Drivers of environmentally friendly farming distribution and their impact on sustainability performance at different scales: a mixed methods approach
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Kent
Department Name: Sch of Anthropology & Conservation
Abstract
The UK's withdrawal from the European Union was an opportunity to reform agricultural policy to better align with sustainability goals and address limitations of agri-environment schemes (AES) in addressing environmental impacts of modern agriculture (Helm, 2017). The government's aims for reform emphasised 'public money for public goods' and the need for landscape-scale action via cooperative management, and these ideas around farmers as public good providers and landscape-scale actions have been particularly contested and changeable aspects of new policy regime (DEFRA, 2023; Harvey, 2023). My research identified challenges in applying these principles to improving agricultural sustainability, and so has timely insights to offer farmers, policy makers, and academics.
Of the many approaches to studying drivers of farmer adoption behaviours, researchers trying to understand the deeper meaning behind farmer decisions increasingly focus on farmer identities, status, and cultural ideals of what a 'good farmer' should be doing (Burton, 2004; Cusworth & Dodsworth, 2021). I used interviews to apply these concepts in investigating how farmers interpret the idea of being providers of public goods and doing so in collaboration with other farmers. This work highlighted how the 'public goods' concept was adapted by farmers to align with their identities and expectations of their role, and that targeting relationships and information exchange will be important to resolve potential conflicts between landscape-scale public good delivery and established farmer identities. Alongside these interviews, I used spatial analysis to show how AES participation in England is clustered at the district level, and to suggest factors driving this clustering. To further study how drivers of adoption distribution relate to regional sustainability, I combined scenario analysis, impact mapping, and network analysis, to assess how the rate and distribution of regenerative farming (which stands on the frontier of agricultural change in the UK) adoption could impact sustainability in south-east England. This identified key pathways to explain how the high, clustered adoption of regenerative farming can enhance regional sustainability, showing the importance of information sharing and relationships in linking aspects of sustainability at different scales. This is the first time this mix of methods has been applied in agricultural sustainability research, allowing me to bring a fresh perspective to this topic.
My research therefore made a worthwhile contribution to knowledge, and this project is an opportunity to ensure these findings reach their desired audiences and influence discussion about the future of farming in England. The 5 candidate journal articles I have identified will make new connections between different disciplines, provide recommendations that could inform implementation of post-Brexit agricultural policy, and advance our understanding of the contribution of alternative farming approaches to regional sustainability - a neglected topic in the literature, which has focused on farm-level sustainability (Inwood et al., 2018; Nogués et al., 2019). My research also highlighted the importance of considering different spatial scales in studying the adoption and sustainability performance of alternative farming approaches, so this project will involve limited further research (20% of the project, i.e., 2.5 months), adapting my methods to incorporate a multi-scale approach, which will drive expansion of this frontier in agricultural sustainability research. To maximise impact of this work, I will also attend at least 2 conferences to widen my network and share my findings and create a web-based mapping tool to present my research themes in an interactive manner for wider audiences. Additionally, I will continue teaching in areas relevant to my research and undertake training to support my professional development as an early career researcher.
Of the many approaches to studying drivers of farmer adoption behaviours, researchers trying to understand the deeper meaning behind farmer decisions increasingly focus on farmer identities, status, and cultural ideals of what a 'good farmer' should be doing (Burton, 2004; Cusworth & Dodsworth, 2021). I used interviews to apply these concepts in investigating how farmers interpret the idea of being providers of public goods and doing so in collaboration with other farmers. This work highlighted how the 'public goods' concept was adapted by farmers to align with their identities and expectations of their role, and that targeting relationships and information exchange will be important to resolve potential conflicts between landscape-scale public good delivery and established farmer identities. Alongside these interviews, I used spatial analysis to show how AES participation in England is clustered at the district level, and to suggest factors driving this clustering. To further study how drivers of adoption distribution relate to regional sustainability, I combined scenario analysis, impact mapping, and network analysis, to assess how the rate and distribution of regenerative farming (which stands on the frontier of agricultural change in the UK) adoption could impact sustainability in south-east England. This identified key pathways to explain how the high, clustered adoption of regenerative farming can enhance regional sustainability, showing the importance of information sharing and relationships in linking aspects of sustainability at different scales. This is the first time this mix of methods has been applied in agricultural sustainability research, allowing me to bring a fresh perspective to this topic.
My research therefore made a worthwhile contribution to knowledge, and this project is an opportunity to ensure these findings reach their desired audiences and influence discussion about the future of farming in England. The 5 candidate journal articles I have identified will make new connections between different disciplines, provide recommendations that could inform implementation of post-Brexit agricultural policy, and advance our understanding of the contribution of alternative farming approaches to regional sustainability - a neglected topic in the literature, which has focused on farm-level sustainability (Inwood et al., 2018; Nogués et al., 2019). My research also highlighted the importance of considering different spatial scales in studying the adoption and sustainability performance of alternative farming approaches, so this project will involve limited further research (20% of the project, i.e., 2.5 months), adapting my methods to incorporate a multi-scale approach, which will drive expansion of this frontier in agricultural sustainability research. To maximise impact of this work, I will also attend at least 2 conferences to widen my network and share my findings and create a web-based mapping tool to present my research themes in an interactive manner for wider audiences. Additionally, I will continue teaching in areas relevant to my research and undertake training to support my professional development as an early career researcher.
Organisations
Publications
Matthews PG
(2024)
Overcoming barriers to agri-environmental management at landscape scale: Balancing farmer coordination and collaboration with the aid of facilitators and pioneers.
in Journal of environmental management
| Description | I built on prior research activities to produce 4 papers during the award, now at various stages of publication (1 published, 1 with revisions currently being processed, and 2 more under review). The first publication was based on work from farmer interviews discussing challenges and opportunities for engaging farmers in cooperative landscape scale agri-environmental schemes. The findings highlighted the importance of the combined roles of facilitators and pioneers in finding the optimal balance between collaboration and coordination to minimise logistical costs to individual participants while maintaining farmers' sense of control / autonomy. I used my sustainability assessment work to create a paper with international scope, reporting on the regional sustainability performance of ecological farming approaches. Based on findings from 11 different European countries, this work highlighted the potential of locally appropriate ecological farming approaches to enhance regional sustainability when adopted at high rates / in clustered distribution. My growing expertise in sustainability assessment was used to support a grant application for a Darwin Plus project, involving a partnership with researchers from the Open University of Cyprus. The success of the grant application means that I will be able to further develop the sustainability assessment methodology (previously used for ecological farming research) in a new context (involving habitat restoration, enhancing ecosystem resilience, and managing stakeholder conflicts in conservation). I applied my spatial analysis skills and knowledge of agricultural systems to a research partnership with an economist from another academic institution, collaborating to study the relationship between changes in transport infrastructure networks and agricultural productivity. This work has advanced upon previous publications in the field by incorporating regional variation in transport freight rates to generate more realistic estimates of the impact of transport network changes. We have an initial paper describing the construction of the dataset currently under review, with a couple of further papers in progress. I had further opportunities to develop research themes and ideas via a workshop on ecologisation of agricultural policies (and subsequent contribution to a collaborative article comparing agri-environmental policy in the UK and EU), participating in the design and delivery of an interdisciplinary geography seminar series, setting up field trips to allow students to engage with farmers who previously participated in my research, and collaborations with a National Landscape Partnership team (looking at new ways to use spatial data to inform their engagement and facilitation activities with farmers and other land managers). |
| Exploitation Route | My sustainability assessment research provides a foundation for further academic work to build upon the described methodology, combining network analysis, scenarios, and impact assessment, to develop a framework for integrated, multi-scale sustainability assessments. Being able to clarify and communicate linkages between processes for sustainability at different scales could also help policymakers to ensure greater integration between components of agri-environment schemes operating at different scales. This would be especially valuable given that a lack of clarity over how schemes at different scales fit together has been identified as an obstacle to scheme legitimacy and social acceptance. My research into farmer relationships with landscape scale management highlighted the value of flexible schemes that can accommodate variation in the relative contributions of pioneers and facilitators in ensuring cooperative agri-environmental projects successfully balance collaboration and coordination. The findings could be useful for institutions and actors working to support farmers in engaging with such schemes, or advocates seeking to influence the design of future generations of these schemes for enhancing environmental sustainability. Further worthwhile research to build on this work could include studying the factors affecting farmer willingness to engage with peers who employ contrasting management approaches. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Environment |