Assessing Rural Resilience for Endogenous, Sustainable Development: An Emblematic Case

Rural communities are suffering increasing pressure due to several local and global, socio-economic, environmental and institutional changes. Despite the challenges, however, the focus on rural resilience for sustainable, endogenous development is increasing drastically. We aim to understand the factors which enable rural resilience by assessing an emblematic case of two bordering, rural areas, the capacity of which for resilience is remarkably diverse. We approached the study using a qualitative methodology, based on data collection taken from interviews and focus group with an indicator framework to assess their capacity for resilience. Factors of resilience clearly emerged from the results, and consistent qualitative evidence demonstrated the relevance of rural identity

Understanding farm generational renewal and its influencing factors in Europe

Understanding the complex process of generational renewal (GR) in agriculture is essential for supporting the continuation of farming. This paper demonstrates how multiple factors, simultaneously and through their mutual interactions, influence GR and related individual decision-making processes. Results originated from 155 in-depth interviews performed on 85 farms in eleven European regions, and were triangulated with the literature. Our analysis, combining inductive and deductive approaches, revealed three conceptual phases (successor identity formation, farm succession process, and farm development) and fourteen factors important to understand GR. We elaborate how these factors interact, hence exert their impact on (one of) the phases in a complex and variable way. Implications highlight potential pitfalls and opportunities for attracting people into agriculture. Although policy-makers should be aware of their limited ability to affect GR by targeting the first phase, we propose some ideas that would complement current existing measures acting on the third phase

Stakeholder perspectives to improve risk management in European farming systems

The challenges faced by agricultural systems call for an advance in risk management (RM) assessments. This research identifies and discusses potential improvements to RM across 11 European Union (EU) farming systems (FS). The paper proposes a comprehensive, participatory approach that accounts for multi-stakeholder perspectives relying on 11 focus groups for brainstorming and gathering suggestions to improve RM. Data analysis is based on content analysis and coding of suggested improvements, and their assessment through the lenses of main challenges faced, farms’ flexibility, and dependence on subsidies. First, the results show that necessary improvements differ depending on whether they have their origin in sudden shocks or long-term pressures. Second, farm dependence on direct payments determines a stronger need to improve financial instruments, whereas farm flexibility suggests a need for more accessible and tailored tools for low-flexibility FS, and increased know-what and know-how for high-flexibility FS. Third, our findings indicate a potential for extending stakeholder involvement in RM to new or unconventional roles. Underlying specific improvements, the paper suggests and discusses three main avenues to improve RM as a whole: i) a developed learning and knowledge network; ii) new forms of collaboration; and iii) integrated financial and policy instruments

Constrained Sustainability and Resilience of Agricultural Practices from Multiple Lock-In Factors and Possible Pathways to Tackle Them

5.2 Aim of This Chapter While other chapters focus more upon economic and production factors and their contribution to resilience, this chapter focuses on environmental sustainability and its inherent importance to resilience. Using Therond et al.’s farming system classification framework and the theory of lock-in in agricultural systems, we assess the environmental sustainability and therefore resilience of three case studies within Europe. We demonstrate how the challenges they face lock them in to their current systems, despite EU policies geared towards agrienvironment schemes. With multi-stakeholder input, we then show how tackling these lock-in factors can create more sustainable and resilient systems

Actors and their roles for improving resilience of farming systems in Europe

Finding pathways to enhance the resilience of farming systems (FSs) in Europe is key, given the increasing challenges threatening them. FSs are complex socio-ecological systems in which social and ecological components are strongly linked. Social actors have the capacity to shape the FSs’ resilience, but there is a knowledge gap about how they can best do it. The aim of this paper is to analyse the roles played by the actors in FSs when dealing with challenges and assess how these roles may contribute to the resilience attributes (conditions that enable resilience) and resilience capacities (robustness, adaptability, and transformability). To this end, ten focus groups have been conducted across FSs in Europe. Results suggest that each actor in the FSs can shape and strengthen different resilience attributes which in turn result in combinations of resilience capacities that are specific to the FS. Thus, enabling resilience is best accomplished with actors taking different roles and jointly configuring the most adequate combination of capacities, which differs across FSs. This paper provides a set of resilience-enabling roles that delineate the pathways to make FSs more resilient. The diversity of actors and resilience-enabling pathways require flexible, coordinated and comprehensive policies that encompass the complexity of the socio-ecological systems

D5.3 Resilience assessment of current farming systems across the European Union

For improving sustainability and resilience of EU farming system, the current state needs to be assessed, before being able to move on to future scenarios. Assessing sustainability and resilience of farming systems is a multi-faceted research challenge in terms of the scientific domains and scales of integration (farm, household, farming system level) that need to be covered. Hence, in SURE-Farm, multiple approaches are used to evaluate current sustainability and resilience and its underlying structures and drivers. To maintain consistency across the different approaches, all approaches are connected to a resilience framework which was developed for the unique purposes of SURE-Farm. The resilience framework follows five steps: 1) the farming system (resilience of what?), 2) challenges (resilience to what?), 3) functions (resilience for what purpose?), 4) resilience capacities, 5) resilience attributes (what enhances resilience?). The framework was operationalized in 11 case studies across the EU. Applied approaches differ in disciplinary orientation and the farming system process they focus on. Three approaches focus on risk management: 1) a farm survey with a main focus on risk management and risk management strategies, 2) interviews on farmers’ learning capacity and networks of influence, and 3) Focus Groups on risk management. Two approaches address farm demographics: 4) interviews on farm demographics, and 5) AgriPoliS Focus Group workshops on structural change of farming systems from a (farm) demographics perspective. One approach applied so far addresses governance: 6) the Resilience Assessment Tool that evaluates how policies and legislation support resilience of farming systems. Two methods address agricultural production and delivery of public and private goods: 7) the Framework of Participatory Impact Assessment for sustainable and resilient farming systems (FoPIA-SURE-Farm), aiming to integrate multiple perspectives at farming system level, and 8) the Ecosystem Services assessment that evaluates the delivery of public and private goods. In a few case studies, additional methods were applied. Specifically, in the Italian case study, additional statistical approaches were used to increase the support for risk management options (Appendix A and Appendix B). Results of the different methods were compared and synthesized per step of the resilience framework. Synthesized results were used to determine the position of the farming system in the adaptive cycle, i.e. in the exploitation, conservation, release, or reorganization phase. Dependent on the current phase of the farming system, strategies for improving sustainability and resilience were developed. Results were synthesized around the three aspects characterizing the SURE-Farm framework, i.e. (i) it studies resilience at the farming system level, (ii) considers three resilience capacities, and (iii) assesses resilience in the context of the (changing) functions of the system. (i) Many actors are part of the farming system. However, resilience-enhancing strategies are mostly defined at the farm level. In each farming system multiple actors are considered to be part of the system, such as consultants, neighbors, local selling networks and nature organizations. The number of different farming system actors beyond the focal farmers varies between 4 (in French beef and Italian hazelnut systems) and 14 (large-scale arable systems in the UK). These large numbers of actors illustrate the relevance of looking at farming system level rather than at farm level. It also suggests that discussions about resilience and future strategies need to embrace all of these actors. (ii) At system level there is a low perceived capacity to transform. Yet, most systems appear to be at the start of a period in which (incremental) transformation is required. At system level, the capacity to transform is perceived to be relatively low, except in the Romanian mixed farming system. The latter may reflect a combination of ample room to grow and a relatively stable environment (especially when compared to the past 30 to 50 years). The relatively low capacity to transform in the majority of systems is not in line with the suggestion that most systems are at the start of (incremental) transformation, or, at least, reached a situation in which they can no longer grow. Further growth is only deemed possible in the Belgium dairy, Italian hazelnut, Polish fruit and Romanian mixed farming systems. (iii) System functions score well with regard to the delivery of high-quality and safe food but face problems with quality of rural life and protecting biodiversity. Resilience capacities can only be understood in the context of the functions to be delivered by a farming system. We find that across all systems required functions are a mix of private and public goods. With regard to the capacity to deliver private goods, all systems perform well with respect to high-quality and safe food. Viability of farm income is regarded moderate or low in the livestock systems in Belgium (dairy), France (beef) and Sweden (broilers), and the fruit farming system in Poland. Across all functions, attention is especially needed for the delivery of public goods. More specifically the quality of rural life and infrastructure are frequently classified as being important, but currently performing bad. Despite the concerns about the delivery of public goods, many future strategies still focus on improving the delivery of private goods. Suggestions in the area of public goods include among others the implementation of conservation farming in the UK arable system, improved water management in the Italian hazelnut system, and introduction of technologies which reduce the use of herbicides in Polish fruit systems. It is questionable whether these are sufficient to address the need to improve the maintenance of natural resources, biodiversity and attractiveness of rural areas. With regard to the changing of functions over time, we did not find evidence for this in our farming systems

Resilience of extensive sheep farming systems in Spain: strategies and policy assessment

European extensive sheep farming is undergoing several challenges and negative trends, which are threatening the capacity of sheep systems to generate income and provide public/private goods/services. This is particularly evident in the marginal and rural areas of southern EU, affected by gradual depopulation, abandonment, and transitions to more intensive and specialized sectors. Concerns over the survival of extensive sheep farming are basically due to the wide range of ecosystem services and socio-economic functions delivered by sheep systems, above all in those marginal areas where other productive activities are unfeasible. In order to find new solutions to overcome existing challenges, and anticipate the emerging ones, novel comprehensive and multidisciplinary approaches to assess the farming systems’ capacity to keep delivering their important functions are required. Within this broad scope, in recent years great importance has been attached to the resilience theory and its adaptations to agri-food systems. Most recent advances in resilience research in the EU have provided theoretical and analytical frameworks to assess the resilience of farming systems. Such approaches demonstrate remarkable potential, and worth being applied further. The motivation of the PhD thesis is rooted into the urgent need to identify development trajectories and resilience paths that allow to conserve and boost the role played by extensive sheep farms in marginal areas of Spain, given the particular vulnerability of this sector. Sheep farms, in fact, are affected by several socio-economic, institutional and environmental challenges. Among the others, there is concern about the sharp reduction in lamb meat consumption, and the structural low profitability that is leading to transition to intensive productions, and the lack of workers and young successor willing to enter the sector. The main goal of the thesis, therefore, is to assess the strategies, management patterns, and policies that could potentially promote the capacity of extensive sheep farming systems to keep delivering their unreplaceable functions and services, in spite of the current and future challenges threatening the sector. To this end, the thesis research focuses on the case study of extensive sheep farms of Huesca, Aragón, Northeast Spain, with a minor incursion in the extensive beef farming of Sierra Guadarrama, Central Spain. In order to achieve the main goal, different aspects of extensive sheep farming system need to be investigated. These are addressed by five specific objectives: I) to identify the factors threatening intra-family farm succession and its characterizing phases; II) to identify the resilience attributes and capacities in alternative farm management patterns; III) to quantify the economic performance of alternative production strategies to cope with main economic risks; IV) to identify new ways through which risk management strategies may improve resilience; and V) to assess the impact of different policies on farms’ resilience, and to highlight potential developments in the policy framework. The PhD thesis methodology draws upon the most recent advances in resilience research in Europe, with special regard to the assessment framework provided by the H2020 SURE-Farm project1, within which this thesis was developed. The thesis is based on a comprehensive and multidisciplinary methodology including multiple sources of data, and qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. The thesis investigation was carried out through four research studies, each targeting the first four research objectives, respectively. The fifth objective overarches the four studies. The first and the second research studies consist of a qualitative content analysis of 28 semi-structured interviews to farmers and their relatives. The third research study is based on an economic risk assessment including a farm profitability model and stochastic simulations, using national accountancy data and information from a survey of 60 farmers in Huesca. The fourth research study consists of a content analysis and coding of qualitative data from a focus group involving eight farming system’s stakeholders in Huesca. The PhD thesis results show that intra-family farm succession follows three key steps: the potentiality of succession, the successor’s willingness to take over, and the effectiveness of succession. The willingness step was found to be the weakest step threatening the farm continuity in the sector, whereas the policy framework seems to be supporting almost exclusively the last step of effectiveness. Along with the farm continuity, sheep farms in the region can follow four alternative development trajectories, namely extensification (more reliance on pasture-based), intensification (more stable-based), re-orientation (reduction of sheep and diversification), and conservation (farms’ structure maintenance based on quality production). All patterns promote adaptability to some extent, but the patterns extensification and conservation mainly contribute to robustness to reinforce the original farms’ structure, whereas the patterns re-orientation and intensification lead to transformations. There is clear distinction among resilience attributes determining transformative patterns like intensification and re-orientation, and those favouring the conservation or re-adjustment of traditional extensive management. The policy framework appears to drastically favour the transition towards more intensive or different productions. Across the four farm trajectories, two main supply- and demand-oriented strategies seem promising: the increase of sheep prolificacy, and the use of protected geographical identification labels. The thesis findings highlight that feeding costs are the major source of risk, and that increased prolificacy has the greatest potential to mitigate this risk. In contrast, the quality labelling strategy shows scant performance, and appears to be more vulnerable to price variability. The multi-stakeholder focus group indicated four main strategies to enhance resilience in the sector, i.e. 1) improving investment, financing capacity and insurance; 2) promoting lamb meat consumption (including bargaining power in value chain); 3) value extensive livestock contribution to environmental conservation and population retention; and 4) training and knowledge transfer. The stakeholders suggested manifold options to improve these strategies, which can be grouped into three main avenues: cooperation & marketing, the knowledge system, and the policy & financial tools. This PhD thesis research provides a comprehensive and multifaceted analysis of the extensive sheep farming system dynamics in Huesca, and the different aspects that determine its resilience capacity, thus proving the efficacy of this resilience assessment approach. In addition, the thesis hints at ideas for future research in the case study area, mainly regarding the generational renewal and developments in the policy framework, as well as about the comparison with and generalization over other farming systems’ resilience assessments. ----------RESUMEN---------- La ganadería ovina extensiva europea está atravesando tiempos en los que vive varios desafíos y tendencias negativas que amenazan la capacidad de los sistemas de ovino extensivo para generar ingresos y proporcionar bienes y servicios públicos / privados. Esto es particularmente evidente en aquellas zonas marginales y rurales del sur de la UE, afectadas por procesos graduales de despoblación, abandono y transiciones hacia sectores más intensivos y especializados. Las preocupaciones sobre la supervivencia de la ganadería extensiva de ovinos se deben básicamente a la amplia gama de servicios ecosistémicos y funciones socioeconómicas que brindan los sistemas de ovino, sobre todo en aquellas áreas marginales donde otras actividades productivas son inviables. Con el fin de encontrar nuevas soluciones para superar los desafíos existentes y anticipar los emergentes, se requieren enfoques novedosos, integrales y multidisciplinares para evaluar la capacidad de los sistemas agrícolas para seguir cumpliendo sus importantes funciones. En este ámbito, en los últimos años se ha otorgado gran importancia a la teoría de la resiliencia y sus adaptaciones a los sistemas agroalimentarios. Los avances más recientes en la investigación de la resiliencia en la UE han proporcionado marcos teóricos y analíticos para evaluar la resiliencia de los sistemas agrícolas. Estos enfoques demuestran un potencial notable de lograr hallazgos útiles, por lo que merecen ser aplicados. La motivación de la tesis radica en la urgente necesidad de identificar trayectorias de desarrollo y caminos de resiliencia que permitan conservar e impulsar el papel que juegan las explotaciones extensivas de ovino en zonas marginales de España, dada la especial vulnerabilidad de este sector. El sector ovino, de hecho, se ve afectado por varios desafíos socioeconómicos, institucionales y ambientales. Entre otros, preocupa la fuerte reducción del consumo de carne de cordero, y la baja rentabilidad estructural que está llevando a la transición a producciones intensivas, y la falta de trabajadores y jóvenes sucesores dispuestos a ingresar al sector. El objetivo principal de la tesis, por lo tanto, es evaluar las estrategias, modelos de manejo y políticas que promuevan la capacidad de los sistemas de ganadería extensiva de ovino para seguir entregando sus funciones y servicios insustituibles, a pesar de los desafíos actuales y futuros que amenazan al sector. Para ello, la investigación de la tesis se centra en el estudio de caso de las explotaciones extensivas de ovino de Huesca, Aragón, noreste de España, con una pequeña incursión en la ganadería extensiva de vacuno de Sierra Guadarrama, en el Sistema Central. Para lograr el objetivo principal, es necesario investigar diferentes aspectos del sistema extensivo de cría de ovejas. Estos son abordados en cinco objetivos específicos: I) identificar los factores que amenazan la sucesión intrafamiliar y sus fases características; II) identificar los atributos y capacidades de resiliencia en modelos alternativos de gestión agrícola; III) cuantificar el potencial económico de estrategias de producción alternativas para hacer frente a los principales riesgos económicos; IV) identificar nuevas formas a través de las cuales las estrategias de gestión de riesgos pueden mejorar la resiliencia; y V) evaluar el impacto de las diferentes políticas en la resiliencia de las explotaciones y destacar los posibles desarrollos en el marco de políticas. La metodología de la tesis se basa en los avances más recientes en la teoría de la resiliencia en Europa, con especial atención al marco de evaluación proporcionado por el proyecto SURE- Farm2, en el marco del cual se desarrolló esta tesis. La tesis se basa en una metodología integral y multidisciplinar que incluye múltiples fuentes de datos y métodos de análisis cualitativos y cuantitativos. La investigación de la tesis se llevó a cabo a través de cuatro estudios de investigación, cada uno de los cuales se centró en los primeros cuatro objetivos de investigación, respectivamente. El quinto objetivo es transversal a los cuatro estudios. El primero y el segundo estudio de investigación consiste en un análisis de contenido cualitativo de 28 entrevistas semiestructuradas a agricultores y sus familiares. El tercer estudio de investigación se basa en una evaluación de riesgo económico que incluye un modelo de rentabilidad agrícola y simulaciones estocásticas, utilizando datos de la Red contable de explotaciones nacionales e información de una encuesta a 60 agricultores en Huesca. El cuarto estudio de investigación consiste en un análisis de contenido y codificación de datos cualitativos de un grupo focal que involucra a ocho actores o grupos de interés del sistema agrícola en Huesca. Los resultados de la tesis muestran que la sucesión agrícola intrafamiliar sigue tres pasos clave: la potencialidad de la sucesión, la voluntad del sucesor de asumir el control y la eficacia de la sucesión. Se descubrió que el paso de disposición es el paso más débil, amenazando la continuidad agrícola en el sector, mientras que el marco de política parece apoyar casi exclusivamente el último paso de eficacia. Junto con la continuidad de la granja, las granjas de ovejas en la región pueden seguir cuatro trayectorias de desarrollo alternativas, a saber, extensificación (más dependencia de los pastos), intensificación (incremento en carga ganadera), reorientación (reducción de ovejas y diversificación) y conservación (mantenimiento de la estructura de las granjas basado en una producción de calidad). Todos los patrones estimulan la adaptabilidad hasta cierto punto, pero los patrones de extensión y conservación contribuyen principalmente a la robustez para reforzar la estructura de las granjas originales, mientras que los patrones de reorientación e intensificación conducen a transformaciones. Existe una clara distinción entre los atributos de resiliencia que determinan patrones transformadores como la intensificación y reorientación, y los que favorecen la conservación o reajuste del manejo extensivo tradicional. El marco de políticas parece favorecer drásticamente la transición hacia producciones más intensivas o diferentes. En las cuatro trayectorias de las granjas, dos estrategias principales orientadas a la oferta y la demanda parecen prometedoras: el aumento de la prolificidad de ovejas y el uso de sellos de identificación geográfica protegidas. Los hallazgos de la tesis sugieren que los costes de alimentación son la principal fuente de riesgo y que una mayor prolificidad tiene el mayor potencial para mitigar este riesgo. Por el contrario, la estrategia de etiquetado con sellos de calidad muestra un rendimiento escaso y parece ser más vulnerable a la variabilidad de precios. El grupo de enfoque de múltiples actores permitió destacar cuatro estrategias principales para mejorar la resiliencia en el sector: 1) aumentar la inversión, la capacidad de financiamiento y los seguros; 2) promover el consumo de carne de cordero (incluido el poder de negociación en la cadena de valor); 3) valorar la contribución de la ganadería extensiva a la conservación del medio ambiente y la fijación de la población; y 4) formación y transferencia de conocimientos. Los actores sugirieron múltiples opciones para mejorar estas estrategias, que se pueden agrupar en tres vías principales: la cooperación y marketing, el sistema de conocimiento y las herramientas políticas y financieras. Esta tesis proporciona un análisis integral y multifacético de la dinámica del sistema de ganadería extensiva ovina en Huesca, y los diferentes aspectos que determinan su capacidad de resiliencia, demostrando así la eficacia de este enfoque de evaluación de la resiliencia. Además, la tesis sugiere ideas para futuras investigaciones en el área de estudio de caso, principalmente sobre el relevo generacional y los desarrollos en el marco de políticas, así como sobre la comparación y generalización sobre las evaluaciones de resiliencia de otros sistemas agrícolas

CETA and Italian Agri-food products: an analysis on compared advantages of the main Italian Agri-food sectors

Puslapiai nurodyti pagal pataisytą leidinįAt the age of second-generation agreements, the European Union is going to achieve a number of new trade deals, as well as others country, first of all the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement treated with Canada. A significant part of the debating about Ceta is focused on the real need or not to reach new deal and add more liberalization, in particular regarding the Agri-food goods. EU, and above all Italy, can boast a number of excellent export Agri-food processed product, such as wine, cheese and pasta; at the same time, Italy has a need of primary goods, like wheat. Revealed Competitive Advantage is an indicator of the importance of a specific product and, specifically, it’s used to identify the advantage or disvantage of a trade flow. Some of the main Italian products exported in Canada have been analyzed, just like the main imported product from Canada, the wheat; as opposed to EU-28 import of Durum wheat, the other trades have showed a comparative advantage in trade. Finally, in three cases, Italy proves greater advantages in respect with the EUVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij

Farmers’ learning preferences and risk management choices

Understanding how farmers learn and how this influences their decisions is still a key question in research, especially in the context of increasing challenges and uncertainties. We explore whether and how different learning preferences, notably learning by doing, from other farmers and through social media, influence farmers’ risk management (RM) choices. Based on a survey of farmers in Spain and the UK, we employed multivariate probit regressions and Poisson models with instrument variables. We found that all learning preferences are significantly correlated to RM choice, with learning through social media and from peers leading to more strategies adopted by the farmer, and learning by doing leading to fewer strategies. The results, however, show that each learning preference affects different specific RM strategies. Our findings suggest that policymakers should consider leveraging informal learning networks to improve farmers’ RM, whereas policy incentives might be designed to formalize and promote social media use (also by existing extension services) to boost the adoption of RM strategies

Economic impact of quality label and productive efficiency strategies under price and cost risks: the case of Spanish sheep farms.

CONTEXT The socio-economic decline of extensive sheep farming caused by its low profitability in southern European Union (EU) regions threatens marginal depopulated rural areas' survival. In the face of new future institutional and climate challenges, there appears to be an urgent need for strategies to improve economic performance. OBJECTIVE This paper aims to evaluate the economic performance and risk of two alternative demand-oriented and productive efficiency strategies: i) protected geographical indication certification, and ii) increased ewe reproduction prolificacy. Method Based on regional farm records and price data and a survey of 54 local farmers, we formulated a stochastic gross margin model to simulate and analyze four strategic scenarios (baseline, quality labelling, productive efficiency, and joint strategies) under two specific stressors, namely decreased lamb prices and increased feeding costs. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS We found that feeding costs constitute the main risk factor, whereas price instability has less influence. Our findings highlight improvements in performance under a quality scenario, albeit with higher vulnerability to price variability with respect to the baseline scenario. In contrast, the productive efficiency scenario performs much better in terms of average gross margin and reduced vulnerability to feeding costs, albeit with a larger variation for the expected outcomes. SIGNIFICANCE The paper casts light on the vulnerability of the quality label under price risk, and suggests the potential for the joint implementation of both quality production and productive efficiency strategies, which could compensate for their respective weaknesses