The Resilience Assessment Tool (ResAT) builds on broad academic literature that has identified characteristics of resilience-enhancing policies. However, it adds a distinction between policy characteristics that enhance either robustness, adaptability or transformability. This report presents the findings from an application of the Resilience Assessment Tool in eleven case studies across Europe to assess whether and how the current configuration of EU and national policies supports or constrains the capacity of regional farming systems to cope with the range of novel challenges. Understanding the CAP's effects on the resilience of regional farming systems requires an analysis of the interactions between the CAP and various other policies, which occur not only within the sector, but also across sectors and jurisdictional levels. ; ES; en; contact: barbara.soriano@upm.es
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. ; en; ES; contact: daniele.bertolozzi@upm.es
CONTEXT Enhancing farm resilience has become a key policy objective of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to help farmers deal with numerous interrelated economic, environmental, social, and institutional shocks and stresses. A central theme in resilience thinking is the role of the unknown, implying that knowledge is incomplete and that change, uncertainty, and surprise are inevitable. Important strategies to enhance resilience are exploiting social capital and learning as these contribute to improved knowledge to prepare farmers for change. OBJECTIVE This paper explores how social capital and learning relate to farm resilience along the dimensions of robustness, adaptation, and transformation. METHODS We study the resilience of Dutch arable farmers from the Veenkoloniën and Oldambt using a combination of four methods. Qualitative data from semi-structured farmer interviews, focus groups, and expert interviews are combined with quantitative data from farmer surveys. The qualitative data are analysed using thematic coding. Non-parametric tests are used to analyse the quantitative data. Based on methodological triangulation, we mostly find convergence in our qualitative and quantitative datasets increasing the validity of our findings. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The results reveal that social capital and learning help farmers to adapt and are, in certain cases, also related to robustness and transformations. Robust farmers often learned by exploiting farmers' informal social networks, primarily relying on bonding social capital to acquire knowledge about agriculture or develop financial skills. Farmers undertaking adaptation are characterised by bonding and bridging social capital obtained by formal and informal networks, are early adopters of innovation, and have high self-efficacy. Combinations of bridging and linking social capital from formal networks could foster farmers to learn new ideas and critically reflect on current farm business models. These learning outcomes relate to farm transformations. ...
What exactly is resilience and how can it be enhanced? Farming systems in Europe are rapidly evolving while at the same time being under threat, as seen by the disappearance of dozens of farms every day. Farming systems must become more resilient in response to growing economic, environmental, institutional, and social challenges facing Europe's agriculture. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for enhanced resilience has become even more apparent and continues to be an overarching guiding principle of EU policy making. Resilience challenges and strategies are framed within four main processes affecting decision making in agriculture: risk management, farm demographics, governance and agricultural practices. This empirical focus looks at very diverse contexts, with eleven case studies from Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden. This study will help determine the future and sustainability of European farming systems. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
International audience ; Sufficient generational renewal is an important contributor to resilient farming systems but across the EU there is widespread concern over the so-called 'young farmer problem'. This article recommends several policy areas to support generational renewal. The first need is to clearly define the exact generational renewal challenge, since available data provide no clear-cut evidence of an existing young farmer problem that is uniform across the EU. Second, while current policies seem effective in supporting the farm transfer process and providing aid during the early career phase of farmers, they lack targeting of the stage preceding farm take-over, during which possible entrants develop a successor identity. Increasing the attractiveness of farming as both an occupational and a lifestyle choice appears to be important in stimulating entry into farming. Third, policymakers should give high priority to facilitating access to land and labour, and to accommodating the capital-intensive nature of farming. Fourth, a mix of policies at different levels and domains that coherently contribute to the achievement of predefined goals regarding generational renewal is needed. Fifth, support for farm-specific advice and personal coaching holds underexploited potential for addressing the specificity of on-farm challenges regarding generational renewal.
Sufficient generational renewal is an important contributor to resilient farming systems but across the EU there is widespread concern over the so‐called 'young farmer problem'. This article recommends several policy areas to support generational renewal. The first need is to clearly define the exact generational renewal challenge, since available data provide no clear‐cut evidence of an existing young farmer problem that is uniform across the EU. Second, while current policies seem effective in supporting the farm transfer process and providing aid during the early career phase of farmers, they lack targeting of the stage preceding farm take‐over, during which possible entrants develop a successor identity. Increasing the attractiveness of farming as both an occupational and a lifestyle choice appears to be important in stimulating entry into farming. Third, policymakers should give high priority to facilitating access to land and labour, and to accommodating the capital‐intensive nature of farming. Fourth, a mix of policies at different levels and domains that coherently contribute to the achievement of predefined goals regarding generational renewal is needed. Fifth, support for farm‐specific advice and personal coaching holds underexploited potential for addressing the specificity of on‐farm challenges regarding generational renewal. ; en; EU; contact: isabeau.coopmans@ilvo.vlaanderen.be
International audience ; Sufficient generational renewal is an important contributor to resilient farming systems but across the EU there is widespread concern over the so-called 'young farmer problem'. This article recommends several policy areas to support generational renewal. The first need is to clearly define the exact generational renewal challenge, since available data provide no clear-cut evidence of an existing young farmer problem that is uniform across the EU. Second, while current policies seem effective in supporting the farm transfer process and providing aid during the early career phase of farmers, they lack targeting of the stage preceding farm take-over, during which possible entrants develop a successor identity. Increasing the attractiveness of farming as both an occupational and a lifestyle choice appears to be important in stimulating entry into farming. Third, policymakers should give high priority to facilitating access to land and labour, and to accommodating the capital-intensive nature of farming. Fourth, a mix of policies at different levels and domains that coherently contribute to the achievement of predefined goals regarding generational renewal is needed. Fifth, support for farm-specific advice and personal coaching holds underexploited potential for addressing the specificity of on-farm challenges regarding generational renewal.
International audience ; Sufficient generational renewal is an important contributor to resilient farming systems but across the EU there is widespread concern over the so-called 'young farmer problem'. This article recommends several policy areas to support generational renewal. The first need is to clearly define the exact generational renewal challenge, since available data provide no clear-cut evidence of an existing young farmer problem that is uniform across the EU. Second, while current policies seem effective in supporting the farm transfer process and providing aid during the early career phase of farmers, they lack targeting of the stage preceding farm take-over, during which possible entrants develop a successor identity. Increasing the attractiveness of farming as both an occupational and a lifestyle choice appears to be important in stimulating entry into farming. Third, policymakers should give high priority to facilitating access to land and labour, and to accommodating the capital-intensive nature of farming. Fourth, a mix of policies at different levels and domains that coherently contribute to the achievement of predefined goals regarding generational renewal is needed. Fifth, support for farm-specific advice and personal coaching holds underexploited potential for addressing the specificity of on-farm challenges regarding generational renewal.
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. ; en; EU; contact: daniele.bertolozzi@upm.es
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.
Multiple economic, ecological, institutional and societal challenges raise concern about the future functionality of agriculture and more specifically of farms in Europe, which leads to an increased need to understand and improve its resilience. We aim to provide a comprehensive overview of farmers' perception and self-assessment of resilience that would serve as a solid basis for further research on farm resilience. In order to achieve the aim, a farmer survey was designed based on theories of risk communication, decision theory and psychometric models. We conducted the survey in 11 case study regions across the European Union. No previous empirical research on farm resilience included so many diverse case studies. ; EU; en; contact: alisa.spiegel@wur.nl
Risk and risk management are essential elements of agriculture and affect the wellbeing of farm households. Farmers react to production, market and institutional risks and challenges by taking measures on or off the farm. Such risk management measures are often costly and have implications for up- and downstream industries as well as the environment. The risk exposure of European farms is increasing. For example, climate change will increase the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events like droughts, heatwaves and heavy rainfalls that potentially have detrimental effects on agricultural production. Thus, the adaptive capacity and risk management options in European agriculture need to be improved. Policy shall support this process. Policies are needed to support a diversity of risk management solutions and not only focus on a few solutions. Strategies to cope with risk often go beyond the level of the individual farm. Cooperation, learning and sharing of risks play a vital role in European agriculture and shall be strengthened. Thus, coordinated policies targeting beyond the individual farm and considering all the stakeholders involved in the risk management strategies are needed to ensure their effective implementation. Moreover, policies need to facilitate to take full advantage of the rapid technological progress and improved data availability (e.g. based on satellite imagery) to develop a wider set of risk management strategies. ; EU; en; contact: miranda.meuwissen@wur.nl
CONTEXT The ability of a farm to cope with challenges is often conceptualised as resilience. Although improving resilience of farms is a major policy goal in the European Union, the current state of resilience is often unknown. Previous resilience assessments have been based either on pre-defined indicators or on perceptions. In particular, empirical research of perceived resilience is still limited and usually restricted to one specific resilience capacity, one challenge, or one function. OBJECTIVE We investigate how European farmers perceive resilience capacities of their farms. Extending beyond previous research, we cover all three resilience capacities (robustness, adaptability, and transformability), consider a broad range of short-term shocks and long-term stresses, and include multiple functions. Furthermore, we analyse farms from diverse farming systems across Europe and investigate whether farms and farmers with similar perceived resilience capacities share characteristics. METHODS We address the complex nature of resilience capacities by accounting for multiple scales formulated as analytical steps of a resilience assessment framework. More specifically, these are 'resilience of what' (farms and farming systems), 'resilience to what' (challenges), 'resilience for what purpose' (functions), and 'what enhances resilience' (resilience attributes). These steps guided the development of a survey with farmers across eleven European farming systems. Based on three indices for each farmer indicating perceived robustness, adaptability, and transformability of their farms, we identified two classes of farmers with particularly strong and weak resilience profiles respectively. Using nonparametric Mann-Whitney U tests, we furthermore compared other parameters collected via the survey across the identified classes. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Our data sample outputs two classes of similar size characterised by all three perceived resilience capacities being above (below) regional average. This finding suggests that the perceptions of robustness, adaptability, and transformability are mutually dependent. Furthermore, we found that farmers who perceive their resilience above the regional averages are characterised by lower risk aversion, greater focus on providing public goods, a higher number of implemented risk management strategies, more active involvement in networks, and greater openness to innovation. SIGNIFICANCE The revealed links between particular characteristics of farms and farmers and different levels of perceived resilience capacities can support policy-makers in developing more targeted resilience-enhancing strategies, as well as in understanding farmers' responses to challenges. Finally, our results can serve as a basis for further research, e.g., for formulating and testing hypotheses on causal effects between perceived resilience and its components, and on links between perception- and indicator-based resilience assessments.
An increasing variety of stresses and shocks provides challenges and opportunities for EU farming systems. This article presents findings of a participatory assessment on the sustainability and resilience of eleven EU farming systems, to inform the design of adequate and relevant strategies and policies. According to stakeholders that participated in workshops, the main functions of farming systems are related to food production, economic viability and maintenance of natural resources. Performance of farming systems assessed with regard to these and five other functions was perceived to be moderate. Past strategies were often geared towards making the system more profitable, and to a lesser extent towards coupling production with local and natural resources, social self-organisation, enhancing functional diversity, and facilitating infrastructure for innovation. Overall, the resilience of the studied farming systems was perceived as low to moderate, with robustness and adaptability often dominant over transformability. To allow for transformability, being reasonably profitable and having access to infrastructure for innovation were viewed as essential. To improve sustainability and resilience of EU farming systems, responses to short-term processes should better consider long-term processes. Technological innovation is required, but it should be accompanied with structural, social, agro-ecological and institutional changes.
