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Cited by 76Agricultural Innovations and PracticesAgriculture, Land Use, Rural DevelopmentSustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis

Conditions for the adoption of agro-ecological farming practices: a holistic framework illustrated with the case of almond farming in Andalusia

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Schoonhoven, Yanniek, Runhaar, Hens·2018·International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability
DOI 10.1080/14735903.2018.1537664
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Abstract

Agricultural landscapes offer unique habitats for many species. Because agriculture is a major land use worldwide, changes in farming practices can have major repercussions for biodiversity. Particularly in Western Europe, ongoing intensification and scale enlargement but also land abandonment and poor agricultural practices leading to land degradation form a major threat to agrobiodiversity. Agro-ecological farming practices are suggested as an alternative way of farming in order to conserve and enhance biodiversity. Yet knowledge about what factors explain farmers’ adoption of agro-ecological farming practices is fragmented and incomplete. In this paper, we offer a holistic framework that specifies these factors and how they are interconnected. The framework is illustrated and refined by means of a case study analysis of almond farming in Andalusia. The chosen case represents a specific localized farming practice that currently negatively impacts biodiversity but for which agro-ecology forms an attractive alternative regarding biodiversity. The case study demonstrates that our framework offers a useful tool to systematically identify the different factors that affect agro-ecological farming adoption, interlinkages between factors and particularly the more structural barriers to agro-ecology.

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  • Few studies have empirically demonstrated the effect of agroecological management on farm economic performance including all costs, benefits and externalities, making adoption financially uncertain and hampering large-scale implementation.

    “Up until now few studies have tried to empirically demonstrate the effect of agroecological management on the farm's economic performance, including all costs, benefits and externalities, which makes the adoption of agroecological practices a financially uncertain transition for farmers, thus hampering its largescale implementation (Rodriguez et al., 2009;Schoonhoven and Runhaar, 2018).”

    From Almond farm profitability under agroecological management in south-eastern Spain: Accounting for externalities and opportunity costs (2020) · cites this paper as Schoonhoven and Runhaar, 2018

    Section 2.1 says studies reach differing conclusions about farmer income and that more research is needed on agro-ecology’s impact on livelihoods. Table 2 in section 5 identifies a cost-benefit ratio with 'no visible proof' as a possible barrier to adoption. The paper does not establish that few studies assess farm economic performance including all costs, benefits and externalities, or that this specific research gap hampers large-scale implementation. (LLM, conf=0.85)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Schoonhoven, Y., & Runhaar, H.
Affiliations
  • AlVeLaL, Association of Farmers, Ranchers and Businesses, Granada, Spain
  • Utrecht University (NL)
Corresponding author
Runhaar, Hens
ORCID
Runhaar, Hens
Venue
International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2018-10-25
Volume
16
Issue
6
Pages
442-454
ISSN
  • 1473-5903 (ISSN-L)
  • 1747-762X
DOI
10.1080/14735903.2018.1537664
OpenAlex
W2898272017
Cited by
76
References
5
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1
FWCI
13.75
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc-nd
Locations
  • International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agricultural Innovations and Practices
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis
Keywords
agroecological production, agrobiodiversity, agricultural biodiversity conservation, structural barriers, agricultural intensification, land abandonment, land degradation, Andalusia

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