The geography of megatrends affecting European agriculture

Debonne, Niels; Bürgi, Matthias; Diogo, Vasco; Helfenstein, Julian; Herzog, Félix; Levers, Christian; Mohr, Franziska; Swart, Rebecca; Verburg, Peter H.

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102551

Cited by 43 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…The framework presented here should, therefore, not be regarded as a "one-size-fits-all" assessment tool to be uniformly operationalised, but rather as a decisionsupport tool open to semantic control for selecting indicators in function of the goals and scope of analysis. For example, regional scale indicators can be selected to uniformly assess trends and benchmark outcomes across regions for the whole of Europe, using metrics available in public online databases or produced with large-scale models (e.g., Cerilli et al, 2020;Debonne et al, 2022). Indicators at the landscape scale and farm level should be specifically selected for sub-contexts based on their relevance (e.g., depending on the existing types of agro-ecosystem, ongoing processes of intensity change, and the priorities and concerns of different local groups of actors), and then evaluated in place-based assessments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing context-specific frameworks for integrated sustainability assessment of agricultural intensity change: An application for Europe

Diogo

Helfenstein

Mohr

et al. 2022

Environmental Science & Policy

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing context-specific frameworks for integrated sustainability assessment of agricultural intensity change: An application for Europe

Diogo

Helfenstein

Mohr

et al. 2022

Environmental Science & Policy

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“…Our study confirmed that farmers operating more diversified, less intensive, and (at least for livestock farms) smaller farms perceived to have been less negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the impact of any particular future disturbance on individual farms will depend on geography, political context, duration, and the type of disturbance (Debonne et al 2022 ), increasing resilience to price shocks through diversification and reducing dependency on external inputs by tightening feedback cycles will likely help farmers deal with a number of different types of shocks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A megastable (sensu Debonne et al ( 2022 )) variable was calculated to differentiate between farms with > 500 livestock units, 100-500 livestock units, and < 100 livestock units.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farmer surveys in Europe suggest that specialized, intensive farms were more likely to perceive negative impacts from COVID-19

Helfenstein

Bürgi

Debonne

et al. 2022

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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It has been shown that the COVID-19 pandemic affected some agricultural systems more than others, and even within geographic regions, not all farms were affected to the same extent. To build resilience of agricultural systems to future shocks, it is key to understand which farms were affected and why. In this study, we examined farmers’ perceived robustness to COVID-19, a key resilience capacity. We conducted standardized farmer interviews (n = 257) in 15 case study areas across Europe, covering a large range of socio-ecological contexts and farm types. Interviews targeted perceived livelihood impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on productivity, sales, price, labor availability, and supply chains in 2020, as well as farm(er) characteristics and farm management. Our study corroborates earlier evidence that most farms were not or only slightly affected by the first wave(s) of the pandemic in 2020, and that impacts varied widely by study region. However, a significant minority of farmers across Europe reported that the pandemic was “the worst crisis in a lifetime” (3%) or “the worst crisis in a decade” (7%). Statistical analysis showed that more specialized and intensive farms were more likely to have perceived negative impacts. From a societal perspective, this suggests that highly specialized, intensive farms face higher vulnerability to shocks that affect regional to global supply chains. Supporting farmers in the diversification of their production systems while decreasing dependence on service suppliers and supply chain actors may increase their robustness to future disruptions.

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“…Increased farm specialisation is recognised among the megatrends that are deeply affecting the structure and resilience of European Union (EU) and worldwide agriculture and rural areas (Debonne et al, 2022;Susanna and Tuomas, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strengthening Multifunctional Agriculture through Digitalisation: Insights from Europe and Japan

Metta

2023

Journal of Rural Problems

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We are told today that agriculture and rural areas are living through a pervasive digital transformation. But will digitalisation reverse the current productivism model or perpetuate it? In this paper, I reflect on how digitalisation is being used to internalise positive externalities and promote a more diversified and multifunctional agriculture. Digitalisation for internalisation is more than just a sociotechnological blend. Social and physical arrangements are shaped accordingly at farm or even national and international level. The final outcomes might not always be desirable or effective in empowering agroecological farmers embedded in the territorial development, therefore I encourage to sharpen the lenses through which we analyse digitalisation and envisage policy interventions in the name of agricultural multifunctionality. By shedding light on carbon credits, digital marketing in social farming, and servitisation via e-wine tours, this paper contributes to the debate about digital agriculture's risks and opportunities and raises themes and questions for scholars and policy makers engaged in responsible digitalisation for agriculture and rural development.

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The geography of megatrends affecting European agriculture

Cited by 43 publications

References 72 publications

Developing context-specific frameworks for integrated sustainability assessment of agricultural intensity change: An application for Europe

Developing context-specific frameworks for integrated sustainability assessment of agricultural intensity change: An application for Europe

Farmer surveys in Europe suggest that specialized, intensive farms were more likely to perceive negative impacts from COVID-19

Strengthening Multifunctional Agriculture through Digitalisation: Insights from Europe and Japan

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