F.P.M. Verhoeven

Re-balancing soil-plant-animal interactions: towards reduction of nitrogen losses

The practice of farming implies a continuous process of re-moulding and re-balancing of resources. Normally, this process is slow and hardly noticeable, but in times of transition towards sustainability it is accelerated and becomes more visible. Re-moulding and re-balancing require a careful and multifaceted monitoring as well as a high degree of involvement of the farmers concerned. This article is an overview that documents several aspects of the changes realized by two farmer co-operatives in the northern Netherlands: Vereniging Eastermar’s Lansdouwe (VEL) and Vereniging Agrarisch Natuur en Landschapsonderhoud Achtkarspelen (VANLA). It is shown that farmers process and manage manure, silages and diets. Emphasis is given to indications that the newly emerging balances are characterized by high levels of N efficiency. In a final combination of beta and gamma approaches it is shown that the goal-oriented practices of the VEL and VANLA farmers clearly indicate new trajectories towards and prospects for sustainability. Furthermore it is shown that recognition of relevant heterogeneity is crucial and that inter-farm comparisons, careful integration of beta and gamma approaches and multivariate modes of analysis are needed.

Dealing with novelties: a grassland experiment reconsidered

Abstract This article discusses a controversy that arose out of a grassland experiment in the Netherlands. Using the same data, one group of farmers and scientists concluded that a newly developed trajectory towards sustainability in dairy farming was highly effective, whilst a second group of scientists linked to the Research Institute for Animal Husbandry (PR) concluded the opposite. This article seeks to disentangle this controversy and, in so doing, discerns three levels of discussion. The first regards the understanding of agricultural processes of production as constantly changing practices. Here the concepts of co-production and novelties are introduced. The second level regards the methods for research design and analysis. Thirdly, there is the level of institutionalized research routines. These routines come down, amongst other things, to more or less standardized research questions, hypotheses and methods. Basically, level three contains a specific, and necessarily narrow, selection of concepts and methods from the first and second levels. The question, though, is whether such a selection is in line with markedly changing practices in agriculture. The article concludes that institutionalized research routines are unable to represent, understand and support novel and promising practices correctly.

Interpretation of results from on-farm experiments: manure-nitrogen recovery on grassland as affected by manure quality and application technique. 1. An agronomic analysis

This article discusses the outcomes of a re-analysis of a grassland experiment, by locating it within the wider institutional context composed of well-established routines used in agronomic research and the dominant epistemological tradition of agricultural sciences. It is argued that both, research routines and epistemological tradition, are strategic pillars of the reigning socio-technical regime. They contribute to path-dependency, thus reinforcing the uni-lateral development tendency centring on technological solutions that fit within the dominating regime. An important, albeit probably unintended consequence is that promising novelties are obscured within and through research, thus blocking a potentially highly effective road towards sustainability.