The Role of Different Types of Actors In The Future of Sustainable Agriculture In a Dutch Peri-urban Area

The prevalence and expected increase of areas with mixed urban and rural characteristics – so-called peri-urban areas- in Europe call for a transition towards more sustainable farming systems, that allow to accommodate the needs of different users. One of the proposed pathways towards more sustainable agriculture is Sustainable Intensification (SI), that aims at ensuring farm viability through levelling production, while also decreasing pressures on the environment and accommodating recreation. However, there is little insight into how the challenging governance setting inherent to peri-urban areas interacts with farm-level drivers for decision-making on adopting SI measures.

Local actors play essential role in uptake of SI measures, but trade-offs between measures are difficult to avoid

Using results from interviews, surveys, workshops and a model representing the actor network and farm and farmer characteristics (Bayesian Belief Network), we found that the stakeholders preferred environmentally friendly and low-intensity agriculture that takes stock of the latest technologies and preferred a transition to a strong local supply chain. For the uptake of SI measures related to direct sales, efficiency increases, and small landscape elements on-the-ground commitment was essential, especially from non-formal actors. Also, we found that trade-offs between different SI measures were difficult to avoid due opposing positions of different groups of actors.