Are advisory services “fit for purpose” to support sustainable soil management? An assessment of advice in Europe

Abstract

This assessment examines the extent to which advisory services are able to address current and emerging knowledge needs of practitioners (primarily farmers) about sustainable soil management (SSM) in Europe. The assessment is structured around the following components: the context of advice (policy, market, socio-economic conditions, privatization of advisory systems); the challenges that SSM presents for advice; the current and emerging practitioner knowledge needs; and the existing structure and function of advisory services for SSM. The analysis reveals fragmented policy and advisory services, paralleled by the multi-scale character of SSM and a diverse audience for advice. The challenges and opportunities this complex arena presents are analysed, and suggestions made for achieving more effective advisory services for SSM, together with examples of existing approaches.

Social capital factors affecting uptake of sustainable soil management practices: a literature review

“…It has also highlighted the importance of influencing social norms to shift farmers' farm management behaviour from the status quo as well as acknowledging the role that power plays in multistakeholder networks. Sustainable soil management is a diffuse concept in the literature (Ingram & Mills, 2019) and it has not been possible to sufficiently unpack this term in connection to the elements of social capital covered in this review. The heterogeneity of soils, farming systems and management options represented in this study adds a further challenge in terms of determining exactly how social capital impacts uptake of more sustainable soil management practices.…”

Sustainable soil use and management: An interdisciplinary and systematic approach

“…In Hungary, most farms are also relatively small, with 79% being b2 ha. In contrast, Danish farms tend to quite large, with 55% being larger than 20 ha (Ingram and Mills, 2019). Such differences create challenges for knowledge transfer between countries.…”

“…In Europe, both private and public sector advisors, operating on national, provincial or local levels offer science communication to farmers (Ingram and Mills, 2019). In Switzerland, sustainable soil management knowledge was successfully shared among farmers via social learning in a video format (Fry and Thieme, 2019).…”

“…In Europe, a knowledge gap regarding sustainable soil management was identified as a major issue among both farmers and soil advisors. As the current trend of privatization and decentralization of advisory services continues, there is an increasing need to educate those who provide advisory services, thus enabling effective empowerment of farmers (Ingram and Mills, 2019). Governments ought also to provide workshops that encourage farmers to adopt greater soil testing, so that they can then make informed soil management decisions (Lobry de Bruyn, 2019).…”

Leverage Points for Governing Agricultural Soils: A Review of Empirical Studies of European Farmers’ Decision-Making

“…First, there is the role of extension services and agricultural/agronomic advisors. The vast diversity of advisory services available to farmers and the complex interactions between the two groups suggest that their role in facilitating sustainable practices, including sustainable soil management, should be carefully considered [47,83,145]. Innovative formats, such as collaborative extension services that bring together farmers with potentially different perspectives (note the link to the above discussion of fostering pro-environmental attitudes), may have particularly large potential in this respect [44], but there is a need for more research into the role of advisory services.…”