barrier to participation in USDA conservation programs. Data on perceived barriers and transaction costs from the 2012 USDA Agricultural Resources Management Survey of soybean farmers were analyzed. Of farmers who had not applied for programs, almost a third agreed that applying for programs and documenting compliance (perceived transaction costs) were barriers to participation. The measured magnitudes of transaction costs of those who did apply varied by program but do not seem particularly onerous and are lower than in European studies. Regression analysis indicates that complexity of the program and the farming system may increase transaction costs.

Building an empirically-based framework to value multiple public goods of agriculture at broad supranational scales (2016) 🗎🗎

Agricultural landscapes deliver multiple, highly valued goods such as cultural amenities, biodiversity conservation and climate stability. These goods are often delivered as side-effects of farmers' production decisions driven by broad-scale, supranational changes in agricultural, trade or other policies. Human well-being is thus affected in ways not taken into account in these macro-policy decisions. To avoid this policy failure, there is a growing demand for the valuation of broad-scale changes in public goods by the general public. For this purpose, context-rich valuation scenarios at this broad scale need to be developed which are empirically-based, policy-relevant and understandable by the general public. In this way, respondents are focused on actual trade-offs rather than invited to give symbolic reactions. This paper presents and discusses a valuation framework developed to fulfil these criteria. The approach is based on a typology of Macro-Regional Agri-Environmental Problems (MRAEP). Each MRAEP is defined by: (1) prevailing farming systems and agricultural landscapes; (2) current levels of public-good delivery; (3) expected direction of land-use change; and (4) expected effects of such change on public-good provision in each macro-region. Multivariate analysis of EU-wide data on agricultural landscapes and farming systems led to identify thirteen macro-regions in the EU. Current public-good provision was described using public-good indicators. Only those public goods that are expected to change or could be improved by available policy options (core public goods) were used to generate choice alternatives for survey respondents. The paper ends by discussing innovative elements in the proposed approach, achievements, shortcomings and possible policy uses. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The roles of farm advisors in the uptake of measures for the mitigation of diffuse water pollution (2016) 🗎🗎

Governments face increasing pressure to implement effective policy to reduce diffuse water pollution from agriculture (DWPA). Various strategies and combinations of policy mechanisms have been adopted by different countries to change farmer behaviours with varying degrees of success. This paper focuses on the use of advice delivery to farmers as a mechanism to encourage uptake of DWPA mitigation measures on farms in England. Farm advisory services in England have dramatically changed over recent years, with concerns that the sector has become fragmented due to many organisations and businesses offering advice. This paper studies the role of various farm advisors and organisations providing one-to-one advice by interviewing 81 farm advisors in three agriculturally contrasting regions of England: East Anglia, the North West and South West. Objectives were to assess: which DWPA mitigation measures are being recommended by different advisors? How do recommendations differ between sources of advice and is there any conflict? And which mechanisms do advisors use to influence uptake of advice? Results from the interviews indicate that the advice delivered and the mechanisms used to influence uptake of advice vary between organisations and some advisors do indeed have particular roles within the farm advisory sector. Policy makers therefore need to consider not only what mitigation measures should be encouraged, but also which organisations and advisors are best placed to deliver on the ground advice to farmers. There is also scope to incorporate understandings of farm advice provision into catchment management plans to aid effectiveness of future agri-environmental policy. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Understanding and encouraging greater nature engagement in Australia: results from a national survey (2016) 🗎🗎

Interaction with nature has a range of significant health, ecological and economic benefits and a number of governments are implementing policies to increase humans' engagement with nature. Using a large nationally representative survey sample in Australia, this study provides a detailed comment on the feasibility of such a policy, as well as contributing to an understanding of the characteristics of individuals who engaged in one or more of five dimensions of nature interaction, namely: nature engagement; conservation participation; nature advocacy; environmentally friendly purchasing and future engagement with nature conservation. The results indicate that age, income, education, marital status and household structure are all important influences on various types of nature engagement. It is suggested that increasing opportunities for young people to interact with nature is important, as well as supporting older people's involvement in conservation, plus focusing on the need to target and direct various policies.

Agri-environmental policies and 'good farming' in cultivation practices at Finnish farms (2016) 🗎🗎

Twenty years has passed since Finland joined the European Union in 1995. Agriculture was one of the key areas in which significant changes were both anticipated and realised. Besides the European-wide structural change towards larger production units and the steeply decreasing number of farms, the EU's agricultural policy has brought about significant changes in farming as a livelihood and the ways in which it is practiced in Finland. These changes involve environmental considerations related to fertilisation or tillage practices, for example, but they are also reflected in wider meaning-making related to what farming fundamentally is about. Using the concept of good farming as the key, we explore how the introduced agri-environmental policies have changed farming practices and how this is reflected in the ways that good farming ideals are understood and constituted among different farmers. The analysis is based on interviews in which farmers describe their farming practices, purposes and the influence of policies. Our results suggest that the ideals related to good farming are diversifying and changing as the ways of gaining a livelihood through farming changes. This change occurs as the ideals are renegotiated when performing new voluntary or forced practices. Good farming ideals do not only function as a cultural barrier to the adoption of new practices, but they can actively contribute to the accommodation and development of the practices. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

System Merits or Failures? Policies for Transition to Sustainable P and N Systems in The Netherlands and Finland (2016) 🗎🗎

Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycles are absolutely vital in maintaining sustainable food systems. Human activities disturb the natural balance of these cycles by creating enormous additional nutrient fluxes, causing eutrophication of waterways and pollution in land systems. To tackle this problem, sustainable nutrient management is required. This paper addresses sustainable nutrient management in two countries: The Netherlands and Finland. We adopt a critical perspective on resource politics, especially towards opportunistic policy strategies for the pollutant management of N and P. Two research questions are considered. First, what are the key systemic and policy failures that occurred in the N and P systems in the Netherlands and Finland between 1970 and 2015? And second, which lessons can be drawn when addressing the policy responses in the two countries to cope with these failures? The cases are analyzed within Weber and Rohracher's framework that addresses failures preventing sustainable transitions. The results show that a number of failures occurred, besides market failures (over-exploitation of the commons, externalization of costs): lack of directionality, policy coordination, institutions, capabilities, infrastructure, demand articulation, and reflexivity. Policy responses in both countries resulted in ponderous policy frameworks that were adequate to tackle nutrient problems from the industrial sector and municipalities. However, both countries provided only a moderate response in terms of system-wide integrated policy frameworks to cope with sectoral-transcending issues. The agricultural use of N and P, in contrast to detergents, has not been subjected to strong regulatory measures.

Achieving successful farmer engagement on greenhouse gas emission mitigation (2016) 🗎🗎

This paper explores the potential for farmers' engagement on the issues related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission mitigation in extensive low-input livestock farming systems. The framework used was based on Participatory Action Research. This involved integrating quantitative evidence on GHG emission impacts at the farm level and qualitative data on the obstacles to the adoption of innovation based on farmers' perceptions and attitudes to climate change. The study aims at building social capital among 14 farmers in the South West and West Midlands regions in England, and it evaluates the potential for the adoption of emission mitigation strategies. The Rapid Farm Practices Appraisal (RFPA) tool was created to assess farm practices based on their mitigation potential. Practices were assessed twice over 6-9 months. Semi-structured interviews were used to assess barriers and opportunities to farmer engagement and on-farm innovation. Farmers were invited to a focus group meeting to network with other farmers and engage with researchers. All farmers participated in the 2 farm assessments, but only half the farmers adopted changes in farm management. All farmers appreciated the RFPA tool, the clearness of the information provided and the focus of the tool on practices directly. The main obstacles to innovation were limited financial capital, lack of trust in government action and confusion over the effectiveness of farm advice on mitigation. The lack of long-term flexibility of agricultural policies and the source of information greatly influenced the acceptance of advice. Results suggest the potential for the expansion of the RFPA tool to include economic assessment of farm practices and the engagement of a larger pool of farmers and farming systems. The tool could be used to support the GHG Action Plan and future environmental policies, and as an integrated self-assessment tool for farmers under Environmental Stewardship Schemes.

High nature value mountain farming systems in Europe: Case studies from the Atlantic Pyrenees, France and the Kerry Uplands, Ireland (2016) 🗎🗎

The term high nature value (HNV) farming, acknowledges that the conservation of a large proportion of European biodiversity and important semi-natural habitats are dependent on low-input, mainly extensive farming practices. HNV has become a focus for nature conservation and countryside management in Europe. This paper critically analyses the drivers of change and the challenges facing two European HNV upland pastoralist systems, one in the French Atlantic Pyrenees and the other in the Irish uplands. The detailed case studies highlight the traditional linkages between the landscape, grazing management, locally adapted animal breeds and social capital, all of which are currently under threat from globalised markets and policy orientation. The research findings indicate that the European multifunctional model of agriculture and its support for farm diversification including the provision of environmental goods and services has not been successful in targeting and rewarding HNV systems. In the search for economic viability (and social acceptance) many are left with the stark choice of intensification or abandonment; ultimately meeting neither market demands nor ecosystem services. We conclude with a recommendation for more targeted, evidence based support for HNV farmland, along with better integration in the wider rural economy, if these farming practices are to survive into the future and if the EU is to meet its 2020 biodiversity targets. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The basic motivational drivers of northern and central European farmers (2016) 🗎🗎

Farmers are key actors in land management confronted with society's increasing demand for public goods. Understanding farmers' values and motivations is essential to policy makers to foster more sustainable production practices. So far, no definite value profile for European farmers exists. Based on Schwartz's theory of basic human values, we statistically analyzed six rounds of the European Social Survey to explore farmers' value orientations in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. Our results revealed that farmers are less open to change and instead more conservative in their value orientation than the general population. Comparison of value orientations across farmers showed that this value profile is particularly pronounced for Austrian, Finnish, and German farmers. Furthermore, there is a slight tendency for farmers to be less motivated by self-interest and instead more concerned with common welfare than the general population, but this observation needs further validation. Based on these value profiles, we argue that agri-environmental schemes will receive better acceptance when they represent a long-term modification of existing schemes, when they do not trade off commodity production, and when they provide benefits to society. Compensation for income losses resulting from reduced on-farm output appears to be an ineffective incentive. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Complex Shades of Green: Gradually Changing Notions of the 'Good Farmer' in a Swedish Context (2016) 🗎🗎

There are ever-growing demands on farmers to consider the wider environmental implications of production, not least in the Baltic Sea Region where concerns about agricultural-related eutrophication are significant. In Sweden, farmers are being nudged through voluntary agro-environmental measures, enticed by the market and compelled to make the transition from a productivist agriculture to a multifunctional one. Drawing on the 'good farmer' concept, inspired by Bourdieu, this article studies Swedish conventional and agro-environmental organic farmers' views and reflections on the changing relationship between farming practices and the environment. The article finds that despite 25 years of agro-environmental policy in Sweden, some conventional farmers are still mired in a narrow productivist mindset. That said, the study concludes that we should be wary of conceiving the 'good farmer' too strictly in productivist terms, given that the 'rules of the agricultural game' in Sweden are leading to a more divergent farmer habitus. Farmers are looking for opportunities within the multifunctional agricultural field, which increasingly demands and expects all farmers to embed social and environmental goals into production considerations.

Patterns of agri-environmental scheme participation in Europe: Indicative trends from selected case studies (2016) 🗎🗎

This paper investigates the personal and property characteristics of landowners who use EU Rural Development agri-environmental schemes (AES), as well as their motives for participation or non-participation in such schemes. The study is based on a questionnaire survey with landowners, in selected study areas in the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Italy and Greece. Our principal findings show that AES tend to attract more the owners of larger farms, who are frequently full-time, younger, post-primary school educated and agriculturally-trained farmers. The latter findings are contingent on local geographical particularities and on subjective factors, farmers' individualities, different rural cultures, landscape types, EU and national policies and special needs of the study areas all areas where agricultural production is increasingly marginalized, for different reasons. Subsidy scheme participation motives did not seem to be strictly economic; they also regarded personal satisfaction. They are all together generally appeared to be place specific, since the respondents from peri-urban Northern European areas were more motivated to participate in AES than respondents from Central and Southern European areas with marginal potential for agriculture. Motives for non-participation were also found to be dependent on the level of farming engagement and on case-area landscape types. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Result-based agri-environment measures: Market-based instruments, incentives or rewards? The case of Baden-Wurttemberg (2016) 🗎🗎

Result-based agri-environment measures are increasingly seen as an interesting way to improve the conditionality and efficiency of the use of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding for environmental land management. They differ from classical action-based measures in that they remunerate farmers to achieve a desired outcome, and not for complying with a set of rules. We have analysed MEKA-B4, the result-based agrienvironment measure in place in Baden-Wurttemberg (Germany) between 2000 and 2014, which aimed to preserve species-rich grassland. In order to do so, we carried out semi-structured face-to-face interviews with participating and non-participating farmers and key institutional actors. We argue that MEKA-B4 could be considered a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), but only if a broad definition is adopted, as the payment appeared to cover the opportunity costs of only some categories of farmers (e.g., part-time farmers, less productive fields, hay producers), but it was too low to cover those of intensive cattle raisers and biogas producers, partly due to the changing market conditions (e.g., fluctuating and decreasing price of hay; incentives to produce biogas). In fact, in general most farmers were motivated to join the scheme by a combination of extrinsic motivations (i.e., the monetary incentive) and intrinsic motivations (i.e., ethical reasons). Increasing the payment, as has been done in the new version of the scheme (FAKT-B3), may help to ensure a wider enrolment in the measure in the long term. However, the interaction with biogas subsidies and other measures of the FAIT programme may hamper the farmers' enrolment. This shows the need to improve the integration and coherence of environmental policies that have different objectives. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Heterogeneity of farmers' preferences towards agri-environmental schemes across different agricultural subsystems (2017) 🗎🗎

Specialised literature on the uptake of agri-environmental schemes (AES) has paid little attention to how this can be influenced by the different types of agricultural systems. This paper analyses the heterogeneity of farmers' preferences towards these schemes, distinguishing between different subsystems within the same agricultural system. We use the choice experiment method to analyse the case study of three olive grove subsystems in southern Spain, with the subsystems ranging from extensive to intensive. The results reveal inter- and intra-subsystem heterogeneity of farmers' preferences towards AES, both in general and specifically related to scheme attributes. A variety of factors appear to lie behind inter-subsystem heterogeneity, especially those associated with subsystem specificities (principally, the type of joint production). Likewise, numerous factors play a role in intra-subsystem heterogeneity, most of them related to farm/farmer socio-economic and physical characteristics. These findings will help in the design of more efficient AES.

Promoting nature conservation by Dutch farmers: a governance perspective (2017) 🗎🗎

Reconciling productive agricultural practices with nature conservation is not only an ecological challenge, but also a demanding matter of governance. This paper analyses the potential as well as the limitations of various governance arrangements, and explores ways to enhance the governance of nature conservation in agricultural landscapes. We assume four conditions to contribute to the performance of these arrangements: farmers should be motivated, demanded, enabled, and legitimized to participate in arrangements that promote nature conservation by farmers. We analyse 10 distinct Dutch governance arrangements in the period 2000-2016, including agri-environment schemes but also privately initiated arrangements. The arrangements target a large but unknown share of farmers and farmlands, but nature conservation ambition levels are generally low to moderate. The expected low-to-moderate performance is associated with a low-to-moderate motivation, demand, and ability. Underlying are stronger forces driving towards intensification and problems farmers face in recuperating the cost of nature conservation. New greening requirements in the EU Common Agricultural Policy and in agri-food supply chains are first, cautious steps addressing these fundamental drivers of ecological degradation. More ambitious greening requirements may contribute to a higher motivation and ability of larger groups of farmers to implement nature conservation measures.

Scaling Up Agricultural Innovation for Inclusive Livelihood and Productivity Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Nigeria (2017) 🗎🗎

Agricultural research programmes driven by agricultural innovation system concepts usually aim to change the way in which low income rural agrarian households in a nation like Nigeria communicate with the market and the decision-making strategies pertaining to development of their agri-business and the scarce resources which are at their disposal. We assess the extent to which the use of these innovative agricultural research interventions impact upon the livelihood and productivity outcomes of rural smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan African using a case study of Nigeria. Using propensity score matching as a means of establishing a valid counterfactual and single differencing to measure impact, the study establishes that rural incomes and output are significantly impacted by agricultural research interventions that are driven by agricultural innovation systems concepts. The study finds that participating households had better livelihood, productivity and more diversified income portfolios during the implementation of innovative research intervention as a result of greater linkages to markets and capacity building opportunities; phasing out of the research programme reduced the diversity of income portfolios and led to the erosion of livelihoods. Therefore, agricultural innovation system concepts should be mainstreamed in all public agricultural extension and research programmes.

Do farm advisory services improve adoption of rural development policies? An empirical analysis in GI areas (2017) 🗎🗎

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to evaluate how advisory services stimulate the adoption of rural development policies (RDP) aiming at value creation. Design/methodology/approach: By linking the use of agricultural extension services (AES) to policies for value creation, we will put forward an empirical analysis in Italy, with the aim of evaluating the capability of AES in bringing about higher access to rural policies for value creation in geographical indications (GI) contexts. Findings: Results of our analyses evidence, on the one side, higher capability of funds attraction in GI areas. On the other side, path dependency schemes in accessing RDP are evident. Higher rates of access with the support of advisory services emerge, but only in traditional measure to fund farms' investments. On the contrary, the use of AES does not facilitate access to other measures for value creation. Practical implications: Our hypothesis is that AES include the support towards farm strategies of development through the adoption of RDP aiming at value creation in GI areas. Our analysis presents practical implications, in terms of a clear need for upgrading and broadening AES' competencies in the field of projecting farm development and knowledge transfer in the field of funds to be obtained by RDP. Theoretical implications: From a theoretical point of view, the paper may provide a contribution to theoretical debate by offering new insights into the role of advisory services in stimulating innovations and access to support policies. Originality/value: This paper tries to fill a gap in the agricultural extension literature. We posit that the role of AES should comprehend a deeper knowledge (and knowledge transfer) concerning the opportunities provided by RDP.

Genetic Traits of Relevance to Sustainability of Smallholder Sheep Farming Systems in South Africa (2017) 🗎🗎

Sustainable livestock production is important to ensure continuous availability of resources for future generations. Most smallholder livestock farming systems in developing countries have been perceived to be environmentally, socially and economically unsustainable. Farming with livestock that is robust and adaptable to harsh environments is important in developing countries especially in semi-arid and arid environments. This review discusses the different sheep farming systems employed by smallholder farmers and associated sustainability problems facing them. The review also gives an overview of sustainability indicators and limitations to the sustainability for the different smallholder sheep production systems in South Africa. It is argued that genetic diversity is important for sustainability and needs to be maintained in sheep for sustainable production and reproduction performance. The application of traditional breeding and genomics to ensure sustainable production is explored. Animal breeding approaches, specifically genomics can be applied to improve areas of environmental sustainability of smallholder sheep farming systems but must be targeted to the specific production environments, challenges, and opportunities of smallholder production. The genetic traits important for sustainability, the role of genomics in improving these traits and linking these genetic traits to different farming systems in South Africa are discussed.

Greening the agri-environmental policy by territorial and participative implementation processes? Evidence from two French regions (2017) 🗎🗎

After nearly three decades of agri-environmental policy in the European Union, the negative environmental impacts of agricultural practices are still an ongoing problem. Though a substantial body of work underlines the economic, cultural, and social factors that could encourage farmers to adopt less damaging farming practices, many researchers as well as practitioners raise the question of the efficacy of leaving agri-environmental policy processes in the hands of farmers' organizations and national agricultural departments. The activation of non-agricultural actors in these processes is increasingly considered as a driving force toward greener agri-environmental schemes. Using the case of two French regions during the 2007-2013 period, this study examines the effects of the new, decentralized, and multi-stakeholder governance of agri-environmental scheme implementation. This analysis explores how the presence of regional and local political entities and environmentalist organizations affect (or not) both the content of agri-environmental schemes and the traditional corporatist style of agricultural policy making. This study shows two main results. First, it reveals that non-agricultural actors adopt various strategies to neutralize the reformist effect their presence should theoretically have generated within agri-environmental policy. Second, it indicates the dominance of a sectoral and corporatist policymaking style over the territorial modes of policy implementation. Together, these dynamics underline a path dependency phenomenon in agricultural policies, one characterized by the political-economic dominant position of agricultural administrations and farmers' groups. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ecophyto, the French action plan to reduce pesticide use: a failure analyses and reasons for hoping (2017) 🗎🗎

Launched in France in 2008, the national "Ecophyto" plan, aiming "if possible" at a reduction of 50% of the pesticides use within 10 years, is a failure. After the first five years of its implementation, pesticide consumption has increased. Acknowledging this failure, the French government recently announced a new version of the plan (Ecophyto 2) although some aspects of its content remain unknown. For the authors of this paper (agronomists and sociologists), failure was predictable, given the characteristics of Ecophyto 1's implemented actions. They show it by the analysis of two of the flagship initiatives of the plan (monitoring health plant "bulletin", database allowing to assess in real time the risks of pests, and the "DEPHY farms", an experimental network supposed to disseminate good practices, and the study of the indicator measuring pesticide use. But the failure is even more due to the plan's main focus on farmers and advisors practices regardless of the broader effects of the "socio-technical lock-in" including a wide range of actors all interdependent and strongly engaged in pesticides' logic of uses. Ecophyto plan has nevertheless a symbolic effect, which could be determinant at mid-and long-terms: public authorities sent the signal of the upcoming end of pesticide massive use in agriculture.

Organic agriculture in post-war Uganda: emergence of pioneer-led niches between 1986 and 1993 (2017) 🗎🗎

Uganda is the largest producer of organic commodities in Africa. While most of the literature associate the start of organic agriculture in Uganda with the first certified project, no accounts exist about non-certified organic agriculture before 1993. Both in Europe and in the USA, pioneers drove non-certified organic agriculture as a response to economic, ecological and social crises. Uganda suffered two decades of civil war ending in 1986 causing multiple crises. We explore how post-war conditions influenced the emergence of organic agriculture in Uganda. We conducted individual semi-structured interviews with 12 organic agriculture experts from Central and Southwestern Uganda. Interviews were held in English using interview guides informed by a transition theoretical perspective. Interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed and analyzed using deductive and inductive coding. Our analysis shows that the degraded environment, food insecurity and economic instability after the war created a sense of urgency for the rehabilitation of livelihoods. Pioneers, including civil society activists, farmers, entrepreneurs and researchers, responded by promoting low-cost, resource-conserving technologies and agronomic practices to smallholder farmers. Economic liberalization, decentralization and institutional vacuum eased pioneers' activities, despite facing opponents from the government and research. Through experimental learning, demonstration farms and cooperation with the Catholic Church, public extension services, researchers and international development-oriented non-governmental organizations, pioneers reached out to farmers in Eastern, Central and Southwestern Uganda. As challenging as post-war crises may be, they offer opportunities for changing development trajectories. Therefore, reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts can accommodate sustainability concerns and allow the introduction of course-changing measures in any sector.

Land access and costs may drive strawberry growers' increased use of fumigation (2017) 🗎🗎

2016 marked the year of the final phaseout of methyl bromide for use in strawberry production. During the long phaseout period, one replacement fumigant met so much public opposition it was taken off the market, while restrictions on use of other fumigants increased. As part of a larger study on the challenges facing the strawberry industry, I tracked fumigant use through California's pesticide use reporting system from 2004 to 2013. During the last few years before the phaseout, I interviewed 74 growers in the four main strawberry production regions about how they were now managing soilborne pests. As a general trend, growers had increased their use of chloropicrin and switched from broadcast fumigation to bed fumigation, and many were experimenting with organics. At the same time, significant percentages of growers were reluctant to change fumigation regimes or adopt nonchemical options of pathogen control. Some were unable to adopt less chemical-intensive methods because of land access conditions and land costs. Given these land-related obstacles, policymakers ought to consider strategies that will incentivize transitions to nonchemical alternatives and mitigate the financial risks.

Farmer rationality and the adoption of greening practices in Poland (2017) 🗎🗎

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform in the European Union introduced a new element: greening. The aim of greening is to support the environment and create non-productive value in agriculture. The main element of greening is the Ecological Focus Area (EFA) meaning that a portion of farmland area has to be designed for environmental purposes. This article consists of an evaluatation of greening and its elements in the first year CAP reform has come into force. Surveys were used as a tool to gather information about farm characteristics, ways to meet greening requirements as well as the opinions of farmers as to changes in direct subsidies and greening obligations. The research was conducted in 2015 directly interviewing 290 farmers from the whole of Poland. The farmers interviewed lived in different parts of the country and had different size farms. Data was prepared with the use of spreadsheets and were analysed using the R statistical program and the "gmodel" and "vcd" statistical packages were used during the calculations. Polish farmers are against greening. Greening does not significantly change the way farmers run their farms. They choose the cheapest options of EFA which are usually not the best for the environment. Furthermore, farmers have to bear the cost of introducing the new elements themselves. Despite a high number of environmental and agricultural advantages offered by new farming methods, crop rotation and after-crop sowing duty, CAP reform is assessed in a negative light. As a result of negative opinions held by farmers due to the lack of subsidies, farmers may not continue greening practices in the future.

Smallholder agriculture and climate change adaptation in Bangladesh: questioning the technological optimism (2017) 🗎🗎

This paper offers an in-depth sociological analysis of how the interplay of climatic factors, agricultural technologies and markets shapes smallholder livelihoods in Bangladesh to help sketch the outline for a sustainable agricultural adaptation strategy. It intends to question the technological optimism inherent in mainstream climate change policy discourse by highlighting the multiple sources of vulnerabilities of smallholder peasants in Bangladesh. Using findings from a qualitative study, it demonstrates how smallholders in Bangladesh currently experience climate change through their everyday agricultural practices, and how climate change along with the ecosystem destruction from modern farming technologies adversely affects their livelihoods. Drawing on the recent literature on sustainable adaptation, this paper argues that any agricultural adaptation strategy in Bangladesh must analyse the vulnerabilities of farming communities at the intersection of their geographically specific exposure to climatic threats, the extent of their market participation and the socioecological implications of their technology adoption. It concludes that an eventual departure from the current rice monoculture pivoted on chemical dependence and an excessive use of natural resources is the prerequisite for a sustainable agricultural adaptation.

Governing the transformation towards 'nature-inclusive' agriculture: insights from the Netherlands (2017) 🗎🗎

It is becoming increasingly difficult to combine nature conservation by farmers with intensive and large-scale farming. The Dutch government recently adopted the new policy concept of 'nature-inclusive' farming, which aims at promoting more sustainable agricultural practices that minimizes negative ecological impacts, maximizes positive ones and at the same time benefits from natural processes. A transformation towards 'nature-inclusive' farming faces three key governance challenges that are elaborated upon in this paper. First, agri-environment schemes and other conservation arrangements need to become more effective. At the same time, nature conservation should be mainstreamed in agricultural policies and in agri-food chains. Second, we need shared meanings about nature-inclusive farming. Third, other forms of knowledge production for nature-inclusive farming are required that focus more on farmers' knowledge needs.

The role of dairy company policies in support of farm green infrastructure in the absence of government stewardship payments (2017) 🗎🗎

Intensive dairy farming has substantial impacts on freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. Determining how to mitigate them while increasing production is driving the quest for sustainable milk production internationally. Green infrastructure (G.I.) provides private and public ecosystem services, including mitigation of farming environmental impacts. However, there are implementation barriers among farmers. New Zealand government supports farmer self-regulation as long as farmers meet environmental targets. Farmers are neither compensated for reducing environmental impacts, nor for setting aside G.I. in support of nature conservation. Dairy companies are under increasing pressure to ensure socially acceptable milk production practices among farmer suppliers. They may play a role in encouraging farmers to implement G.I. as a way of helping farmers meet regulatory compliance, and best farming practice. Using a content analysis of company policies, the role of dairy companies in encouraging G.I. among farmers is explored. Results indicate companies are concerned about the effects, and perception, of poor environmental farming practices on their profitability, and have developed some riparian G.I. policies, with government and farmer support. However, policies are farm-focused and are limited to one year, and thus lack the capacity to encourage G.I. in support of key ecosystem services, such as water cleansing and support for indigenous biodiversity that require landscape scaled networks and longer periods. Even at the farm scale, a majority of companies lack policies that encourage significant G.I. networks. Policies suggest companies, and by extension farmers, lack sufficient motivation to protect or restore them voluntarily. Under these conditions, significant G.I. is unlikely to develop under self-regulation, unless supplemented through motivating government stewardship payments.

Compensating Environmental Losses Versus Creating Environmental Gains: Implications for Biodiversity Offsets (2017) 🗎🗎

In the economic literature on the motivations underlying voluntary contributions to environmental public goods, little attention is granted to the way the overall objective of the environmental program is framed. A program which contributes to an increase of environmental quality can be perceived differently from a program designed to bring back the environmental quality to its original level, after it was damaged by human intervention. How does it impact participation rates and contribution levels? This paper addresses this issue in the context of agri-environmental schemes for biodiversity conservation. It compares farmers' willingness to participate in two contracts, one being framed as part of a biodiversity offset program, the other one as part of a biodiversity conservation program. We demonstrate with a discrete choice experiment that biodiversity-offsets programs need to offer a higher payment to enroll farmers compared to biodiversity conservation programs. This result is essentially driven by farmers who declare to have organic practices. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects and success factors of sustainable consumption policy instruments: a comparative assessment across Europe (2017) 🗎🗎

Important knowledge gaps exist regarding the effects of policy instruments for sustainable consumption (SC) and success factors of such instruments. This article compares and summarizes the results of six case studies on the effects and success factors of SC instruments in the need areas of housing and food. While analysing different instrument types from four different European countries, all case studies were guided by the same analytical framework and mixed-methods approach. This synthesis article particularly emphasizes factors fostering the generation of instrument effects (outcomes and impacts) or hampering the creation of such effects, respectively. These factors include instrument goals and design, the accommodation of consumer needs, and the simultaneous addressing of framework conditions, as well as market context, policy interaction, and stakeholder involvement. The findings and conclusions can contribute to a better understanding of the conditions under which policy instruments can steer consumer behaviour towards sustainability.

Informing water harvesting technology contract design using choice experiments (2017) 🗎🗎

Introducing water harvesting technology is expected to be more effective and last longer if farm households are involved in their design. The main objective of this study is to inform policymakers in Ethiopia about the most important terms and conditions to incentivize farmers to enter into a contractual agreement to invest in water harvesting on their land. In order to test the influence of the way the specific contractual terms and conditions are communicated to farm households, many of whom are illiterate, a split sample approach is applied with and without visual aids for technical, institutional, and economic contract characteristics. Both samples generate significantly different results, highlighting the importance of how information is conveyed to farm households. This pattern is confirmed when examining the self-reported importance attached to the various contract characteristics. Equality Constrained Latent Class models show that contract characteristics for which visual aids were developed are considered more attentively, emphasizing the importance of adequate communication tools in a developing country context where literacy rates are limited to increase water technology innovation uptake and reduce farm household vulnerability to droughts. Plain Language Summary Diffusion of new water harvesting technology will be more effective if farm households are involved in their design. Terms and conditions to incentivize farmers to invest in water harvesting technology are identified. Contract characteristics for which visual aids were developed are considered more attentively. Accounting for literacy in communication and outreach supports effective uptake of water harvesting technology.

In situ conservation-harnessing natural and human-derived evolutionary forces to ensure future crop adaptation (2017) 🗎🗎

Ensuring the availability of the broadest possible germplasm base for agriculture in the face of increasingly uncertain and variable patterns of biotic and abiotic change is fundamental for the world's future food supply. While ex situ conservation plays a major role in the conservation and availability of crop germplasm, it may be insufficient to ensure this. In situ conservation aims to maintain target species and the collective genotypes they represent under evolution. A major rationale for this view is based on the likelihood that continued exposure to changing selective forces will generate and favor new genetic variation and an increased likelihood that rare alleles that may be of value to future agriculture are maintained. However, the evidence that underpins this key rationale remains fragmented and has not been examined systematically, thereby decreasing the perceived value and support for in situ conservation for agriculture and food systems and limiting the conservation options available. This study reviews evidence regarding the likelihood and rate of evolutionary change in both biotic and abiotic traits for crops and their wild relatives, placing these processes in a realistic context in which smallholder farming operates and crop wild relatives continue to exist. It identifies areas of research that would contribute to a deeper understanding of these processes as the basis for making them more useful for future crop adaptation.

Bottom-up design process of agri-environmental measures at a landscape scale: Evidence from case studies on biodiversity conservation and water protection (2017) 🗎🗎

An Agri-environmental measure (AEM) is a payment to farmers to reduce environmental risks or to preserve cultivated landscapes. The single farm scale that is the basis for the AEM has often inhibited the achievement of the environmental goals since many biophysical processes (e.g. soil erosion, water pollution, biodiversity losses) occur at landscape scale. This creates a spatial scale mismatch between the implementation scale of the measures and the ecological processes controlling the target agri-environmental issues. In this paper, we propose how to address this spatial scale mismatch by analysing nine case studies of AEMs implementation at landscape scale concerning biodiversity conservation and water protection. The analysis highlights that the inclusion of the landscape scale in AEMs depends on the level of the involvement of the local stakeholders (SH) in the building process. When the authorities created the space for the SHs to participate in the defining process of AEMs, the inclusion of local knowledge led to the emergence of new landscape and site-specific AEMs which were not previously considered by the autorities. On the contrary, when the SHs were only allowed to choose among the AEMs predefined by the authorities, many site specificity and acceptance issues arose. The creation of space in Rural Development Programmes for collaborative, bottom-up and landscape scale AEMs and the overcoming of institutional constraints in the design of specific actions are the key ingredients for the successful adoption of measures and for enhancing their effectiveness. In this paper, we explore in depth what made these stories successful and provide a framework for the implementation of site-specific and landscape AEMs.

Renewable Energy Project as a Source of Innovation in Rural Communities: Lessons from the Periphery (2017) 🗎🗎

Renewable energy projects (REPs) are viewed as a resource for the development of rural, peripheral communities. Going beyond the simplistic understanding of renewable energy technology as an independent variable, the current study looks into what the interaction between renewables and host communities brings in terms of innovation and development. Relying on a combination of primary and secondary data, both qualitative and quantitative, we observed that for the case of northwest Romania the fast development of REPs had no impact on classic economic indicators such as employment or revenue to the local budget. Looking closely at the impact on innovation as an important explanatory factor of peripheralization, in the majority of researched cases we saw no technical nor policy-related innovation associated with REPs. The presence of a privately-owned project in the territory of the community acted as a possible catalyst for considering developing their own REPs however. Owning a renewable energy project at the same time proved to have a positive impact on policy-related innovation. Moreover, communities that developed and manage their own REPs seem also to be more interested in changing the existing technological arrangements as well.

Gendered adaptation of Eritrean dryland farmers (2017) 🗎🗎

Purpose - This paper aims to report findings of a study of vulnerability that identified adaptation strategies of male and female farmers in two regions of Eritrea. The country is suffering from food shortage because of climate and non-climate stressors. As such, erratic rainfall, chronic droughts and extreme weather adversely affect crop production. This paper answers the question of how policy instruments and cultural practices, and their interaction, increase or reduce the vulnerabilities of male and female agricultural producers, including producer perceptions of how instruments and culture can be improved. Design/methodology/approach - Interviews and focus groups were conducted in the two study regions in Eritrea. Documents and transcripts of the interviews and focus groups were coded by theme and analyzed. Findings - Findings revealed that the main rainy season has reduced from four to two months, and the minor rainy season has often failed. As a result, exposure and sensitivity to climate change affects all farmers. These climate change impacts together with Eritrean government policy instruments, including the limited availability, affordability and accessibility of agricultural inputs such as land, fertilizer, seeds, and male labor exacerbate the vulnerability of agricultural producers. Tigrinya farm women are the least able to adapt to extreme weather because of an unequal distribution of resources resulting from cultural, patriarchal views of women which have prevented them from being regarded as equal primary farmers and further limit their access to the resources mentioned. This vulnerability is exacerbated by the prescribed military service of men in their community (which is not prescribed in the matrilineal Kunama community). Producers perceive that addressing this gender inequality and improving government instruments, most importantly getting rid of mandatory military service, will improve adaptation. Practical implications - Concrete recommendations made by the community are reported. Originality/value - This paper presents important findings from qualitative research conducted in Eritrea.

Drivers of adoption of agroecological practices for winegrowers and influence from policies in the province of Trento, Italy (2017) 🗎🗎

Many agricultural practices are negatively impacting the environment and threatening the ecological foundations of the global food system. Therefore, agroecological practices are being proposed as viable and desirable alternatives. Biophysical, economic, social, and political factors, matched with farmers' psychological attributes, may all be governing the choice of agricultural practices. Public policies can play a significant role as they can stimulate the adoption of innovative farming practices. The main objective of this research was the evaluation of farmers' motivations for the adoption of agroecological practices in the viticulture sector in the province of Trento, Italy. A specific focus was laid on the influences from the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) measures. For the evaluation of farmers' perceptions of their systems of practices, the Cognitive Mapping Approach for Analysing Actors' Systems Of Practices (CMASOP) was applied. Based on information collected during in-depth interviews, Individual and Social Cognitive Maps were generated, representing the most frequently adopted agroecological practices and the major drivers of adoption of such practices, as mentioned by farmers. Drivers of adoption were categorized according to the self-determination theory of human motivations. Farmers reported that adoption of agroecological practices was mainly driven by existence of site-specific pedoclimatic conditions, followed with decreasing importance by requirements from wineries, availability of material, appreciation for aesthetics, health concerns, influence from irrigation consortia, and legal requirements, among which a local legislation for integrated pest management based on a CAP measure. Overall, results show that farmers reported to adopt agroecological practices mainly because of autonomous choices rather than coercion. Therefore, wineries and local policy-makers might incentivize the adoption of agroecological practices by promoting autionomy-supportive policies that foster farmers' identified and intrinsic motivations.

Adoption of erosion management practices in New Zealand (2017) 🗎🗎

Soil erosion is a serious environmental threat to New Zealand's agricultural sector. Economic costs of soil erosion are significant and the costs of adopting mitigation and management practices, given the targets set by environmetal policy, do not spread uniformly across space, economic activities and types of erosion processes. Management practices have been widely employed by farmers and promoted by several policy programs. Practices are not mutually exclusive and could be jointly adopted by comparing productivity gains against costs of implementation. However, research on the identification of the drivers of adoption is scarce in New Zealand. To identify the determinants of adoption of management practices in New Zealand farms, we combine novel survey information with data on climate and erosion in a multivariate probit framework. This framework allows identification of potential complementarity or substitution between management practices. We find significant and heterogeneous effects from erosion levels, temperature, wind velocity and primary land uses on the adoption of any of the practices. In addition, we also find significant complementarities between management practices. The results of this study are important because the complementarities relate to external effects of erosion mitigation which can help to promote public acceptability of mitigation policies. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agriculture after Brexit (2017) 🗎🗎

The paper considers the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on the UK, and sets out three options for a new British Agricultural Policy after Brexit. These options are: carrying over the subsidy regime with an emphasis on food security and self sufficiency; maintaining the CAP architecture, but shifting more of the CAP subsidies away from payments for land ownership towards more spending on environmental schemes; and providing public money only for public goods. The third option is advocated, after a transitional path allows time for farmers to adapt.

Farmer participation in agri-environmental schemes: Regionalisation and the role of bridging social capital (2017) 🗎🗎

European agri-environmental schemes are being criticised for reinforcing rather than negating an opposition between agricultural production and environmental production, and for assuming instead of securing a public willingness to pay for agri-environmental change. This paper explores if a regionalisation of agri-environmental governance may contribute to overcome these criticisms. The paper empirically explores three regionalised agri-environmental schemes from Flanders, Belgium, with the use of 40 qualitative interviews with farmers and other relevant stakeholders. Building on the Bourdieusian theory of capital and the conceptual distinction between bonding and bridging social capital, the paper analyses whether and why the regionalised arrangements incited farmers to integrate environmental production in their farm management to meet other regional stakeholders' demands for agri-environmental change. In doing so, the paper particularly focuses on the role of bridging social capital in fostering farmer participation in agri-environmental governance, which is a topic that despite a growing scholarly recognition of the importance of social capital in mediating farmers' environmental behaviour has to date received scant conceptual and empirical attention. The paper reveals that farmers principally participated in the regionalised agri-environmental schemes to enhance the long-term viability of their agricultural businesses by building up more cooperative and appreciative, bridging social ties with other regional stakeholders. Notably, such participation is only likely to be substantive and lead to long-term, pro-environmental behaviour change of farmers, if farmers actually succeed in building up bridging social capital by receiving other regional stakeholders' appreciation for their agri-environmental work. The paper ends with discussing the implications of these findings for the future design and implementation of socially and ecologically robust agri-environmental schemes. (C) 2016 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Sustainability Standards and Sustainable Development - Synergies and Trade-Offs of Transnational Governance (2017) 🗎🗎

This article investigates potential trade-offs between the socioeconomic and environmental dimensions of development within the context of transnational business governance and sustainability standards, exemplified by smallholder certification in the palm oil sector as a means to improve both sustainability and the inclusion of small farmers in global value chains. This article finds that there are important trade-offs between environmental sustainability and inclusive development. First, there is a worry that the diffusion of standards that aim at enhancing environmental sustainability may undermine the socioeconomic situation of smallholders by excluding them from global value chains and from international markets that demand certified commodities. Second, while smallholder certification can generate socioeconomic benefits for farmers included in certification schemes, these potential benefits may have contradictory and undesired implications for environmental sustainability. The article analyses these trade-offs and discusses implications with a view to fostering the synergies between economic, environmental and social sustainability. Copyright (C) 2016 The Authors Sustainable Development published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Farmer perceptions of the opportunities and constraints to producing carbon offsets from Australian dryland grain cropping farms (2017) 🗎🗎

The Australian Government is attempting to use a market-based mechanism to involve agriculture in activities that reduce emissions and sequester carbon. The initiative, known as the Carbon Farming Initiative, represents a significant investment as part of the government's climate change and land-use policies. To examine the potential opportunities and constraints faced by Australia's grain farms to engage in these carbon farming activities, we interviewed 31 grain farmers and five industry professionals. Our analysis suggests that a lack of project methodology development and the current project approval processes pose significant constraints to engagement. A particular concern for farmers is the extent of the permanence obligation requiring long-term maintenance of the carbon possibly more than 100 years and the additionality requirement regarding the common practice test that if too many others are doing the practice it will not get the required for project approval. Given the requirements of the processes and the associated transaction costs, producing offsets from dryland grain cropping operations in Australia is currently not a profitable endeavour for farmers and therefore fails to act as an incentive to participation.

Probing the grounds: Developing a payment-by-results agri-environment scheme in Finland (2017) 🗎🗎

Results-oriented approaches are widely regarded as an effective means to improving cost-effectiveness of agri-climate-environment schemes. We designed a hypothetical payment-by-results scheme for biodiversity conservation on environmental grasslands in Finland. The scheme would pay farmers a premium if the site contains a set number of indicator species, which were selected based on vascular plant surveys of the target habitat type. We presented the hypothetical scheme to 20 farmers and six experts (researchers, officials and advisors) in agricultural policy for their opinions on the payment-by-result approach generally and the hypothetical scheme specifically. The indicator species list proved suitable for identifying sites with high total species richness of vascular plants and also appeared feasible in the eyes of the farmers. Farmers were mostly positive about the approach and, mainly, thought their peers and society at large would receive it positively. The main concerns were about implementation, especially verifying the biodiversity results. People working for the national control body were the most critical and could not see how the hypothetical scheme could fit into the current institutionalised programme. Experience in other countries may provide solutions for overcoming such obstacles. The results are highly relevant for a discourse on social experimentation and cost-efficient delivery of public goods for public money. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Capacity-Building Stewardship Model: assessment of an agricultural network as a mechanism for improving regional agroecosystem sustainability (2017) 🗎🗎

Working lands have potential to meet agricultural production targets while serving as reservoirs of biological diversity and as sources of ecological services. Yet agricultural policy creates disincentives for this integration of conservation and production goals. While necessary, the development of a policy context that promotes agroecosystem sustainability will take time, and successful implementation will depend on a receptive agricultural audience. As the demands placed on working lands grow, there is a need for regional support networks that build agricultural producers' capacity for land stewardship. We used a social-ecological system framework to illustrate the Healthy Grown Potato Program as an agricultural network case study. Our Capacity-Building Stewardship Model reflects a 20-year experience working in collaboration with potato growers certified under an ecolabel in Wisconsin, USA. The model applies an evolving, modular farm stewardship standard to the entire farm-croplands and noncroplands. The model demonstrates an effective process for facilitating communication and shared learning among program participants, including agricultural producers, university extension specialists, nonprofit conservation partners, and industry representatives. The limitation of the model in practice has been securing funding to support expansion of the program and to ensure that the ecolabel standard is responsive to changes in the social-ecological system. Despite this constraint, the Capacity-Building Stewardship Model reveals an important mechanism for building regional commitment to conservation, with agricultural producers in a leadership role as architects, adopters, and advocates for stewardship behavior. Our experience provides important insight for the application of agri-environment schemes on private lands. The durability of a conservation ethic on working farms is likely to be enhanced when networks engage and support producers in an ongoing stewardship dialogue. Stewardship networks provide a means for coordination of conservation practices across property boundaries; with sufficient enrollment, they can achieve the spatial scale necessary to enhance regional agroecosystem sustainability.

Mitigation of diffuse water pollution from agriculture in England and China, and the scope for policy transfer (2017) 🗎🗎

This paper evaluates the existing policy frameworks for mitigation of diffuse water pollution from agriculture (DWPA) in England and China. With reference to a conceptual model of the process of policy transfer or international lesson drawing, and possible constraints to this, it assesses whether and how China can draw lessons to improve current policy from the supra-national and national provisions of the EU and a member state that by 2016 had comprehensively implemented EU agricultural and environmental policy. DWPA is first analysed as a public policy challenge to inform specification of a generic framework for its mitigation. The current policy frameworks for mitigation of DWPA in England and China are evaluated, and their potential for improvement is assessed. A number of barriers to lesson drawing for regulation, incentive payments schemes and advice provision are diagnosed. These barriers are potentially least in relation to advice provision and its use to promote voluntary action by farmers. Given its structure and capabilities the public agricultural extension system in China is also recognised as a key resource. A focus on three policy approaches to mitigate DWPA in China is recommended: i) targeted regulation to a 'reference level' of large intensive livestock, and ultimately other large commercial farms; ii) strategic use of incentive payment schemes to protect water resources from DWPA; and iii) re-orientation of the ethos and modalities of operation of the extension system, informed by international lesson drawing, with the aim of rebalancing farm productivity and environmental protection. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A novel management-based system of payments for ecosystem services for targeted agri-environmental policy (2018) 🗎🗎

Agricultural policy should recognize the farmers' role in delivering ecosystem services (ES) to society, for which both farmers and policy makers need improved tools to set objective environmental targets and fair distribution of subsidies. We aimed to quantify the effect of beneficial agricultural practices on ES delivery, and to develop and apply a generic framework of management-based payments for ES (PES). We carried out a Delphi expert consultation (researchers and technicians/managers) on the interface agriculture-environment by which we measured the contribution of current agricultural practices at farm level to relevant ES in Mediterranean agroecosystems. Next, we designed a novel framework of PES that used these contributions to rank the practices that satisfied three agri-environmental policy objectives (equal importance of ES, focus on biodiversity and climate, and focus on social demands). We found that the relative contribution of practices to individual ES delivery was rather similar, especially for those ES influenced by many agricultural practices. However, when considering different objectives in the PES framework, differences in practice prioritization were apparent. The framework was able to reward farmers according to their objective contribution to conservation priorities. The PES system also showed that grazing management practices were multifunctional and delivered ES in bundles.

Addressing Gaps in Environmental Water Policy Issues across Five Mediterranean Freshwater Protected Areas (2018) 🗎🗎

The increasing pressure on water resources in Europe's broader area led member states to take measures and adopt a common legislative umbrella of directives to protect them. The aim of this research is to investigate practicing deficiencies, information lacks and distances from optimal status as set by the Water Framework Directive and supporting water uses. This contributes to the improvement of the efficiency and harmonization of all environmental goals especially when management of Protected Areas is addressed. Gap analysis, an approach that reveals the distance between current and desired level, was carried out, targeting five Mediterranean hydro-ecosystems, covering three major water policy pillars Monitoring Practices, Management Practices and Water Quality and Pressures. Data for such analyses was collected by literature research supported by a query matrix. The findings revealed a lack in compliance with the Water Framework Directive regarding the Monitoring Practices and several deficiencies in sites burdened by eutrophication and human pressures on Water Quality and Pressures field. As for Management Practices, extra effort should be applied in all hydro-ecosystems to reach the desirable state. We suggest that gap analysis, as a harmonization tool, can unify apparently different areas under the same goals to reveal the extra necessary investment.

Farmer Behavior and Gastrointestinal Nematodes in Ruminant Livestock-Uptake of Sustainable Control Approaches (2018) 🗎🗎

Gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) infections are a common constraint in pasture-based herds and cause a decrease in animal health, productivity and farm profitability. Current control practices to prevent production losses of GIN infections in livestock depend largely on the use of anthelmintic drugs. However, due to the continued use of these drugs over more than three decades, the industry is now increasingly confronted with nematode populations resistant to the available anthelmintics. This emerging anthelmintic resistance (AR) in cattle nematodes emphasizes the need for a change toward more sustainable control approaches that limit, prevent or reverse the development of AR. The uptake of diagnostic methods for sustainable control could enable more informed treatment decisions and reduce excessive anthelmintic use. Different diagnostic and targeted or targeted selective anthelmintic control approaches that slow down the selection pressure for anthelmintic resistance have been developed and evaluated recently. Now it is time to transform these insights into guidelines for sustainable control and communicate them across the farmer community. This article reviews the current uptake of such sustainable practices with a focus on farmer's socio-psychological factors affecting this uptake. We investigate communication as a possible tool to change current behavior and successfully implement more sustainable anthelmintic treatment strategies.

Review: Taking stock of Africa's second-generation agricultural input subsidy programs (2018) 🗎🗎

Input subsidy programs (ISPs) remain one of the most contentiously debated development issues in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). After ISPs were phased out during the 1980s and 1990s, the landscape has changed profoundly since the early 2000s. By 2010, at least 10 African governments initiated a new wave of subsidy programs that were designed to overcome past performance challenges. This study provides the most comprehensive review of recent evidence to date regarding the performance of these second generation ISPs, synthesizing nearly 80 ISP-related studies from seven countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, and Ethiopia). We specifically evaluate ISP impacts on total fertilizer use, food production, commercial input distribution systems, food prices, wages, and poverty. We also consider measures that could enable ISPs to more cost-effectively achieve their objectives. We find that ISPs can quickly raise national food production, and that receiving subsidized inputs raises beneficiary households' grain yields and production levels at least in the short-term. However, the overall production and welfare effects of subsidy programs tend to be smaller than expected. Two characteristics of program implementation consistently mitigate the intended effects of ISPs: (1) subsidy programs partially crowd out commercial fertilizer demand due to difficulties associated with targeting and sale of inputs by program implementers, and (2) lower than expected crop yield response to fertilizer on smallholder managed fields. If these challenges could be addressed, ISPs could more effectively mitigate the concurrent challenges of rapid population growth and climate change in SSA.

Relational values in agroecosystem governance (2018) 🗎🗎

Understanding farmers' values regarding biodiversity conservation, and how these values inform land use decisions within and around farms is essential because of the amount of land under agricultural production regionally and globally. New research within the emerging context of relational values offers a nuanced perspective that can deepen our understanding of farmer values and subsequent decision making, with direct applications to agricultural policy. Here we provide an initial review of some of the relational values articulated for agricultural systems associated with biodiversity conservation in a diverse literature. We illustrate that these relational values are complex, contribute to the maintenance of multifunctional landscapes, and frequently do not adequately intersect with current conservation policy. We use the literature to identify new areas of conservation biology and sustainability science research that might bridge this gap by understanding farmer's values in relation to conservation policy in multifunctional agricultural landscapes.

AES Impact Evaluation With Integrated Farm Data: Combining Statistical Matching and Propensity Score Matching (2018) 🗎🗎

A large share of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is allocated to agri-environmental schemes (AESs), whose goal is to foster the provision of a wide range of environmental public goods. Despite this effort, little is known on the actual environmental and economic impact of the AESs, due to the non-experimental conditions of the assessment exercise and several data availability issues. The main objective of the paper is to explore the feasibility of combining the non-parametric statistical matching (SM) method and propensity score matching (PSM) counterfactual approach analysis and to test its usefulness and practicability on a case study represented by selected impacts of the AESs in Emilia-Romagna. The work hints at the potentialities of the combined use of SM and PSM as well as of the systematic collection of additional information to be included in EU-financed project surveys in order to enrich and complete data collected in the official statistics. The results show that the combination of the two methods enables us to enlarge and deepen the scope of counterfactual analysis applied to AESs. In a specific case study, AESs seem to reduce the amount of rent-in land and decrease the crop mix diversity.

Exploring How Land Tenure Affects Farmers' Landscape Values: Evidence from a Choice Experiment (2018) 🗎🗎

Values play an important role in farmers' land management decisions, becoming increasingly relevant when designing environmental policy. One key element that influences farming decisions is the land tenure under which farmers and their land are embedded, which represents different sets of rights for farmers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to elicit farmers' values regarding the social and ecological attributes of the landscape, and determine how these values vary according to differences in land rights. We performed this exercise in the two most important land tenure systems in rural Mexico. We carried out a choice experiment to understand preferences for different landscape attributes such as vegetation cover, surface water, terrain slope, and type of property. Then, we probed how these preferences change according to the land rights that farmers hold. We found that surface water was consistently the most important landscape attribute. However, there were clear differences that were related to land rights for some values, such as for example, vegetation cover. Institutional mechanisms such as boundary rules and conflicting values are part of the explanation of these differences. These results provide a bridge to understanding farmers' management decisions, and in the future, improving sustainable development.

How to diagnose institutional conditions conducive to inter-sectoral food security policies? The example of Burkina Faso (2018) 🗎🗎

The multidimensional nature of food security often leads experts to recommend mobilising all public intervention sectors to'ensure that food security policies are inter-sectoral, and not the sole responsibility of a single sector. However, in African contexts such as in Burkina Faso, food security policies are in most cases far from being inter-sectoral. They are instead focused on agricultural production. It is therefore critical to understand why food security policies are what they are, to identify the underlying sectoral logics and to seek for signals of policy changes. This paper aims at contributing methodologically to the literature focusing on institutional diagnostic of food security policies. Drawing on a combination of new institutional approaches and cognitive public policy analysis we explain food security policies in Burkina Faso by three major factors. First, the persistence of agricultural production-oriented policies points to path dependency arising from the way food insecurity has historically been framed around cereal deficits. Second, the instruments used to measure and assess food security are not neutral: they directly shape both policy debates and decision-making. Third, the institutional configuration of the policy debate is characterised by a fragmentation that influences power games between actors supporting different visions of food security. Finally we argue that new concepts such as "nutrition-sensitive agriculture" combined with more open forums may have the potential to lead to more inter-sectoral food security policies.

Intensification and Upgrading Dynamics in Emerging Dairy Clusters in the East African Highlands (2018) 🗎🗎

Based on farmer and value chain actor interviews, this comparative study of five emerging dairy clusters elaborates on the upgrading of farming systems, value chains, and context shapes transformations from semi-subsistent to market-oriented dairy farming. The main results show unequal cluster upgrading along two intensification dimensions: dairy feeding system and cash cropping. Intensive dairy is competing with other high-value cash crop options that resource-endowed farmers specialize in, given conducive support service arrangements and context conditions. A large number of drivers and co-dependencies between technical, value chain, and institutional upgrading build up to system jumps. Transformation may take decades when market and context conditions remain sub-optimal. Clusters can be expected to move further along initial intensification pathways, unless actors consciously redirect course. The main theoretical implications for debate about cluster upgrading are that co-dependencies between farming system, market, and context factors determine upgrading outcomes; the implications for the debate about intensification pathways are that they need to consider differences in farmer resource endowments, path dependency, concurrency, and upgrading investments. Sustainability issues for consideration include enabling a larger proportion of resource-poor farmers to participate in markets; enabling private input and service provision models; attention for food safety; and climate smartness.

Make or buy: the case of harvesting mechanization in coffee crop in Brazil (2018) 🗎🗎

This paper investigates the make-or-buy choice on the harvesting mechanization transaction in Brazilian coffee production. It empirically tests this organization choice following the transaction attributes of asset specificity, uncertainty and path dependence. Using a two-stage probit model conditioned by credit availability in a sample of 105 coffee growers in Brazil, our study evidences that the governance decision follows the efficient alignment argument of the Transaction Cost Economics. The research contributes to the understanding of institutional arrangements in place at coffee grower perspective. An additional descriptive field investigation presented the existence of three different types of arrangement as a solution for coffee harvesting mechanization: total vertical integration (make), outsourcing contracts (buy) and tapped vertical integration. Those results demonstrate a shift from a spot transaction pattern to more sophisticated contractual tools. We present managerial implications by illustrating the determinants of each decision, either make or buy, in the harvesting mechanization transaction in coffee production which can provide support to efficient strategies elaboration by farmers or service providers.

Facilitating Change for Climate-Smart Agriculture through Science-Policy Engagement (2018) 🗎🗎

Climate change impacts on agriculture have become evident, and threaten the achievement of global food security. On the other hand, the agricultural sector itself is a cause of climate change, and if actions are not taken, the sector might impede the achievement of global climate goals. Science-policy engagement efforts are crucial to ensure that scientific findings from agricultural research for development inform actions of governments, private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international development partners, accelerating progress toward global goals. However, knowledge gaps on what works limit progress. In this paper, we analyzed 34 case studies of science-policy engagement efforts, drawn from six years of agricultural research for development efforts around climate-smart agriculture by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Based on lessons derived from these case studies, we critically assessed and refined the program theory of the CCAFS program, leading to a revised and improved program theory for science-policy engagement for agriculture research for development under climate change. This program theory offers a pragmatic pathway to enhance credibility, salience and legitimacy of research, which relies on engagement (participatory and demand-driven research processes), evidence (building scientific credibility while adopting an opportunistic and flexible approach) and outreach (effective communication and capacity building).

Partnering for nature conservation NGO-farmer collaboration for meadow bird protection in the Netherlands (2018) 🗎🗎

In order to reverse the trend of continuous decline in species diversity and abundance in agricultural landscapes, various governance arrangements have been implemented that promote, organise and finance nature conservation by farmers. The scientific literature predominantly focuses on agri-environment schemes (AES), i.e. publicly funded financial compensation schemes for farmers who implement prescribed conservation measures. Less attention has been paid to governance arrangements initiated by actors outside the public domain. This paper analyses a unique partnership between a nature conservation NGO - BirdLife Netherlands (BLN)- and a network of about 130 dairy and cattle farmers, aimed at meadow bird protection in the Netherlands. Meadow birds breed in large numbers in the Netherlands, mainly on farmland, but their numbers have been declining as a consequence of agricultural intensification, urbanisation and predation, amongst other things. Established in 2010, the partnership is gradually evolving from bilateral cooperation between BLN and individual farmers into a network. Based on desk research, interviews and five focus group sessions with almost 40 representatives of the partnership, we conclude that the main (perceived) achievements include: a large contribution to awareness of and recognition for the important role and efforts of fanners in meadow bird protection among citizens, politicians, policy-makers and companies in agri-food chains; a modest contribution to improving conservation efforts by participating farmers; and a modest contribution to their knowledge about conservation of meadow birds. The main success factors are the alignment of interests and complementarity of the partners and motivation derived from meeting peers. The partnership clearly complements AES in terms of its functions.

Farmers as climate citizens (2018) 🗎🗎

This article explores the potential for farmers to become climate citizens. Drawing on in-depth interviews, we analyse how Norwegian farmers relate to climate change in their everyday farming practises. After discussing the concepts of environmental and ecological citizenship, we propose the climate citizen approach to meet the challenges that climate change poses to agriculture. Until now, Norwegian farmers' response to climate change has been limited. Major changes in farming practises seem unlikely without incentives from the state. A climate citizen approach can help balance a response to institutional regulations and policies with the individual moral obligation to take personal and non-reciprocal responsibility for the planet. In order to influence how farmers might incorporate climate change awareness into their everyday practises, policy makers should take existing norms and values in the agricultural community into account and adopt clear and manageable instruments to reward farmers for taking adaptive measures.

Socio-technical lock-in hinders crop diversification in France (2018) 🗎🗎

Crop diversification is considered as a major lever to increase the sustainability of arable farming systems, allowing reduced inputs (irrigation water, pesticides, fertilizers), increasing the heterogeneity of habitat mosaics, or reducing yield gap associated with too frequent returns of the same species. To free up paths of collective action, this article highlights obstacles to crop diversification, existing at various levels of the value chains. We used a threefold approach: (i) a cross-cutting analysis of impediments to the development of 11 diversifying crops (5 species of grain legumes, alfalfa, flax, hemp, linseed, mustard, sorghum), based on published documents and on 30 interviews of stakeholders in French value chains; (ii) a detailed study (55 semi-structured surveys, including 39 farmers) of three value chains: pea and linseed for animal feed, hemp for insulation and biomaterials; and (iii) a bibliometric analysis of the technical journals and websites (180 articles) to characterize the nature of information diffused to farmers. We highlight that the development of minor crops is hindered by a socio-technical lock-in in favor of the dominant species (wheat, rapeseed, maize, etc.). We show for the first time that this lock-in is characterized by strongly interconnected impediments, occurring at every link of the value chains, such as lack of availability of improved varieties and methods of plant protection, scarcity of quantified references on crop successions, complexity of the knowledge to be acquired by farmers, logistical constraints to harvest collection, and difficulties of coordination within the emerging value chains. On the basis of this lock-in analysis, that could concern other European countries, the article proposes levers aimed at encouraging actors to incorporate a greater diversity of crops into their productive systems: adaptation of standards and labelling, better coordination between stakeholders to fairly share added value within value chains, and combination of genetic, agronomic, technological, and organizational innovations.

Sustaining our Natural Resources in the Face of Increasing Societal Demands on Agriculture: Directions for Future Research (2018) 🗎🗎

U.S. agriculture is vital to meeting a growing global population's demand for food, fiber, feed, and fuel. Smart technologies, big data, and improvements in crop genetics present producers with promising new opportunities for meeting these needs. However, a changing climate and an expanding global population impose challenges to increasing crop and livestock production while sustaining the natural resource base and protecting environmental quality. Sustainable agricultural development will call for systems approaches to allocate land among competing uses, coupled with the adoption of conservation technologies incentivized by cost-effective policies that have been based on evidence from sound economic, behavioral, biological, and technological research. This paper suggests directions for future research in nine key dimensions that can fill important gaps in the existing literature and build on new research methods and policy needs, as well as inform strategies for sustainable growth of agriculture.

The Role of the Principle of Environmental Integration (Article 11 TFEU) in Maximising the "Greening" of the Common Agricultural Policy (2018) 🗎🗎

Aware of the harmful effect that agriculture can have on the environment and particularly on global warming EU policy-makers in the last three decades have been trying to integrate sustainable development into the design of EU agriculture. However, notwithstanding the measures taken in the 2013 reform to "green" the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the overall delivery of environmental benefits appears to be very limited. Taking as a point of departure the absence of any mention of sustainable development in the overarching goals of EU agricultural policy, this article will assess to what extent the principle of environmental integration may be able to bridge this gap, if at all. In this connection, an in-depth analysis will be carried out on the influence that the principle may exert on the EU legislator and its potential role in triggering judicial review an and environmentally sound interpretation of EU secondary legislation.

Understanding farmers' motivations for providing unsubsidised environmental benefits (2018) 🗎🗎

This paper examines farmers' motivations for voluntary unsubsidised practices that benefit the environment. It identifies amongst a group of English farmers the amount of unsubsidised environmental activities on mainly arable land, and explores the extent to which motivations are extrinsic and intrinsic for undertaking this unsubsidised activity. Using responses from a national survey in England of 1,345 farmers, in-depth face-to-face interviews with 60 farmers and an analysis of existing agri-environment scheme data, the extent to which subsidised and unsubsidised environmental activity is undertaken on arable land was identified. Furthermore, it was also possible to identify and compare the motivations behind subsidised and unsubsidised environmental activity and to understand the interaction between these two types of activity at the farm scale. The research found that around 25% of all environmental activity undertaken on arable farms in England is unsubsidised, although some of this activity sits alongside subsidised activity. There were clear differences between the motivations for undertaking subsidised and unsubsidised environmental activities. Financial reasons dominated farmers' motivations for engaging in subsidised agri-environment scheme practices, whilst agronomic and environmental motivations were of greater importance for unsubsidised activity. Data analysis also revealed oversubscription in agri-environment schemes, with a considerable amount of environmental activity occurring without payment. From a policy perspective it is helpful to understand motivations for existing unsubsidised environmental activity as this can inform the design of advice and message framing to encourage uptake of more widespread voluntary environmental behaviour.

What Can and Can't Crowding Theories Tell Us about Farmers' 'Environmental' Intentions in Post-Agri-Environment Scheme Contexts? (2018) 🗎🗎

The termination of the Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) Agri-Environment Scheme in England provides a unique opportunity for testing and exploring the so-called crowding-out theory. The theory posits that payment for the provision of public goods leads to a reduction in the intrinsic motivation for their supply. Through a small qualitative case-study in Southwest England we explore farmers' intentions to continue with environmental behaviours' following the cessation of ELS. Contrary to the crowding-out theory we find that farmers will continue with longstanding environmental practices' that were financially rewarded by the ELS, but will pick and choose whether to continue with newly introduced practices depending on how they fit with farmers' existing cultural, economic and instrumental priorities. Moreover, we argue that the crowding-out theory is based on a set of assumptions and simplifications that do not adequately help us interpret the relationship between farmers' motives, practices and intentions. In particular, we show that intrinsic and extrinsic motives cannot straightforwardly be separated and that definitions of what constitutes an environmental behaviour' are far more complex than is often assumed.

'Farming on the Edge': Wellbeing and Participation in Agri-Environmental Schemes (2018) 🗎🗎

This article investigates aspects of farmers' wellbeing in the context of their participation in an agro-environmental scheme (AES), the North Yorkshire Cornfield Flowers Project (CFP) in the North East of England. Recent developments in wellbeing studies have informed data collection and analysis. Ethnographic data was gathered via observation, field notes and semi-structured interviews with farmers and non-farmer volunteers. The article discusses how farmers' social activity, identity, status and place belonging are enhanced through participation in CFP, and how this might promote their continued AES work. Recognising the potential for AES participation to enhance farmer's wellbeing may demonstrate added value of AES and strengthen the argument for AES funding once the UK leaves the European Union. There is currently little existing evidence in the literature to support this since with only a few exceptions, wellbeing has been characteristically neglected in rural studies research.

Food for Hope: The Role of Personal Resources in Farmers' Adoption of Green Technology (2018) 🗎🗎

Innovative technologies are expected to play a significant role in climate change mitigation and adaptation within the agriculture sector and in global food security. Clearly, however, the value of technological innovations in the agriculture sector is premised on their adoption. Therefore, understanding why farmers differ in their adoption of innovative green technologies is important. In the following paper, we review current literature and set the theoretical framework for suggesting that three important personal resources correlate with agricultural technology adoption: positive emotions, character strengths (including specific ones), and cognitive goal-oriented hope. This study constitutes an important theoretical basis for future practical recommendations for environmental policy, positive psychology, and innovation adoption that may help narrow some of the gaps in technology adoption rates. In addition to its theoretical innovation, the importance of this study lies in its practical value: we focus on variables that are influenced through policy, education, and communication. The theoretical connections between positive psychology and environmental studies emerging from this study should be developed and explored. We hope that this new perspective will motivate future research on these factors within diverse farming communities across different nations.

Nudging Farmers to Comply With Water Protection Rules - Experimental Evidence From Germany (2018) 🗎🗎

Nitrogen runoff from agricultural fertilisation causes serious environmental damage to surface waters. Environmental and consumer advocates demand government intervention to mitigate these externalities. The present study examines the effects of nudge-based regulatory strategies. Using an incentivised single-player, multi-period business management game as an experimental device, we study how nudges affect compliance with the minimum-distance-to-water rule in a sample of German farmers. We investigate two different nudge treatments: a nudge with information and pictures showing environmental and health damages that are presumably caused by breaching the minimum-distance-to-water rule, and a nudge with an additional social comparison suggesting that the majority of farmers in the same region comply with the rule. Three core experimental outcomes are observed: first, nudging has a preventive effect and reduces not only the share of noncompliant participants, but also the total area that is illicitly fertilised. Second, against all expectations, the preventive effect of the nudge with an additional social comparison is not stronger than that of the nudge with information and pictures alone. Third, despite the overall positive effects of nudging, the nudge with social comparison even increased the severity of non-complying behaviour in the deviant subpopulation.

Result-oriented Agri-Environmental Climate Schemes as a means of promoting climate change mitigation in olive growing (2018) 🗎🗎

The climate change mitigation potential of olive farming has been widely acknowledged. It has particular relevance in regions such as Andalusia (southern Spain) where olive growing is a key land use activity with significant social, economic and environmental implications. This potential of olive farming, however, is not adequately embodied in current Agri-Environmental Climate Schemes (AECS), which often fail to deliver the expected outcomes. The present article proposes an alternative strategy based on a result-oriented approach to AECS for enhancing soil carbon sequestration in Andalusian olive growing. After reviewing the current legal and institutional situation which forbids the wide application of result-oriented agri-environmental schemes, we suggest the use of alternative territorial governance arrangements, such as hybrid governance structures (HGS), as a framework to support the implementation of a result-oriented approach in the specific case of olive growing. Results indicate that the application of HGS can provide valuable benefits in terms of soil carbon storage. The information provided may be useful in the proposed new legislative framework, at both European and regional level, to promote more sustainable farming systems.

Evaluation of Agri-Environmental Programs: Can We Determine If We Grew Forward in an Environmentally Friendly Way? (2018) 🗎🗎

The environmental elements of the quinquennial agricultural policy frameworks are probably the largest agri-environmental programs in Canada and have been running for about 15 years. Formal evaluation of their effectiveness has either not been done, or is not available for researchers and policy analysts to compare with other agri-environmental policy efforts. This address introduces this problem and attempts to examine evaluative approaches using Alberta's Growing Forward 1 and 2 environmental stewardship programs. While this attempt has uncovered significant data issues, there is evidence that program managers targeted funds to areas where water quality risks are of concern. The review also questions the requirement that producers eligible for funding must have an Environmental Farm Plan. After 15 years of having this requirement, I argue that it's time for Alberta's environmental stewardship program to relax this.

Aquaculture innovation system analysis of transition to sustainable intensification in shrimp farming (2018) 🗎🗎

The shrimp sector has been one of the fastest growing agri-food systems in the last decades, but its growth has entailed negative social and environmental impacts. Sustainable intensification will require innovation in multiple elements of the shrimp production system and its value chain. We use the case of the shrimp sector in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam to explore the constraints in the transition to sustainable intensification in shrimp farming, using an analytical framework based on innovation systems thinking, i.e., an aquaculture innovation systems framework. Using this framework, we conduct a systemic diagnostic of blocking mechanisms, interrelated sets of constraints within the aquaculture sector that hinder a transition toward sustainable intensification. Our findings show that the major constraints are institutional, with limited enforcement of the regulatory framework for input quality control, disease control, and wastewater management, and a lack of coordination between government bodies to design and enforce this framework. At farm level, limited access to capital favors pond mismanagement and the use of low-quality inputs. The absence of multi-stakeholder initiatives to foster dialog between actors in the value chain constrains the response to new regulations dictated by international market demand. Because of shrimp farming's connectivity with the wider ecosystem, sustainable intensification in shrimp farming will require collective management of water resources at the landscape level for disease and water pollution control. Ecological principles for pond management need to be promoted to farmers in order to reduce farmers' inefficient practices and build their capacity to understand new techniques and inputs available in the Vietnamese market. Our paper demonstrates for the utility of a multi-level, multi-dimension, and multi-stakeholder aquaculture innovation systems approach to analyze and address these blocking mechanisms in the transition to sustainable intensification in shrimp farming and aquaculture more broadly.

Is economic institutional adaptation feasible for agri-environmental policy? Case of Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition standards (2018) 🗎🗎

This review focuses on Czech implementation of standards for soil and water protection called Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC), with linkage to the European Union (EU) level. I investigate different elements of adaptive institutional economics: (i) summarise current knowledge regarding the social reasons for introducing GAEC; (ii) assess the evidence linked to GAEC to better understand the potential as well as boundaries of formalizing cause-effect links; (iii) clarify the pertinence of producers' claims on costs accruing from GAEC implementation. These three points highlight the thesis of this paper: implementation in farmers' practices of the theoretical concept of sustainability in terms of bridging together economics, society and the environment. The economic reasoning for GAEC introduction within adaptive institutional economics stems from the relational positioning of the knowledge of the costs of the impact of agricultural land use on other characteristic rural land uses. GAEC are needed, albeit the size of support obtained by producers surpasses the costs of complying; therefore, the result pays off for farms. We have learned that GAEC implementation is important from regional to EU levels and that its role is more related to economic institutional adaptation than to regulation. Adaptation of institutional economics is therefore feasible, making it possible to understand GAEC as a network which manages and enables knowledge transfer linked directly to regulation. Institutional economics can link sustainability with farmers' practices and accounts for the behaviour of the farmers. In this review, I find that, for society, it is necessary to require measurement of agri-environmental outcomes for water resources, soil and biodiversity through GAEC at appropriate scales. These scales are likely to be relevant to adaptive institutional economy localities perceived by the rural public.

Implementing green infrastructure policy in agricultural landscapes-scenarios for Saxony-Anhalt, Germany (2018) 🗎🗎

Green infrastructure (GI) has been identified as helping to protect Europe's natural capital by fostering environmental protection outside nature reserves and enabling better overall adaptation to changing conditions. The aim of Europe's green infrastructure strategy is to integrate GI implementation into existing policies. In intensively farmed agricultural areas, this mainly means the greening measures of the Common Agricultural Policy, which are mandatory for farmers wishing to receive full direct payments. We explore how GI implementation might develop under different future scenarios. We use a participatory scenario development approach to explore the benefits and limitations perceived by local actors in the agricultural regions of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Limiting factors include ecosystem disservices, economic constraints relating to income, labour costs, investments and land tenure, and social considerations including the farmers' self-image as primarily food producers and local people's opinions regarding good farming practices. The limiting factors also include a lack of knowledge about the ecological usefulness of measures, and failings in the design of the measures regarding practicability, flexibility and reliability. Benefits are seen in various ecosystem services, job creation and in fulfilling society's demands for environmental protection. We conclude by stating that GI implementation in agricultural landscapes requires reliable and flexible measures that fit farming practices and are well communicated, and that landscape level coordination and cooperation could enhance their effectiveness.

Tracing social capital: How stakeholder group interactions shape agricultural water quality restoration in the Florida Everglades (2018) 🗎🗎

Agricultural nonpoint source pollution remains a pressing environmental problem despite decades of policy and environmental initiatives. Cooperative local actions are a crucial element of effective multilevel governance solutions to such problems, but securing farmer participation for water quality protection remains challenging. Social capital-relations of trust, reciprocity, and shared social norms within and between key stakeholder groups-has been found to enable cooperation for environmentally desirable outcomes. However, the downsides of social capital remain under-examined in multilevel governance, where cooperation within one stakeholder group (bonding social capital) may undermine cooperation with other stakeholders (bridging social capital). Given this important gap, researchers need to examine how bonding and bridging social capital may be formed, maintained, or undermined through stakeholder interactions, and the corresponding environmental consequences. In this paper, we address these gaps through a case study of south Florida's sugar-producing region, whose drainage water flows south into the Florida Everglades. In contrast to persistent water quality impairment elsewhere, Everglades water quality has improved steadily over the past 20 years. These improvements have taken place under a complex set of governance arrangements that established a mandatory long-term numeric water quality target but which relies on shared compliance among farms. These dynamics encouraged interactions among three key groups of stakeholders-farmers, agricultural extension agents, and state regulators-to implement management changes. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, we find that bonding social capital among farmers encourages them to improve their management through a sense of shared responsibility, while also potentially limiting restoration by maintaining perceptions that the regulations are unfair. Bridging social capital helps to legitimize new management efforts, while court-mandated water quality targets incentivize farmers to draw on multiple forms of social capital. We also discuss the relevance of this case for governing agricultural nonpoint source pollution in similar settings elsewhere.

Underuse of social-ecological systems: A research agenda for addressing challenges to biocultural diversity (2018) 🗎🗎

Conservation is often operationalized as a minimization of human intervention in nature. However, many social ecological systems depend on human interventions to maintain characteristics of biological diversity. Therefore, reduced use or full abandonment of such systems can diminish rather than enhance biological diversity and its related cultural diversity (biocultural diversity). We link the definition of "underuse" with the extinction rate used in the planetary boundaries framework to support a more objective use of the term. We execute a structured cross-continental review of underuse in social-ecological systems of regions that contain more affluent countries to frame a global research agenda on underuse. Our working approach delineates causes, consequences, and strategies concerning underuse. Based on this comparative review, we identify causes of underuse that are similar in different continents, including globalization, and demographic or structural change in Europe, Japan and Oceania. Conservation paradigms emphasizing wilderness ideals in policies are characteristic of underuse in North America, whereas post-socialist transformation processes characterize underuse in Eastern Europe. Land abandonment and de-intensification of use are a common result, particularly in marginal and protected areas. Consequences of the loss of biocultural diversity include the loss of ecosystem services, traditional knowledge, or landscape amenities. We identified a pervasive gap in transcontinental comparative research that stymies the development of effective strategies to reduce underuse of biological diversity and thereby maintain related cultural diversity. We advocate for a global research agenda on governance approaches that address the challenges of underuse. Within this agenda, we emphasize the need for an international cross-case synthesis and a trans-continental mapping of state and civil society-based interventions and co-management approaches to re-establish humans as parts of ecological systems. Such comparative work on best practice cases in a real-world context should enhance adaptive management of biocultural diversity and prevent extinction caused by underuse. Thus, this innovative connection between underuse and the planetary boundary extinction rate, along with our new global research agenda on underuse, should initiate much needed support for policy makers and natural resource managers who must decide on appropriate types and levels of human intervention to implement, both inside and outside of protected areas.

The role of local adaptation in sustainable production of village chickens (2018) 🗎🗎

Village chickens are ubiquitous in smallholder farming systems, contributing to household, local and national economies under diverse environmental, economic and cultural settings. However, they are raised in challenging environments where productivity is low while mortality is high. There is much interest in utilizing indigenous genetic resources to produce a chicken that is resilient to its environment, while at the same time providing the basis of an economically sustainable enterprise. Globally, however, a wide variety of interventions have so far proved unable to deliver sustainable improvements. Here we show that regional differences in trait preferences and parasite burden are associated with distinct chicken gene pools, probably in response to interactions between natural and human-driven (economic and social) selection pressures. Drivers of regional differences include marketing opportunities, cultural preferences, agro-ecologies and parasite populations, and are evident in system adaptations, such as management practices, population dynamics and bird genotypes. Our results provide sound multidisciplinary evidence to support previous observations that sustainable poultry development interventions for smallholder farmers, including breeding programmes, should be locally tailored and designed for flexible implementation.

A Spatially Explicit Choice Model to Assess the Impact of Conservation Policy on High Nature Value Farming Systems (2018) 🗎🗎

High Nature Value (HNV) farmland is declining in the EU, with negative consequences for biodiversity conservation. Agri-environment schemes implemented under the Common Agricultural Policy have addressed this problem, with recent proposals advocating direct support to HNV farming systems. However, research is lacking on the economics of HNV farming, which makes it difficult to set the level and type of support that ensure its sustainability. In this paper, we focused on a Special Protection Area for steppe bird conservation, analysing how economic incentives, biophysical and structural features govern the choice of fanning system. We found that persistence of the traditional farming system important for steppe birds was associated with economic incentives, resistance to change, and good quality soils, whereas a shift to specialised livestock production systems was favoured by higher rainfall and less fragmented farms. A supply curve built using the choice model predicted that the proportion of traditional farming increased from 20% to 80% of the landscape, when economic incentives increased from about 100(sic)/ha to 160(sic)/ha. Overall, our study highlights the dependence of HNV farming systems on economic incentives, and provides a framework to assess the effects of alternative policy and market scenarios to sustain farmland landscapes promoting biodiversity conservation.

Adaptive biodiversity management of semi-natural hay meadows: The case of West-Norway (2018) 🗎🗎

Worldwide semi-natural habitats of high biological value are in decline. Consequently, numerous Agri-Environment Schemes (AESs) intended to halt biodiversity loss within these habitats have been implemented. One approach has been the application of "adaptive management", where scientific knowledge is applied alongside the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of stakeholders in order to establish an integrated approach that is adjusted as outcomes are assessed. In this paper we examine the effectiveness of the adaptive management approach of Norway's Action Plan for Hay Meadows (APHM). Twenty-nine hay meadows from fourteen farms in the county of More og Romsdal were ecologically surveyed over a 2 year period. Interviews were also conducted with owners and land managers to explore TEK and management issues. The interdisciplinary study found that the disembedding of hay meadow management from its initial commercial purpose (in particular the loss of much of the livestock from the region) has contributed to a significant loss of TEK which is now largely limited to knowledge of how the fields were managed recently. While, the APHM is limiting biodiversity decline by promoting traditional practices there were indications that the standardisation of management actions might negatively affect species composition in the long term. More critically, continued farm abandonment within the region means that without alternatives to management by farmers many of these meadows are likely to disappear in the next couple of decades. We conclude that adaptive management provides an effective short-term means of preserving hay meadows, but long term conservation will require a means of addressing the continued decline of local farming communities.

Effects of awareness on farmers' compliance with diffuse pollution mitigation measures: A conditional process modelling (2018) 🗎🗎

Despite several decades of research and financial commitment, diffuse water pollution remains a major problem threatening the health and resilience of social-ecological systems. New approaches to tackle diffuse pollution emphasise awareness raising and provision of advice with the aim of triggering behavioural change. However, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of this approach remains scarce and mixed, with most studies relying on smaller datasets and case studies. Using one of the largest datasets (N = 1,995) with this information, this study seeks to establish quantitatively the relationship between farmers' stated awareness of diffuse pollution mitigation measures and their compliance with them, through the analysis of Scotland's pioneer advice-driven approach. Results from a conditional process modelling suggest awareness might not directly determine compliance but influences it indirectly through the mediating effect of other environmental management practices (in this study reflected in participation in agri-environmental schemes). This mediated relationship appears to be contingent on farm type and location. This would indicate that while public efforts in awareness creation is important, awareness alone is not sufficient to improve compliance; farmers may need to consistently engage in environmental management practices to develop a deeper understanding of the problem and action strategies. In this context, agri-environmental schemes appear to provide an opportunity for the creation of tacit knowledge and understanding of diffuse pollution mitigation measures through experiential learning which may also lead to the creation of new values.

To leave or not to leave? Understanding determinants of farmers' choices to remain in or abandon agri-environmental schemes (2018) 🗎🗎

Effectiveness of Agri-Environmental Schemes (AESs) as tools to enhance the rural environment can be achieved not only by increasing uptake rates, but also by avoiding participating farmers abandoning the scheme once they are in. For this reason, it is important to also consider what affects farmers' decisions to remain in the scheme rather than leave it at the end of the contractual obligation. However, up to now, there has been very little on this issue in the literature. The paper offers a contribution to this by revealing the role of determinants like the farmer's and farm structural characteristics, farmer's learning process, neighbourhood effect and the impact of changes in the policy design on the farmer's decision to remain in the scheme over a long time scale. This is examined in a long-standing scheme in the case study area, the Veneto Region of Italy. The paper uses duration analysis and is based on longitudinal panel-data of the entire population of 2000-2015 adopters. By using only data available in official regional records, it also provides regional policy-makers with an operational tool that is useful to analyse the impact of their AES design changes. The results of the duration models show that a larger farm size, a younger farmer age, the succession in the family farm, and the farmer's positive attitude towards the environment, trigger longer durations in AES. Similarly, the impact of the accumulation of the farmer's experience in the scheme management, as well as the neighbourhood effect increase the probability of remaining. Lastly, the changes in policy tailoring and targeting also have a positive impact on maintaining the farmer in the scheme. The paper concludes by noting that duration analysis can deliver useful results in order to guide policymakers in the effort to steer higher levels of farmers' persistence in the scheme and provides some recommendations for a more mature agro-environmental policy design.

The influence of on-farm advice on beliefs and motivations for Swiss lowland farmers to implement ecological compensation areas on their farms (2018) 🗎🗎

Purpose: Farmers hold a key to reaching biodiversity targets, but will only carry out this service to society if they are sufficiently motivated to do so. The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential of on-farm advice as a tool for motivating farmers to take action to preserve or even to enhance biodiversity on their farms. Design/methodology/approach: To address this aim, we surveyed 133 farmers (response rate 43.9%), of whom 23 had received on-farm advice about farmland biodiversity conservation over a period of six years. Findings: The results showed that key beliefs and motivations were positively influenced by farmer advisory services. Farmers who had received advice agreed significantly more strongly in the compatibility of biodiversity conservation and production; that biodiversity is important; and that nature conservation on farms is appreciated by society. Practical Implications: These results allow the conclusion that on-farm biodiversity advice might be a useful way of positively influencing the beliefs and enhancing motivations of farmers to contribute to biodiversity conservation on their farms. Theoretical implications: Although several papers have examined the influence of agricultural extension on farmer behaviour, the results of this study contribute to explaining some of the contradictions in the literature about the effectiveness of advisory services. Furthermore, this study addresses [Batary, P., L. V. Dicks, D. Kleijn, and W. J. Sutherland. 2015. "The Role of Agri-Environment Schemes in Conservation and Environmental Management." Conservation Biology 29: 1006-1016.] challenge that there has been insufficient research on the link between farmer advice and the effectiveness of agri-environmental schemes. Originality/value: This paper is among the first to address these research gaps and is the first to examine the influence of advice on farmer conservation behaviour in the Swiss context.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge from the internet? The case of hay meadows in Europe (2018) 🗎🗎

Within Europe concerns are rising for the loss of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) as agricultural communities continue to abandon traditional practices. TEK consists of a cumulative body of knowledge, practice and belief concerning environmental management (specifically agricultural management in Europe) that supposedly developed through generations of interaction between local communities and their environment. However, being based on largely oral accounts concern has arisen about the availability and reliability of TEK data - with some studies reporting inaccurate or contradictory information. In this paper we assess the potential of mainly pre-1800 agricultural texts to contribute knowledge to TEK studies. Since 2000, projects to digitise and make freely available out-of-copyright books from the world's libraries have made many of these pre-industrial agricultural texts easily accessible. These sources, we argue, provide a rich source of information. Specifically, we observe that knowledge emanating from contemporary TEK research can be found within this historical literature and question, therefore, whether contemporary European agricultural TEK is endogenously developed or represents vestiges of a wider pre-industrial agricultural knowledge system. Drawing on the English-language literature and using the case of hay meadow management, we provide examples of the types of information available, as well as detailing three examples of hay meadow management systems that are no longer associated with communities of practice - "fogging" of meadows, ant-hill management, and open-field, common or Lammas management. We conclude that while it may not be possible to reconstruct entire agricultural systems from literature-based knowledge, these sources can play an important role in complimenting and validating our understanding of traditional management systems.

A gilded trap in Dominican rice farming (2019) 🗎🗎

The Dominican rice sector is highly industrialized, with substantial levels of inputs and mechanization used to maximize the production of a rice monocultures. These practices have negative environmental effects and leave the sector ecologically and economically vulnerable. In this paper we identify barriers to and opportunities for pro-environmental change in the Dominican rice sector by applying the lens of path dependence to several of data sources. These include roughly two hundred in-person, structured interviews that our team conducted with rice farmers in the northwestern Dominican province of Montecristi, as well as key informant interviews with government officials involved in the agricultural sector there. The analysis proceeded in three steps. First, we descriptively analyzed the farmer interview data. Second, we developed a conceptual model of the rice commodity chain to identify other relevant actors in the system and the implications that these actors' roles and interests have for the future path of the system. Finally, we constructed a path dependence model and tested the applicability of the "gilded traps" scenario to explain the characteristics this model contains. We find that the Dominican rice sector can be characterized as a gilded trap, with the highly profitable industrial model driving farmer debt and vulnerability, and leaving them without substantial access to alternative technical assistance that departs from the goals and underlying assumptions of this model. We conclude by identifying the primary change factors that could disrupt the system, including local-level collective-action among farmers to join a group sustainable rice certification scheme, as well as the DR-CAFTA agreement that will lower tariffs and quotas on rice imports.

Toward the Baltic Sea Socioeconomic Action Plan (2019) 🗎🗎

This paper analyzes the main weaknesses and key avenues for improvement of nutrient policies in the Baltic Sea region. HELCOM's Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP), accepted by the Baltic Sea countries in 2007, was based on an innovative ecological modeling of the Baltic Sea environment and addressed the impact of the combination of riverine loading and transfer of nutrients on the ecological status of the sea and its sub-basins. We argue, however, that the assigned country-specific targets of nutrient loading do not reach the same level of sophistication, because they are not based on careful economic and policy analysis. We show an increasing gap between the state-of-the-art policy alternatives and the existing command-and-control-based approaches to the protection of the Baltic Sea environment and outline the most important steps for a Baltic Sea Socioeconomic Action Plan. It is time to raise the socioeconomic design of nutrient policies to the same level of sophistication as the ecological foundations of the BSAP.

Culture, Science, and Activism in Florida Lawn and Landscape Fertilizer Policy (2019) 🗎🗎

Every county and municipality in Florida can adopt its own unique ordinance regulating the fertilization of lawns and landscapes. With increased concern for eutrophication to state waterbodies, many have chosen to implement seasonal fertilizer restrictive periods prohibiting the application of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers, typically during the rainy summer months. These fertilizer "blackout" policies have been the subject of controversy among environmental activists, university scientists, and policy decision makers, with their efficacy being called into question. A Foucauldian discourse analysis was undertaken to trace the dynamics of the controversy, and survey research was conducted with Florida residents and with Florida decision makers to compare their lawncare maintenance practices, sentiments surrounding turfgrass, their trust in landscape science, as well as their awareness of policy in the city or county in which they reside. Differences were found between the two populations in terms of how many respondents fertilized, used automated irrigation systems and hand-pulled weeds. Although both populations had very neutral sentiments around turfgrass with no significant differences, Florida decision-maker respondents had a higher mean response for trust in landscape science. Only 32% of Florida resident respondents were able to accurately identify if their city or county had a blackout ordinance, compared with 81% of decision-maker respondents. Increasing civic science may be the best way for reducing this discrepancy, while also giving power to citizens in environmental policy adoption.

Cows eat grass, don't they? Contrasting sociotechnical imaginaries of the role of grazing in the UK and Irish dairy sectors (2019) 🗎🗎

The role of grazing in dairy fanning has become increasingly contentious. Dairy farming is still widely identified with imagery of cows grazing on grass, but grazing is a declining practice in Europe. The UK and Ireland make for interesting case studies to explore the politics of grazing as both countries are seen to have suitable conditions for supporting grazing but their dairy systems are very different. This paper explores the sociotechnical imaginaries of a high welfare, environmentally sustainable and economically viable dairy farming in the UK and Ireland, as described by key industry, academic, non-governmental organisation and government stakeholders in both countries. Document analysis and interviews with key UK and Irish stakeholders revealed different sociotechnical imaginaries within and between countries. The dominant imaginary in Ireland was of a unified low cost grass based production system seen as high welfare because animals have access to pasture and inherently natural and environmentally sustainable. The dominant sociotechnical imaginary in the UK by contrast is that no system is better, but the success of a system depends on quality management and stock keeping. The paper shows how the sociotechnical imaginaries are co-created by policy, market conditions and commitments to particular conceptions of economic viability, high welfare and sustainability. The different sociotechnical imaginaries can also be seen to pose a challenge to the other to the extent that science is held up as producing objective and value free truths about the best form of dairy production.

Lock-ins and Agency: Towards an Embedded Approach of Individual Pathways in the Walloon Dairy Sector (2019) 🗎🗎

As the 2009 dairy crisis drew attention to the situation of dairy farmers in Europe, the extent of strategical power left to farmers in dairy cooperatives of increasing size is a frequently raised issue. Four dairy cooperatives collect 97% of the milk in the Walloon Region (in the southern part of Belgium). Two of them integrated agro-food multinationals. We decided to analyze the trajectories of Walloon dairy farmers exploring alternatives to the delivery of milk to these mainstream dairy cooperatives. We focused on the territories situated to the east of the Walloon Region, where dairy farming represents 75% of farming revenues. Alternatives consist either of processing milk on farm or in concluding a contract with a cheese processor collecting milk directly from farmers. Our objective was to understand the issues faced in these alternative trajectories and the reason why these alternatives remained marginal. We designed a qualitative case study based on interviews with farmers and local cheese processors. We mobilized evolutionary approaches on the stability and transitions of systems and approaches of change at the farmer level. It appears that the alternative trajectories remain embedded in a broader dairy context. The lock-ins emerging from this context determine the evolution of the farming model towards intensification and the individual identity and capabilities of farmers. We present a model of interconnected and embedded lock-ins, from the organizational frame of the regime to the individual frame. This model illustrates how the agency articulates with structural dynamics. We propose structural measures in the organization of agricultural education and in terms of support to alternative supply chains that will enhance agency in favor of a change.

Challenges and Opportunities for Land Use Transformation: Insights from the Central Plains Water Scheme in New Zealand (2019) 🗎🗎

Agricultural systems in New Zealand, as elsewhere in the world, are subject to increasing environmental (and associated social) pressures, for example, around water quality and greenhouse gas emissions. Whilst novel, knowledge-based, alternative land use systems, exist that could relieve these pressures, the challenge facing New Zealand is how to achieve a timely transition to these systems at any meaningful scale. This paper considers the factors that are important to land managers in determining whether or not to change their land use system when the development of an irrigation scheme provides an opportunity for transformative change. A multicriteria decision-making framework using the analytical hierarchy process is used to assess the factors influencing decision makers who are shareholders in the Central Plains Water Scheme in the South Island of New Zealand. As expected, financial factors generally were weighted above other factors in terms of importance. Social, environmental and market factors were rated similarly, whilst regulatory and knowledge factors appeared generally less important. In addition to profitability, the study identified the desire of land managers to simplify complex agricultural systems, their need for scale, their concerns over knowledge competition, their willingness to collaborate and the challenge brought about by 'cultural path dependency' as being important. This suggests that if novel systems can be developed that better meet these needs and concerns as well as addressing the wider environmental and social challenges, then there may be a greater chance of engendering a land use transition.

Farmers' Decision Making on Livestock Trading Practices: Cowshed Culture and Behavioral Triggers Amongst New Zealand Dairy Farmers (2019) 🗎🗎

Studies of farmers' failure to implement biosecurity practices frequently frame their behavior as a lack of intention. More recent studies have argued that farmers' behaviors should be conceptualized as emergent from farming experiences rather than a direct consequence of specific intentions. Drawing on the concepts of "cowshed" culture and the "Trigger Change Model," we explore how farmers' livestock purchasing behavior is shaped by farms' natural and physical environments and identify what triggers behavioral change amongst farmers. Using bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in New Zealand as a case example, qualitative research was conducted with 15 New Zealand dairy producers with varying bTB experiences. We show how farmers' livestock purchasing behavior evolve with culture under a given farm environment. However, established cultures may be disrupted by various triggers such as disease outbreaks, introductions of animals with undesired characteristics, and farm relocation. While dealing with economic and socio-emotional impacts posed by triggers, farmers reorganize their culture and trading behaviors, which may involve holistic biosecurity strategies. Nevertheless, we also show that these triggers instigate only small behavioral changes for some farmers, suggesting the role of the trigger is likely to be context-dependent. Using voluntary disease control schemes such as providing disease status of source farms has attracted great interest as a driver of behavioral change. One hopes such schemes are easily integrated into existing farm practices, however, we speculate such an integration is challenging for many farmers due to path-dependency. We therefore argue that these schemes may fail to bring their intended behavioral changes without a greater understanding of how different types of triggers work in different situations. We need a paradigm shift in how we frame farmers' livestock trading practices. Otherwise, we may not able to answer our questions about farm biosecurity if we continue to approaching these questions solely from a biosecurity point of view.

Determinants of Adoption of Multiple Climate-Smart Adaptation Practices in Sudano-Sahelian Pastoral and Agro-Pastoral Production Systems (2019) 🗎🗎

To improve their ability to plan for and respond to potential negative impacts of climate shocks, such as droughts and dry spells, in the Sahelian agricultural production systems, many farmers have adopted diversified coping and adaptation strategies to secure their livelihoods. However, the scientific understanding of the key factors that determine the decisions that these pastoralist and agro-pastoralist households make, as well as the relation between existing human, social, natural, physical and financial assets and the adoption of adaptation practices at the household level has remained insufficient. Therefore, multivariate probit estimates were used to identify the key drivers of multiple adoption of climate-smart agro-pastoral adaptation practices in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Burkina Faso. The results indicated that respondent households adopted a combination of adaptation practices rather than a single practice. Most of these practices aimed at enhancing household food security and livelihoods. Regarding the variables that are related to the adoption of these adaptation practices overall, a few assets were found to contribute significantly to the decision to adopt the assessed adaption practices. These include the possession of household and farm assets and equipment, membership in associations and assistance from government, farming experience of the household head, access to credit, as well as ownership and size of farmland. In addition, access to climate and agronomic information, as well as a household's location within a specifically dedicated pastoral zone, enhanced uptake of various adaptation practices in this study. Access to these assets and features hence plays a critical role in pastoralists' and agro-pastoralists' adaptive capacity. This study provides insights for policy makers in view of climate change adaptation and wider sustainable development planning in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Africa.

The abandonment of maize landraces over the last 50 years in Morelos, Mexico: a tracing study using a multi-level perspective (2019) 🗎🗎

Understanding the causes of maize landrace loss in farmers' field is essential to design effective conservation strategies. These strategies are necessary to ensure that genetic resources are available in the future. Previous studies have shown that this loss is caused by multiple factors. In this longitudinal study, we used a collection of 93 maize landrace accessions from Morelos, Mexico, and stored at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) Maize Germplasm Bank, to trace back to the original 66 donor families after 50 years and explore the causes for why they abandoned or conserved their seed lots. We used an actor-centered approach, based on interviews and focus group discussions. We adopt a Multi-Level Perspective framework to examine loss as a process, accommodating multiple causes and the interactions among them. We found that the importance of maize landrace cultivation had diminished over the last 50 years in the study area. By 2017, 13 families had conserved a total of 14 seed lots directly descended from the 1967 collection. Focus group participants identified 60 accessions that could still be found in the surrounding municipalities. Our findings showed that multiple interconnected changes in maize cultivation technologies, as well as in maize markets, other crop markets, agricultural and land policies, cultural preferences, urbanization and climate change, have created an unfavorable environment for the conservation of maize landraces. Many of these processes were location- and landrace-specific, and often led to landrace abandonment during the shift from one farmer generation to the next.

Hemp in the United States: A Case Study of Regulatory Path Dependence (2019) 🗎🗎

The Agricultural Act of 2014 allowed for federally funded research on hemp for the first time since 1937. Since 2014, pro-hemp legislation has received increasingly bipartisan support, culminating with the Hemp Farming Act of 2018, which would remove industrial hemp from its current listing as a Schedule 1 drug, and allow hemp to be treated like any other agricultural commodity. In part because of this legalization, hemp production in the United States has the potential to increase substantially. This study describes what is known about the economic and regulatory considerations of U.S. hemp agriculture through the lens of path dependency. Important questions remain regarding the legal and regulatory landscape of hemp, and are further complicated by its current listing as a Schedule 1 drug.

Networking among Russian farmers and their prospects for success (2019) 🗎🗎

In most post-socialist economies, private farming has re-emerged after regime change, although even today this sector most often accounts for only a minor proportion of national production. Russian private farmers are reported to dislike formal cooperatives, so this study investigated whether their informal collaborative arrangements may affect their business results. A survey involving personal interviews with 158 randomly chosen private farmers in the Kurgan Region examined whether collaborating farmers are economically more successful and consider their financial situation to be better than that of neighbouring farmers. Ordinary least square and ordered probit regression analysis indicated that farmers with stronger networks are more successful in terms of farm wealth, and also relative to the financial situation of their immediate neighbours. This suggests that success among private farmers in a post-socialist setting is related to their networks.

Analysing the role of factors affecting farmers' decisions to continue with agri-environmental schemes from a temporal perspective (2019) 🗎🗎

The need to assess the impact of agri-environmental schemes front a long-term perspective has cast light on the temporal dynamics of farmer participation over the duration of single contracts. This assessment would help to better target and tailor schemes and achieve more persistent environmental benefits. This issue is addressed by considering the interplay of time, policy changes and background factors on farmers' decisions. The farm, the farmer's socio-demographic characteristics, attitudes and motivations, and social and informational factors were considered among the background factors, according to the theory of reasoned action and planned behaviour. A discrete-time duration model, i.e. the only approach that allows the full consideration of the effects of time and the dynamics of background factors in the continuation of agri-environmental schemes, was estimated. The analysis was based on a longitudinal sample of farmers located in the Veneto region of Italy who have adopted a specific scheme, i.e., plantation and/or maintenance of hedgerows and buffer strips, for at least one contract period within a time span of eighteen years (2000-2017). The results highlight that a farmer's continuation of an agri-environmental scheme for a long period of time is the outcome of a mix of concurring factors, among which attitudes and motivations, as well as social factors, play important roles. The impact of these factors also evolves over time, with the effects of social pressure and neighbouring farms being the most important factors under recent policy rounds. These outcomes provide useful insights for rethinking policy design and information strategies for farmers in any new round of Rural Development Programmes.

Principal Component Analysis of the LEADER Approach (2007-2013) in South Western Europe (Extremadura and Alentejo) (2019) 🗎🗎

Since the end of the last century, the Rural Development Policy and the associated Rural Development Aid have been implemented (according to the LEADER Approach) in European rural areas as a model of endogenous, integrated, and innovative development. Its objective is to reduce the differences of development in these areas. The objective of this paper is to analyze statistically (using Principal Component Analysis) the investments and projects carried out during the period of 2007-2013 in the regions of Extremadura and Alentejo. These two border regions have many territorial similarities but also historical, cultural, and political differences. These variations may contribute to a different implementation of the LEADER Approach. As determined by the results from the statistical analysis of economic aids and demographic variables, it is evident that there are differences in the management of the Rural Development Aid in both territories but resemblances in the results.

Use of discrete choice experiments to facilitate design of effective environmentally friendly agricultural policies (2019) 🗎🗎

Appropriate environmentally friendly agricultural technologies and practices must be implemented in China (and many other countries) to reduce farmland non-point source pollution and meet sustainability objectives. A major hindrance to their implementation is that Chinese farmers have very low willingness to accept such practices. Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) have known value for identifying goods or policies with attractive attributes, and thus exploring target groups' choice behavior and addressing such problems. Sound questionnaire design is of paramount importance for robust results. This article describes the nature and theoretical foundations of DCEs and considers their use in diverse applications abroad, and their limited but growing applications in China. It then presents a case study, focused on the detailed design of DCEs intended to gauge paddy farmers' willingness to accept several agriculturally friendly techniques and related compensation methods, problems encountered, and predictions for future studies.

Compelling collective action: Does a shared pollution cap incentivize farmer cooperation to restore water quality? (2019) 🗎🗎

Decades of voluntary efforts to reduce agricultural nonpoint source pollution have been ineffective at protecting water quality worldwide. While farmer collective action is needed to deal with the geographical extent of diffuse pollution from nutrient runoff, theoretical expectations from commons governance research predicts that farmers will not protect water quality since they have few incentives to do so. These different factors indicate that compulsory approaches are needed. However, the commons literature has tended to overlook the constructive roles that government regulation can play. Research on why farmers adopt on-farm conservation measures similarly has failed to explore farmer cooperation, instead focusing mainly on financial motivations of farmers. Yet, some adoption research indicates that social norms are essential factors shaping (non) adoption, but which are largely overlooked by existing agri-environmental policies. This study examines the important gap of how government regulations can incentivise farmer-cooperation to improve water quality. I focus on a case study of the Florida Everglades, where farmers face joint liability under a phosphorus pollution cap and which has resulted in improvements in water quality over the past 20 years. Farms' drainage disrupts the oligotrophic conditions of the Florida Everglades, but water quality has steadily improved since regulations began in 1994. However, the regulations set compliance jointly for farmers, devolving responsibility to ensure sufficient adoption of conservation practices and deal with free riding. While state monitoring shows that collectively farms have improved water quality, we do not know whether participation is widespread or concentrated among a few large farms. This study provides the first analysis of farm-level water quality outcomes for this area and how judicial, legislative, and local institutions interact to encourage farmer cooperation. Results show that a large majority of farms have improved their water quality, demonstrating that collective action has been a key element in the outcome. At the same time, poor-performing farms reveal the shortcomings of joint compliance. I end by discussing the implications of how individual and collective requirements can provide farmers with valuable information while also drawing on farmer social dynamics to encourage greater participation.

A discussion of the market and policy failures associated with the adoption of herbicide-tolerant crops (2019) 🗎🗎

Weed control in the U.S. Midwest has become increasingly herbicide-centric due to the adoption of herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops in the 1990s. That integrated weed management (IWM) practices, including ecological and mechanical controls, are scarcely used is concerning. IWM would be a more sustainable form of farming for two reasons. First, it would reduce the negative health and environmental externalities associated with herbicide use. Second, it would reduce the selection pressure on weed populations and the development of weed resistance to some herbicides, thereby reducing the uncertainty of the long-term effectiveness of herbicidal weed control. In this context, we develop an economic framework to clarify the interplay among the different market failures that either contribute to the herbicidal 'lock-in' or make it problematic. We then analyse the evidence for and perceptions of these market failures based on twenty-four semi-structured interviews with farmers and experts conducted in 2017, as well as on discussions in the academic literature. To this end, we put into perspective the possible self-reinforcing effects in the adoption path of HT crops, such as increasing farm size, changes in farm equipment, increasing incentives for simplified crop rotations, and the loss of practical knowledge of IWM practices.

Securing the future of US agriculture: The case for investing in new entry sustainable farmers (2019) 🗎🗎

Sustainable agriculture is among the most urgently needed work in the United States, for at least three reasons: we face an environmental crisis, a health crisis, and a rural economic crisis. Addressing these pressing crises through sustainability transition will require growing our agricultural workforce: both because the current farm population is aging, and because sustainable agriculture is knowledge-intensive work that substitutes experiential knowledge of farm ecosystems for harmful industrial inputs. Given its social value, sustainable agriculture ought to be a welcoming profession. But at present, US agriculture is decidedly unwelcoming for nearly all who work in it - and it puts new entry and sustainable farmers at a distinct disadvantage. In this paper, we first examine why it is so hard to enter and succeed in sustainable farming. We find that new entrants struggle to gain critical access, assets, and assistance, encountering substantial barriers that stand between them and the land, capital, markets, equipment, water, labor, and training and technical assistance they need to succeed. Secondly, we review promising policy and civil society interventions targeted at addressing these barriers, nearly all of which have already been piloted at the local and state levels or through modest public funding. These interventions are most effective, we find, when they are linked up through robustly governed networks to provide "wraparound" coverage for new entry sustainable farmers. Such networks can help patch together complementary sources of support (e.g. federal, state, local, NGO, cooperative) and synergistically address multiple barriers at once. Finally, we propose additional interventions that are more aspirational today, but that could offer important pathways to support new sustainable farmers in the longer term.

How can randomised controlled trials help improve the design of the common agricultural policy? (2019) 🗎🗎

We illustrate how randomised controlled trials (RCTs) could be used to evaluate the impact of alternative designs of the common agricultural policy (CAP). We select four policy-design issues which relate to different components of the CAP and raise a wide range of economic questions: nudges, coordination failures, equity-efficiency trade-offs, contract design. Based on examples from agricultural and social policies in developing and developed countries, we show that RCTs have provided useful rigorous evidence on similar design issues, suggesting that they could also be lever-aged to help improve components of the CAP.

Willingness of beef finishers to participate in supply chain collaborations (2019) 🗎🗎

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that influence beef farmers' willingness to participate in supply chain collaboration initiatives and to identify attributes in formal and non-formal agreements that would encourage or discourage participation. Design/methodology/approach A face-to-face survey containing a choice experiment was carried out. Respondents were selected using stratified sampling among beef finishers in Northern Ireland. Logistic regressions were employed to examine the factors associated with willingness and agreement attributes. Findings Larger and more specialised farms, as well as farmers with higher education attainment are shown to be more likely to participate in collaboration arrangements with downstream buyers. The choice experiment results suggest that farmers are in general willing to fulfil some feeding requirements in order to earn a premium, while a minimum price guarantee is not attractive. The positive valuation of data sharing between farms and abattoirs is found specifically among farmers with higher qualifications. Although education is shown to have positive impacts on both participation in collaboration agreements and the valuation of contract attributes, the level of education associated with the positive impacts differ. In addition, farmers who have enroled in agri-environmental schemes view the requirement of a written contract more favourably than those who have not. Originality/value The study adds to the understanding of how beef farmers view participation within supply chain collaborations and also how the potential features of the collaboration relate to characteristics of farmers and their farms.

Policy options to streamline the carbon market for agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (2019) 🗎🗎

The majority of emissions of nitrous oxide - a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) - are from agricultural sources, particularly nitrogen fertilizer applications. A growing focus on these emission sources has led to the development in the United States of GHG offset protocols that could enable payment to farmers for reducing fertilizer use or implementing other nitrogen management strategies. Despite the development of several protocols, the current regional scope is narrow, adoption by farmers is low, and policy implementation of protocols has a significant time lag. Here we utilize existing research and policy structures to propose an 'umbrella' approach for nitrogen management GHG emissions protocols that has the potential to streamline the policy implementation and acceptance of such protocols. We suggest that the umbrella protocol could set forth standard definitions common across multiple protocol options, and then modules could be further developed as scientific evidence advances. Modules could be developed for specific crops, regions, and practices. We identify a policy process that could facilitate this development in concert with emerging scientific research and conclude by acknowledging potential benefits and limitations of the approach.

Sustainability Assessment of Annual and Permanent Crops: The Inspia Model (2019) 🗎🗎

The Initiative for Sustainable Productive Agriculture (INSPIA) project promotes best management practices for agriculture, to enhance the provision of ecosystem services through better stewardship of soil and water resources while ensuring high levels of productivity. This paper presents the INSPIA methodology for the assessment of sustainability and for guiding farmers on strategic decision-making at farm level, applicable to any kind of cropland. The methodology is based on the application of 15 best management practices, which are assessed through a set of 31 basic sustainability indicators that cover the economic, social and environmental dimensions both agreed by a panel of experts. Basic indicators are then grouped into 12 aggregated indicators, to build the final INSPIA composite index. The INSPIA methodology provides farmers and advisers with a tool to understand sustainability and which, to a certain extent, serves to improve performance toward sustainability. Results are presented in three different ways: a bar diagram with the whole set of basic indicator-values; a pie chart representing the sustainability split in the aggregated indicators; and a final sustainability index. In the medium and long term, the INSPIA methodology can help to monitor and assess agricultural and environmental policy implementation, as well as help improve its decision-making processes in the future.

Mitigating Agricultural Diffuse Pollution: Uncovering the Evidence Base of the Awareness-Behaviour-Water Quality Pathway (2019) 🗎🗎

Diffuse water pollution from agriculture (DWPA) is a major environmental issue worldwide causing eutrophication, human health problems, increased water treatment costs and reducing the recreational potential of water bodies. In addition to penalties and provision of incentives, policy efforts are increasingly focusing on raising land managers' awareness regarding diffuse pollution under the expectation that this would influence behaviours and thus increase uptake of best management practices that would, in turn, improve water quality. Given the multimillion financial investments in these awareness-focused approaches, a good understanding of the awareness-behavioural change-water quality pathway is critical to set the basis for assessing the real potential of these policy interventions. We systematically review the evidence across the full pathway drawing on published peer-reviewed papers from both the social and natural sciences, with a focus on Europe and North America. Results indicate that there is no one study that looks at the pathway in full, evidencing the paucity of research on the topic. For the limited studies that focus on the different components of the pathway, we find mixed evidence for the relationship between awareness and behaviour, and behavioural change and water quality. Furthermore, complexity within the pathway (e.g., through the study of factors mediating and moderating such relationships) has hardly been addressed by the literature. An in-depth understanding and analysis of this complexitythrough an integrative model covering the entire pathwaycould help in the design and implementation of effective policy strategies to encourage best land management practices and ultimately improve water quality.

Enabling policy innovations promoting multiple ecosystem benefits: lessons learnt from case studies in the Baltic Sea Region (2019) 🗎🗎

This paper analyses how specific institutional barriers and drivers affect the success of agri-environmental governance and policy innovations in four case study catchments in Germany, Latvia, Poland and Sweden. Possible adaptations of institutional settings are explored, aiming at increased effectiveness of policies and governance in delivering multiple ecosystem benefits along with reduced nutrient emissions and flood management. Factors of success synthesized from existing examples of innovative policy instruments in the EU and further afield are used to identify barriers and opportunities for the implementation of policy innovations in different institutional settings across the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). Key factors of success include close and trusting cooperation in scheme development, utilization of intermediaries in trust building, an active role of civil society and private sector, spatial targeting and coordination of measures, and result-based and long-term approaches. It is concluded that the effectiveness of measures can be increased by (i) adopting a less prescriptive approach to implementation, (ii) strengthening bottom-up participatory stakeholder learning processes, (iii) fostering cross-sectoral planning and funding initiatives, (iv) creating incentives for local collaborative actions, (v) developing cooperative nutrient management initiatives in the BSR and (vi) developing a systematic and coordinated approach to pilot-testing of new concepts and measures.

What Awaits Myanmar's Uplands Farmers? Lessons Learned from Mainland Southeast Asia (2019) 🗎🗎

Mainland Southeast Asia (MSA) has seen sweeping upland land use changes in the past decades, with transition from primarily subsistence shifting cultivation to annual commodity cropping. This transition holds implications for local upland communities and ecosystems. Due to its particular political regime, Myanmar is at the tail of this development. However, with Myanmar's official strategy of agricultural commercialization and intensification, recent liberalization of the national economy, and influx of multinational agricultural companies, the effects on upland land transitions could come fast. We analyze the current state of upland land use in Myanmar in a socio-economic and political context, identify the dynamics in three indicator commodity crops (maize, cassava, and rubber), and discuss the state driven economic, tenurial and policy reforms that have occurred in upland areas of mainland Southeast Asian countries in past decades. We draw on these insights to contextualize our study and hypothesize about possible transition pathways for Myanmar. The transition to annual commodity cropping is generally driven by a range of socio-economic and technical factors. We find that land use dynamics for the three indicator crops are associated with market demand and thus the opening of national Southeast-Asian economies, research and development of locally suitable high yielding varieties (HYVs), and subsidies for the promotion of seeds and inputs. In contrast, promotion of HYVs in marginal areas and without adequate agricultural extension services may results in agricultural contraction and yield dis-intensification. The environmental impacts of the transition depend on the transition pathway, e.g., through large-scale plantation projects or smallholder initiatives. The agricultural development in upland MSA follows a clear diffusion pattern with transition occurring first in Thailand, spreading to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. While these countries point to prospects for Myanmar, we hypothesize that changes will come slow due to Myanmar's sparse rural infrastructure, with uncertainty about tenure, in particular in areas still troubled by armed conflicts, and unwillingness of international investors to approach Myanmar given the recent setbacks to the democratization process.

Challenges of achieving biodiversity offset outcomes through agri-environmental schemes: Evidence from an empirical study in Southern France (2019) 🗎🗎

Biodiversity offsetting (BO) claims to slow down biodiversity loss caused by development projects by generating ecological gains mainly through restoration activities conducted on land acquired to this effect. This leads to social conflicts around accessing land, especially with farmers and other land-users. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the opportunities and challenges of implementing BO by involving farmers through contracts akin to agri-environmental or stewardship schemes to produce ecological gains. We call them Agri-environmental Biodiversity Offsets Schemes (ABOS) and conduct an empirical analysis of a large ABOS program implemented for a new railway line in Southern France. We examine the effectiveness of ABOS through a survey carried out with 145 farmers and find that the main determinants of ABOS acceptability are: i) socio-economic factors, ii) social norms, iii) trust with contracting institutions, and iv) ease of integration in farm activities. Although ABOS allow developers to meet their legal requirements, major concerns are raised about additionality, especially through the manifestation of windfall effects, long-term permanence, and non-compliance with contract requirements. We conclude with policy recommendations and research perspectives to improve the implementation of ABOS for both nature and people.

Best management practices from agricultural economics: Mitigating air, soil and water pollution (2019) 🗎🗎

Often the several stakeholders involved in the agricultural sector place a greater emphasis on the negative externalities from farming production rather than on the solutions and approaches to mitigate, namely impacts from pollution. The scientific literature, in certain circumstances, follows this tendency leaving a vast chasm of enormous potential left to be explored. It is important to contribute towards the reduction of this gap, highlighting the best management practices implemented across the agricultural sector around the world, specifically to make them more visible and give incentive to the several agents in adopting and spreading their use. In this way, the main objective is to stress the best management practices presented by the global scientific literature from the farming sector. To achieve this objective methodology based on bibliometric analysis-factor-analysis-literature survey approach was considered, applied to 150 documents obtained from the Web of Science (core collection) related with the following topics: best management practice; agricultural economics; air, soil and water pollution. As main insights, it is worth referring the best management practices to deal with problems from agricultural production, such as, for example, the use of agricultural residues as feedstock for renewable energies. With regard to sustainable development in the agricultural sector, concepts such as "sustainable remediation" have their place. On the other hand, the agricultural and environmental policies and the agricultural costs associated with the several farming practices also play a determinant role here. Finally, only fraction of the scientific documents analysed (16 papers) belong to the group of studies related to policies, showing that there are potential subjects to be addressed here in future studies related with these topics. The same happens for cost-benefit analyses (24 documents). (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Behavioral and Experimental Agri-Environmental Research: Methodological Challenges, Literature Gaps, and Recommendations (2019) 🗎🗎

Insights from behavioral and experimental economics research can inform the design of evidence-based, cost-effective agri-environmental programs that mitigate environmental damages and promote the supply of environmental benefits from agricultural landscapes. To enhance future research on agri-environmental program design and to increase the speed at which credible scientific knowledge is accumulated, we highlight methodological challenges, identify important gaps in the existing literature, and make key recommendations for both researchers and those evaluating research. We first report on four key methodological challengesunderpowered designs, multiple hypothesis testing, interpretation issues, and choosing appropriate econometric methodsand suggest strategies to overcome these challenges. Specifically, we emphasize the need for more detailed planning during the experimental design stage, including power analyses and publishing a pre-analysis plan. Greater use of replication studies and meta-analyses will also help address these challenges and strengthen the quality of the evidence base. In the second part of this paper, we discuss how insights from behavioral and experimental economics can be applied to improve the design of agri-environmental programs. We summarize key insights using the MINDSPACE framework, which categorizes nine behavioral effects that influence decision-making (messenger, incentives, norms, defaults, salience, priming, affect, commitment, and ego), and we highlight recent research that tests these effects in agri-environmental contexts. We also propose a framework for prioritizing policy-relevant research in this domain.

A suboptimal array of options erodes the value of CAP ecological focus areas (2019) 🗎🗎

As a part of the greening of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy in 2013, Ecological Focus Areas (EFA) became mandatory for many European farmers, with the aim to enhance on-farm biodiversity. However, their effects on biodiversity have been disputed. In this interdisciplinary effort, we assessed the effects of current and alternative formulations of EFA regulations in Sweden. By complementing economic and ecological modelling with interviews with persons at administrative and advisory bodies and a narrative decision game with farmers, we were able to demonstrate key shortcomings of mandatory EFAs as a policy instrument. In particular, we evaluated if requirements to increase the quality of EFAs and regulations allowing their collective implementation, have the potential to increase their effectiveness in benefitting functional biodiversity. We focused on how biodiversity underpinning crop pollination and natural pest control would be affected by alternative regulations. First, we show that several of the possible EFA measures have no or minimal actual effect on biodiversity. Second, we demonstrate the need for appropriate incentives for farmers to choose and place agri-environmental measures in an environmentally desirable way. The EFA regulation is experienced as complicated and without any clear environmental benefits for the participants in this study. As a result, the confidence in the policy is undermined. Third, we demonstrate the challenge of devising compulsory measures to improve biodiversity that also need to fulfil demands on being flexible and easy to administrate. Our results indicate that the latter goal has taken precedence over the former, and thus providing an explanation of the poor design of the EFA regulation from a biodiversity perspective. We argue that to enhance biodiversity in farmland through general agri-environmental measures, only measures with clear benefits for biodiversity can be on the menu. Further, better information as well as incentives for optimizing EFA placement for biodiversity on farms are needed and combined with stricter rules on quality and placement where appropriate.

Bringing the neighbors in: A choice experiment on the influence of coordination and social norms on farmers' willingness to accept agro-environmental schemes across Europe (2019) 🗎🗎

This paper aims to shed light on the challenges and opportunities of promoting farmers' participation in agro-environmental programs at reasonable monetary cost in intensively used agricultural landscapes. On the one hand, the study assesses the costs of coordinating farmers for the implementation of the programs, as a complement or alternative to increasing the amount of land set aside for said programs. On the other hand, the paper responds to recent calls about the need to identify incentives other than monetary payments to promote farmers participation. Methodologically, the study consists of a choice experiment exploring the willingness of farmers in Germany, Switzerland, and Spain to participate in a tree planting measure. According to our findings, the resistance of farmers to participate in coordinated programs is not insurmountable and has to do with transaction costs as well as beliefs about other farmers' behavior. Similarly, having conservation programs recommended by farmers can encourage other farmers to participate. Finally, different conservation framings can affect the resistance of farmers to participate depending on the emphasis put on the environmental benefits that farmers obtain from the programs. Overall, the findings illustrate the interest of further integrating farmers in the design of agro-environmental schemes and, further testing the feasibility of coordinated schemes in light of the influence of both monetary and social incentives.

Effects on participation and biodiversity of reforming the implementation of agri-environmental schemes in the Netherlands (2019) 🗎🗎

To prevent further biodiversity loss as a result of intensive agricultural practices, Agri-Environmental Schemes (AES) have been implemented on European farmland. Unfortunately these AES have not always been effective in terms of biodiversity and farmer participation. In an effort to improve the AES programme the Dutch government switched from an individual application system to a collective application system for AES payments in 2016. The goal of this paper is to analyse how the resilience of the land use system in terms of farmer participation in the AES and biodiversity is affected by the value farmers attach to biodiversity, and whether the shift from an individual to collective AES will affect the resilience of the land use system. We constructed a multi-objective mathematical programming model in which farmers maximise utility. Farmers are linked through their common effect on biodiversity. In the collective application system payments are only available when the biodiversity in the region is above a certain threshold. Simulation results show no difference in farmer participation and biodiversity between the individual application system and the collective application system when biodiversity weights are high. The land use system loses its resilience in terms farmer participation in the AES and biodiversity if we lower the biodiversity weights, this effect is stronger in the collective AES programme.

Socio-economic context of soil erosion: A comparative local stakeholders' case study from traditional agricultural region in the Czech Republic (2019) 🗎🗎

Soil erosion by water is the most common cause of land degradation and traditionally coincides with agricultural production. This paper presents the results of a sociological case study comparing the perceptions of soil erosion of stakeholder groups from southern Moravia, an intensive agricultural and erosion-prone region in the Czech Republic. The research documents and analyses perceptions of erosion, perceived causes, and attitudes towards possible corrective measures. Altogether, 216 stakeholders consisting of farmers and local leaders (mostly mayors and vice-mayors) took part in a questionnaire survey between the years of 2012-2015. The results show that the stakeholders as whole are in general aware of the seriousness of the problem and see irresponsible farmers, lack of organic fertilizers and climate change as the major causes. Overall most preferred erosion mitigation measures were the growing of appropriate crops and the splitting of large fields into smaller ones. The views of farmers and local leaders are compared and discussed within the framework of the changing roles of rural areas. A productivist paradigm and corresponding modulation of erosion is significantly more prevalent among farmers, although not the dominant viewpoint in this group. The socio-economic context of soil erosion and recent trends in Czech soil conservation policies are discussed and it is argued that the local stakeholders are supportive of pro-environmental measures despite a lack of effort on the governmental and legislation level.

Behavioural factors affecting the adoption of sustainable farming practices: a policy-oriented review (2019) 🗎🗎

This paper reviews the findings from the last 20 years on the behavioural factors that influence farmers' decisions to adopt environmentally sustainable practices. It also proposes policy options to increase adoption, based on these behavioural factors and embedded in the EU Common Agricultural Policy. Behavioural factors are grouped into three clusters, from more distal to more proximal: (i) dispositional factors; (ii) social factors and (iii) cognitive factors. Overall, the review demonstrates that considering behavioural factors enriches economic analyses of farmer decision-making, and can lead to more realistic and effective agri-environmental policies.

An assessment of the landscape-scale dimensions of land based environmental management schemes offered to farmers in England (2019) 🗎🗎

This study reviews the evolution of environmental land management and agri-environment schemes (AES) offered to farmers in England between 1979 and 2015 from the perspective of their potential to deliver landscape-scale, i.e. cross farm boundary, environmental benefits. The review uses population conservation theory, which underpinned the recommendations in the Lawton report (Lawton et al., 2010), to identify eight characteristics of these schemes with this potential. These characteristics form a framework which is used to assess the potential landscape-scale impacts of Countryside Stewardship, the AES recently introduced in England. The Mid Tier of Countryside Stewardship provides financial assistance to facilitators to help farmers organise and manage Farmer Groups. A Farmer Group must consist of four or more neighbouring farmers, who between them farm over 2,000 ha. Each member of a Farmer Group is required to submit an individual application, but each application must demonstrate that it "go[es] beyond [the environmental benefits that] could be delivered by individual holdings acting in isolation". After the 2017 round, 98 Farmer Groups had been funded, involving 1915 farmer members, covering 451,064 ha. Primarily because of this innovation, Countryside Stewardship is considered to be the most landscape-scale orientated AES offered to farmers in England. A consideration of the evolution towards landscape-scale attributes in environmental land management schemes leads into a discussion of how future changes to four key AES characteristics - identified in the review - may influence how the landscape-scale dimension develops in the next generation of AES.

What should we conserve? Farmer narratives on biodiversity values in the McLaren Vale, South Australia (2019) 🗎🗎

Major challenges are emerging to integrate private lands into whole-of-landscape conservation policy, especially if definitions of biodiversity and conceptions of conservation alienate farming communities. Insufficient attention has been paid to the way that farmers perceive and value biodiversity. By undertaking 'walk-and-talk' in-depth interviews with leading farmers in the South Australian viticultural region of the McLaren Vale, seven important narratives were identified on the way that farmers conceive of and exploit biodiversity on-farm. Farmers' conceptions of biodiversity challenge traditional policy divisions between 'natural' and anthropogenic biodiversity and represent a sophisticated understanding of agricultural and regional ecology. While farmers clearly recognise and prioritise important biodiversity values, the dominant policy frameworks are not effectively defining, quantifying or supporting that biodiversity which is constantly being regenerated through farming practices. A range of opportunities for better conservation emerge from a recognition that productive farming activities and associated agricultural biodiversity form a vital part of the region's biocultural heritage. Of particular importance is the need for farmer definitions of biodiversity to be included in policy both to guide new connections between private landowners and biodiversity conservation, and to normalise goals of sustainable environmental management across rural landscapes.

Determinants of the perceived administrative transaction costs caused by the uptake of an agri-environmental program (2019) 🗎🗎

Farmers' subjectively perceived that administrative transaction costs are of high importance for the uptake of agri-environmental programs with direct effects on the effectiveness and efficiency of these programs and the well-being of farmers. This paper empirically estimates private administrative transaction costs resulting from an uptake of the newly introduced grassland-based milk and meat program in Switzerland, based on farmers' perceived administrative workload. Using ordered logit models, we analyze how the administrative tasks and farm and farmer characteristics influence the perceived administrative workload. We find that the time spent on monitoring or inspection tasks has no effect. In contrast, an outsourcing of program-related administrative tasks significantly reduces the perceived administrative workload. We also find that a better understanding of agricultural policy regulations significantly reduces the farmers' perceived administrative workload. We recommend that public administration improve the communication of agricultural policy regulations, rather than investing in the simplification of administrative forms.

Science and Technology Backyard: A novel approach to empower smallholder farmers for sustainable intensification of agriculture in China (2019) 🗎🗎

Sustainable feeding of the growing population in China without ecological destabilization is a grand challenge. In this populous country where agriculture is dominated by smallholder farming, developing innovative technology and translating scientific knowledge into action for smallholder farmers is a crucial step in addressing this challenge. Here, we present a novel approach for technology innovation and dissemination to achieve sustainable intensification in the fields of smallholder farmers. The Science and Technology Backyard (STB) is a hub in a rural area that links knowledge with practices to promote technology innovation and exchange. In this study, the framework and functions of STB are introduced, and the key implications for sustainable intensification across millions of smallholder farmers are explicitly stated: (i) develop innovative technology based on stated demands of farmers; (ii) disseminate technology by innovative social service models though combined top-down approaches with bottom-up measures to enable smallholders in rural areas. This paper provides a perspective on transformation of small-scale agriculture toward sustainable intensification in China and useful knowledge applicable to other developing countries.

Industrial Hemp Knowledge and Interest among North Carolina Organic Farmers in the United States (2019) 🗎🗎

Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa), has been proposed as a new crop that might be of interest to organic farmers in the North Carolina and other states in the United States. However, little is known about how organic farmers view this crop. We conducted a survey among North Carolina certified organic growers to ascertain their knowledge of, and willingness to adopt, industrial hemp. Contact information was obtained from a database of certified organic farmers in North Carolina and the growers were contacted by email and directed to complete an online questionnaire. Growers were asked a wide range of questions about farm characteristics, technology adoption, interest toward industrial hemp, and policy issues regarding hemp adoption. A total of 245 farmers were contacted; 64 started the survey and 35 responded to all questions. Our results indicate that 85% of North Carolina organic growers are interested in growing hemp on their farms and the majority wanted to learn more about the crop production practices, adapted cultivars, and legality of growing it. Seventy-five percent expressed interest in being certified growers while 52% wanted to grow industrial hemp primarily for cannabidiol (CBD) oil. Most (65%) respondents indicate they aspired to be among the first farmers in their area to grow and sell hemp. Growers who have tried new crops or new farming technology in the last three years were more likely to adopt industrial hemp production. These findings will help decision-makers understand the critical concerns of growers who are willing to adopt industrial hemp as an alternative income-generating enterprise.

Visualizing regional clusters of Sardinia's EU supported agriculture: A Spatial Fuzzy Partitioning Around Medoids (2019) 🗎🗎

The recurrent question about the effectiveness of agri-environmental measure (AEM) in Sardinia (Italy) is whether European Union (EU) funds allocate resources to where they are most needed. To answer this question, a spatial approach is suggested, namely an approach that considers geography as a factor in measuring the success of such policy. A geographical approach can be used to pinpoint "hotspots" in order to determine an appropriate distribution of funds. To implement such an approach to the distribution of EU funding, a Spatial Fuzzy Partitioning Around Medoids (SFPAM) analysis is advocated. The contribution of this research is that it combines a temporal dimension within an explicitly spatial approach. It achieves this by using a dataset that includes both geographical and economic factors such as farm sizes, their management, the number of organic farms involved, the agriculture area invested by the AEM and the size of the workforce involved. Its strategy is the identification of medoids which are represented by a specific municipality. This allows the identification of aggregated neighborhoods for the visualization of AEM outcomes based on a fuzzy partitioning method. The results provide useful policy implications to determine where and when financial efforts should be renewed, where to negotiate sustainable development strategies, and how to expand spatially the benefits of financial funding to other agricultural measures, such as technological innovations in agriculture, reforestation programs, marketing strategies, climate change mitigation, and rural development.

Potential development of Irish agricultural sustainability indicators for current and future policy evaluation needs (2019) 🗎🗎

There is a significant and detailed range of sustainability indicators for Irish agri-food production, but there remain areas where further indicator development or new indicators could prove valuable. This review provides an outline of potential developments in Irish assessment of agricultural sustainability following the latest research and in order to meet policy demands. Recent research findings have suggested means of improved quantitative modelling of greenhouse gas emissions, but additional dietary and soil data may be important for this, especially for the potential inclusion of any soil sequestration. This information could also benefit more detailed modelling of nutrient losses to water. Specific concerns over pesticide and antibiotic use may require additional survey work on the particular locations or types of farms of interest. Biodiversity monitoring could be improved by expanding the range of results-oriented agri-environment schemes or employing remote-sensing habitat monitoring, likely supplemented with targeted field surveys for specific objectives. Farm-level economic sustainability is largely well-covered, but additional data collection may be of benefit to address specific issues such as labour costs. Recent additional surveys on farm-level social sustainability have addressed important social indicators of isolation and access to local services, and could be rolled out on a larger number of farms in the future. Wider societal concerns such as animal welfare, genetically modified materials in foodstuffs and antibiotic resistance have limited indicators currently available, and could also benefit from additional surveys. The breadth and detail required in agri-food sustainability indicators present a significant challenge to survey design and implementation, but many developments can be achieved without additional surveys through the use of remote sensing and geospatial technologies and integration of existing datasets. Despite the important benefits of further developments in Irish sustainability indicators, consideration must also be given to farmer confidentiality and survey fatigue.

Setting the stage for a Shared Environmental Information System (2019) 🗎🗎

There has been a significant increase in efforts to improve environmental data sharing practices in the past decade. One such initiative is the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS), initiated by the European Commission in 2008, as part of a process to facilitate regular environmental assessments and State-of-the-Environment Reporting (SOER). Using SEIS as a case study example, this paper takes its departure from the 8th Environment for Europe (EFE) Ministerial conference to identify ongoing processes and challenges surrounding environmental data and information sharing. The paper relies on data obtained for the 2016 report on progress in establishing SEIS in support of regular reporting in the pan-European region. The article demonstrates a number of gaps with regards to the availability and accessibility of certain environmental datasets and indicators and highlights the suboptimal use of information, where comprehensive data flows and high-quality information is not being used adequately in support of policymaking or where there is selective use of environmental indicators. Against this background, questions arise as to whether applied models for data sharing can be implemented with equal success across different regions and countries that are characterized by heterogeneous and complex data practices and data flows. Most importantly, results from the SEIS progress report demonstrate the pressing need for a better understanding of environmental data types, data packaging and data flows across multiples contexts, epistemic cultures and policy making.

What can management option uptake tell us about ecosystem services delivery through agri-environment schemes? (2019) 🗎🗎

Agri-environment schemes (AES), currently embedded in EU and UK policies, actively promote 'greening', 'sustainability' and 'ecosystem services' approaches to land management. The funding structures of these policies, however, run counter to this sustainable approach, and create barriers to AES success, primarily through a continued focus on productivity support. In this study, we aim to determine the effectiveness of action-based AES, as a delivery mechanism for ecosystem services, using secondary data analysis techniques to unravel the complexities of AES funding distribution and scheme structure and geographic information systems (GIS) to explore the spatial extent and uptake of AES management options, using Wales, UK as a study area. Our results show 84% of recipients of AES payments receiving < 10k pound annually, comprising only 35% of the total available funding. 15, out of a total of similar to 165, management options, accounted for > 75% of all advanced level management contracts awarded in both 2015 and 2017. This bias in option uptake, in many cases, positively prevents further deterioration of existing habitat condition through a 'business as usual' approach. However, we argue that the voluntary, over prescriptive nature of the schemes limits management option uptake, negatively impacts on the schemes ability to deliver ecosystem services, and lessens the government's ability to promote long-term behavioural change. If AES are to deliver the "'Public Goods"' that future policy demands, then targeted and adequate levels of funding and a willingness to participate must be combined with greater farmer autonomy and clear outcomes to deliver management options at a landscape scale.

Exploring cultural acceptability of a hypothetical results-based agri-environment payment for grassland biodiversity (2019) 🗎🗎

Results-oriented payment approaches are a means to deliver ecological results in agri-environment schemes. The results-based approach requires that farmers understand the meaning of the expected ecological results, and the approach and goals should be culturally acceptable. We interviewed 20 farmers in Finland about a hypothetical results-based payment scheme for biodiversity conservation that builds on an existing grassland fallow scheme. We explored i) how the 'managing for nature values' approach fits with 'good farming' ideal, ii) whether farmers would be able to operationalize ecological results, for which they would be rewarded, and iii) whether the results-based payment approach enhances or dilutes the current 'good farmer' ideal held by the farmers. We used 'good farming', cultural scripts, and the visibility of nature to farmers to explore these questions. The 'tidy farm' cultural script dominated, but farmers also described their farms as having space for non production elements. Visibility of nature to farmers varied, field visits with farmer and researchers together resulted in increased enthusiasm for farmers seeing biodiversity as an outcome that they can produce. The grassland fallow fits farmers' conceptualisations of 'good farming', and the results-based payment approach is culturally acceptable. Farmers' activities show nature values have a place in their conceptualisation of 'good farming'. We identified four categories of farmers based on their integration of ecological results into farming. These are nature values: 1) central to farmer thinking, 2) well-integrated, 3) viewed positively, but with limited actions and, 4) mainly absent.

Biodiversity-based payments on Swiss alpine pastures (2019) 🗎🗎

This paper presents a case study of a results-based program for biodiversity on alpine pastures in Switzerland. This scheme is in its first cycle and makes payments based on biodiversity levels that were achieved prior to the scheme's start. The cross-sectional analysis presented in the paper is based on survey data from 429 respondents collected among scheme participants in two Swiss Cantons. Four sets of contextual variables on agronomic decisions, private versus common property management, social capital and environmental preconditions are presented as theoretical framework for the empirical analysis. The data reveal that livestock density, livestock species composition, property rights and individual versus collective management, as well as social capital can explain a large share of the variation in the biodiversity-based payment levels.

Integrated farm management for sustainable agriculture: Lessons for knowledge exchange and policy (2019) 🗎🗎

As a response to the environmentally and socially destructive practices of post-war mechanization and intensification, the concept of sustainable agriculture has become prominent in research, policy, and practice. Sustainable agriculture aims to balance the economic, environmental, and social aspects of farming, creating a resilient farming system in the long-term. Over the last few decades, various concepts have been used in research and policy to encourage the adoption of sustainable practices. Within such a congested space, this paper assesses the value of 'integrated farm management' as a concept for the promotion of sustainable agriculture. The concept is the subject of renewed policy interest in England and Wales and it is also being promoted in Europe. Previous research, however, has suggested that integrated farm management may not be well understood or widely practised. There are also criticisms that it can be impractical and poorly differentiated from similar ideas. As such, renewed insights are required into how useful the concept might be for encouraging sustainable agriculture. Using a mixed methods approach, we gathered the views of farmers, farm advisors, and industry representatives about integrated farm management in England and Wales, and interpreted these through a theoretical framework to judge the strength of the concept. Overall, the general principles of Integrated Farm Management were found to be coherent and familiar to most of our respondents. However, the concept performed poorly in terms of its resonance, simplicity of message, differentiation from other similar terms and theoretical utility. We reflect on our findings in the context of other ways to promote sustainable agriculture, drawing out messages for policy and knowledge exchange in England and Wales, as well as elsewhere.

Drivers of Participation in Gypsum Treatment of Fields as an Innovation for Water Protection (2019) 🗎🗎

This paper examines the motivations of participants in a large-scale pilot project that aims at developing a new agri-environmental measure, gypsum treatment of arable fields, to reduce phosphorus loading in the Baltic Sea. We build a general model of crop production that allows for three motivations: profit maximization, utility from agricultural innovation and stewardship towards the environment by employing farmer survey and confirmatory factor analysis. Strong environmental motivation is associated with small farm size, adoption of environmentally friendly cultivation technologies, and part-time fanning. Strong profit motivation is associated with large gypsum-treated areas, perceived ease of gypsum application as a water protection measure, and agricultural education, which associates also with strong innovation motivation.

Farming System Transformation Impacts on Landscape: A Case Study on Quality Wine Production in a Highly Contested Agricultural Landscape (2020) 🗎🗎

This paper is an attempt to synthesize the conclusions of a series of consecutive research projects along a common thread. It focuses on the landscape impacts of a gradual transformation undergone by a low input and bulk wine producing system into a quality wine system. This transformation took place on the island of Santorini, in Cyclades, Greece, during the last four decades in a highly contested landscape. A polarization in the power game has been identified, with two poles having different priorities and perceptions about the two issues at stake: agricultural landscape and wine quality. In the course of this process, both synergistic and antagonistic transition dynamics are encountered, transforming significantly the balance of driving forces. Our analysis suggests that market forces influenced landscape change to a far greater degree than policy measures implemented on the island. Developments in the international markets for tourism and quality wine have played a crucial role in land use change and farming intensity. Public intervention in the form of both regulatory land use planning policy and incentive measures like Rural Development Policy, including an agri-environmental measure, targeted to the vineyards of Santorini, did not seem to have an equally important impact. Integration of landscape maintenance practices within the wine quality regime could create beneficial synergies.

Transition pathways for Malaysian paddy farmers to sustainable agricultural practices: An integrated exhibiting tactics to adopt Green fertilizer (2020) 🗎🗎

Sustainable agriculture mainly depends on the efforts and abilities of farmers that depend on the rational decisions and actions taken by them with the help of their practical knowledge and information. Recent advances in the field of nanomaterials such as graphene possess the significant potential benefits for both agriculture and the environment. Therefore, for promoting sustainable agriculture farmer's outlook needs to be more towards the social approach rather a technocratic approach. The purpose of this research is to examine paddy grower's perception of productive paddy farming in peninsular Malaysia. So, for this study, a sample of 74 paddy farmers had adopted to have their insights and opinions about predefined sustainable practices of farming. Altogether 86 items were factor analysed and eventually, there are five main factors, policy, namely, environmental, economic and social and communication which was acknowledged to construct a perception of sustainability by considering the sustainable agricultural practices among Malaysian paddy farmers insights were characterized mainly into three groups like low, medium and high-level insights. This was considered as the dependent variable of the ordered research model, whereas socioeconomic characteristics and communication behaviour variables were used as a variable. The results of this research model reflected that communication channels, environmental factors, socio-psychological, socioeconomic aspect, and innovation attributes education level, age, participation in farming events and productive using of knowledge the perception of sustainable farming lead to the adoption of GFT among Malaysian paddy farmers. The government should be more focused towards policy linked with the issues like illegal paddy entry, plus social elements such as increasing the level of socialization and communication between stakeholders, researchers, a scientist in the region and giving out some special programs related to farming.

The Impact of Legislation on Sustainability of Farm Forests in Kenya: The Case of Lugari Sub-County in Kakamega County, Kenya (2020) 🗎🗎

This study analyses the effects of the Agriculture (Farm Forestry Rules) of 2009 on Trees on Farms (ToFs) in Lugari sub-county in Kenya. Using existing literature, secondary and primary data sources from online surveys, the authors evaluated the current status of farm forests in order to determine the impact of these rules on respondents from three randomly selected income-expenditure groups through online surveys. Case results substantiate that between the years 2009-2019, ToFs generated social, economic, and environmental benefits amongst landowners surveyed. Moreover, online survey results indicate that young people in the age bracket 18-35 years are increasingly adopting farm forestry contrary to long-held beliefs in the country. However, due to the unpopularity of the 10% rule amongst surveyed income-expenditure groups, and challenges experienced by ToFs owners, this paper concludes that the observed impacts may not be necessary as a response to the 10% rule. Besides addressing the existing inconsistencies, this paper recommends full implementation by transcribing the rules in other languages, developing inventory protocols for ToFs, and awareness creation on the rules in order to register an impact.

How does farmers' field schooling impact eco-efficiency? Empirical evidence from paddy farmers in Bangladesh (2020) 🗎🗎

Purpose Recent studies suggest extensive use of environmental resources in agrofarming degrades ecosystem significantly. In this backdrop, this study aims at assessing ecoefficiency of paddy farming. Because ecoefficiency links up between economic performances and environmental resources supporting the provision of goods and services for the society, this study further investigates the effectiveness of attending Farmers' Field School (FFS), an agroenvironmental program, in conserving environmental resources through improving farm-level ecoefficiency. Design/methodology/approach In a dataset of 200 randomly selected paddy farmers from three districts of the southwestern Bangladesh, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied to compute both radial and pressure-specific (nutrient balance, energy balance, irrigation and pesticide lethal risk) ecoefficiency scores. Furthermore, propensity score matching (PSM) technique is applied to examine the impact of FFS program on farm-level ecoefficiency. Findings The DEA results suggest that paddy farmers are highly eco-inefficient. The computed radial eco-efficiency score is 0.40 implying farmers could reduce around 60% of environmental pressure equiproportionally even by maintaining the same level of value addition. In addition, the PSM results suggest farmers' participation in FFS program led to around 22.5% higher radial ecoefficiency and 7-25% higher environmental pressure-specific eco-efficiencies. Furthermore, simulation exercises reveal that FFS participation in interaction with farm size would lead to around 32-40% reduction of all environmental pressures. Practical implications Promoting FFS programs among paddy farmers could be an effective policy option to improve eco-efficiency through environment-friendly farming paradigm. Originality/value This study is probably the maiden effort that has examined the impact of attending the FFS program on ecoefficiency improvement in Bangladesh. This study contributes to both the concern literature by adding useful information and the policymakers by providing new insights about the reduction of environmental resource usage with maintaining the same value addition from agrofarming.

'Clearing the air': common drivers of climate-smart smallholder food production in Eastern and Southern Africa (2020) 🗎🗎

African smallholders should adopt climate-smart agriculture to make a sustainable transition towards cleaner, circular and more productive food systems. Farmers must play a key role in that process. However, the adoption and diffusion of climate-smart technologies have been slow. Here, a cross-sectional econometric analysis using primary data on sustainable farming practices in the cereal-legume farming systems of Ethiopia, Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania is applied to analyse the drivers and intensity of innovation adoption. Socio-economic barriers reduce adoption intensity among marginalised farmers, and proper incentives are needed to overcome them. Business links between technology-ready smallholders and small-to-medium enterprises must be created to enable the uptake and scaling-up of innovations and the development of industrial application models. Such results can support the design of evidence-based strategies for the sustainable transformation of production systems. While national climate policies already include climate-smart agriculture as an adaptation blueprint, policy makers need empirical evidence to support large-scale adoption. This research is an innovative contribution to that effort. It uses a unique household dataset where data is scarce; it considers the impact of smallholders' conditioning factors on technology climate-smartness level; and it estimates the correlations among a wide range of practices, agro-ecologies and geographical contexts. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Dairy intensification: Drivers, impacts and alternatives (2020) 🗎🗎

Dairy production systems have rapidly intensified over the past several decades. Dairy farms in many world regions are larger and concentrated in fewer hands. Higher productivity can increase overall economic gains but also incurs site-specific social and environmental costs. In this paper, we review the drivers and impacts of dairy intensification. We identify in the literature four prominent concerns about dairy intensification: the environment, animal welfare, socioeconomic well-being, and human health. We then critically assess three frameworks-sustainable intensification, multifunctionality, and agroecology-which promise win-win solutions to these concerns. We call for research and policy approaches that can better account for synergies and trade-offs among the multiple dimensions of dairy impacts. Specifically, we suggest the need to (1) consider dairy system transitions within broader processes of social-environmental change and (2) investigate how certain framings and metrics may lead to uneven social-environmental outcomes. Such work can help visualize transformations towards more equitable, ethical, and sustainable food systems.

Public food procurement for restaurants of Federal Universities in Brazil: advances and setbacks in the implementation of sustainability transition (2020) 🗎🗎

This study presents the case of public procurement of food from family farmers (FFs) by the university restaurants (URs) of the Federal Universities in Brazil. These acquisitions had been become mandatory after Decree No. 8,473/2015 was passed. This Decree establishes that all public institutions shall use at least 30% of their funds to purchase food directly from FFs. This study aimed to analyze the first years of implementation of this legislation, by identifying its advances and setbacks for a sustainability transition. The Multilevel Perspective was used to study the relationship between niche, regime and landscape. Information was collected through an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, with a total of 41 participants. This study attests to the importance of social actors and landscape to create innovations at the niche level, and to the power of the regime to restrain these advances (outsourcing of restaurants alleging cost and convenience reasons). In this case specifically, changes in the niche and landscape level at the time of development of this innovation and a lack of resilience of the actors added to the power of the regime, which led to a setback of this policy.

Cultural Lock-in and Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The Case of Dairy/Beef Farmers in Norway (2020) 🗎🗎

Meeting targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture will require the implementation of effective mitigation measures. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recently recognised that to succeed we need to understand more about the conditions within which mitigation measures are applied, and for this, they note, we need insights from social science disciplines including sociology. We addressed this knowledge gap by using the concept of path-dependency and lock-in to explore barriers to change in dairy/beef systems in Norway. A qualitative survey of 29 farms found that changing parenting, recreational and spousal role expectations are driving farmers towards intensification (and thus higher emissions) in order to purchase milking robots, which, in turn, provide increased time for the expected role changes. Structural change is thus predominantly directed towards farm continuity which is making it increasingly difficult to meet mitigation targets in the future. The study illustrates how mitigation measures might be made more effective by understanding and addressing the broader cultural/structural environment within which farmers and their families operate.

A combination of differentiation and consolidation theory and risk-benefit analysis to examine decisions on mastitis prevention (2020) 🗎🗎

Mastitis infections cause severe pain in dairy cows and are the most costly illness to farmers. This study combined differentiation and consolidation (Diff-Con) theory with risk-benefit analysis to explore how risky decisions are perceived and justified after a decision has been taken. More specifically, using survey data from 428 Swedish dairy farmers, their decisions about adopting preventive measures to control mastitis (mastitis control options, MCO) in dairy herds were examined. The analyses included group comparisons with non-parametric rank tests and use of both ordinary least squared regression and seemingly unrelated regression analysis to examine how prior adoption of MCO affects farmers' attitudes to the MCO. The results showed that MCOs already adopted were rated higher in perceived riskiness (if not implemented) and in expected benefit (for illness prevention) than non-adopted MCOs. Having made the decision to implement a strategy increased the likelihood of that decision being perceived as more beneficial (reducing mastitis) and risky (in terms of disease increase if not implemented), irrespective of the combination of strategies used on the farm, during the post-consolidation stage. No difference in perceived illness prevalence could explain the farmers' rating of the MCOs. These findings suggest that there may be a path dependency in farmers' decision-making with respect to MCO. This implies that novel MCOs may have difficulty in achieving wider implementation. These results have implications for the development of strategies to communicate best practices for use of MCOs and for new research on MCOs and farmers' decision-making.

Organic agriculture: Controversies and global development issues in Africa (2020) 🗎🗎

Organic agriculture offers several options for documenting technological transitions towards new production models, although there are some controversies: low yields, access to standards, effective ecological balance, increased labour... By mobilizing different situations in sub-Saharan Africa, this thematic issue of Cahiers Agricultures provides information on these controversies. The presented papers illustrate how the organic agriculture defined by the standards of industrialized countries cannot reflect the diversity of African agricultural realities. As a result, the need for new certifications and applications for local companies is emerging. However, this emergence is constrained by the lack of comparative knowledge of productive realities between organic and conventional agriculture. Methodological innovations to reduce asymmetries in knowledge about performance comparison are then proposed. The results question the need for new indicators integrating nutrition and health security issues. They show that organic agriculture may also be a mean for increasing yields when the forest rent has been destroyed by export agriculture. While shedding light on the controversies, this thematic issue makes the hypothesis that, under certain conditions, organic agriculture is a breaking opportunity for a technological paradigm that meets the development issues in Africa. It invites us not to confuse this break with the mechanisms of agro-ecology-driven incremental transition.

Agroforestry Innovation through Planned Farmer Behavior: Trimming in Pine-Coffee Systems (2020) 🗎🗎

Knowledge transfer depends on the motivations of the target users. A case study of the intention of Indonesian coffee farmers to use a tree canopy trimming technique in pine-based agroforestry highlights path-dependency and complexity of social-ecological relationships. Farmers have contracts permitting coffee cultivation under pine trees owned by the state forestry company but have no right to fell trees. A multidisciplinary international team of scientists supported farmers at the University of Brawijaya Forest in East Java to trial canopy trimming to improve light for coffee production while maintaining tree density. Data were collected using surveys through interviews, case study analysis using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and nonparticipant observations. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, we found that though farmer attitudes toward trimming techniques were positive, several factors needed to be scrutinized: perceived limited socio-policy support and resources. While there is hope that canopy trimming can improve coffee production and local ecosystem services, a participatory and integrative extension and communication strategy will be needed. In the relationship between farmers as agents and forest authorities as principals, any agroforestry innovation needs to incorporate knowledge and concerns in the triangle of farmers, policymakers and empirical science.

Options for agricultural service cooperatives in a postsocialist economy: Evidence from Romania (2020) 🗎🗎

Almost three decades since the collapse of the socialist regime, Romania's farm structure is characterized by a distinct dual pattern. The far majority of farms is relatively small, while a small number manages about half of the total utilized agricultural area. Most farmers face significant constraints in creating viable farm businesses. When this is the case, it can be assumed that farmers will unite and establish agricultural service cooperatives (ASCs), as has been observed in many other parts of the world. In Romania, however, as in many other postsocialist economies, farmers tend to be reluctant to form or join formal organizations of mutual assistance. Yet there are signs of change, as first ASCs have recently been established. The objectives of this contribution are twofold: First, we discuss the major obstacles why ASCs did not develop after regime change. Second, we analyze the major reasons and influencing factors why private family farmers become more open to this type of formal organization in recent years. The analysis is based on a literature review, farm statistics, and qualitative in-depth interviews with farmers in 2018.

Factors Affecting the Use of Organic Seed by Organic Farmers in Europe (2020) 🗎🗎

The new European Organic Regulation 2018/848 has announced the phasing out of derogations for the use of untreated non-organic seed by 2036. However, the use of organic seed by organic farmers is currently limited. This paper aims to identify the factors affecting the use of organic seed. It is based on data collected from 749 organic farmers in 20 European countries, by conducting an online survey and using a network sampling. Results of the descriptive statistics and linear mixed models indicate that: (1) the situation of organic seed use is not consistent across geographical regions and crop sectors; (2) the use of organic seed is higher on farms selling directly to consumers than on those selling to supermarkets; (3) larger and more recently converted farms use less organic seed than established organic farms. In the second part of the paper, we analyse farmers' attitudes towards organic seed use. The structural equation model (SEM) suggests that the highest contribution to explaining intention to use organic seed comes from social norms, i.e., farmers' perception of societal expectations, particularly from the consumer and the organic certifier. Such expectations, if communicated in the public and political discourse, could stimulate the use of organic seed.

An Evolving Agricultural Extension Model for Lasting Impact: How Willing Are Tanzanian Farmers to Pay for Extension Services? (2020) 🗎🗎

Community-based extension services (CES) are vital for improving farmers' livelihoods, but most of them face a challenge of sustainability after phasing out of the externally funded initiatives that they are part of. This study estimated farmer's willingness to pay (WTP) for four types of agricultural extension services (AES) in the cereals' value chains provided as a part of two United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Feed the Future initiatives in Tanzania. Data were collected from 595 smallholder cereal farmers using a primary survey in four districts of the Southern Highlands. We implemented a double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method. Average WTP figures ranged from 20,000 to 24,000 TZS (8-10 USD) depending on the type of AES. Several socioeconomic and agriculture-related variables influenced smallholders' WTP for the extension services. This research explored the feasibility of a farmer-led model as a pathway to delink extension services from public and donor funding to achieve sustainable rural development. Farmers place a monetary value on extension services indicating that policymakers and practitioners should make further efforts to enhance a community's ability to achieve self-reliance through investments in CES.

Knowledge politics and the Bt cotton success narrative in Burkina Faso (2020) 🗎🗎

Burkina Faso's 2008 Bt cotton adoption was Africa's largest genetically modified (GM) crop introduction principally for small farmers, and became its most celebrated success story. In 2016, however, Burkina Faso announced an abrupt phase-out of Bt cotton, citing millions of dollars of losses due to inferior lint quality. In hindsight, quality issues were conspicuously absent from the success narrative, particularly given that cotton sector actors were aware of problems for a decade. Recent data also reveal significantly lower yield gains and substantial inequalities between farmers, further questioning the success story and the evaluation literature it relied upon. Why and how was such a faulty and incomplete success narrative produced and promoted? To answer this, we draw on extended fieldwork conducted over ten years in Burkina Faso to critically examine how the knowledge used to build this success narrative was produced. We first scrutinize the evaluation literature, pointing out flaws and blindspots in the methodologies and reporting of findings. We then extend our analysis, drawing on political ecology and critical science studies, to focus on the power relations of knowledge production. We focus on three themes and show how (1) the political economic context favored the production of positive results, with Monsanto holding substantial power over the evaluation process, (2) the narrow epistemologies of agronomic evaluation produced "apolitical" knowledge that overlooked how local-level power dynamics shaped data collection, and - in at least two cases (fertilizer application rates and seed costs) - the returns accrued by smaller-scale Bt cotton farmers, (3) the knowledge produced via these processes was used to accrue material benefits to Monsanto and helped to promote GM crops across the continent. We conclude that future GM crop evaluations should be more self-reflexive, critical, and transparent in how power shapes the evaluation process and agricultural outcomes for differentiated farmers. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Role of Citizen Science in Sustainable Agriculture (2020) 🗎🗎

Farmers know much more than we think, and they are keen to improve their knowledge in order to improve their farms and increase their income. On the other hand, decision-makers, organizations, and researchers are increasing their use of citizen volunteers to strengthen their outcomes, enhance project implementation, and approach ecosystem sustainability. This paper assesses the role of citizen science relating to agricultural practices and covers citizen science literature on agriculture and farmers' participation during the period 2007-2019. The literature was examined for the role of citizen science in supporting sustainable agriculture activities, pointing to opportunities, challenges, and recommendations. The study identified the following gaps: insufficient attention to (1) long-term capacity building and dialogue between academics and farming communities; (2) developing countries in the global South and smallholders; (3) agriculture trading and marketing; (4) the rationales of selecting target groups; (5) contributing to accelerated sustainability transitions. The main aim of the research projects reviewed in this study tended to focus on the research outcomes from an academic perspective, not sustainable solutions in practice or sustainability in general. More research is needed to address these gaps and to widen the benefits of citizen science in sustainable agricultural practices.

Drivers of Farm Households' Perceived Risk Sources and Factors Affecting Uptake of Mitigation Strategies in Punjab Pakistan: Implications for Sustainable Agriculture (2020) 🗎🗎

Climate change is a serious threat to agriculture in many developing countries including Pakistan. Changing pattern of climate and its extreme conditions have already led to a decline in crop productivity. However, farmers in developing countries experience risks beyond just climate change, many of which are related to policy, strategy, and factor endowments. The impact of these risks have serious implications for food security, rural livelihood, farm households' wellbeing, and, above all, their motive to adapt to these changes in the long-term. To have an in-depth knowledge of farmers' perceptions about the changing climate, this study investigates various aspects such as the determinants of perception about various risk sources and the relevant mitigation and adaptation options. To do so, 480 farmers from agriculture-dominated Punjab province were randomly selected in order for us to evaluate their awareness levels, socioeconomic dynamics that influence their perceptions, and various factors that influence their perceptions to achieve the desired findings. We applied the principle factor analysis approach to ascertain major sources and strategies based on farmers' perception and planned/practiced options. Further, regression analysis was done to evaluate the factors influencing the perception levels of farmers about risk sources. The results showed that majority of the farmers faced various risks, and were trying to adapt crop husbandry practices towards these perceived risks. Change in agricultural policies (3.96) was placed as the highest risk source, while the need for small dams/turbine schemes was the top priority for risk management strategy (mean value of 4.39). By observing the effect of farm and farmer's characteristics on risk sources and risk management strategies, it was revealed that these characteristics ominously provoked farmers' perspectives about risk sources and management strategies. The findings imply the need for coherent environmental policy that encompasses price stability, community-led adaptation campaigns, and easy/uninterrupted flows of information that enables the farming community to facilitate sustainable decision processes.

Drivers of decoupling and recoupling of crop and livestock systems at farm and territorial scales (2020) 🗎🗎

Crop and livestock production have become spatially decoupled in existing commercial agricultural regimes throughout the world. These segregated high input production systems contribute to some of the world's most pressing sustainability challenges, including climate change, nutrient imbalances, water pollution, biodiversity decline, and increasingly precarious rural livelihoods. There is substantial evidence that by closing the loop in nutrient and energy cycles, recoupling crop and livestock systems at farm and territorial scales can help reduce the environmental externalities associated with conventional commercial farming without declines in profitability or yields. Yet such integrated crop and livestock systems remain rare as a proportion of global agricultural area. Based on an interdisciplinary workshop and additional literature review, we provide a comprehensive historical and international perspective on why integrated crop and livestock systems have declined in most regions and what conditions have fostered their persistence and reemergence in others. We also identify levers for encouraging the reemergence of integrated crop and livestock systems worldwide. We conclude that a major disruption of the current regime would be needed to foster crop-livestock reintegration, including a redesign of research programs, credit systems, payments for ecosystem services, insurance programs, and food safety regulations to focus on whole farm outcomes and the creation of a circular economy. An expansion of the number of integrated crop and livestock systems field trials and demonstrations and efforts to brand integrated crop and livestock systems as a form of sustainable agriculture through the development of eco-labels could also improve adoption, but would likely be unsuccessful at encouraging wide-scale change without a more radical transformation of the research and policy landscape.

(In)Sustainability of the Territory of Chapada Do Apodi-Rn (Brazil): The Expansion of Agribusiness versus the Impacts of Traditional Farmers and Local Rural Communities (2020) 🗎🗎

The objective of this study is to investigate the conditions of family agriculture and the respective environmental impacts of agribusiness. The research methodology is grounded on a theoretical survey of study descriptions of the area, a characterization of rural communities and local population through interviews, an identification of medium and large agricultural enterprises through documentary research on environmental licensing processes, and determination of the environmental impacts of agribusiness via an interaction matrix. Based on the data generated, it was found that the majority of the population has an incomplete elementary education; is involved in agricultural activity, livestock farming, and honey production, which provide a family income of up to one minimum wage; and is located in rural communities with environmental sanitation restrictions. Moreover, it was found that irrigated agriculture has positive impacts, such as the generation of employment and income. It was also evidenced that this activity causes adverse socioeconomic impacts and adverse impacts on the traditional activities of local rural communities through plant removal, water scarcity, and pesticide use. Thus, to mitigate the problems, it is necessary to apply the principles of Brazilian Environmental Law as correlated with the instruments of the National Environment Policy through environmental management guidelines.

Definitions of Water Quality: A Survey of Lake-Users of Water Quality-Compromised Lakes (2020) 🗎🗎

Understanding and defining water quality is an important precursor for influencing pro-environmental behavior and accurately assessing potential outcomes of human-lake interactions. This study surveyed 82 lake-users in Nebraska regarding their definitions of water quality and the importance of various water quality features to determine if lake-users' definitions align with complex and multi-faceted governmental and scientific definitions. Survey sites included two recreational reservoirs (e.g., boating and fishing), Holmes Lake (urban watershed) and Branched Oak Lake (agricultural watershed). The biological and chemical parameters are similar between the lakes and both lakes were listed as "impaired" on the Section 303(d) (United States Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA) list of impaired waters of the US at the time of the surveys. The results of our survey suggest that the overwhelming majority of lake-users' self-generated definitions of water quality did not include more than one feature of water quality found in the relevant policy and regulatory definitions and they focused primarily on water clarity. Further, when provided a list of specific water quality features, the participants rated all provided features of water quality as highly important. This suggests that the failure to include those features in a self-generated definition is not the consequence of perceiving that feature as low importance.

How farmers perceive the impact of dust phenomenon on agricultural production activities: A Q-methodology study (2020) 🗎🗎

Dust as one of the environmental concerns during the past decade has attracted the attention of the international community around the world, particularly among West Asian countries. Recently, Iran has been extremely affected by the serious impacts of this destructive phenomenon, especially in its agricultural sector. Management of dust phenomenon increasingly calls for initiatives to understand the perceptions of farmers regarding this phenomenon. Farmers' views about dust phenomenon can affect their attitude and their mitigating behavior. This can also make a valuable frame for decision and policy-makers to develop appropriate strategies for mitigating dust phenomenon impacts on the agricultural sector. In line with this, a Q methodology study was undertaken to identify the perception of farmers toward dust phenomenon, in Khuzestan province, Iran. Sixty participants completed the Q sort procedure. Data analysis revealed three types of perceptions toward dust phenomenon: health adherents who seek support, government blamers who seek support, and planning adherents who seek information. Awareness of these perspectives is expected to promote the exchange of thought and knowledge among policy and decision-makers, and to support the development of a shared vision on dust phenomenon management.

Combining management plans and payment schemes for targeted grassland conservation within the Habitats Directive in Saxony, Eastern Germany (2020) 🗎🗎

As central policies for biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes in the European Union (EU), the Habitats Directive and Agri-environmental programmes (AEP) have largely failed to halt biodiversity loss. In response, the German federal state of Saxony combined the instrument of management plans with AEPs to support the implementation of the Habitat Directive. In this study, we investigate the determinants of a farmers' decisions to adjust their farming practices. Our data set consists of a quantitative survey with 131 farmers conducted between 2004 and 2011, complemented by implementation data from 333 grassland-plots. Determinants of farmers' decisions to conserve grassland were estimated using a multinomial logit model. Our results show that a combination of management plans and AEPs can increase farmers' disposition to adopt nature conservation measures. As central determinants, structural and location factors as well as the complementary provisiion of specifically designed AEPs increase farmers' willingness to adopt conservation practices for grassland management. It can be concluded that additional costs are a major barrier to farmers' adoption, particularly to those farms directing their farm management towards the optimisation of productivity and profitability. The findings highlight the complementary potential of integrated policy packages to incentivise specific measures of nature conservation within the framework of the Habitats Directive.

Public policy design: Assessing the potential of new collective Agri-Environmental Schemes in the Marais Poitevin wetland region using a participatory approach (2020) 🗎🗎

The conciliation between different issues such as agriculture production, biodiversity conservation and water management remains unsolved in many places in the world. As a striking example, the wet grasslands of the Marais Poitevin region (France) presents many obstacles against the integration of these issues, especially in terms of public policy design. The socio-cultural situation in this region shows a high degree of political resistance and questions the relevancy of the current Agri-Environmental Schemes (AES) as an incentive for livestock farmers to adopt biodiversity friendly practices favoring the birds' richness of the area. In this study, we explored the reasons for the poor effect of public policy using a two-fold approach based on ethnographic fieldwork and a role-playing game experiment. The ethnographic fieldwork aimed at understanding the local context and daily lives of farmers and current AES's difficulties while the observation of the role-playing game session allowed for the exploration of current and alternative policy scenarios. The game represents an archetypal wetland that simulates the grass regeneration, water flows through a canal system and a surrounding network of cultivated plots (wheat, corn, sunflower, alfalfa) and pasture areas. The game is designed for eight players who embody their role in real life, i.e. water managers, biodiversity managers and farmers. The behaviors of the players during the session were observed and analyzed through semantic analysis. The game was structured around two scenarios to allow participants to explore, test and compare the current individual action-oriented AES with alternative collective public policy instruments. Such comparison brings new insights for public policy design. It also highlights the topic of integrated environmental management and questions the relevancy of participatory approaches in striving to resolve contradiction/dilemmas in environmental development.

Improving Policy Evidence Base for Agricultural Sustainability and Food Security: A Content Analysis of Life Cycle Assessment Research (2020) 🗎🗎

Life cycle assessment is a widespread method for measuring and monitoring the environmental impacts of production processes, thereby allowing the comparison of business-as-usual with more ecological scenarios. Life cycle assessment research can support evidence-based policy making by comparing and communicating the environmental impacts of agricultural and food systems, informing about the impact of mitigating interventions and monitoring sectoral progress towards sustainable development goals. This article aims at improving the contribution of science to evidence-based policies for agricultural sustainability and food security, while facilitating further research, by delivering a content-analysis based literature review of life cycle assessment research in agricultural and food economics. Results highlight that demand-side and system-level approaches need further development, as policies need to support redesigned agricultural systems and newly conceived dietary guidelines, which combine environmental protection and health benefits, without reducing productivity. Similarly, more research effort towards consequential life cycle assessment and multidimensional assessment may benefit policy makers by considering the rebound effects associated with the large-scale implementation of impact-mitigating interventions. Promising interventions involve the promotion of waste circularization strategies, which could also improve the profitability of agriculture. For effective policy making towards agricultural sustainability and food security worldwide, countries with the greatest expected population growth and raise of urbanization rates need more attention by researchers.

Determinants for the Implementation of Action-, Result- and Multi-Actor-Oriented Agri-Environment Schemes in Switzerland (2020) 🗎🗎

Result- and multi-actor-oriented agri-environmental payment schemes are considered more cost-effective than action-oriented schemes in providing environmental public goods. This study analysed socio-economic determinants influencing the implementation of three types of agri-environmental scheme: action-, result- and multi-actor-oriented payment schemes. We relied on farm-level data from 2015 to 2017 retrieved from the Swiss Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) and individually linked with Swiss agricultural census data. The census data provided detailed information on the proportions of action-, result- and multi-actor-oriented ecological focus areas (EFAs) implemented on each FADN farm. We found evidence that farmers' knowledge and competences are more important for result- and multi-actor-oriented EFAs than for action-oriented schemes: farms managed by young full-time farmers with higher levels of education have significantly higher proportions of result-oriented EFAs. In addition, farmers with higher levels of education who manage larger farms have significantly higher proportions of multi-actor-oriented EFAs. Furthermore, institutional factors such as cantonal authorities strongly influenced the proportions of result- and multi-actor-oriented EFAs. In contrast, the implementation of action-oriented EFAs was strongly driven by farm type. We observed higher proportions of action-oriented EFAs for farm types where implementation led to little change in farming practices (for instance, extensive ruminant farms). This adverse selection behaviour resulting from low compliance costs was not observed for result- or multi-actor-oriented EFAs.

Agricultural sustainability assessment framework integrating sustainable development goals and interlinked priorities of environmental, climate and agriculture policies (2020) 🗎🗎

The agricultural sustainability issues are widely addressed in scientific literature and various reports by international organizations. However, there is lack of harmonized approach in addressing agricultural sustainability issues as different policies are targeting different sustainability issues in agriculture. This article analyses sustainable agriculture development and agriculture sustainability concepts and sustainability assessment approaches and tools developed for agriculture sector. Based on systematic critical literature review, this article develops the new indicators framework for sustainability assessment in agriculture which allows us to achieve harmonization of sustainable development, climate and agricultural policies in European Union (EU). The proposed indicators framework allows us to address the main sustainability issues of agriculture by linking them with sustainable development goals, environmental, climate and rural development policy priorities in EU. The main contribution of this article is linking rural policy goals with sustainable development, climate change mitigation and environmental policy goals by providing agricultural sustainability assessment framework allowing us to track these linkages through indicators system.

Biofixation of atmospheric nitrogen in the context of world staple crop production: Policy perspectives (2020) 🗎🗎

The extensive use of nitrogen (N) fertilizers implicates a paradox: while fertilizers ensure the supply of a large amount of food, they cause negative environmental externalities, including reduced biodiversity, and eutrophic streams and lakes. Moreover, such fertilizers may also result in a major public health hazard: increased antibiotic resistance. This article discusses the critical implications of perturbations in N cycle caused by excessive use of fertilizers and resulting policy implications as they relate to ecosystem services. While there are solutions such as cover crops, these solutions are expensive and inconvenient for farmers. We advocate the use of biological fixation (BF) for staple crops-microbiome mediated natural supply of fixed N. This would involve engineering a microbiome that can be grown cheaply and at industrial scale. Fertilizers resulting from such innovation are termed as "biofertilizers" in this article. Following a qualitative cost-benefit analysis broken down by key stakeholders and a quick exploration of policy frameworks as they relate to the advancement of biofertilizers, we propose a practical pathway of where and how research investments should be directed to make such a solution feasible. We make five policy recommendations for decision-makers to facilitate a successful trajectory for this solution: (1) Future agricultural science should seek to understand how BF might be employed as a practical and efficient strategy. This effort would require that industry and the government partner to establish a pre-competitive research laboratory equipped with the latest state-of-the-art technologies that conduct metagenomic experiments to reveal signature microbiomes and form novel symbiotic connections. (2) To have a smooth ride in the market, ag-bio companies should: (i) create awareness among farmers; (ii) impart skills to farmers in testing and using biofertilizers, and (iii) conduct extensive field tests and more research in studying the scalability potential of such fertilizers. (3)The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and state governments should provide research and development (R&D) tax credits to biotech companies specifically geared towards R&D investments aimed at increasing the viability of BF and microbiome engineering. (4) To control agricultural pollution in the biosphere, federal governments should consider passing a Clean Agriculture Act (CAA), including a specific clause that regulate the use of chemical fertilizers. (5) Governments and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) should coordinate Biological Advanced Research in Agriculture (BARA)-a global agricultural innovation initiative for investments and research in biological fixation and ethical, legal, and social implications of such innovation. While biological fixation will be central in BARA, we envision it to conduct research around other agricultural innovations as well, such as increasing photosynthetic efficiency. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Multifunctional agriculture: Policies and implementation in China (2020) 🗎🗎

Multifunctional agriculture (MFA) has been supported in the European Union (EU) for over two decades, primarily as part of rural development policy in which agriculture is encouraged to deliver a range of economic, social and environmental outcomes. MFA has also grown in some countries without significant policy support, notably in peri-urban fringes in North America and Australasia. Further expansion of this phenomenon is now apparent in China under strong central government policy directives from the early 2000s. Drawing upon a decade of studies of MFA in China, this paper examines some of the responses to various related policy initiatives, including major programs, such as Grain for Green, which have encouraged farmers to generate environmental services. It also refers to the scope for individual farm households to take initiatives leading to MFA via adoption of multiple functions on smallholdings (e.g., rural tourism, food processing). Various interpretations of MFA are explored, with a focus on how central government policy directives have driven take-up of various MFA-related initiatives.

Using environmental knowledge brokers to promote deep green agri-environment measures (2020) 🗎🗎

Intermediary organisations have increasingly played a role in payments for agri-environment services across Europe over the last two decades. However, the economics literature has so far not examined the impact of this new governance mechanism on environmental protection and on individuals' behaviour. We develop a new theoretical economic framework to compare an incentive mechanism using intermediaries, such as environmental knowledge brokers and information providers, with a standard central governance mechanism, in terms of environmental impact. We show that the emergence of knowledge intermediaries is particularly effective where farmers initially have low environmental awareness, or when the public institution organising the scheme is insufficiently aware of individuals' characteristics. Our findings provide theoretical support for previous empirical results on payment schemes for agri-environment measures.

Cultural transition of the Israeli men's U18 national handball team migrated to Germany: a case study (2020) 🗎🗎

This case study describes the cultural transition of the Israeli men's U18 national handball team to train and compete in Germany for a competitive season. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected longitudinally as part of sport psychology services provided to the team. Data analysis was guided by an integrated career change and transition framework (ICCT). Results indicated that the transition demands covered on-court (e.g. increased training load) and off-court (e.g. residing at a hotel) issues. Players perceived this transition as significant and positive. In response to selection for this program, most players relied on consulting with others. The transition barriers were also related to on-court (e.g. injuries) and off-court (e.g. cultural differences) issues. Players varied in their conscious decision to change (i.e., apply all necessary adjustments) and coping effectiveness. Players exhibited several transition pathways, as suggested by the ICCT. Findings illustrate the dynamics and multifaceted nature of the cultural transition.

Building multifunctionality into agricultural conservation programs: lessons learned from designing agroforestry systems with central Illinois landowners (2020) 🗎🗎

Since 1985, land retirement has been the primary approach used by the federal government for environmental protection of agricultural landscapes, but increasingly it is being supplemented by conservation initiatives on working lands. This shift logically supports agroforestry and other multifunctional approaches as a means to combine production and conservation. However, such approaches can be complex and difficult to design, contributing to the limited adoption in the USA. To understand and improve the integration of multifunctional landscapes into conservation programs, we worked with 15 landowners in a collaborative design process to build unique conservation plans utilizing agroforestry. We interviewed participants before and after the design process to examine the utility of a personalized design process, applicability of agroforestry to conservation programs and pathways to improve conservation policy. We found that landowners strongly preferred working in person for the design process, and being presented a comparison of alternative designs, rather than a single option, especially for novel systems. Agroforestry was seen as a viable method of generating conservation benefits while providing value to the landowners, each of whom stated they were more inclined to adopt such practices irrespective of financial assistance to do so. For conservation programs, landowners suggested reducing their complexity, inflexibility and impersonal nature to improve the integration of multifunctional practices that appeal directly to the practitioner's needs and preferences. These findings are valuable for conservation policy because they complement previous research theory suggesting the value of working collaboratively with landowners in the design of multifunctional landscapes. Personalized solutions that are developed based on the unique characteristics of the local landscape and the preferences of the individual landowner may be retained beyond a specified payment period, rather than being converted back into annual crop production.

What determines regulatory preferences? Insights from micropollutants in surface waters (2020) 🗎🗎

The ever-increasing consumption of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, detergents and food additives puts aquatic ecosystems under strain. Accordingly, respective regulation of micropollutants in surface waters is an issue that not only needs to include the perspective of public actors and producers but also that of the consumers. Complementing existing literature on public perception towards environmental policy instruments, this study investigates how consumers assess the risks related to micropollutants in surface waters and what their regulatory preferences are for addressing this issue. Drawing on original survey data for Germany, we show that respondents perceive the presence of micropollutants in surface waters to be an issue worth addressing, mostly due to environmental concerns. The majority of respondents is aware that they share some responsibility regarding increased levels of micropollutants in surface waters. Main responsibility is attributed to the industrial and agricultural sector, however. Regarding potential regulatory measures to mitigate the entry of micropollutants into surface waters, respondents prefer command-and-control over market-based instruments.

The Roles of Adoption and Behavior Change in Agricultural Policy (2020) 🗎🗎

Much of agricultural and agri-environmental policy is concerned with influencing the behavior of farmers in adopting new practices. An ability to understand and predict adoption of practices is useful for agricultural policy in several ways, including assessing additionality, selecting policy mechanisms, targeting policy to practices, farmer types or regions, and assessing likely policy success. Clear thinking about adoption is sometimes clouded by ambiguous and inconsistent language. We suggest a number of terms that are more specific than "adoption." Research needs include collection of long-term data sets on adoption of a variety of practices, understanding what determines continuous, sustained adoption of conservation practices and a better understanding of why adoption varies between farms.

Gaps and opportunities in nitrogen pollution policies around the world (2020) 🗎🗎

Nitrogen pollution is an important environmental issue gaining traction in policy circles. However, there is little understanding of current nitrogen policies around the world: whether they account for nitrogen's unique ability to exacerbate multiple environmental impacts or balance nitrogen's dual role as an essential agricultural input and major pollutant. Here we assemble and analyse the first database of nitrogen policies generated by national and regional legislatures and government agencies, a collection of 2,726 policies across 186 countries derived from the ECOLEX database. The database covers all major environmental sinks (such as air, water and climate), economic sectors (including agriculture, wastewater and industry) and policy instruments (from market mechanisms to regulatory standards). We find that sink-centred policies are focused predominantly on water, mirroring the distribution of nitrogen's global environmental and human health costs. However, policy integration across sinks is severely lacking, which heightens the risk of substituting one form of nitrogen pollution for another. Moreover, two-thirds of agricultural policies (ranging from broad sectoral programmes to nitrogen-specific measures) incentivize nitrogen use or manage its commerce, demonstrating the primacy of food production over environmental concerns. A new database of over 2,700 policies on nitrogen around the world highlights the predominance of policies incentivizing its use or managing trade, and the need for integration to avoid shifting pollution from one sink to another.

Pollination ecosystem services: A comprehensive review of economic values, research funding and policy actions (2020) 🗎🗎

Economic valuation of crop pollination services, including potential monetary losses in agricultural production induced by insufficient pollination, is a strategy to quantify the impacts of this critical ecosystem service on food production, food security and the global economy, and to drive policy actions. We examined how the economic valuation of crop pollination services has been investigated across the ecological and economics literature and review estimates of monetary values of crop pollination services, as well as the investments (research funding/grants) and policy actions associated with pollinators and pollination. We documented an increase in the number of economic valuation studies on pollination services in the last two decades, with a substantial growth over the last five years, which represented 54% of all publications. However, we emphasize that there is a marked lack of data on regionally important commercial crops that are essential for the food security of many millions of people, particularly in developing countries. Estimated global values of the crop pollination service, adjusted for inflation in March/2020, range widely from US$195 billion to similar to US$387 (US$267-657) billion annually - due to methodology, input data and a historical increase in production costs of pollinator-dependent crops. There is an increasing trend over time in the values of crop pollination service estimates for the full set of main globally-grown crops, although estimates for specific crops are widely variable at local to regional scales. Research funding on pollination/pollinators is mainly in developed countries, which have published all the reviewed policy papers on the economic value of crop pollination services. Although the valuation of pollination services, and associated economics and policy remain embryonic areas of research, animal-mediated pollination is clearly a high-value environmental service, which greatly strengthens conservation arguments worldwide.

Functional silos and other governance challenges of rangeland management in Iceland (2020) 🗎🗎

Social-ecological system (SES) promoting sustainable management of natural resources in common ownership are steered by a complex governance system that includes regulations through laws and policies, and management by administrative authorities operating across multi-level institutional structures that, in turn, are shaped by stakeholder interests. In addition, the long-term progress of natural resource management not only relies upon the existence of a well-structured and functional governance system, but needs that system to adaptably facilitate sustainable resource management in line with current knowledge and best practices. In this research we mapped the administrative structure that steers rangeland management in Iceland and undertook a critical analysis of the governance system's structure and functions to examine if agricultural and environmental policy targets have facilitated improved rangeland management practices. A survey, based on a questionnaire distributed to selected public sector employees and sheep farmers, was used to gauge the participants: a) attitude towards rangeland management practices, b) perception of the level of collaboration and state support for rangeland restoration and c) views on current agricultural and environmental policies on rangeland management. The results strongly indicate that neither the current administrative structure nor the governance process itself have significantly facilitated expected attitude changes within the agricultural sector or among local authorities. Furthermore, it has neither facilitated significant attitude nor behavioral changes among sheep farmers aimed at improved rangeland management, in line with current government agricultural and environmental policy targets. Our key findings support previous research that shows the governance system for rangeland management in Iceland as structurally limited and suffering from weak vertically and horizontally integration. Furthermore, our findings clearly reveal the need for improved governance for rangeland management and the need for increased levels of knowledge application within the system.

Impacts of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy "Greening" Reform on Agricultural Development, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Services (2020) 🗎🗎

The EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has had limited success in mitigating agriculture's environmental degradation. In this paper we simulate the impacts of the 2013 "greening" reform on biodiversity and ecosystem services in environmentally contrasting landscapes. We do this by integrating an agent-based model of structural change with spatial ecological production functions, and show that the reform will likely fail to deliver substantial environmental benefits. Our study implies that greening measures need to be tailored to local conditions and priorities, to generate environmental improvements. Such spatial targeting of measures is though incompatible with the design of a common direct payments scheme.

The plurality of farmers' views on soil management calls for a policy mix (2020) 🗎🗎

While soil degradation is continuing to threaten the global agricultural production system, a common understanding of how to encourage sustainable soil management is missing. With this study, we aim to provide new insights on targeted policies that address the heterogeneity of farmers. We scrutinized the plurality of views on soil management among arable farmers in the Austrian (and European) policy context. To do so, we applied Q methodology, a method that identifies different perspectives on a topic present in a population and analyzes this subjectivity statistically. We interviewed 34 arable land farmers who varied in their farming backgrounds. The results yielded four different viewpoints on soil management held by the interviewed farmers: two rather ecocentric perspectives (Nature Participants, Pleasure Seekers) and two rather anthropocentric perspectives (Traditional Food Providers, Profit Maximizers). Our study shows that farmers' soil management is influenced by more than economic considerations and suggests that a mix of policy approaches is needed to reach all farmers and avoid adverse effects of excluding farmers. We provide several suggestions for policymakers on how to complement agri-environmental policies: appealing to human-nature relationships, offering training and experimentation services, fostering social networks, and raising the social reputation of farmers.

Characterizing Heterogeneous Behavior of Non-Point-Source Polluters in a Spatial Game under Alternate Sensing and Incentive Designs (2020) 🗎🗎

Behavioral research on natural resource management has revealed a number of variables that can impact collective action. This research builds upon an interactive decision game using experimental economics methods with a focus on production decisions and the corresponding impact they have on ambient water quality. Using hierarchical clustering algorithms, four primary types of behavior are identified: competitive, hypercompetitive, cooperative, and hypercooperative. The results from the experiment are used to test the following three hypotheses: (1) financial incentives increase cooperative behavior, (2) increasing the number and frequency of water quality sensors increases cooperative behavior, and (3) the spatial location of the agents and sensors affect cooperative behavior. Mixed-effect multinomial logistic models reveal that policy incentives, sensor location, and frequency of sensing alter the behavioral strategies of decision makers in the experiment and that outcomes vary by spatial location. From a watershed planning perspective, minimal investments in advanced environmental monitoring/sensing systems can potentially have large effects in improving water quality; however, there is also some evidence of marginal diminishing returns associated with such investments.

Identifying barriers and opportunities for a circular phosphorus economy in the Baltic Sea region (2020) 🗎🗎

Phosphorus (P) is one of the essential elements needed for global food security. However, the phosphate life cycle is currently predominantly linear, from P-rock mining to fertiliser production, agriculture, and food consumption, with the P excess ending up in soil and runoff. Eutrophication coupled with limited global commercial phosphorus reserves call for increased efforts toward creating a circular economy for P in many populated drainage basins such as the Baltic Sea region. To identify barriers and opportunities for such a transition, we employ an analytical framework that merges an innovation systems perspective with elements from the socio-technical transitions literature. Combining a literature review with key informant interviews, we find that lack of appropriate policy steering and insufficient knowledge on the performance of technologies for reuse remain key obstacles for closing the P loop. There are, however, structural opportunities presented by the new EU Fertilising Products Regulation that are likely to level the playing field between conventional and waste-derived fertilisers and thereby improve the market opportunities for recovered P. However, the system currently appears to be moving towards a narrow focus on a few new technologies for P recovery and reuse which could lead to new lock-ins. Solutions need to address users' acceptability of the technologies and waste-derived products while the vision of a circular economy needs to be better articulated through government interventions to capture environmental externalities of phosphate mining. The paper further highlights knowledge gaps and proposes recommendations for policy and research related to the circular economy of P. (C) 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Financial recovery schemes in Austria: how planned relocation is used as an answer to future flood events (2020) 🗎🗎

Damages due to extreme hydro-metrological events request for additional efforts to enhance the implementation of property level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures. Although a highly effective long-term measure, the planned relocation of individuals from areas at risk is rarely considered as an adaptive response. We evaluate how financial recovery schemes are actually linked to planned relocation option in two study sites in Austria. In both areas, more than 500 households were offered a voluntary planned relocation directly after extreme flood events. We conducted a semi-structured qualitative approach with 16 key respondents in order to identify how current financial recovery schemes are linked to ongoing and past relocation processes. The results show that there exists a missing link between disaster-aid payments and compensation for planned relocation. Participants gained from the programmes and used disaster-aid compensation schemes to increase the economic value of their houses. In addition, the financial schemes were not used to encourage further sustainability transition processes at local level. These data demonstrate the uneven distribution of payments with strong socio-economic implications for those who take part in planned relocation process. We recommend a better link between financial disaster-aid compensation and voluntary payout programmes, especially to reduce the uneven socio-economic distribution during the recovery phase.

Profitability and Efficiency of High Nature Value Marginal Farming in England (2020) 🗎🗎

The UK Brexit vote triggered a new wave of policy developments for a future outside the EU. In this context, we analyse the business performance of English hill and upland farms, characterised by marginal economic conditions but also high nature value (HNV). The analysis aims to help identify farm-level management and policy options for greater economic, environmental and social sustainability. Business performance is measured as technical efficiency and the occurrence and persistence of abnormal profits, estimated through stochastic frontier analysis and static and dynamic panel-data methods. The results help indicate rationales for recent trends including farm enlargement, farm family diversification, and agri-environment scheme entry. The single farm payment is found to be negatively associated with farm technical efficiency while agri-environmental subsidies were positively associated to short-term farm profitability. Farm adaptation and resilience during a period of likely turbulence in external circumstances is discussed in light of these findings, as well as potential parallels with marginal HNV areas across Europe.

A framework for nitrogen futures in the shared socioeconomic pathways (2020) 🗎🗎

Humanity's transformation of the nitrogen cycle has major consequences for ecosystems, climate and human health, making it one of the key environmental issues of our time. Understanding how trends could evolve over the course of the 21st century is crucial for scientists and decision-makers from local to global scales. Scenario analysis is the primary tool for doing so, and has been applied across all major environmental issues, including nitrogen pollution. However, to date most scenario efforts addressing nitrogen flows have either taken a narrow approach, focusing on a singular impact or sector, or have not been integrated within a broader scenario framework - a missed opportunity given the multiple environmental and socio-economic impacts that nitrogen pollution exacerbates. Capitalizing on our expanding knowledge of nitrogen flows, this study introduces a framework for new nitrogen-focused narratives based on the widely used Shared Socioeconomic Pathways that include all the major nitrogen-polluting sectors (agriculture, industry, transport and wastewater). These new narratives are the first to integrate the influence of climate and other environmental pollution control policies, while also incorporating explicit nitrogen-control measures. The next step is for them to be used as model inputs to evaluate the impact of different nitrogen production, consumption and loss trajectories, and thus advance understanding of how to address environmental impacts while simultaneously meeting key development goals. This effort is an important step in assessing how humanity can return to the planetary boundary of this essential element over the coming century.

Linking farmers' management decision, demographic characteristics and perceptions of ecosystem services in the Southern Pampa of Argentina (2020) 🗎🗎

In the Pampean region of Argentina, uncultivated areas with spontaneous vegetation, such as the sierras (low hills), are important sites for nature conservation. In the last decades, the "agriculturization" process has generated different pressures on these areas and their fate depends on farmers' decision making. In order to understand the context of these decisions, it is important to know the farmers' demographic characteristics and perceptions of ecosystem services (ES). The aim of this study was to explore the link between farmers' management decisions and their demographic characteristics and perceptions of ES in one of the most intensively cropped areas in Argentina. Data were obtained from 40 semi-structured interviews with farmers from the Tandilia system in the Pampean region. A typology of farms was generated according to their management practices and then characterized by the farmers' demographic characteristics and perceptions of ES. The results show a typology of four groups of farms defined by the combination of eight management variables. The demographic characteristics of the farmers that have a strong perception of ES derived from the sierras were related to an emotionally and/or physically close connection with the farm (their parents were farmers, they were raised on the farm, they have worked there for many years, the farm is their place of residence, and it is a family farm). However, neither the farmers' demographic characteristics nor their perceptions of ES were related to their management decisions. This is explained by the fact that the agricultural model that characterizes the region generates different pressures on farmers and leaves them with little choice in the matter of productive management decisions. The information derived from this work could contribute to the design of guidance criteria for sound environmental management strategies and policy instruments for the conservation of biodiversity and the provision of ES in a context with particular ecological, social, and economic characteristics.

Sustainable Development and the European Union Policy on Non-Financial Information: An Italian Empirical Analysis (2020) 🗎🗎

The aim of this study is to examine whether the European Union (EU) Directive on Non-Financial Information (NFI) would be capable of increasing corporate transparency and sustainable development. To this end, the study reports the findings of 17 interviews with preparers and auditors about the content and reporting methods of NFI, as specified by the Italian regulation. The study finds that preparers and auditors favour many of the requirements introduced by the Italian legislature. In particular, the board's responsibility for NFI, the flexibility in the content and in the reporting method, and the audit of non-financial statements are regarded as a fruitful approach to disciplining NFI. The study contributions are twofold. First, it extends the so far scant literature on the role of EU policy as a change agent for sustainable development. Second, the study identifies some features of the Italian regulation that may be regarded as fruitful ways to regulate NFI.

Assessing the emergence of pro-biodiversity practices in citizen scientists of a backyard butterfly survey (2020) 🗎🗎

By monitoring biodiversity through citizen science programs, volunteers help scientists gather data at unprecedented temporal and geographical scales, and increase their knowledge and awareness of the surrounding biodiversity. While scientific outcomes of such programs may in the long run improve the state of biodiversity by informing environmental policies, direct benefits to biodiversity could arise locally if such experience of nature leads to biodiversity-friendly behaviors in volunteers. However, whether engagement into nature-based CS programs promotes individual behavioral changes remains poorly known. Here, we explored whether sustained participation in a nature-based citizen science program, called the French Butterfly citizen science project, is associated with changes in individual gardening practices. Specifically, using information provided by volunteers (n = 2362, from 2006 to 2013), we quantified gardening practices that directly affect butterflies, through two different indices: provision of nectar resources, and pesticide use. We found quantitative evidence that individual gardening practices shifted with multi-year participation, towards increased provision of nectar resources and decreased use of pesticides. However, the reduction in pesticide use was weakened if the backyard was used to grow fruits or vegetables. Other variables such as the size of the backyard affected gardening practices. This study reveals that participation in a nature-based citizen science program can prompt biodiversity-friendly behaviors, and highlights citizen science not only as a way to collect ecologically sound data but also as a direct conseivation tool. Yet, future interdisciplinary research remains critical to overcome factors limiting firm adoption of pro-biodiversity behaviors. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

National-scale geodata describe widespread accelerated soil erosion (2020) 🗎🗎

Accelerated soil erosion can result in substantial declines in soil fertility and has devastating environmental impacts. Consequently, understanding if rates of soil erosion are acceptable is of local and global importance. Herein we use empirical soil erosion observations collated into an open access geodatabase to identify the extent to which existing data and methodological approaches can be used to develop an empirically-derived understanding of soil erosion in the UK (by way of an example). The findings indicate that whilst mean erosion rates in the UK are low, relative to the rest of Europe for example, 16% of observations on arable land were greater than the supposedly tolerable rate of 1 t ha(-1) yr(-1) and maximum erosion rates were as high as 91.7 t ha(-1) yr(-1). However, the analysis highlights a skew in existing studies towards locations with a known erosion likelihood and methods that are biased towards single erosion pathways, rather than an all-inclusive study of erosion rates and processes. Accordingly, we suggest that future soil erosion research and policy must address these issues if an accurate assessment of soil erosion rates at the national-scale are to be established. The interactive geodatabase published alongside this paper offers a platform for the simultaneous development of soil erosion research, formulation of effective policy and better protection of soil resources.

Agricultural nature conservation in the Netherlands: Three lenses on transition pathways (2020) 🗎🗎

In this paper three approaches on transitions pathways are combined to study the role of agricultural nature conservation in the Dutch land use domain for achieving internationally agreed climate and biodiversity targets. The three perspectives used are the Multilevel Perspective (MLP), Initiative Based Learning (IBL) and Integrated Assessment Modelling (IAM). The analysis provides insights in how the combination of different research approaches can lead to more comprehensive policy advice on how agricultural nature conservation could help to achieve internationally agreed sustainability goals related to climate change and biodiversity. IAM shows under which conditions agricultural nature conservation could be consistent with European and global long-term goals regarding food security, biodiversity and climate. MLP provides insight into the extent in which agricultural nature conservation has affected or changed the existing nature and agricultural regimes. IBL, finally, reveals the challenges of encouraging agricultural nature conservation with policy measures. Our analysis shows that a combined perspective provides a deeper understanding of the underlying processes, reasons and motives of agricultural nature conservation, leading to more comprehensive policy recommendations.

The Wicked Problem the Water Framework Directive Cannot Solve. The Governance Approach in Dealing with Pollution of Nutrients in Surface Water in the Netherlands, Flanders, Lower Saxony, Denmark and Ireland (2020) 🗎🗎

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) is typically a framework directive that tries to encourage integration of policies for water quality and agriculture. Nutrients (nitrates, phosphates) from agricultural sources remain a 'wicked problem' in realizing the aims of the WFD, partly because the directive has to rely on other, neighboring policies to tackle to problem pressure of nutrients; it seems to lack instruments and measures to directly intervene in relevant agricultural policies. This contribution describes the different governance approaches of five member states and regions (The Netherlands, Flanders in Belgium, Lower Saxony- in Germany, Denmark and Ireland) to the nutrients problem and specifically focuses on the relationship between the nature of governance and the nature of measures taken. On the one hand, countries can vary in terms of a more consensual or antagonistic approach to dealing with water quality and diffuse pollution by agriculture, and emphasize more integration or separation in organization and programs. On the other hand, they can vary in the 'outcomes' in terms of more source-based measures or effect-based measures and the emphasis in policy instruments used. This article is based on the screening of policy documents, 44 interviews and several (international) feedback workshops. We found a great variety in governance approaches, while the nature of measures, in terms of source-based and effect-based, is only slightly different. On closer inspection, there are interesting differences in the consensual or antagonist discourses and differences in the use of more mandatory instruments or area-based policies. In many countries, the major challenge is to strike a balance between taking source-based measures, where necessary, and accommodating the difficult situations farmers very often find themselves in, as the reduction of nutrients (as a source-based measure) use can lead to lower yields and higher costs for manure disposal.

Impact of farmer self-identity and attitudes on participation in agri-environment schemes (2020) 🗎🗎

Influencing farmers to make positive contributions to the environment is one of the goals of agri-environment schemes (AESs). Understanding the drivers of farmer behaviour and the choices they make with regards to AESs is important as this aids policy makers in creating schemes that have a wider scope and are more likely to achieve environmental goals. Past studies have identified the importance of farmer self-identity and attitudes in decisions made on farms. Little emphasis has been put on modelling the relationship between self-identity and attitudes towards schemes and the resulting impact on participation in voluntary AESs. Using Ireland as a case-study, this paper employs a survey of 1000 farms to look at participation in AESs through the lens of farmer perceived self-identity and their attitudes towards schemes. A relatively novel approach of combining factor analysis, to generate a self-identity typology, with an AES participation regression model is implemented. The model results suggest that self-identity and attitudes have a significant impact on AES participation. Neighbouring farmers' viewpoints also have a significant and positive impact on the participation decision made by farmers.

"Community developed and farmer delivered." An analysis of the spatial and relational proximities of the Alternative Land Use Services program in Ontario (2020) 🗎🗎

In Canada, the Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) program aims to support conservation projects by financially compensating farmers for ecosystem services. The program advocates a bottom-up approach that allows farmers to decide which projects to implement. In this respect, ALUS distinguishes itself from more traditional agri-environment schemes, which are often managed in a top-down fashion. Other unique features of the program include a governance structure based on stakeholder confidence; the provision of annual compensation to members for supplying ecosystem services; and a private, community-based approach to conservation. Using the proximity analysis framework, our research explores whether this model can reshape the values of farmers and encourage them to adopt and maintain environmentally friendly practices. Our results reveal a close proximity among ALUS members in terms of their values, both environmental and economic. However, the ALUS program fails to take full advantage of the geographic and organized proximity of its participants. Specifically, individual projects are not integrated into a spatially coordinated, collective strategy that could have a greater environmental impact. While ALUS has been successful in encouraging farmers to adopt new practices, it mostly attracts participants who already agree with the values it promotes. In this regard, the program is not very different from standard agri-environment schemes.

Evaluating how we evaluate success: Monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management in Payments for Watershed Services programs (2020) 🗎🗎

Payments for Watershed Services (PWS) programs have become an increasingly popular policy mechanism both in the U.S. and abroad. These programs are used to meet a variety of objectives, including improving the quality and quantity of water supplies, protecting endangered species, and advancing rural livelihoods. Monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management are important for filling fundamental knowledge gaps and improving the efficacy of PWS on the ground. However, relatively little work has evaluated how programs themselves monitor and evaluate their impacts and whether adaptive management is utilized. Here, we seek to improve understanding of the factors that contribute to the adoption of monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management practices through a literature review and a survey of PWS programs. Based on qualitative and logistic regression analyses, financial, technical and institutional capacity and leveraging broad stakeholder coalitions emerged as important factors contributing to systematic PWS monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management. This research underscores the importance of investing additional resources to support such capacity and coalition-building in PWS to ensure programs can meet their desired objectives.

Fit for the task? Integration of biodiversity policy into the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy: Illustration on the case of Slovenia (2020) 🗎🗎

In the European Union (EU), the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is considered to be the critical public policy in terms of both impacts and funds dedicated to nature conservation, yet the goal of halting biodiversity loss in the EU remains elusive. The present paper examines the degree of biodiversity policy integration into the CAP and the quality of policy programming in a selected EU Member State in the 2014-2020 period. We use a heuristic model combining an assessment of biodiversity policy integration and a program theory analysis of the policy's logic model. In addition, the elaboration of the logic model for other agricultural policy objectives, relevance and potential effects of measures and allocation of budgetary funds are evaluated for comparative purposes. The program logic model was found to be only loosely defined for most objectives of Slovenian agricultural policy. At the strategic level, the integration of biodiversity policy is limited to instruments that remunerate above-standard farming practices, investments and payments to areas with natural constraints. In contrast, the inclusion and consistency of biodiversity conservation in instruments supporting standard practices (e.g. direct payment schemes) is addressed only to a limited extent. Given their design and implementation, fewer than 10 % of relevant measures were judged to have strong or significant potential effects and will thus probably only partly meet the policy objectives. Finally, biodiversity conservation (estimated 5% of the total agricultural policy budget), as well as other environmental objectives (22-23 %), have a significantly lower priority than income-and production-related objectives (54-60%). The future CAP should include adequate safeguards and incentives to improve the quality of programming and integration of biodiversity policy, particularly since an increasing emphasis is given to decision-making at the national level. However, although the post-2020 CAP programming system could, in principle, be seen as a step forward, there remains a high risk of underperformance in the field of biodiversity conservation in the EU Member States.

Soil Fertility on an Agricultural Frontier: The US Great Plains, 1880-2000 (2021) 🗎🗎

In contrast to most long-settled agricultural landscapes, the US Great Plains presents a rare example of well-documented agricultural colonization of new land. The Census of Agriculture provides detailed information about evolving grassland farm systems from the beginning of agricultural expansion and then at some two dozen time points between 1880 and the present. From early sod-busting, through drought and depression, and into late-twentieth-century modernization, it is possible to track how farmers used their land in any county. Treating farmland as an agroecosystem, a hybrid human-natural landscape, this article asks how farmers captured, altered, and replenished soil fertility. Did they extract more soil nitrogen than they returned, or did they maintain a balance? The article assesses land use from a soil nutrients perspective in several plains environments to capture variation in climate (especially rainfall), native soil quality, and availability of irrigation water. It traces farm management strategies through time to understand agricultural crises, growth periods, and technological transitions in the context of soil fertility. Soil management on an agricultural frontier was markedly different from that in places that had been farmed for centuries. A shortage of people and livestock and an abundance of deep, rich soils in the plains informed farmers' calculations as they juggled labor, capital, and market forces against family and financial strategies. Uniform methods of estimating and representing soil nutrient processes make possible a direct comparison of the relative sustainability of historical agroecosystems.

Sustainable Swine Manure Management: A Tale of Two Agreements (2021) 🗎🗎

Intensification and concentration of swine farming has provided economic benefit to rural communities but also negative environmental and human health impacts, particularly from the use of the lagoon-sprayfield system for manure management. Although cost effective, this system is susceptible to poor management, unpleasant odor and other emissions, and inundation during extreme weather events. Competition for manure-spreading acres with other livestock or encroaching development can also pose a problem. This study examines two agreements between industry and government designed to develop and implement improved manure management technologies for swine farms: a voluntary agreement between the attorney general of North Carolina and Smithfield Foods and a consent judgment between the State of Missouri and Premium Standard Farms. Individuals involved in executing these agreements were interviewed to gain insight from their perspective on those processes and lessons they learned from their experience. Common themes among participant responses to support transition processes included the need to involve multiple stakeholder groups, clearly define goals, understand the system, allow time for incremental change, and provide adequate "protected space" for technology development and implementation. Viewing these themes through the lens of multi-level perspective theory identifies leverage points throughout the system to support transitioning farms to a more sustainable path of manure management.

Agribusiness social responsibility in emerging economies: Effects of legal structure, economic performance and managers ' motivations (2021) 🗎🗎

While corporate social responsibility (CSR) in emerging and developing countries has attracted increased attention, most research still focuses on firms that conduct CSR under pressure from the West (e.g., through the dominance of Western firms or of certification in global value chains). This article studied how CSR takes shape domestically in an emerging economy (Russia), in remote rural areas, outside the reach of international mechanisms enforcing CSR. Specifically, it investigated corporate support for social and technical infrastructure for rural communities, based on a survey of 110 farms and qualitative interviews with farm managers in the Altai region, Siberia. It showed that many farms continue Soviet-era support for infrastructure, but unevenly. Farms with the legal form of a production cooperative and those with good economic performance were most likely to conduct CSR. Most farm managers expressed care for the local community but instrumental motivations, such as keeping good relations with local authorities to ensure access to land also featured. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring the effect of an enhanced e-commerce institutional mechanism on online shopping intention in the context of e-commerce poverty alleviation (2021) 🗎🗎

Purpose E-commerce poverty alleviation (EPA) is an innovative poverty alleviation model in China. The institutional mechanisms of the e-commerce platform improve the effect of EPA and exert online shopping purchase power in rural China. From a socio-technical perspective, this paper used adoption readiness of farmers and perceived risk to construct an integrated model to discern the effect of enhanced e-commerce institutional mechanisms on farmers' online shopping intention in the context of EPA. Design/methodology/approach The survey included 832 valid samples from rural farmers in Shanxi province. This study analyses using structural equation modelling (SEM) and bootstrap methods used to empirically test the model. Findings Findings suggest that enhanced e-commerce institutional mechanisms have significant direct and indirect positive impacts on farmers' online shopping intention; adoption readiness and perceived risk play partial mediation roles in determining the relationship between farmers' online shopping intention and enhanced e-commerce institutional mechanisms; and the indirect mediation effect of adoption readiness is greater than that of perceived risk. Research limitations/implications - Although the proposed model was supported in the questionnaire survey, the investigation method was not completely excluded. Future research can combine the method of panel data and apply the framework to other e-commerce platforms, as well as to other cultural settings. Practical implications - The study suggests that enhanced e-commerce institutional mechanisms that are based on the needs of farmers from poverty-stricken areas change the shopping habits of farmers. Moreover, enhanced e-commerce institutional mechanisms should allow farmers' perceived adoption readiness to play its promoting role and reduce the impeding role of perceived risk. The results of this study are conducive to the intensive implementation of the 'Three Rural Issues' strategy in China. Originality/value A new model to generate a two-factor mediation effect model by integrating the perceived effectiveness of enhanced e-commerce institutional mechanisms with farmers, farmers' adoption readiness, perceived risk and online shopping intention. The study explored the relationship between enhanced e-commerce institutional mechanisms and farmers' online shopping intention, bridging the gap in related empirical studies. Besides, this study first proposed farmers' adoption readiness and clarifies the mediating role of farmers' adoption readiness and perceived risk, which highlights the previously unnoticed role of farmers' adoption readiness.

Path-dependencies in Norwegian dairy and beef farming communities: Implications for climate mitigation (2021) 🗎🗎

Within Norwegian agriculture, combined dairy and beef production has been identified as a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and thus targeted for significant reductions. The article examines the path dependency of the dairy and beef production system in Norway and focuses on identifying lock-ins. The authors used qualitative methods to gather information from stakeholder meetings in Trondelag and Rogaland counties. They explored the stakeholders' responses to two different visions of agriculture in the future: the improved utilisation of outfields using Norwegian Red cattle and increasing production per animal by using feed concentrates. Six key areas of lock-in were identified: technology investment, culture, feeding strategy, policy, access to new farmland through moorland conversion, and ownership of the climate issue. The findings suggest that the current pathway in agriculture is strongly locked into production orientation through these lock-ins, making a production reduction option difficult to implement. There was also widespread belief among the stakeholders that the system of combined dairy and beef production was a climate-friendly option, suggesting that farmers are not convinced that a change in this direction is required. The authors conclude that the option of reducing production would be difficult to implement without addressing the multiple lock-in effects.

Current research on the ecosystem service potential of legume inclusive cropping systems in Europe. A review (2021) 🗎🗎

Legume crops hold promise to diversify the currently simplified rotations that dominate Europe and to increase the sustainability of European farming systems. Nevertheless, most legumes have been ignored by farmers, advisors, and value chain agents in the EU, where legumes are estimated to occupy only similar to 2% of arable land. Recent surveys fmd that farmers see a lack of knowledge on the agroecological impacts of (re)introducing legumes as a key barrier to legume adoption. A review of current research on the agroecological potential of legume-inclusive cropping systems would help in assessing whether research targeting sufficiently supports farmers in overcoming this barrier. We have systematically reviewed and synthesized published literature reporting on agricultural ecosystem service delivery in European cropping systems with legumes included compared to those without legumes. Our analysis of 163 published articles revealed: (1) the bulk of published research addresses production-related services delivered by few legume species (pea, clover, faba bean, and vetch, 70% of reviewed studies) comparatively assessed in cerealbased rotations; (2) substantial knowledge gaps also exist, encompassing ecosystem services with less direct relevance to economic outcomes (e.g., biodiversity) and with potential for high variability (e.g., pest and disease suppression); (3) studies at plot-level and within-season scales dominate (92% and 75% of reviewed studies, respectively). Assessed in the context of recent complementary studies, we fmd that a limited research focus is both counter to knowledge demands from farmers and likely the result of self-reinforcing socio-technical regimes which prioritize production over non- or indirectly-marketable ecosystem services. We conclude that scientists in Europe should diversify research to include legume species, ecosystem services, contexts, and scales not yet well studied, in order to provide the agroecological knowledge base farmers need to amplify the potential benefits of crop diversity.

Agroforestry-Based Ecosystem Services: Reconciling Values of Humans and Nature in Sustainable Development (2021) 🗎🗎

Agroforestry as active area of multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary research aims to bridge several artificial divides that have respectable historical roots but hinder progress toward sustainable development goals. These include: (1) The segregation of "forestry trees" and "agricultural crops", ignoring the continuity in functional properties and functions; the farm-scale "Agroforestry-1" concept seeks to reconnect perennial and annual, woody and nonwoody plants across the forest-agriculture divide to markets for inputs and outputs. (2) The identification of agriculture with provisioning services and the assumed monopoly of forests on other ecosystem services (including hydrology, carbon storage, biodiversity conservation) in the landscape, challenged by the opportunity of "integrated" solutions at landscape scale as the "Agroforestry-2" concept explores. (3) The gaps among local knowledge of farmers/agroforesters as landscape managers, the contributions of social and ecological sciences, the path-dependency of forestry, environmental or agricultural institutions, and emerging policy responses to "issue attention cycles" in the public debate, as is the focus of the "Agroforestry-3" concept. Progress in understanding social-ecological-economic systems at the practitioners-science-policy interface requires that both instrumental and relational values of nature are appreciated, as they complement critical steps in progressing issue cycles at the three scales. A set of hypotheses can guide further research.

Economic policy instruments for sustainable phosphorus management: taking into account climate and biodiversity targets (2021) 🗎🗎

Background Phosphorus (P) is a vital and non-substitutable nutrient for agricultural production. However, P is often used inefficiently in European agriculture. To ensure food security while avoiding environmental damage caused by improper fertilization, a sustainable P management is required. Although P-related problems are partly addressed by existing agricultural and environmental legislation, e.g., in the EU, the current regulation lacks sufficient governance effect. In addition, the existing legal framework is strongly characterized by detailed command-and-control provisions and thus suffers from governance problems such as enforcement deficits, rebound and shifting effects. This paper focuses on how these challenges could be addressed by economic instruments. The article highlights not only the impact of the instruments on P management, but also on adjacent environmental areas. We pay particular attention to the governance effects on reaching international binding climate and biodiversity objectives, for which fertilization and agriculture play a major role. Results The analysis builds on two economic instruments that ensure compliance with the climate target of the Paris Agreement and the Aichi targets of the Biodiversity Convention: a cap-and-trade scheme for fossil fuels and a cap-and-trade scheme for livestock products. We state that both instruments simultaneously address a large part of P-related problems. Moreover, if the two emissions trading schemes are combined with a livestock-to-land ratio at farm level, only little need for regulatory supplementation relating to P remains. The latter includes in particular a threshold value for contaminants in P-containing fertilizers. Furthermore, we discuss an almost complete phasing-out of fertilizers containing rock phosphate by means of a further certificate trading scheme. Conclusions The article shows that a wide variety of problems can be tackled with a few overarching instruments. This is true even for very specific and diverse problems such as those related to P use in agriculture.

Explaining Policy Convergence and Divergence through Policy Paradigm Shifts: A Comparative Analysis of Agricultural Risk Governance in OECD Countries (2021) 🗎🗎

This study analyses policy convergence in agricultural policies and shows that the predominant policy paradigm of a country can be a major barrier that impedes policy convergence. To provide empirical evidence for the link, this research studies risk management support in agricultural policies in the framework of historical institutionalism by using a mixed methods approach. The comparative policy analysis of agricultural risk governance in OECD countries suggests a high path dependency of established institutions and instruments of the underlying policy paradigm that frequently prevent major support for risk management tools and do not lead to a clear policy convergence.

Challenges to Habitus: Scruffy Hedges and Weeds in the Irish Countryside (2021) 🗎🗎

It is established that, in many countries, farmers recognise displayed tidiness in farming practice as indicative of 'good' farming. This paper asks whether Irish farmers share this recognition, and considers how this may affect uptake of agri-environmental schemes and the potential for alterations in farming practices associated with such schemes to become 'culturally embedded'. Taking a Bourdieusian approach, this paper examines features which Irish farmers associate with tidy, 'good' farming practices and the resulting capital invested in them. It is found that the Irish participants do recognise displayed tidy practice as cultural capital, but that it is mainly male farmers who afford this capital sufficient value to recognise the display of tidiness as status-conferring symbolic capital. This recognition results in inter-farmer criticism and judgement, and in the questioning by many male farmers of the untidy farmer's right to the 'good farmer' identity. This is not the case for female farmers, who generally dislike the culture of judgement and criticism. In light of this culture, it is suggested that tidiness is one reason why agri-environmental schemes do not become culturally embedded, and that this issue may be exacerbated by the low representation of Irish women in farm ownership and management.

Why does the public support or oppose agricultural nutrient runoff regulations? The effects of political orientation, environmental worldview, and policy specific beliefs (2021) 🗎🗎

This research examines public acceptability of regulations to reduce agricultural nutrient runoff and curb Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). We tested the effects of two novel policy specific beliefs including support for farmers' autonomy and support for external accountability. We also simultaneously tested the direct and indirect effects of political orientation and environmental worldview through a Direct Effect Model and a Mediation Model using structural equation modelling. Survey data were collected from 729 Ohio residents collected in November 2018. The specific regulatory policy measure we targeted is fines on excessive agricultural runoff. As hypothesized, autonomy beliefs negatively affect, and accountability positively affect support for fines. Both models revealed good fits. the direct effects of environmental worldviews political orientation were not supported. Instead, environmental worldviews indirectly increased support for fines through increased accountability beliefs and diminished autonomy beliefs. From the results, we suggest that when proposing suitable regulations for specific sites, policy makers and interest groups should be aware of differences in public support for farmer autonomy and external accountability, and that such differences are likely rooted in environmental worldviews. The study also suggests a need for coupled ecological and social studies that assess the likelihood of regional agricultural producers voluntarily adopting conservation practices and forecast the effectiveness of potential accountability measures.

Developing Farm-Level Social Indicators for Agri-Environment Schemes: A Focus on the Agents of Change (2021) 🗎🗎

Most monitoring and evaluation programmes for agri-environment schemes focus on understanding the environmental outcomes and the cost-effectiveness of these schemes. Evaluation of the social dimensions of agri-environment schemes, particularly the socio-cultural factors that might influence the quality of engagement with the schemes and the social wellbeing impact of scheme engagement, is limited. This is a critical gap in knowledge as there is growing recognition that without more explicit consideration of the farmers involved in land management as agents of change, the required environmental improvements will not be achieved. The aim of this paper was to undertake a systematic literature review to inform the development of a set of social indicators that can be used to measure the level of farmers' engagement with their scheme agreement and the social sustainability outcomes from participation. Following the literature review and a short-listing ranking exercise with two sets of experts, 20 high-level (composite) social indicators and associated sub-level (component) indicators were identified. A series of scale or ranking questions that can be used to capture the indicator data were also developed and tested. This paper presents the first stage in the development of a robust set of social indicators for agri-environment schemes that will also provide a good indicator of long-term environmental outcomes.

Marinising a terrestrial concept: Public money for public goods (2021) 🗎🗎

Exiting the EU allows the UK to unilaterally change the frameworks that govern its environment and natural resources. This opportunity is timely given the urgent need to address the biodiversity and climate emergencies, and deliver the necessary policy changes to meet associated international agreements. The UK's divergence from EU environmental policy has already begun. The new Agriculture Act uses the concept of "public money for public goods" (PMPG) to seemingly revolutionise direct agricultural subsidies, replacing the much-maligned funding mechanisms under the Common Agricultural Policy and making the provision of their replacement dependent upon actions delivering societal gain. However, the potential benefits of transposing this concept to marine fisheries and aquaculture are yet to be recognised despite similar criticisms of funding mechanisms under the Common Fisheries Policy. This paper therefore considers the key distinctions between our use of marine and terrestrial environments and how PMPG could be applied to fisheries and aquaculture. The findings suggest that some forms of aquaculture are well-placed to benefit from a 'marinising' of the PMPG concept. Currently, capture fisheries, because they do not have ownership over marine space and interact with the marine environment in an extractive manner, have a greater challenge to adapt their business models to receive public money under this framework.

A global review of ecological fiscal transfers (2021) 🗎🗎

Ecological fiscal transfers (EFT) transfer public revenue between governments within a country based on ecological indicators. EFT can compensate subnational governments for the costs of conserving ecosystems and in principle can incentivize greater ecological conservation. We review established EFT in Brazil, Portugal, France, China and India, and emerging or proposed EFT in ten more countries. We analyse common themes related to EFT emergence, design and effects. EFT have grown rapidly from US$0.35 billion yr(-1) in 2007 to US$23 billion yr(-1) in 2020. We discuss the scope of opportunity to expand EFT to other countries by 'greening' intergovernmental fiscal transfers. The transfer of public funds between governments within a country based on ecological indicators is an emerging tool in environmental policy. A review of extant and proposed schemes identifies challenges and opportunities to expand the use of this instrument.

fuzzy cognitive mapping approach for the assessment of public-goods governance in agricultural landscapes (2021) 🗎🗎

In Europe, growing concerns about the environmental impacts of agriculture have stimulated the development of more efficient governance options to be included in, or to complement, current agri-environmental policies. However, a significant hurdle for the implementation of enhanced policy tools is the difficult adaptation of promising approaches, such as collective contracts and private-based payments for environmental services, to the locally specific, socio-economic and institutional contexts of different European regions. In this study, we apply a participatory approach based on the Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping technique, in assessing different policy mechanisms, including improved monetary incentives and the potential for an enhanced design of agricultural landscape governance. Our analysis specifically assesses the interactions between rural society, public goods and policies under different, locally relevant economic and social scenarios. The study is carried out in the Marchfeld, an intensive agriculture case-study area in Eastern Austria, which features a number of environmental problems. The work is based on a two-year-long process including focus groups, mind mapping and scenario co-development, as well as individual interviews with local stakeholders. The results show that integrating private or public, collective or performance-orientated monetary incentives with other non-monetary mechanisms like farmers' partnerships or enhanced awareness building are evaluated as central to an effective agri-environmental governance system. Moreover, the results highlight that different futures have major effects on the effectiveness of mechanisms: in a purely market-driven context, tools based on collaborations among farmers are likely to be ineffective and monetary incentives are less efficient. On the other hand, positive social pressures and the influence of non-monetary governance initiatives expected in a sustainability-driven scenario are able to catalyse an efficient adoption of environmental-friendly practices, also at lower monetary rates. Based on the results, we discuss the problem of public goods in agricultural landscapes, and the relevance of such ancillary factors as social infrastructure, awareness and marketing, in supporting the effectiveness and feasibility of public-goods 'governance'.

Key policy questions for ex-ante impact assessment of European agricultural and rural policies (2021) 🗎🗎

Policies in the agricultural and rural sectors are of key importance in shaping their sustainable development. These policies are changing from market-based policies to policies that aim to influence farmers' decision-making. Thus, the scientific literature supporting evidence-based policy-making must develop models that simulate individual decision-making (IDM) by farmers. This study aims to understand key policy objectives, related policy questions and benchmark scenarios relevant to the European agricultural sector to define the research agenda for a suite of IDM models. This research goal has been addressed following a five-step process that involved different research tools and heterogeneous actors, including key stakeholders. Results suggest that environmental policy objectives are the most relevant for European agriculture in the coming decades. Thus, the scenario modelling exercise should focus mainly on the agri-environmental policies' impacts while properly considering the potential trade-offs between economic and environmental objectives.

Innovation Gaps and Barriers in Alternative Innovative Solutions for Sustainable High Nature Value Grasslands. Evidence from Romania (2021) 🗎🗎

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) proposes environmental policies developed around action-based conservation measures supported by agri-environment schemes (AES). High Nature Value (HNV) farming represents a combination of low-intensity and mosaic practices mostly developed in agricultural marginalized rural areas which sustain rich biodiversity. Being threatened by intensification and abandonment, such farming practices were supported in the last CAP periods by targeted AES. This study aims to identify the most important farming trends in a recognized HNV grasslands Romanian site, subject to public conservation actions. The content analysis of multi-actor focus groups transcripts identifies innovation needs for alternative sustainable HNV farming systems, assessing also the most important barriers for their local deployment. Results show that stakeholders have strong awareness about the existence of HNV farming practices in their territory and their negative trends (abandonment; intensification) that might irreversibly affect biodiversity and cultural values. Current AES could not compensate for the existing innovation gaps. Although local stakeholders have basic awareness about alternative innovative approaches, they failed in their deployment mainly due to the lack of collective actions. Access to adapted knowledge reservoirs and the promotion of local innovation catalyzers are essential for the future sustainability of HNV farming practices.

Tobacco and Deforestation Revisited. How to Move towards a Global Land-Use Transition? (2021) 🗎🗎

Articles 17 and 18 of the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control address the environmental sustainability of tobacco as a contested agricultural crop. They require regulatory land-use policies to be introduced and designed to enhance a sustainability transition to diversified farming practices and/or alternative livelihoods. Related activities of the UN Study/Working Group on Economically Sustainable Alternatives to Tobacco Growing are reviewed to assess and monitor the crop's impact on natural resources with a focus on methods to identify tobacco-attributable deforestation (remote sensing, proxy values, secondary statistics, natural valuation, ecological/social surveys). It is posited that since 2007 no advances have been achieved in framing woody biomass destruction/degradation due to land extension and curing (i.e., drying green leaf using wood). Building on support by digital technologies and land surface monitoring systems, a novel post-2020 strategy is proposed to mainstream an extended set of indicators integratively, i.e., addressing biodiversity losses, soil carbon reservoirs and land degradation neutrality of tobacco as an agricultural crop. Thus, the point is emphasized that land stewardship requires political priority setting that makes the framing of land-use sustainability metrics more than a purely technical matter.

National and International Policies and Policy Instruments in the Development of Agroforestry in Chad (2021) 🗎🗎

The potential of agroforestry to improve livelihoods and mitigate climate change and environmental degradation has been widely recognized, especially within the context of climate-smart agriculture. However, agroforestry opportunities have not been fully exploited because of several reasons, among which are adverse policies and legislations. However, many countries do not have a full understanding of how their policy and institutional environment may affect agroforestry development. We aim to fill this gap by looking at the particular case of Chad. The method used included examining data from: (i) literature reviews of important national and international polices, strategies, and legislation governing access to land and trees, among which are 'La Loi 14', Chad's 2010 poverty reduction strategy paper, draft zero of the National Environmental Policy, (ii) interviews and focus group discussions with NGOs, government officials, and farmers, and (iii) surveys with 100 households. Results show that Chad has no specific agroforestry policy but opportunities for agroforestry can be found in some of the above-mentioned policy documents and government strategies. Most stakeholders interviewed had positive attitudes towards agroforestry, but uptake of the practice is handicapped by poor understanding of the forestry law by farmers and forestry officials. Gaps in existing laws give room for rent-seekers to collect individual (USD 272-909) and collective (USD 36-1818) access fees to trees on both forest and farmland. We propose that the government of Chad should unmask elements of agroforestry in existing policies and policy instruments to demonstrate its importance in responding to livelihood and environmental challenges in the country.

Experimental Economics in Agriculture: A Review of Worldwide Research (2021) 🗎🗎

Over the last two decades, experimental economics has been gaining relevance in the research of a wide range of issues related to agriculture. In turn, the agricultural activity provides an excellent field of study within which to validate the use of instruments employed by experimental economics. The aim of this study is to analyze the dynamics of the research on the application of experimental economics in agriculture on a global level. Thus, a literature review has been carried out for the period between the years 2000 and 2020 based on a bibliometric study. The main results show that there has been a growing use of experimental economics methods in the research on agriculture, particularly over the last five years. This evolution is evident in the different indicators analyzed and is reflected in the greater scientific production and number of actors involved. The most relevant topics within the research on experimental economics in agriculture focus on the farmer, the markets, the consumer, environmental policy, and public goods. These results can be useful for policy makers and researchers interested in this line of research.

Expert-Based Maps as a Regional Planning Tool Supporting Nature Conservation and Production-Integrated Compensation-A German Case Study on Biodiversity Offsets (2021) 🗎🗎

Many countries worldwide have developed guidelines for offsetting impacts on nature and landscape. Suitable locations are the prerequisite for the implementation of these measures, and this might lead to conflicts with agriculture. In addition, comprehensive planning is often lacking and potential added values for nature conservation are not exploited. Concepts such as the so-called production-integrated compensation (PIC) have been introduced to give farmers the opportunity to actively participate in the offsetting process and improve cooperation. However, up to now, PIC has only rarely been put into practice. Against this backdrop, we have developed a regional planning tool for the implementation of PIC in practice. Based on geodata such as soil data, agricultural structure, or natural conditions at the field and landscape level, the general suitability, and specific measure-based recommendations for each plot can be verified with the help of a decision support system. These factors are assessed from both a nature and an agricultural perspective. The goal here is to highlight synergy effects and increase the likelihood of the proposed measures being implemented. Our tool facilitates the integrated planning of biodiversity offsets at regional level. In this way, it can promote the bundling and networking of measures. However, on-site analyses should be undertaken to complement the implementation of measures.

Pathways toward inclusive low-emission dairy development in Tanzania: Producer heterogeneity and implications for intervention design (2021) 🗎🗎

Context: Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agriculture sector - especially livestock - through low-emission development (LED) has attracted increased global attention. However, producers rarely prioritize emission reduction in their day-to-day practices, resulting in a mismatch between global and national environmental policies and local development interests. This raises the urgency of identifying overlapping solution spaces that would address global and national environmental targets and farmers' production goals. Objective: The objective of this study is to identify pathways for scaling LED that better account for divergent smallholder capabilities, strategies, and interests. Methods: A multivariate cluster analysis was used to evaluate producer heterogeneity. The analysis utilized data from 1176 household surveys in Tanzania. Informed by these results, stakeholder workshops were held to identify how each group is uniquely constrained in the adoption of LED practices and viable paths forward. Results and discussions: Our results reveal six distinct farmer types, distinguishable by their asset base, livestock ownership, cattle breeds, access to market, and income diversity. The six groups presented three levels of LED uptake, high, moderate, and low. Variants of technological packages and market-based interventions, access to better quality inputs, and extension services will be more impactful when correctly matched to producers' asset portfolios, interests, and needs for the high and moderately intensifying producers. However, interventions that address both the knowledge and resource gaps for producers who demonstrate low uptake of LED will be more appropriate. Achieving GHG reduction will be modest from already intensifying groups and the low uptake groups, while moderately intensifying groups present the highest leverage for increased GHG reduction potential. This highlights how taking a food system approach rather than a technological package would be more beneficial especially in targeting groups that are not interested in LED. Significance: This study challenges the conceptualization of LED as a simple technological fix. We demonstrate that LED, as currently conceptualized, is not equally accessible or appealing to everyone. Consequently, successful LED uptake is contingent on donor and state ability to match LED strategies, local development priorities, and food systems objectives to develop more targeted needs-driven implementation pathways.

Economic Reforms and the Rise of Milk Mega Farms in Vietnam: Governing the Post-socialist Transition (2021) 🗎🗎

Over the past 30 years, major economic reforms have deeply impacted the Vietnamese agro-food sector. In this study, we use the concept of "sociotechnical transition" to capture the multiple dimensions of this transformation. We focus in particular on the rapid emergence of the Vietnamese dairy industry. Up to the mid-2000s, the sector had been dominated by smallholder dairy farmers working in close collaboration with private milk processors and public services. This resulted in what we propose to call a "peasant" sociotechnical regime. In the late 2000s, the sector experienced a growing competition from agro-industries and mega farms holding several thousand cows. The role of smallholder producers has decreased and the sector has moved toward medium to large-scale producers. This new "corporate" regime profoundly modified the outcome of the post-socialist "transition". This case-study highlights important issues related to the governance of these rapid changes.

Innovative Contract Solutions for the Provision of Agri-Environmental Climatic Public Goods: A Literature Review (2021) 🗎🗎

Lack of public funding and environmental deterioration are promoting the search for innovative mechanisms enabling to boost farmers' provision of agri-environmental climate public goods. This work aims to contribute to the current debate by highlighting the role of innovative contractual solutions through a systematic review of more than 60 articles. The review analyses the potential of result-based and collective contracts as innovative solutions compared to action-based instruments, which are those currently most used. The design of innovative contracts and other mechanisms, e.g., auction and screening contracts, can reduce the policy failures due to asymmetric information. The paper emphasises the trade-off between an accurate design of agri-environmental schemes and the related administrative burden, highlighting the need for a better understanding of the role of mechanisms design into the policy cycle. Some new instruments were not analysed in the review, due to the scarcity of literature, and there is the need of more case studies providing information on the effectiveness of instruments when implemented in different contexts. We fill the gap in empirical evidence through a SWOT analysis that evaluates the effectiveness and acceptability of innovative instruments for policy purposes.

More than two decades of Agri-Environment schemes: Has the profile of participating farms changed? (2021) 🗎🗎

The agri-food sector is under increased pressure from consumers to improve on the sustainability of production processes. Policies that incentivise farmers to improve environmental performance, such as agri-environment schemes (AES), are increasingly important. Understanding the choice to participate in these programmes aids policymakers in designing schemes that meet participation and environmental goals. While a number of studies have investigated the decision using cross-sectional data on one or multiple locations, very few have used longitudinal data to investigate the impact of institutional changes over time. Using Ireland as a case study, this paper uses a nationally representative panel of data spanning 23 years to model the impact of scheme and policy changes on the type of farms participating in AES. This paper argues that environmental issues surrounding intensive farms (such as the loss of nutrients and sediment to water and greenhouse gas emissions) are not being optimally addressed in scheme design and further development of such programmes is needed to reduce negative environmental impacts.

Impacts of human behaviour in agri-environmental policies: How adequate is homo oeconomicus in the design of market-based conservation instruments? (2021) 🗎🗎

Models of human-environment systems frequently employ the model of rational behaviour in which a rational, perfectly informed and self-interested homo oeconomicus maximises individual utility. This model has been criticised with regard to its adequacy in models of social-ecological systems, because other motives exist beyond profit maximisation that affect land-use decisions. The question arises what consequences do these other motives have on the design and performance of environmental policy instruments. For this, two existing generic models of agri-environmental schemes are expanded to consider alternative landowner behaviours: agents make mistakes in their search for the profit-maximising land-use decision, are inequity-averse and care about the profits of their neighbours, and are influenced by their neighbours? decisions. In the analyses even large deviations from the model of homo oeconomicus have generally only a small or moderate effect on the cost-effective design and the level of cost-effectiveness of the two agri-environmental schemes. With the models being rather simplistic, the results should not be used for specific policy advice but to point out and argue that the model of homo oeconomicus should not be abandoned prematurely, but its scope in environmental policy advice needs to be assessed more thoroughly both empirically and theoretically.

A farm-level ecological-economic approach of the inclusion of pollination services in arable crop farms (2021) 🗎🗎

Modern agricultural systems use both managed and wild bees in order to secure the provision of pollination services. However, the decline of both bee species due to the increased use of pesticides raises concerns for the supply of pollination services in agriculture. Because European policies seem ineffective in safeguarding bees as they fail to address farmers' socio-economic issues, farmers' adoption rate of friendlier practices by pollinators remains limited. This study uses a farm-level ecological-economic model to explore the potential impacts of changing policy intervention on the provision of pollination services and on farmers' incomes in two characteristic farms in Southwestern France. Moreover, it integrates the economic importance of behavioral interactions between managed and wild bees on crop production. The model assesses farmers' adoption decisions about alternative practices under risk aversion through an optimization choice among several crops, practices (novel/conventional), variable inputs, and pollination activity. The results show that a knowledge of bees' complementarity may facilitate farmers' adoption decisions. Furthermore, they highlight that different levels of Agri-Environmental Schemes and penalties can be efficiently targeted to encourage the implementation of new farming practices in order to preserve pollination services and maintain economically viable farms.

Predicting the Existence and Prevalence of the US Water Quality Trading Markets (2021) 🗎🗎

Water quality trading (WQT) programs aim to efficiently reduce pollution through market-based incentives. However, WQT performance is uneven; while several programs have found frequent use, many experience operational barriers and low trading activity. What factors are associated with WQT existence, prevalence, and operational stage? In this paper, we present and analyze the most complete database of WQT programs in the United States (147 programs/policies), detailing market designs, trading mechanisms, traded pollutants, and segmented geographies in 355 distinct markets. We use hurdle models (joint binary and count regressions) to evaluate markets in concert with demographic, political, and environmental covariates. We find that only one half of markets become operational, new market establishment has declined since 2013, and market existence and prevalence has nuanced relationships with local political ideology, urban infrastructure, waterway and waterbody extents, regulated environmental impacts, and historic waterway impairment. Our findings suggest opportunities for better projecting program need and targeting program funding.

Water quality issues and agriculture: An international review of innovative policy schemes (2021) 🗎🗎

Current agri-environmental policies are facing challenges to protect the environment, including in delivering water quality improvements. These difficulties are mainly due to payment restrictions and field or farm scale limitations in existing policy schemes. Innovative approaches have emerged in the last decades to overcome these constraints, such as market-based, landscape-scale and food-chain approaches. In order to understand the potential of these approaches to deal with water quality issues, we have analysed the design features of 62 innovative agri-environmental schemes. We grouped them into nine types of instruments that could provide benefits on water quality and we identified three main drivers for change that are: rewarding environmental outcomes, encouraging collaboration between rural stakeholders and certifying agri-environmental practices within the agri-food chain. The diversity of the schemes reviewed emphasizes the importance of the local context, which strongly conditions the effectiveness of instruments. Furthermore, mixing several schemes seems promising to encompass multiple governance levels involving both public and private actors.

Spatial Targeting of Agricultural Support Measures: Indicator-Based Assessment of Coverages and Leakages (2021) 🗎🗎

Agricultural support programs distribute payments to farms based on a diverse set of policy objectives. Adequate targeting of this support to priority areas is key to efficient and effective policy. We evaluated the targeting strategy of a national-level program in Mexico that distributed support based on seven criteria that prioritized poor smallholder farming communities at high risk of cropland failure. We used a series of logistic models to assess the coverage and leakage rates of the program's targeting strategy and found rates of about 80 and 20 percent, respectively. We also found significant differences between the targeting priorities specified in program rules and the observed distribution of support measures. In general, the program favored arid and semi-arid regions at high risk of soil erosion but neglected smallholder farms in high-poverty regions with elevated rates of cropland failure. Our findings highlight the continued lack of financial support for smallholder agriculture in Mexico, despite program rules and priority statements that stress the vulnerability of this sector. This study also illustrates the important role of spatial targeting in better aligning agricultural support payments with stated policy priorities. This alignment is often overlooked in ex-post assessment, but it is critical for improving targeting precision, equity, and overall policy effectiveness.

Farmer-centered ecological intensification: Using innovation characteristics to identify barriers and opportunities for a transition of agroecosystems towards sustainability (2021) 🗎🗎

CONTEXT: Ecological intensification (EI) describes farming practices that aim to use ecological processes for producing agricultural yields. While evidence for the ecological benefits of EI is plentiful, the question of how it can be more widely adopted by farmers, and why it has not been so far, remains pertinent, since only approximately 9% of the globally farmed land is currently managed with EI practices. We suggest that considering farmers as central while attending to farm and system level factors can help to identify barriers and facilitators to EI adoption. To do this, we look to diverse, overlapping bodies of literature encompassing EI practice details, systems thinking, and farmer adoption. Innovation characteristics is one framework that has been used to study farmer adoption of new farm management tools and practices. OBJECTIVE: Our objective is to use innovation characteristics for identifying farmer, farm, and system level barriers and potential solutions to EI adoption. We then aim to synthesize broader lessons for a sustainability transition in agriculture. METHODS: We treat EI as a suite of innovations, including practices, technologies, and knowledge. We explore how the innovation characteristics of EI - i.e. their relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability-manifest at each of three levels: farmer, farm, and system. We apply our approach to three case studies of EI adoption from different world regions: 1) managing landscape complexity in Germany, 2) installation of riparian buffers in the USA and 3) organic farming in India. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: An analysis of our case studies using innovation characteristics helped identify barriers to EI adoption and at what level these barriers should be addressed. Barriers included: uncoupled financial and farm-level ecological relative advantages of EI (system level), framing that is not in line with farm values and needs (farmer level), insufficient training for managing complex systems (farmer level), and time constraints for experimentation with and observation of EI effects (farm level). System level solutions could support training and experimentation with EI, empowering farmers by providing them with autonomy to adapt and apply EI as they see fitting. SIGNIFICANCE: Using innovation characteristics and diverse bodies of knowledge allowed us to identify barriers, but also opportunities at farmer, farm, and system level. Abundant work focuses on convincing farmers of what science says is right, so showing farmers that barriers are not explicit to them is a helpful step forward in the transition towards sustainability.

Application of the theory of planned behavior with agent-based modeling for sustainable management of vegetative filter strips (2021) 🗎🗎

This study proposes an innovative socio-hydrological modeling framework for the development of environmental policies that are tailored to farmers' attitudes and economic interests but also optimize environmental criteria. From a farmers' on-site survey, a behavior model is developed based on a modified Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The dynamics of the social and environmental system is implemented by coupling an agent-based model (ABM) with an agro-hydrological model for vegetative filter strips (VFS). A case study is conducted with farmers from the Larqui river basin, Chile to understand their standpoint on VFS to reduce soil loss in their agricultural fields and protect water bodies. Partial least square structural equation modeling is used to analyze the survey on farmers' aspiration and attitudes. It showed that the constructs added to TPB (behavioral morality, behavioral willingness, knowledge) had a significant effect on modeling the intention and behavior of farmers to have VFS. Based on the survey, the farmers were categorized into perceptive, proactive, bounded rational and interactive agents. An ABM was developed using the behavioral categorization, related decision rules, and utility functions of agricultural activities including the VFS implementation and management. The results of the ABM corroborate with the survey of the farmers. The survey supports the view that the decision on the width of VFS is not solely dependent on the utility generated and the reduction in soil losses but also on the behavior of farmers. This behavioral sociohydrological modeling framework is capable of supporting policy-makers in developing tailored environmental policies that might improve the acceptance of sustainable agricultural practices by farmers.

Payments by modelled results: A novel design for agri-environmental schemes (2021) 🗎🗎

From a theoretical point of view, result-based agri-environmental payments are clearly preferable to action-based payments. However, they suffer from two major practical disadvantages: costs of measuring the results and payment uncertainty for the participating farmers. In this paper, we propose an alternative design to overcome these two disadvantages by means of modelling (instead of measuring) the results. We describe the concept of agri-environmental payments by modelled results (PAMR), including a hypothetical example of payments for the protection and enhancement of soil functions. We offer a comprehensive discussion of the relative advantages and disadvantages of PAMR, showing that it not only unites most of the different advantages of result-based and action-based schemes, but also adds two new advantages: the potential to address trade-offs among multiple policy objectives and management for long-term environmental effects. We argue that PAMR would be a valuable addition to the agri-environmental policy toolbox in the EU and beyond, while also reflecting recent advancements in agri-environmental modelling.

Citizen science for sustainable agriculture - A systematic literature review (2021) 🗎🗎

Farmers as volunteers in research could potentially provide a rich resource for exploring sustainable agricultural research questions. To discern emerging patterns in citizen science-based studies on topics with relevance for sustainable agriculture and reveal salient challenges and opportunities for conducting such studies, we conducted a literature review of 27 articles from the period 2004-2019 of 250 publications screened from Google Scholar. These articles were thematically grouped under the topics: Soil health, climate adaptation, pest/pathogen monitoring, invasive species, inputs and outputs and pollination. Participants' characteristics, motivations, study design and project outcomes in the reviewed articles were summarized and discussed. Both observational and experimental studies were represented in the articles, while emerging trends point towards field experimentation and 'Large-N' trials by lay farmers. Crowdsourcing lends itself to projects where the main role of the public is local visual observations and reporting, such as in pest/pathogen monitoring. Challenges included methodological issues such as validation procedures, but above all motivation, recruitment, and retention of volunteers. Despite the importance of participatory approaches for deeper citizen involvement for sustainability transitions and for the quality of knowledge outcomes, the role of citizens was overall restricted to data collection. Several of the methodologies proposed would be difficult to implement in low-income countries, and relatively few studies pertained to agricultural concerns of the global South. To lend value to farmers' time, we recommend projects relevant to livelihoods, health issues or local farming problems, accompanied by well structured data feedback protocols, routing study results back to farmers.

Understanding the effectiveness of policy instruments to encourage adoption of farming practices to improve water quality for the Great Barrier Reef (2021) 🗎🗎

Governments in Australia and internationally are experimenting with policy instruments to facilitate the adoption of farming practices with reduced environmental impacts. The Great Barrier Reef (Australia) is one such case, where sustained efforts over 20 years have yielded insufficient progress towards targets to reduce the impacts of agriculture on water quality in downstream marine ecosystems. We present a critical review of policy instruments as implemented in Great Barrier Reef catchments. We catalogue the evolving mix of policy instruments employed in reef programs, and examine evidence of the effectiveness of agricultural extension, financial incentives, and direct regulation of farming practices. There is little robust evidence to assess instrument effectiveness, in part due to the evolving mix of the instruments employed, weak program evaluation and heterogeneity of agricultural enterprises. We identify the need to improve the understanding of instrument fit to landholders and enterprises. We recommend a modelling approach to clarify pathways to impact and guide improved policy evaluation.

Greening Chinese agriculture: can China use the EU experience? (2021) 🗎🗎

Purpose China's Government in 2015 announced its goal of stabilizing the use of fertilizers and pesticide by the year 2020. However, implementation of effective policies is not straightforward, while one may even argue that the policy goal is by far not ambitious enough. Hence, it is useful to look at experiences of other countries that have gone through a similar process. In this paper, the authors explicitly consider the case of European Union's (EU's) policies aimed at greening agriculture. The choice for the EU is motivated by the fact that the EU is about 35 years ahead of China in implementing a policy agenda to counter the problems China is facing now. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors focus on agricultural inputs, in particular fertilizer and pesticides, as well as land use and their impact on food safety, air and water quality, soil degradation, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and biodiversity. Policies related to those issues are discussed for both, China and the EU. Given that implementation and monitoring are critical for the success of policies, the authors also discuss how policies are implemented and monitored under different governance and institutional conditions. Findings From the EU experiences, positive and negative, three central lessons are drawn: (1) China should strive for cross compliance but in two steps. In the first step, arrangements for on-farm monitoring must be made, coupled with a pilot program of cross-compliance conditions for large farms in selected counties; in the second step, cross-compliance requirements must be introduced for all farmers, with additional funds for rural development in vulnerable areas. (2) Strong stakeholder commitment should be sought in the formulation as well as implementation of greening policies. (3) Monitoring of greening results should be harmonized and standardized across the country, with a limited number of indicators. Originality/value This paper contributes to the policy discussion by comparing the agricultural greening measures in the EU (which was some 35 years ago in the same situation as China now) with the measures taken in China so far.

Socioeconomic Challenges of California Strawberry Production and Disease Resistant Cultivars (2021) 🗎🗎

Strawberries are the 4th highest grossing crop in California and supply 90% of US strawberries. But the industry's long reliance on the use of chemical fumigants to control soil disease, nematodes and weeds is being threatened by increased regulation of these fumigants, leading to urgent efforts to develop and test non-chemical alternatives to fumigation, such as disease resistant cultivars. Many of these technologies are promising ecologically, but making them economically viable for growers is more challenging, especially in light of the socioeconomic context of strawberry production in California that has created a state of lock-in for a sustainability transition. This paper discusses how the challenges of land prices, labor shortages, marketing standards, and low prices bear on cultivar selection. Based on qualitative interviews, we corroborate that strawberry growers operate under significant socioeconomic constraints in California, many of which are beyond their control. In addition, we find that most growers see high-yielding varieties as crucial to their economic viability with regard to land, labor, and marketing intermediaries and yet recognize that the focus on individual farm productivity works at cross purposes to the problem of poor prices. Disease resistant varieties do not at face value address the concerns voiced by most growers. Our findings suggest, however, that if some of the other pressures were exogenously mitigated, growers might be more inclined to experiment with and adopt disease resistant varieties, in combination with other approaches. The most promising policy avenues seem to therefore lie with support of grower revenues.

Integrated modeling of extended agro-food supply chains: A systems approach (2021) 🗎🗎

The current intense food production-consumption is one of the main sources of environmental pollution and contributes to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Organic farming is a potential way to reduce environmental impacts by excluding synthetic pesticides and fertilizers from the process. Despite ecological benefits, it is unlikely that conversion to organic can be financially viable for farmers, without additional support and incentives from consumers. This study models the interplay between consumer preferences and socio-environmental issues related to agriculture and food production. We operationalize the novel concept of extended agro-food supply chain and simulate adaptive behavior of farmers, food processors, retailers, and customers. Not only the operational factors (e.g., price, quantity, and lead time), but also the behavioral factors (e.g., attitude, perceived control, social norms, habits, and personal goals) of the food suppliers and consumers are considered in order to foster organic farming. We propose an integrated approach combining agent-based, discrete-event, and system dynamics modeling for a case of wine supply chain. Findings demonstrate the feasibility and superiority of the proposed model over the traditional sustainable supply chain models in incorporating the feedback between consumers and producers and analyzing management scenarios that can urge farmers to expand organic agriculture. Results further indicate that demand-side participation in transition pathways towards sustainable agriculture can become a time-consuming effort if not accompanied by the middle actors between consumers and farmers. In practice, our proposed model may serve as a decision-support tool to guide evidence-based policymaking in the food and agriculture sector. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dilemmas of public goods provisioning: institutional mechanisms for agricultural drainage management in Ohio, USA (2021) 🗎🗎

Institutions are critical for collective action around several environmental policy issues. A seldom-studied issue, agricultural drainage, provides a rich setting to examine how institutional mechanisms interact with two variables linked to collective action: group size and heterogeneity. In this study, we examine institutions for establishing and maintaining agricultural drainage systems in the Western Lake Erie Basin region of Ohio. Specifically, we examine whether and how drainage management institutions interact with two variables, group size and heterogeneity in benefits and costs, for solving the public-good dilemmas of agricultural drainage. Data for this study come from a comparative case study design, using semi-structured in-depth interviews, and a landowner survey. Results suggest that the Olson effect for group size is mediated by institution type, and heterogeneity in benefits and costs is mediated by fairness perceptions, in affecting incentives for collective action. We discuss our findings in light of theories of collective action.

Agricultural policy in the era of digitalisation (2021) 🗎🗎

Digitalisation in the agricultural sector continues to expand. At the same time demands for an agricultural policy offering better support for sustainability become increasingly fervent. However, it is far from clear how digitalisation could make agricultural policy more effective in reducing undesired impacts and enhancing the benefits of farming. This article investigates the extent to which digital technologies can trigger different choices of agricultural policy instruments and novel design specifications that address problems of sustainability in farming more effectively and possibly more efficiently. It develops and applies an analytical framework that focuses on the effects of digitalisation in distinct policy dimensions, drawing on theoretical insights and examples from practice in a European context. We show that digital agricultural policy does not simply replace analogue technologies used in traditional agricultural policy. It offers new options for agricultural policy, including novel designs to address challenges more effectively. In particular, it offers opportunities for more effective spatial targeting and tailoring of instruments, including results-based subsidies. Digital data can be generated strategically using respective instrument designs to support policy learning and adaptation of designs. Informationintensive instruments and designs generally benefit most from digitalisation while transaction costs often go down. Digitalisation could also move agricultural policy from direct intervention to information-based governance. However, the analysis suggests that institutional constraints and interests, as well as the capabilities of the actors involved require attention in research and practice of digitalisation of agricultural policy.

?Hell or high water?: Good farming and environmental care as contested practices in the implementation of nitrate vulnerable zones in Wales (2021) 🗎🗎

This paper explores how dairy farmers attempt to navigate prescribed principles and fixed practices of environmental care in the context of Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ) and the EU Water Framework Directive. In contrast to agri-environmental schemes, farm-level compliance with NVZ regulations often involves substantial investment costs for the farmer. Drawing on a case study of Wales, we consider why controversial practices of nitrate management exist on farms and how, through a combined narrative of vulnerability and care, certain practices are legitimised. Such narratives seemingly involve an attempt to redefine ?good farmer? identities within conventional agriculture, whereby the act and declared commitment to administering ?good care? becomes separated from a responsibility for the outcomes of some farming practices. In exploring why such a limited framing of the good farmer and good care are being pursued, we look at the role of environmental regulation (specifically NVZ regulation) in shaping this response. We conclude that a distancing of responsibility for the outcomes of poor care does not, necessarily, equate with an actual absence of caring about, or a failure to care for the local environment. Moreover, rather than symbolising a logic of being resistant to change, for many farmers it represents a perceived inability to change. Such is the growing disconnect between conventional systems of farming practice and the environmental state of many traditional family farms that, rather than being at ?cross-roads?, these farmers have instead seemingly reached a ?dead end?. Our analysis is supported by three data sets (compiled between 2016 and 2018): responses to a questionnaire sent to 1000 farmers in Wales; semistructured interviews with industry stakeholders (combined with farm site visits in the case of farmer respondents); and, analysis of responses (n = 258) to a Welsh Government-led national public consultation on the proposed expansion of the regulation of NVZs in Wales.

Farmers' action space to adopt sustainable practices: a study of arable farming in Saxony (2021) 🗎🗎

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.

Diversification supports farm income and improved working conditions during agroecological transitions in southern Brazil (2021) 🗎🗎

Management of crop diversity for improved agroecosystem functioning can provide economic co-benefits to farmers. Yet, there remain critical gaps in understanding how farm management practices evolve through agroecological transitions and how agroecological practices affect socioeconomic outcomes such as income and working conditions. We conducted a case study of farms transitioning from conventional tobacco production to diversified agroecological management in a participatory certification network in southern Brazil. We purposively sampled farms along a transition gradient and conducted crop diversity and management surveys and semi-structured, in-depth interviews with household members. Using these data, we assessed indicators of ecological management, income, and working conditions across three transition stages-conventional, transitioning, and agroecological. We found that ecological management indicators increased in magnitude and evenness by transition stage, as transitioning farmers increasingly used practices to support ecological complexity. Agroecological farmers utilized system redesign, a transformative approach to agroecosystem management, rather than efficiency-based or substitution-oriented practices adopted by conventional and transitioning farmers. While farms in transition reported more difficult working conditions and lower incomes, agroecological farmers had similar per capita working hours and improved work quality and occupational safety relative to conventional farmers in the region. On a per capita basis, experienced agroecological farmers earned similar net agricultural incomes and higher net household incomes than conventional farmers, by reducing agricultural expenses and diversifying their markets and livelihoods. Our study is the first to our knowledge to use a transition gradient approach to examine how agroecological transition stage affects both ecological and socioeconomic indicators on farms, providing insights into the processes and pathways by which farmers overcome challenges during transitions. Results highlight the potential for stable profits and improved working conditions on farms following agroecological transitions, within a supportive policy and market context.

Importance of building bridging and linking social capital in adapting to changes in UK agricultural policy (2021) 🗎🗎

As the UK leaves the European Union, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which for decades has dictated how and when farming support is delivered, will be replaced with a new UK agricultural policy which will see UK farmers, especially upland livestock farmers, facing a more challenging economic environment and a significant change to the way in which farming support is delivered. This study used a series of interviews with UK farmers across differing locations and categories to ascertain how levels of social capital may hinder or enhance a farmer?s willingness to embrace future agricultural policy. We found that more conventional farmers who have never participated in agri-environment schemes and those currently in government-run schemes display high levels of bonding capital and low levels of bridging and linking capital which may hinder their ability to adapt to change. In contrast, farmers who embrace a pubic goods approach to land management displayed high bridging and linking capital and are more likely to work with government officials to adapt to policy change. Communities are more likely to become sustainable if they have access to government support and advice, and if relationships with other community members and stakeholders with an interest in rural communities, the natural environment and land management are encouraged and maintained.

Smallholders' perceptions of policies for preserving the traditional Ongole cattle breed of Indonesia (2021) 🗎🗎

Agricultural policies can only be effective if intended beneficiaries are sufficiently aware of them. This basic condition for policy success is substantially challenged by smallholder farmers' lack of awareness of existing support schemes. We studied the perceptions of 600 farmers of preservation policies for the traditional Indonesian Ongole cattle breed. We measured farmers' knowledge of existing policies, their perceived ease of participation, their participation level and their satisfaction with the benefits obtained. We found that the target group has little awareness of existing policies. Policy awareness increases with education, the less remote the farm is, and with increasing specialization in cattle farming. We recommend therefore that policymakers should simplify and redesign existing policy schemes to create one coordinated policy. The various support schemes currently implemented should be combined in this policy and it should be presented in such a way that is easily understood by farmers. Incentives for Ongole breeders should be tailored, the establishment of farmers groups facilitated, and a breeding and selection programme initiated to improve the genetic potential of Ongole for domestic beef production.

What does the UK public want farmland to look like? (2021) 🗎🗎

As populations grow and demand for food rises, major shifts in global agri-food policy are likely to significantly impact agricultural land use. As the UK has now separated from the Common Agricultural Policy as it left the EU, Brexit offers a unique opportunity to create UK-specific agricultural policies that may dramatically shape both the countryside?s appearance and the ecosystem services it provides. However, it is important to understand how the public ? as taxpayers of agri-environment schemes ? want the farmed countryside to look. To fill this knowledge gap, we undertook a novel mixed-methods study using a survey and collage-making workshops to understand aesthetic preferences for perceived ?ideal? and ?environmentally friendly? farm landscapes. Multinomial regression of data from a nationally representative survey of 2050 respondents demonstrated widespread support for agricultural landscapes containing trees and free-ranging livestock for ideal UK farm landscapes. Aesthetic preferences differed based on several socio-demographic variables, including gender, income and education. Landscapes with renewable energy technology, trees, and no livestock were perceived to be the most ?environmentally friendly? farms, though wind turbines were visually unappealing. Eighty participants created collages of their ideal and environmentally friendly farming landscapes and completed a short survey to explain their choices. Qualitative thematic analysis of the collages and explanatory text found a desire for mosaic ideal farm landscapes focused either on agricultural or wild biological diversity. Results for the environmentally friendly farms reflected those in the survey. We discuss how our findings relate to implications for post-Brexit agricultural policy formation, particularly with regards to integrating public preferences around agri-food systems, to ensure tax-payers? views are considered.

Conservation Costs Drive Enrolment in Agglomeration Bonus Scheme (2021) 🗎🗎

Agglomeration bonus schemes have become important policy tools when the environmental benefit hinges on spatial coordination of conservation sites. We here analyse how spatial factors affect the uptake of an agglomeration payment scheme in a Swiss mountain region, which seeks to establish a network of conservation areas to conserve favourable conditions for biodiversity. We use a combination of spatially explicit farm census (44,279 parcels) and survey data in a spatially lagged explanatory variable model. In addition, we also consider the collaborative process in establishing the eligibility of parcels for receiving the bonus payment. We find that parcels that are more distant from the farm as well as those at steeper slopes are more likely to enter the scheme. This implies that conservation costs are an important driver of the farmers' decisions. The results remain robust when controlling for a wide range of parcel, farm and farmers' characteristics. The analysis also showed that the collaborative process increased the enrolment of parcels cultivated by larger farmers managing their land more intensively. We conclude that the collaborative process increased the weight given to biodiversity from connecting conservation sites in the planning process of the agglomeration bonus scheme.