Why has farming in Europe changed? A farmers' perspective on the development since the 1960s

Farming in Europe has been the scene of several important socio-economic and environmental developments and crises throughout the last century. Therefore, an understanding of the historical driving forces of farm change helps identifying potentials for navigating future pathways of agricultural development. However, long-term driving forces have so far been studied, e.g. in anecdotal local case studies or in systematic literature reviews, which often lack context dependency. In this study, we bridged local and continental scales by conducting 123 oral history interviews (OHIs) with elderly farmers across 13 study sites in 10 European countries. We applied a driving forces framework to systematically analyse the OHIs. We find that the most prevalent driving forces were the introduction of new technologies, developments in agricultural markets that pushed farmers for farm size enlargement and technological optimisation, agricultural policies, but also cultural aspects such as cooperation and intergenerational arrangements. However, we find considerable heterogeneity in the specific influence of individual driving forces across the study sites, implying that generic assumptions about the dynamics and impacts of European agricultural change drivers hold limited explanatory power on the local scale. Our results suggest that site-specific factors and their historical development will need to be considered when addressing the future of agriculture in Europe in a scientific or policy context.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10113-023-02150-y.

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

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.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13593-022-00820-5.

Expressing carbon storage in economic terms: The case of the upper Omo Gibe Basin in Ethiopia

Terrestrial carbon storage is important for planning decisions regarding climate change. Therefore, modelling the spatial distribution of carbon storage and valuation can help restore the sustainability of the ecosystems. This study aimed at showing the spatial and temporal variations in carbon storage and valuation in the upper Omo Gibe Basin. Land use/cover and carbon pool data based on field data collection and laboratory analyses supported by GIS and remote sensing were used. The Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) software was used for modelling carbon storage. The Global voluntary carbon market price and Tropical Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) data were used for describing carbon storage in economic terms. ANOVA was carried out to detect significant differences in carbon stock correlation with parameters. The results show that the annual carbon stock declined by 0.37 t/ha and the carbon market declined from USD 25.04 billion in 1988 to USD 24.01 billion in 2018. The highest loss of carbon storage and valuation was found in forest land followed by grazing land. Moreover, carbon stock was positively correlated with NDVI and habitat quality (p < 0.05). Slopes did not affect carbon stock (p > 0.05). This study helps promote and enhance carbon trading.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the importance of urban green spaces to the public

Green spaces provide people with countless intangible benefits, particularly important during crises. Restrictions imposed in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic forced people to maintain social distance, limit travels, and even refrain from visiting green spaces and stay at home at a certain point. The survey in one of the largest cities in Poland, Kraków, was intended to help understand the impact of the pandemic on the importance of urban green spaces to the public. The study focused on the first three stages of the pandemic in Poland, from March to November 2020. Nine weeks of the survey yielded over 1250 responses. Responses to spatial questions were analysed with GIS tools and geoprocessing algorithms. The number of visitors to green spaces during the pandemic fell to 78.9% of the population, which is down 13.1% compared to before the pandemic. At the same time, the percentage of people refraining from the visits fell with each phase of the crisis. According to the study, residents believed green spaces to be important for their mental and physical health. Over 75% of the participants considered visits to green spaces as having a very big or big impact on stress level reduction. The work provides empirical proof of the importance of green spaces to residents, particularly during a crisis. The results can affect urban spatial policies and management of green spaces and can potentially be applied in other cities.