Divergent Agricultural Development Pathways Across Farm and Landscape Scales in Europe: Implications for Sustainability and Farmer Well-Being

Abstract

Current agricultural practices in Europe are increasingly aggravating societal and environmental safety concerns. This creates societal and regulatory pressures on farmers, which can lead to farmer discontent and anti-regulation protests. These tensions are rooted in a disagreement on value systems for agricultural pathways, which can range from productivism (i.e. valuing production above all else) to post-productivism (i.e. valuing agriculture for its contribution to a variety of economic, environmental and societal needs). It is largely unknown to what degree and how post-productivist pathways have been implemented in practice. Here, we mapped landscape changes and interviewed farmers (n = 274) to examine the diversity of agricultural development pathways in 17 study sites across Europe over the last 20 years (2000-2020). We also assessed the associations between the development pathways and farmer’s perceptions of socio-economic outcomes, namely job satisfaction, societal valuation, and economic performance. Farm-level development was largely aligned with productivist pathways, while at the landscape level changes had more characteristics of post-productivist pathways. Farmers on post-productivist pathways did not perceive improved outcomes on livelihood indicators as compared to productivist farmers. Furthermore, farms on post-productivist pathways were concentrated in sites with very high management intensities that face strong pressure from environmental regulations, as well as mountainous sites, where opportunities for intensification are limited. These results suggest that current post-productivist pathways arise mostly by necessity. Successful agricultural transformation will require an enabling environment that provides social and economic benefits for farmers to engage in post-productivist pathways, and a civil society that values sustainable agriculture.

Keywords: agricultural transformation, transition pathways, archetype analysis, farmer wellbeing, land abandonment, farmer livelihoods