D.J. Stobbelaar

Exploring multifunctional agriculture. A review of conceptual approaches and prospects for an integrative transitional framework

In the last decade the multifunctional agriculture (MFA) concept has emerged as a key notion in scientific and policy debates on the future of agriculture and rural development. Broadly speaking, MFA refers to the fact that agricultural activity beyond its role of producing food and fibre may also have several other functions such as renewable natural resources management, landscape and biodiversity conservation and contribution to the socio-economic viability of rural areas. The use of the concept can be traced to a number of wider societal and political transformation processes, which have influenced scientific and policy approaches in different ways amongst countries and disciplines. This paper critically discusses various existing research approaches to MFA, both from natural and social sciences. To this aim different strands of literature are classified according to their focus on specific governance mechanisms and levels of analysis into four main categories of research approaches (market regulation, land-use approaches, actor-oriented and public regulation approaches). For each category an overview of the state-of-the-art of research is given and an assessment is made of its strengths and weaknesses. The review demonstrates that the multifunctionality concept has attracted a wealth of scientific contributions, which have considerably improved our understanding of key aspects of MFA. At the same time approaches in the four categories have remained fragmented and each has limitations to understand MFA in all its complexity due to inherent constraints of applied conceptualizations and associated disciplinary backgrounds. To go beyond these limitations, we contend, new meta-level frameworks of analysis are to be developed that enable a more integrated approach. The paper concludes by presenting the main lines of an integrative, transitional framework for the study of MFA, which analyses multifunctional agriculture against the background of wider societal change processes towards sustainability and identifies a number of key elements and research challenges for this.

The appearance of agriculture: An assessment of the quality of landscape of both organic and conventional horticultural farms in West Friesland

Abstract “This landscape is offered to you by the local farmers.” In several places throughout the Netherlands and Belgium, billboards with such text can be found along the road. Perhaps the idea to promote farming in this way is new, but, for centuries, farmers, with their techniques and traditions, have strongly influenced the formation and nature of the surrounding landscapes. But what qualities do these landscapes have today? The aim of this study is to assess the (potential) contribution of farming systems to landscape quality. Eight horticultural farms in the region of West-Friesland (NL) were analysed after an intensive observation study during the four seasons of the year. A theory and a method on landscape quality at regional and farm level were developed. The starting point was that the visual quality of a landscape is determined mainly by four types of landscape coherence: vertical, horizontal, seasonal and historical. There are big differences between the landscape appearances of the eight farms, concerning, firstly, spatial aspects, like scale, layout and patterns, and, secondly, temporal aspects, like the expression of seasons. As an instrument to assess the quality of farm appearances, reference images were defined. In general, the organic farms had a better landscape quality than the conventional farms. These results may offer possibilities to farmers, organisations and policy-makers to improve the qualities of the rural area, for example, by supporting landscape-friendly farming practices or by local/regional platform discussions. The criteria used can be placed in the cultural realm of the framework created in the Concerted Action on Sustainable Development of Landscapes (see Stobbelaar and Van Mansvelt, 2000 ).

Comparison of landscape features in organic and conventional farming systems.

Four organic (biodynamic) farms coupled with conventional farms from their neighbourhood in The Netherlands, Germany and Sweden, and 3 organic farms and 4 conventional farms from the West Friesean region in The Netherlands were evaluated to compare their impact on landscape diversity. Materials used were soil-, water-, land use- and land-property maps, interviews with the farmers, repeated (several days) visits to the farms, allowing to make temporal transects, photographs and pictures of the farm-couples and their surroundings. Presence of diverse land use types, woody elements (plantings) and visual elements (vertical and horizontal coherence, colours and forms) were analysed. The results show that the diversity of landscapes and farming system was greater in organic farms. It regards to the land-use types, crops, livestock, plantings (hedges, solitary shrubs and trees), flora, sensorial information (more forms, colours, smells, sounds, spatial experiences) and labour (more on-farm processing and more people involved). Also, all forms of coherence were found to be greater in organic farms. In terms of landscape diversity the organic types of agriculture have a good potential for positive contributions to a sustainable agro-landscape management.

Perspectives on Landscape Identity: A Conceptual Challenge

Abstract The concept of landscape identity is often referred to in landscape policy and planning. A clear definition of the concept is lacking however. This is problematic because the term ‘landscape identity’ can have many different meanings and thus easily lead to confusion. We define landscape identity as ‘the perceived uniqueness of a place’ and endeavour to describe the content of this definition more concisely. Within this context the paper introduces the framework of the Landscape Identity Circle for the various dimensions of landscape identity based on two axes: differentiation between spatial as opposed to existential identity, and differentiation between personal and cultural landscape identity. This framework is valuable in positioning research approaches and disciplines addressing landscape identity.

Landscape quality on organic farms in the Messara valley, Crete organic farms as components in the landscape.

Two organic farms were evaluated on their landscape value in a broad perspective and compared with the surrounding non-organic farms. Therefore, a checklist with abiotic, social and cultural criteria was used. Firstly, an overview of the qualities of the Cretan landscape is given, which secondly, gives a framework to determine in how far the farms contribute to the landscape qualities. Thirdly, the scoring of the two described organic farms are compared with each other. This leads to the conclusion that the larger organic farm performs better than the smaller, especially concerning the abiotic environment. The cause of this difference in landscape performance may lie in the different social organisation of the two farms. However, when comparing the two farms with the (conventional) surrounding, both farms perform pretty well.

The process of landscape evaluation Introduction to the 2nd special AGEE issue of the concerted action: "The landscape and nature production capacity of organic/sustainable types of agriculture"

Abstract In an EU concerted action a checklist with criteria for the development of sustainable rural landscape was created. The idea of the concerted action was to bring together experts from various disciplines involved in management of the countryside. They represented disciplines from β, γ and α oriented sciences, ranging form environmentalists over sociologists to cultural geographers. They were all asked to list their (discipline’s) criteria and parameters for a sustainable management of the landscape. From all these criteria and parameters a checklist has been established. This checklist is presented in this paper, accompanied by an explanation of its basic concept that draws upon Maslow, its context, its methodology and its use. Finally summaries are presented of the ways the checklist, in various stages of its development, has been used in several European country countrysides. It can be concluded that the checklist is a useful tool for valuing the contribution of farms viz. farming systems to the regional development and the sustainability of the landscape. It was found that organic farms included in the sample of our research often performed rather well in that perspective as compared to the non-organic farms in that region.

Some criteria for landscape quality applied on an organic goat farm in Gelderland, the Netherlands

Abstract In the framework of the Concerted Action ‘The Landscape and Nature Production Capacity of Organic ⧸ Sustainable Types of Agriculture’, the authors visited the organic goat farm Capricas to test some criteria on farm level. Ten, mainly cultural, criteria had been selected because they were related to the field of work of the authors. The aim was to test the usability of the criteria in order to assess the farms contribution to landscape quality. Data were gained during a day of fieldwork by direct observations, an interview and survey of the literature. The ten criteria appeared to be useful for describing the features which influence landscape quality. However, for measuring these criteria a clear reference is needed, which was not available in this exercise. Therefore, only a global valuation of the farms contribution to the landscape quality can given so far.

Seasonality of agricultural landscapes: reading time and place by colours and shapes

“There is something strange going on with nature. The Netherlands are becoming ever greener, but that is not what nature lovers are looking for. They don’t want green heathland, they want it pink or purple. No green grassy pasture land, but sorrel red or buttercup yellow. Not for them dunes covered in grasses and shrubs, but white dunes with wind-blown sand, speckled with moss and herbs in a whole range of colours. Just green isn’t enough to make you happy” (Roos et al. 2000: 239).