Opdenbosch, Harold
- Institutionen för ekonomi, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
If managed sustainably, agriculture has the potential to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss associated with intensive production. Farmers are essential to sustainable agriculture, but their efforts are often constrained by market failures within the food system and by ineffective policy incentives to address environmental externalities. This doctoral thesis investigates the institutional and behavioural drivers that shape farmers’ adoption of environmentally sustainable production practices, using a mixed research methods approach. Examined institutional drivers include both monetary and knowledge-based support, while examined behavioural drivers focus on farmers’ decision-making processes and psychological factors. The thesis consists of four papers. Paper I investigates both monetary and non-monetary benefits of participation in climate-related measures by examining Swedish farmers’ trade-offs between three co-benefits of cover cropping (i.e. biodiversity, soil health, and carbon sequestration). Paper II elicits cattle producers’ willingness to adopt silvopastoral systems, the level of compensation they require, and how behavioural factors influence these decisions. Paper III explores how livestock farmers in Sweden perceive the role of advisory services in promoting the adoption of carbon farming practices. Finally, Paper IV investigates how Swedish farmers perceive the conditions of participation in the contractual measures for the management of seminatural pastures. The contributions of this thesis improve the understanding of farmers’ uptake of sustainable production practices and thereby support the formulation of both new and more effective policies to encourage adoption.
Agriculture; sustainable production practices; agricultural policy; farmer decision-making; Sweden
Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae
2025, nummer: 2025:51
Utgivare: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Nationalekonomi
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/141964