The Care Farming Sector in The Netherlands: A Reflection on Its Developments and Promising Innovations

Abstract

This paper describes the development of care farming in the Netherlands, one of the pioneering countries in this sector, where care farming has developed into a very diverse sector, with some farmers focussing primarily on agricultural production and others more specifically on providing care services. Care farms are increasingly open to a diversity of participants. The sector has become professionalised with the establishment of strong regional organisations and a steady growth increase in revenues, providing employment opportunities and boosting the economy of rural areas. In this paper, we highlight two promising innovations in care farming: education for school dropouts and the establishment of social farming activities in cities. These innovations face the challenge of connecting not only the agricultural and care sectors, but also the educational sector and the urban context. Initiators face a number of challenges, like trying to embed their activities in the educational sector, a mismatch in regulations and a lack of legitimacy in the case of education on care farms, as well as problems gaining access to land and a lack of recognition in the case of social farming in urban areas. However, the prospects are promising in both cases, because they match the changing demands in Dutch society and are able to integrate social, ecological and economic benefits.

The Role of Urban Green Space in Promoting Inclusion: Experiences From the Netherlands

“…In all cases we interviewed the people actively participating in the urban green initiatives. Case 1 Food for Good focusses on people with mental health issues and intellectual disabilities and is a secondary analysis of Hassink et al, 2020. Case 2 Green care focusses on people with dementia and is a secondary analysis of Hassink et al (2019) andDe Bruin et al (2019). Case 3 Kaskantine focuses specifically on the people of the surrounding deprived neighborhood of Amsterdam Nieuw-West (Stuiver, 2020).…”

“…In addition, the rules tended to change every four years after each national and local elections rounds. The rules and regulations became increasingly challenging, as they were accompanied by numerous administrative and requirements were accompanied by lots of administrative and other requirements (Hassink et al, 2020). Third, a major challenge was to reconcile the wishes of people living in the neighborhood with the goal of involving people with severe mental health issues in the community garden.…”

Agro-Healing Service Quality Analysis Using IPA Analysis for Business Owners

“…In the UK, a survey of 115 agro-healing farms in operation since 2012 was conducted, and it was determined that the farm area ranged from 4,000-6,480,000 m 2 (Bragg, 2013), which is a relatively wide range and indicates a larger scale when compared to the agro-healing farms of Korea. This was believed to be because most of the agro-healing farms in Europe are operated as grassland-based dairy farms, unlike domestic agro-healing farms, which are mainly operated as crop-cultivation facilities or educational facilities (Hassink et al, 2020).…”

“…In the Netherlands, agro-healing is focused on the education and treatment of mentally ill people, including learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorders, by implementing a system payable through medical fees under the Exceptional Medical Expenses Act (AWBZ) and the Persoonsgebonden Budget (PGB) (Hassink et al, 2014, 2020, CF UK, 2016. On the other hand, in the case of domestic agro-healing farms, the main users were the general public, showing a difference in terms of service consumers from Europe.…”

“…On the other hand, in the case of domestic agro-healing farms, the main users were the general public, showing a difference in terms of service consumers from Europe. Accordingly, when examining the number of agro-healing program sessions, most domestic agro-healing farms operated short-term programs of less than 4 sessions; however, in Europe, countries such as the Netherlands and the United Kingdom reported operating longer term programs of 8 months' duration or longer (CF UK, 2016;Hassink et al, 2020). It is hypothesized that there are differences in the goals of service provision and the types of services provided, as based on the difference in the level and nature of domestic and foreign agro-healing farm policy support.…”