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Against the background of fundamentally changing political and social requirements of agricultural production, the requirement profile of farmers has changed. The future of agriculture is widely discussed. To prepare a ground for future debates and policy programme design, it is essential to obtain an understanding of which values underlie the behaviour of farmers. This paper applies Schwartz's value theory to a large quantitative survey (N = 787) of German farmers. In addition to the overall value portrait, different value portraits within the sample of farmers are analysed. Farmers of the sample first and foremost prioritise self-transcendence values followed by openness to change. Conservation and self-enhancement are ranked to be less important within the value priorities of farmers. Furthermore, three different value portraits are identifiable within the sample. These groups differ significantly in their risk attitude and involvement in structural diversification. Implications for agricultural policy design and agricultural management are derived from the results.

This article takes up the question of how food sovereignty, and accompanying agricultural models that will help combat climate change, may be institutionalized through policy processes. I draw on the theories of Antonio Gramsci and his successors to discuss how the interwoven nature of the state and civil society, conceptualized as the ‘integral state’, can help inform an analytical approach to food policy change. Based on research that analyzes the work of Canada’s two member organizations of La Via Campesina, Union Paysanne and the National Farmers Union (NFU), I highlight the differences and parallels between food sovereignty struggles taking place in Quebec and those underway elsewhere in the country. I argue that although agricultural policy has the potential to be an important tool in transitioning toward a climate-friendly food system, proponents of food sovereignty would benefit from disengaging from traditional food policy advocacy efforts as these will only lead to incremental reforms. Instead, I suggest that a ‘prefigurative institutionalization’ has the potential to be transformative within and beyond the food system. The concept offers both a political strategy as well as an analytical framework for assessing movements’ efforts related to policy formation and governance.

International audience; This paper aims to identify drivers and barriers to the achievement of EU water policy objectives in the agricultural sector by adopting an institutional perspective on water quality management at the landscape level. We apply a conceptual framework combining Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) and Institutional Design Principles (IDP) perspectives to analyze cooperation initiatives involving water suppliers and agricultural stakeholders to protect drinking water catchments from agricultural diffuse pollution. Three cases representing different forms of cooperation in rural landscapes in France were investigated on the basis of primary data collected at the local, water-basin and national levels. The results show that the success of multi-stakeholder collective action depends on both local factors such as characteristics of the water resource and stakeholders (knowledge, resources, trust and social capital) and on factors linked to the EU and national water and agricultural policy frameworks. In addition to the identification of drivers of and constraints on the implementation of EU water policy in agricultural landscapes, the analysis highlights the conceptual added value in combining the IDP and ILM approaches to understand policy implementation processes at the landscape level.

Recent declines of many European bird species have been linked with various environmental changes, especially land-use change and climate change. Since the intensity of these environmental changes varies among different countries, we can expect geographic variation in bird population trends. Here, we compared the population trends of bird species among neighbouring countries within central Europe (Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland) between 1990 and 2016 and examined trait-associations with population trends at both national and international scales. We found that Denmark had the highest proportion of declining species while Switzerland had the lowest. Species associated with farmland had negative trends, but the effect size tended to differ among countries. A preference for higher temperature was positively associated with population trends and its effect size was similar among countries. Species that were increasing across all four countries were associated with forest; while species that were decreasing across all countries were long-distance migrants or farmland birds. Our results suggest that land-use change tends to be a more regionally variable driver of common bird population trends than climate change in central Europe. For species declining across all countries, international action plans could provide a framework for more efficient conservation. However, farmland birds likely need both, coordinated international action (e.g. through a green agricultural policy) to tackle their widespread declines as well as regionally different approaches to address varying national effect trajectories.

In spite of the potential negative effects that Brexit could bring to the United Kingdom (UK), the majority of the electorate voted to leave the European Union (EU). As a result of this paradoxical choice, a number of studies have been developed to understand the factors that triggered this voting decision. Most of them take into account factors related to immigration from East Europe, national identity, and sovereignty recovering, among others. However, these factors do not seem to reflect the reasons behind farmers' Brexit voting choice. Using a behavioural approach based on the theory of planned behaviour, the aim of the study was to contribute to the body of literature by undertaking an indicative study of UK farmers' Brexit voting decisions. The study found that for the sample group, voting choice was strongly influenced by farmers’ perceptions about EU legislation, their attitudes towards the EU, their perceived capacity to control factors that impact on the farm performance, their sense of self and their notions of autonomy within the confines of prescriptive agricultural policy and the influence of their social relationships.

This article examines the institutionalization of organic agriculture in Finland's agricultural policy. Organic agriculture is one of the main alternatives for conventional food production, promoting values that go beyond the focus on productivity and profit. Yet, numerous studies have raised concerns over the changes institutionalization has produced in its transformative capacity. It has been claimed that institutionalization results in the economization of organic agriculture, whereby the goals of this alternative mode of production are displaced by market coordination and profit maximization. However, studies have also called for more detailed analyses, which would account for e.g. national variations in the development of organic agriculture. To further this discussion, we apply conventions theory to analyze how policy documents, strategy papers, and studies have justified the institutionalization of organic agriculture in official policy in Finland. Conventions theory has the benefit of examining both the moral arguments and the knowledge production related to this. From this perspective, we investigate how organic values have been shaped and how policies have attempted to resolve tensions between conflicting justifications. The results show that compromises between organic values and economic rationales have been used to promote organic agriculture, which has also promoted economization. However, the results also indicate that in addition to economization, organic values have faced other challenges. The value of organic agriculture has been questioned based on, for example, scientific measurements of organic products, and by comparisons to Finnish conventional production. Both challenges have questioned the significance of organic agriculture in terms of its health and ecological benefits. The results therefore indicate that more contextualized analytical models are needed when examining the institutionalization of organic agriculture.

Farmers' resilience is routinely named as an agricultural policy objective in Australia and internationally. However, uncritical use of the resilience concept, as well as the disparity observed between policy intentions and outcomes, invites careful analysis of resilience in agricultural policy. Public policy development processes vary internationally; in Australia, governments issue White Papers to articulate public policy. In this paper we examine the resilience language in the Australian government's 2015 Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper and an associated funding initiative, the Managing Farm Risk Program (MFRP). One underpinning assumption in these policy documents is that grain farmers' access to crop insurance for climate-implicated production risks, including drought, would enhance grain farmers' resilience. We argue that the engagement of the White Paper and MFRP documents with resilience is superficial and substitutes a flawed faux resilience through: (i) articulating particular ‘uncontrollable’ threats to which farmers must be resilient; (ii) unburdening government from any substantive responsibility to mitigate these same threats, and; (iii) specifying normative prescriptions for how farmers should enact resilience. Rather than discarding the resilience concept entirely, we look again to foundational theoretical scholarship and bring attention anew to the critical role productive novelty plays in resilience. We suggest that in agricultural contexts, productive novelty is analogous to on-farm tinkering; we further argue that policy frameworks which support farmers' own generative capacity for productive novelty, i.e. creating space for farmers to tinker, may prove a more promising way to foster farmers' resilience.

Although the supply situation of the Swiss population is sufficient in terms of food security, contributions to security of food supply have been made since 2014 as part of the country’s current agricultural policy. Amounting to around CHF 1.17 billion, such contributions account for more than a third of Switzerland’s total direct payments budget. The effectiveness and the efficiency of this policy in terms of both calorie production and income transfer were analysed. With the help of an agent-based model approach, the extent to which the achievement of targets is guaranteed in the long term was examined. Possible gains in efficiency become visible alongside a stepwise reduction in the levels of the contributions. If the current policy is continued, Switzerland will barely achieve its actual operationalised calorie production targets. A focus on demand during times of supply shortages and a stronger focus on maintaining production factors could release the resources necessary to close existing gaps in relation to meeting targets. With an income ratio of about 0.3, the payments have a high income transfer effect and, therefore, make a major contribution to securing agricultural income. This fact is not evident in either the formulation of targets or the labelling of the policy. The present study contributes to the discussion concerning the possible reasons and likely impacts for the mislabelling of this policy measure.

Extensive grasslands (EG) are among the most endangered European habitats and successful preservation of grassland biodiversity is not only dependent on agri-environmental schemes but also on the intention and decision by grassland owners to maintain EG in the interest of biodiversity. With rural children being the future landowners of EG, their attitudes matter. This is one of the first studies on rural children's attitudes toward EG and their management. Models based on variables from the survey were tested with Exploratory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling, thus establishing a Children's Grassland Attitude Scale (CGAS). The results show that the majority of children would maintain grasslands for grassland flora and fauna to preserve species diversity. Humanistic and moralistic attitudes do influence the intention to preserve EG; the more positive emotional attachment children express toward grasslands, the more likely they are to support maintaining EG in the interest of biodiversity and the less likely they are to support converting them into fields. They also express a concern toward biodiversity and therefore support preserving EG in the interest of biodiversity. Children should be encouraged to participate in grassland-based activities to develop positive humanistic and moralistic attitudes that could influence their motivation to preserve EG.

The main aim of this study was to identify the direction and dynamics of changes in basic parameters describing the real estate market in Poland and to identify the causes of the observed changes in its legal environment. The changing regulations concerned, among others, the field of trade in real estate and cost-effectiveness of running agricultural activity, particularly factors affecting the supply and demand of agricultural land. The authors proposed a new indicator referred to as the change rate indicator and verified its usefulness in research of this type.

The aims of this paper are to explore which factors explain; (i) the management practices dairy farmers choose for transportation and application of manure; (ii) the CO2 emission from transportation and application of manure; (iii) the cost of different manure management practices; and (iv) the capacity of manure management. Data on manure management practices and associated costs were collected through on- farm visits and talks with 189 dairy farmers in all regions of Norway in 2017. Farmers had signed up for and advisory project, and the farm visits were performed by consultants in Norwegian Advisory service and Tine. To analyze data we use shrinkage regression methods together with boosting, bagging and random forests. The findings show that manure quantity, transportation distance from storage to fields, capacity of the management practice and farmer's owner- share of machinery are key variables which influence farmer's choice of manure management practices, CO2– emissions and costs. Transportation and spreading through hoses appears to be the most efficient way to increase capacity. The findings have implications for dairy farmers who consider investment in manure management system, and for agricultural policy.

As a part of the greening of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy in 2013, Ecological Focus Areas (EFA) became mandatory for many European farmers, with the aim to enhance on-farm biodiversity. However, their effects on biodiversity have been disputed. In this interdisciplinary effort, we assessed the effects of current and alternative formulations of EFA regulations in Sweden. By complementing economic and ecological modelling with interviews with persons at administrative and advisory bodies and a narrative decision game with farmers, we were able to demonstrate key shortcomings of mandatory EFAs as a policy instrument. In particular, we evaluated if requirements to increase the quality of EFAs and regulations allowing their collective implementation, have the potential to increase their effectiveness in benefitting functional biodiversity. We focused on how biodiversity underpinning crop pollination and natural pest control would be affected by alternative regulations. First, we show that several of the possible EFA measures have no or minimal actual effect on biodiversity. Second, we demonstrate the need for appropriate incentives for farmers to choose and place agri-environmental measures in an environmentally desirable way. The EFA regulation is experienced as complicated and without any clear environmental benefits for the participants in this study. As a result, the confidence in the policy is undermined. Third, we demonstrate the challenge of devising compulsory measures to improve biodiversity that also need to fulfil demands on being flexible and easy to administrate. Our results indicate that the latter goal has taken precedence over the former, and thus providing an explanation of the poor design of the EFA regulation from a biodiversity perspective. We argue that to enhance biodiversity in farmland through general agri-environmental measures, only measures with clear benefits for biodiversity can be on the menu. Further, better information as well as incentives for optimizing EFA placement for biodiversity on farms are needed and combined with stricter rules on quality and placement where appropriate.

Agricultural wood (the cultivation of fast growing short rotation trees) is a way of complying with the Greening restrictions of the current European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The CAP permits Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) and Alley Cropping Systems (ACS) as Ecological Focus Area (EFA) methods of agricultural wood cultivation, although the latter method – which is a kind of Agroforestry System - is not approved in Germany. In Germany, however, farmers are permitted to display the SRC-strips of an ACS separately as EFA. Cultivation data, however, shows that German farmers participate relatively little in agricultural wood growing. Their willingness to provide agricultural wood as EFA is also considerably low. Only a few European studies have yet dealt with farmers' attitudes towards agricultural wood, and there are no studies that examine the willingness of farmers to plant ACS as EFA. To close this research gap, this article analyses German farmers' attitudes towards agricultural wood and estimates their willingness to grow ACS as EFA. An evaluation of the 238 datasets shows that farmers’ attitudes are generally negative; however farmers cannot be seen as a homogeneous group regarding their attitudes and willingness to grow. Two of the four identified clusters comprise farmers who are willing to cultivate ACS as EFA, provided that the weighting factor is further increased. These potential growers are characterised by having larger farms with less leased land as well as more experience with agricultural wood. Conclusively, recommendations for action are given to improve the acceptance of ACS as EFA.

Agricultural supply chain management includes all the events involved in moving products of the agricultural sector from the field to the customer, and is a crucial aspect ensuring the rich contribution of the agricultural sector to the economic growth of the nation. The purpose of this paper is to add value to the present knowledge base by ascertaining the challenges of the agricultural supply chain in India on the basis of a thorough literature survey and the Delphi technique. Following this, the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory approach was used to model the identified challenges, explore the cause–effect interrelationship, and to develop the systematic hierarchical structures of challenges through an interpretive structural modeling methodology. The implementation of the approach in the Indian context led to the inference that two factors, namely limited integration among the national agricultural markets, and limited agricultural market infrastructure were the most important ones. The integrated model obtained as an output of this study intends to guide the agricultural policy- and decision-makers to improve the performance of the agricultural supply chain in India. Also, some essential recommendations have been given to improve the efficiency of the agricultural supply chain management.

This study reviews the evolution of environmental land management and agri-environment schemes (AES) offered to farmers in England between 1979 and 2015 from the perspective of their potential to deliver landscape-scale, i.e. cross farm boundary, environmental benefits. The review uses population conservation theory, which underpinned the recommendations in the Lawton report (Lawton et al., 2010), to identify eight characteristics of these schemes with this potential. These characteristics form a framework which is used to assess the potential landscape-scale impacts of Countryside Stewardship, the AES recently introduced in England. The Mid Tier of Countryside Stewardship provides financial assistance to facilitators to help farmers organise and manage Farmer Groups. A Farmer Group must consist of four or more neighbouring farmers, who between them farm over 2,000 ha. Each member of a Farmer Group is required to submit an individual application, but each application must demonstrate that it “go[es] beyond [the environmental benefits that] could be delivered by individual holdings acting in isolation”. After the 2017 round, 98 Farmer Groups had been funded, involving 1915 farmer members, covering 451,064 ha. Primarily because of this innovation, Countryside Stewardship is considered to be the most landscape-scale orientated AES offered to farmers in England. A consideration of the evolution towards landscape-scale attributes in environmental land management schemes leads into a discussion of how future changes to four key AES characteristics – identified in the review – may influence how the landscape-scale dimension develops in the next generation of AES.

In order to reach the national target in the use of renewable energy in the transport sector, about 55% of the biodiesel consumed in Italy is imported. However, imported biofuel is currently debated since large-scale production has entailed different environmental and socioeconomic problems. Sustainability in biofuel production is a priority for the European Union and with the new Common Agricultural Policy 2014–2020 (CAP) this priority could become an opportunity through access to aids for the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. Considering the importance to promote small-scale biofuel production, this study aimed to assess the economic feasibility of rapeseed straight vegetable oil (SVO) use as a self-supply agricultural biofuel in Italian context, assuming that rapeseed is cultivated by using practices of conservation agriculture. The financial support of the new CAP was considered, and alternative hypotheses were assumed to promote the SVO supply chains. The economic analysis shows that EU aids can help to promote inland biofuel production, ensuring positive profits for farmers (with a net present value up to 181 thousand €), thereby reducing the risk connected to investments, mainly due to the fluctuation of some key variables, like diesel price. Moreover, results highlight the importance of establishing farmers' associations: given the high cost of the initial investment, the absence of an agreement for the creation of an optimum-sized supply chains might make those investments non profitable. Agricultural policy is therefore helpful to promote sustainable biofuel production, making the supply chains independent and self-sufficient over time. In this context, to ensure a sustainable biofuel production, beside the provision of support to the initial investments, it is also important to consider in the future biofuel policy scenario the possibility to incentive energy crop cultivation by promoting conservation agricultural practices (e.g., crop diversification, crop rotation, minimum tillage).

•Concerns of the population widely coincide with CAP objectives.•People appreciate agriculture's value for society.•Nature conservation, visual beauty and relaxation effects are valued positively.•The progressive agricultural structural change is regarded negatively.•People sense a lack of implementation of CAP objectives.

Russian agriculture has shown stable growth since 1999. The food trade balance steadily improves and the share of imported food in retail markets is decreasing due to the government’s import substitution policies. Russia has re-emerged on the world arena as a food exporter and now ranks among the leading exporters of wheat and vegetable oil. Agricultural production growth has become export oriented. To continue its growth, Russia’s agriculture should emphasize returning unused land to cultivation and adopt new technologies to increase the comparatively low crop and livestock yields. The skewed land distribution and agricultural support system, both strongly biased toward large farms and agroholdings, constrain the development of small farms and prevent their participation in food value chains, negatively impacting on rural development.

Results-oriented payment approaches are a means to deliver ecological results in agri-environment schemes. The results-based approach requires that farmers understand the meaning of the expected ecological results, and the approach and goals should be culturally acceptable. We interviewed 20 farmers in Finland about a hypothetical results-based payment scheme for biodiversity conservation that builds on an existing grassland fallow scheme. We explored i) how the ‘managing for nature values’ approach fits with ‘good farming’ ideal, ii) whether farmers would be able to operationalize ecological results, for which they would be rewarded, and iii) whether the results-based payment approach enhances or dilutes the current ‘good farmer’ ideal held by the farmers. We used ‘good farming’, cultural scripts, and the visibility of nature to farmers to explore these questions. The ‘tidy farm’ cultural script dominated, but farmers also described their farms as having space for non-production elements. Visibility of nature to farmers varied, field visits with farmer and researchers together resulted in increased enthusiasm for farmers seeing biodiversity as an outcome that they can produce. The grassland fallow fits farmers’ conceptualisations of ‘good farming’, and the results-based payment approach is culturally acceptable. Farmers’ activities show nature values have a place in their conceptualisation of ‘good farming’. We identified four categories of farmers based on their integration of ecological results into farming. These are nature values: 1) central to farmer thinking, 2) well-integrated, 3) viewed positively, but with limited actions and, 4) mainly absent.

The production of food is considered to have priority over fuel and fiber. According to this “food first” principle, only agricultural land not used to produce crops or fodder is included in analyses to determine the production potential of perennial biomass crops (PBC) for the bioeconomy. Previous assessments report remarkably high future PBC potentials in the EU from surplus agricultural area (7–48 Mha) that is expected to be released from current agricultural use largely due to agricultural intensification. To better understand the implications of specific land use policies on land availability for PBC cultivation in the EU, we conducted a sensitivity analysis using the agricultural sector model, ESIM (European Simulation Model). Four factors were considered: crop yields, livestock demand, market liberalization, and world food prices. Our results from these scenarios show that freed-up surplus agricultural area for PBC in the EU ranges from 0 to 6.5 Mha (0 to 15.0 Mha, if fallow land is included) until 2050. This figure is much smaller than those reported in previous studies. Freed-up surplus agricultural area is mostly influenced by market liberalization policies and world food prices. Crop yield enhancement and diet change that favors less animal protein have smaller implications because, unless there are incentives for farmers to adopt PBC, a production surplus or deficit is translated into international trade rather than into cultivation areas. Our results imply that differences in assessment models and socio-economic scenarios regarding EU agricultural policy, as well as world food prices, create significant uncertainties regarding the extent of freed-up surplus agricultural area in the EU. If other factors like topography or use restrictions due to nature conservation are taken into account, the potential area will most likely decrease further.

The ecosystem services (ES) concept has been increasingly considered in science and policy making. However, its consideration in agricultural management by farmers has not yet been fully investigated. This paper presents a theoretical framework based on available literature on how the concept of ES is likely established in agricultural practices and policies. We refine this framework based on a case study from Saxony, Germany. First, semi-qualitative interviews with farmers were conducted and a qualitative content analysis with a combination of a deductive and inductive category system executed. The results show that knowledge about the concept of ES is inherent in agriculture and that farmers implement various ES in agricultural management decisions even though their terminology may differ from ES definitions in research. Second, the paper evaluates existing agricultural policy instruments within the case study region related to their potential to enhance the provision of ES by asking which governance instruments are familiar with and would be accepted by the farmers for incorporating ES more prominently as a criterion in their management decisions. The paper concludes with an enriched conceptual framework about ES in farmers’ decision making and on policy recommendations.

Grasslands are one of the most imperiled ecosystems in the world and the majority of the grassland ecosystem in the United States (U.S.) is privately owned and used for agriculture. Conversion of grasslands to row crops is expanding, fueled by commodity price increases, technological improvements, and agricultural policy. The U.S. state and federal governments and many nongovernmental conservation organizations primarily use voluntary incentive-based conservation programs to address the environmental impacts of agriculture and encourage conservation on private land. To investigate the utility of these programs to conserve grasslands, we surveyed private landowners in the Plains and Prairie Potholes Ecoregion (PPPE), one of America’s most at-risk grassland areas, about their land use, environmental attitudes and values, and reasons for or against participating in a Farm Bill Conservation Program (FBCP). Agricultural landowners with large land holdings, who value hunting, and have positive environmental values, attitudes, and behaviors, were more likely to participate in an FBCP. However, FBCP participants reported having a smaller proportion of their land in grass than nonparticipants (29% vs. 35%). Additionally, a higher percentage of FBCP participants, compared to nonparticipants, reported converting grassland to crops (26% vs. 15%) and removing wetlands (20% vs. 15%). Financial considerations and a desire for autonomy limited participation. These findings signal the need for additional research and tools other than FBCPs to conserve the PPPE grasslands.

Traditional Mediterranean irrigated lands, such as the Huerta of Murcia (Spain), constitute characteristic agroecosystems which provide several ecosystem services, both cultural and regulating. Nevertheless, these agroecosystems are threatened by factors linked to the low profitability of agricultural production under present market conditions and the land conversion to non-agricultural uses.In order to assess the perceptions and valuation of the Huerta of Murcia by the local population, an economic valuation survey was carried out, using a contingent valuation method (CVM). Based on the survey, we identified the measures that were most valued with regard to the conservation of the huerta, which were: i) Limitation of the land uptake for urban uses; ii) Creation of programs to conserve ecosystem services, by means of financial support; and iii) Initiatives to promote the production of traditional agricultural products. Finally, we included these measures in a dynamic system model that, once validated, was used to explore the potential impact of such initiatives on the expected future behavior of the Huerta of Murcia.The CVM findings show the importance given to the huerta by the population of the area, beyond the use they usually make of it. The results also allowed the determination of the amount that the local people are willing to pay for the conservation of the environmental services of the Huerta of Murcia.Moreover, the simulation results for the period 2015-2030, obtained using the model, suggest that more direct measures, such as land planning, achieve better results than indirect options, such as those derived from agricultural policy and the implementation of a payment for ecosystem services, even when these latter aspects are combined. Under a scenario combining the three measures valued most highly, the loss of these irrigated lands would be reduced by around 11.5% in 2030, compared to the base trend simulation.Although the policies analyzed would improve the situation in the short and medium term, more ambitious actions would be required for full conservation of this agroecosystem in the long run.

Federal agricultural land use policies in the United States aimed at protecting soil health and water quality typically rely on persuading individual farmers to voluntarily adopt conservation practices. An expanding body of literature suggests that private sector intermediaries, such as crop advisers, are increasingly trusted sources of information for farmers about conservation practices and thus may be persuasive actors in the conservation-adoption realm. While previous studies have explored farmers’ perceptions of crop advisers facilitating conservation practice adoption and participating in conservation programs in agricultural landscapes, little research to date has explored crop advisers’ perceptions of this role, and few agricultural land use policies have explicitly included crop advisers as conservation partners. This study fills a critical void in the literature by evaluating the Saginaw Bay Regional Conservation Partnership Program, an innovative agricultural policy that relies on crop advisers to recruit farmers into the program and assist them with the adoption of conservation practices. Through a survey and interviews with crop advisers in the Saginaw Bay watershed in Michigan, USA, we explore crop advisers’ perceptions of their role in the program and of delivering conservation information to farmers. We found that crop advisers have positive attitudes towards land/water resources and conservation practices, believe they have an important intermediary role to play in facilitating conservation practice adoption, and believe their supervisors are supportive of them promoting conservation. However, difficulties in collaboration and communication between the private and governmental sectors – resulting from perceived differences, operational differences, and territoriality – present a key barrier to crop advisers increasing their intermediary role in the promotion and implementation of federal conservation programs. Future research and policy initiatives should explore how to address public-private territoriality and whether crop advisers should be incentivized to deliver information about conservation practices and/or assist in enrolling farmers in federal conservation programs.

The study assesses the possible impact of first pillar reform of the Common Agricultural Policy by focusing on the new greening rules defined by the recent Omnibus regulation. The analysis was carried out on a Farm Accountancy Data Network sample of Italian farms using by a Positive Mathematical Programming model. Moreover, our analysis is stratified by geographical area and altimetric level and uses some additional environmental and social indicators beyond those economic. The results indicate that the new greening rules generate positive but limited environmental impacts, which reinforce those already determined by the previous CAP reform, for example the use of chemical fertilizers is further reduced. These additional positive environmental impacts are obtained with very limited income reductions. Yet, the impacts on the various geographical areas and their altimetric levels are different, and sometimes controversial. For example, there is a growth in the use of pesticides in the northern plains, due to the increase in rice and soybean areas. On the other hand, agricultural employment in Southern Italy decreases, where agriculture is an important source of employment for the rural population. This reduction also affects the mountain areas, thus accentuating the already high risk of abandonment. All this suggests that more targeted measures will have to be implemented in the future planning of agricultural policy, so as to shape the various actions according to the characteristics of the various rural areas, as well as to the specific priorities of the Member State.

The diffuse nature of nonpoint source (NPS) pollution as well as that of the effectiveness of best management practices (BMP) to control NPS pollution necessitates BMP evaluation at the field scale. In this study, a web interface was developed for application of the Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender (APEX) model at the field scale. The interface contains background databases for field location, soil, agricultural management and climate across the contiguous United States. Users can specify properties to run the model for an individual field and compare the results under various land management and conservation practice choices. A case study was conducted to demonstrate the capability of the web interface for simulating various land management scenarios. This tool can help provide on-site information for NPS pollution management related policies and serve as a communication tool among scientists, engineers, and stakeholders.

Conventional dairy farming has been under pressure for lacking animal welfare, biodiversity loss through abandonment and intensification of grassland, and low milk prices during the 2015/16 milk price crisis. The relatively stable organic milk prices during the milk price crisis indicate that consumers have preferences for product characteristics besides the price. We investigate through a choice experiment the willingness-to-pay (WTP) of German conventional milk buyers for ethical attributes of milk production that address the above-mentioned concerns. Respondents have the highest WTP for animal welfare – free-stall plus summer pasture – followed by biodiversity conservation, support for small, below-average income farms, and regional milk production. Respondents also have a positive WTP to support all farms but only in combination with regional production. We further find a positive WTP to support small farms in combination with tethering. This implies animal-welfare concerns are somewhat counterbalanced by fairness aspects. Our insights may support developing labels and agri-environmental policies concerning ethical aspects of conventional milk production.

Understanding farmers’ values regarding biodiversity conservation, and how these values inform land use decisions within and around farms is essential because of the amount of land under agricultural production regionally and globally. New research within the emerging context of relational values offers a nuanced perspective that can deepen our understanding of farmer values and subsequent decision making, with direct applications to agricultural policy. Here we provide an initial review of some of the relational values articulated for agricultural systems associated with biodiversity conservation in a diverse literature. We illustrate that these relational values are complex, contribute to the maintenance of multifunctional landscapes, and frequently do not adequately intersect with current conservation policy. We use the literature to identify new areas of conservation biology and sustainability science research that might bridge this gap by understanding farmer’s values in relation to conservation policy in multifunctional agricultural landscapes.

We examine how land tenure arrangements affect Chinese crop farmers’ adoption of straw retention, a key conservation practice promoted by the Chinese government in part to curb rising air pollution. Using data from a 2016 farmer household survey covering 1659 crop plots in Henan Province in central China, we analyze whether farmers are less likely to adopt straw retention on rented plots compared to own-contracted plots. To address the potential endogeneity of the choice of renting from others, we use an instrument exploiting the role of remittance income from household members migrated to cities in a bivariate probit model and a control function approach, respectively. Our main results reveal that the Chinese crop farmers’ likelihood of adopting straw retention were almost cut in half on rented plots compared to their owned plots, assuming the assumptions for biprobit or control functions hold. This suggests greater attention is needed to examine the spillovers across agricultural and environmental policies as China pushes for both a nationwide land rental market and more sustainable agricultural practices.

Impacts of climate change have become more and more evident and can be observed in ecosystems, societies and economies worldwide. Mountain agriculture is especially vulnerable to climate change, and adaptation seems crucial. Thus, certain adaptation activities, such as installing irrigation technology, switching to drought-resistant crop varieties or shifting planting dates, can already be observed. Despite these efforts, the barriers for climate change adaptation are still manifold and lead to adaptation gaps. One problem is that many approaches ignore non-climatic drivers, such as economic conditions or cultural aspects, which have a strong influence on farmers´ decisions. In the literature, the focus is mostly on planned, “top-down” induced adaptations, where climate change is considered the most important driver. Within this study, we focus on local, “bottom-up” adaptation actions in Tyrolean mountain agriculture that may be triggered by climatic as well as by non-climatic drivers. We identify 27 adaptation practices and cluster them into six types of climate change adaptation: ´Resilience-raising products and production´, ´Hidden actions by farmer organizations´, ´CC motivated agronomic actions´, ´CCA scientific knowledge production´, ´Risk-driven adaptations´ and ´Hidden governmental actions´. These types are helpful to show the broad range of local practices contributing to climate change adaptation. Several adaptation actions from practice are not motivated by climate change and thus are termed “hidden” adaptations, as they do not fit into common adaptation concepts. Hidden climate change adaptation practices, although not considered to date in official CCA policy documents, constitute “low-hanging fruit” for decision makers as they have already proved their feasibility and gained legitimacy by actors on the ground. We argue that additional support for such hidden adaptation practices can help to overcome present adaptation barriers and adaptation gaps.

This article analyzes the replacement of Sugarcane by the adequate crop considering the producer's choices according to the dimensions of soil, relief, climate, and precipitation in Sao Paulo state, Brazil. The panorama is the hypothetical end of the combustion engine in the Euro 7 emissions standard context. The analysis is done in two sequences: the first is with the Artificial Intelligence methodology that searched, by Machine Learning, all the Sugarcane geographic coordinates in the Sao Paulo state and, through Deep Learning, applied, in the places found, the producers' knowledge, concerning climate, environmental and physical dimensions. The second sequence is an econometric analysis, where the authors estimate the price elasticity of demand for 25 crops from the AIDS demand system approach. Artificial Intelligence results coincide with the total area of Sugarcane in Sao Paulo observed in the PAM (agricultural statistics for the municipality produced annually by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) and show that 48 crops are suitable for its geographic coordinates. With the results of both sequences in hand, the authors point to 17 competitive crops in the Interest Area, but only six highlighted crops are suitable for sowing in all the 13 Central Supply Zones (known in Brazil as Ceasa) of state.

The objective of this paper is to measure the impact of access to agricultural credit on the productivity of farmers in Togo. The results show that there is a difference between farmers who have access to credit and those who do not. Also, farmers with access to credit have higher productivity than those without. Thus, access to credit is an essential factor in increasing agricultural productivity. Togolese decision-makers must, in the development of their agricultural policy, place greater emphasis on mechanisms to promote access to agricultural credit.

During 1953-1955, the American agricultural economist Marion Clawson advised the Government of Israel (GOI) as a member of the Economic Advisory Staff (EAS), a group of American economists invited by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Clawson, a protege of John D. Black and Mordecai Ezekiel, was formerly Director of the US Bureau of Land Management (1948-1953). Clawson discovered that Israeli agriculture and irrigation were highly inefficient, and that planning almost completely ignored economic considerations. In 50 policy memoranda, he openly criticized Israel’s agricultural policy, and stated that Israel’s national goals—defense, full irrigation of the Negev desert, immigrant absorption via new agricultural settlements, and economic independence—were mutually contradictory. His major recommendations were: make Israel’s agricultural plan more realistic by reducing projected agricultural prices; end expensive Negev irrigation; increase irrigated farm size eightfold; freeze new settlements until the number of semi-developed settlements falls from 300 to 100; and limit new Negev settlements to 10 over 5-7 years. Minister of Finance Levi Eshkol and Minister of Agriculture Peretz Naphtali vehemently rejected Clawson’s recommendations, on the grounds that they were based on a pure economic perspective, with no consideration of Israel’s national goals. By September 1954, Clawson shifted to a more pragmatic approach: He toned down his criticism and sought common ground with the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA). Soon afterwards, he proposed to write a comprehensive report in collaboration with the MOA, which would be published as Israel Agriculture 1953/54 (IA). IA was a consensus document: It presented facts and asked questions, but did not prescribe policies. In IA, Clawson accepted that the GOI would likely prioritize noneconomic goals over economic efficiency. In proposing IA as a collaborative project, Clawson made a pragmatic decision to relinquish some independence for a chance to exert greater influence. We conclude that a. Clawson was only somewhat successful as an advisor, because his recommendations were considered seriously by the MOA but not by Eshkol (who trusted his own expertise); b. Although Clawson’s advice was highly insightful, in hindsight he was overly pessimistic regarding agricultural prices, and, most importantly, the Negev’s agricultural potential.

English Abstract: This article examines the consequences of ecological economic policy in Germany and Europe on the areas of energy transition, biofuels, agriculture, genetic engineering and climate policy. German Abstract: Zusammenfassung: Dieser Artikel untersucht die Folgen okologistischer Wirtschaftspolitik in Deutschland und Europa auf die Bereiche Energiewende, Biokraftstoff, Landwirtschaft, Gentechnik und Klimapolitik.

Russian abstract: Сельскохозяйственный экспорт, взлетевший на небывалые высоты, с весны 2021 года начал облагаться пошлинными сборами. Правительство борется с ростом цен на продовольствие. Активная антиинфляционная политика лишь отсрочивает неизбежное выравнивание цен с общемировыми. АПК грозит сокращением инвестиций и падением объемов производства. Выходом может стать проведение адаптивной политики, что позволит производителям увеличить свое присутствие на мировой арене экспорта сельхоз продукции. English abstract: Agricultural exports, which have soared to unprecedented heights, have been subject to duties since the spring of 2021. The government is struggling with rising food prices. An active anti-inflationary policy only delays the inevitable equalization of prices and global prices. The agro-industrial complex faces a reduction in investment and a drop in production. The solution may be to implement an adaptive policy, which will allow producers to increase their presence on the world stage of agricultural exports.

This paper provides evidence on the unintended effects of US and Chinese trade policies on the 2020 US presidential election. In response to a series of US tariffs imposed on Chinese goods, China imposed retaliatory tariffs, especially on US agricultural products, which largely affected Republican-leaning counties. The US government then subsidized US farmers by providing direct payments through the Market Facilitation Program (MFP) to mitigate the Chinese retaliatory tariffs. Using the universe of actual county-level MFP disbursement data, we find that US agricultural subsidies outweighed Chinese retaliatory tariffs and led to an increase in the Republican vote share in the 2020 presidential election. The impact is more pronounced in solidly Republican states, implying that Trump allocated rents in exchange for political patronage. However, the MFP payments were not influential enough in swing states to win the election. Finally, we uncover evidence that China’s retaliatory trade policy and US agricultural policy unexpectedly exacerbated political polarization in the US, especially the rural-urban divide.

Agriculture occupies a key position in Indian economy providing a source of livelihood for a majority of the population. Successes in agricultural front with high production levels, especially in food grains have indeed been achieved. Women in India are the backbone of the society and important resource in agriculture and rural economy. They make essential contributions to the agricultural development and allied and household activities and pursue multiple livelihood strategies. These activities include producing agricultural crop, cleaning animals, preparing food, working in rural enterprises, engaging in trade and marketing, caring family members and maintaining their homes. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India has policy provisions like joint leasing for both domestic and agricultural land under National policy for farmers, however in practice it has made little difference at ground level. There is still a wide gender gap which has to be addressed properly for overall development of women. The paper tries to analyze the policy options available for a gender sensitive agricultural policy which can not only empower women but also ensure sustainable agricultural development.

The feminisation of agriculture refers to the measurable increase of women's participation in the agricultural sector, particularly in the developing world. The phenomenon started during the 1960s with increasing shares over time. Since 2017, October 15 is celebrated as Rashtriya Mahila Kisan Diwas in India. Economic Survey 2017-18, says that with growing rural to urban migration by men, there is ‘feminisation’ of agriculture sector, with increasing number of women in multiple roles as cultivators, entrepreneurs, and labourers. We need to celebrate the role of women in agriculture. However, women face challenges in this filed as regards access to land and property rights, entitlements etc. This paper discusses this and other problems such as wage parity, security, etc., in a gender perspective. We call for ‘inclusive transformative agricultural policy’ aimed at gender-specific interventions.

Policy: is a set of interrelated decision by actor(s) concerning the selection of goals and the means of achieving them within a specified situation where those decisions should, in principle, be within the power of those actors to achieve, as rational and theoretical product that replies to the demands of the powerful majority of the population. Public policies in the Sudan since independence in 1956 are generally a continuation of those adopted in colonial time of high government-led development, land acquisition, production controls and emphasis on irrigated agriculture. Land and crop taxes, especially indirect ones, formed the bulk of government budget revenue at that time. Agriculture is a cutting-edge sector of the economy that is both prosperous and innovative, yet the government has continued to ignore free-market principles by preserving an endless array of macroeconomic policies, credit and financing policy that centrally plan agriculture by controlling supply and thereby raising prices for consumers and increases the cost of production for producers. In general there are not a well-documented agricultural policies, but depending on the general economic policies that dictates the agricultural policies.

To understand the impacts of support programs on global emissions, this paper considers the impacts of domestic subsidies, price distortions at the border, and investments in emission-reducing technologies on global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture. In a step towards a full evaluation of the impacts, it uses a counterfactual global model scenario showing how much emissions from agricultural production would change if agricultural support were abolished worldwide. The analysis indicates that, without subsidies paid directly to farmers, output of some emission-intensive activities and agricultural emissions would be smaller. Without agricultural trade protection, however, emissions would be higher. This is partly because protection reduces global demand more than it increases global agricultural supply, and partly because some countries that currently tax agriculture have high emission intensities. Policies that directly reduce emission intensities yield much larger reductions in emissions than those that reduce emission intensities by increasing overall productivity because overall productivity growth creates a rebound effect by reducing product prices and expanding output. A key challenge is designing policy reforms that effectively reduce emissions without jeopardizing other key goals such as improving nutrition and reducing poverty. While the scenario analysis in this paper does not propose any particular policy reform, it does provide an important building block towards a full understanding the impacts of repurposed agricultural support measures on mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to climate change. That full analysis is being undertaken in subsequent work, which will also take account of land-use change and alternative forms of agricultural policy support to align objectives of food security, farmers’ income security, production efficiency and resilience, and environmental protection.

As part of the 2016 peace accord in Columbia, agricultural policies were proposed for rural regions most affected by an armed conflict that had gone on for decades. We evaluated the effects of these policies with particular attention to their economy-wide and distributional effects. We used a newly built 2014 social accounting matrix for Colombia to calibrate an extended version of the well-known PEP 1-1 Computable General Equilibrium model. The policies we considered were an increase in total factorial productivity because of infrastructure construction and greater technical assistance and employment subsidies intended to promote the substitution of illicit crops. We found that value added, demand for labor, and factor incomes increased in the areas most affected by the conflict while the opposite occurred in the other areas. Moreover, total rural income increased as long as the financing mechanism did not involve an increase in the taxation of rural incomes. In general, distributional effects were strongly conditional on the financing mechanism adopted by the government., Facultad de Ciencias Económicas

This study examines the distributional implications of two recent ad-hoc disaster aid programs, the 2018 and 2019 Market Facilitation Payment (MFP) programs that have distinctly different program designs, and the federal crop insurance program. Farm-level data are used to estimate the relationship between farm size, measured by crop sales, and the distribution of program benefits. Results indicate payments are more concentrated on larger farms that receive higher per acre payments under the 2018 MFP and federal crop insurance programs. Under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, with a design similar to the 2018 MFP, payments are also more heavily concentrated on larger farms.

One of the main economic tools in Poland supporting the European agricultural policy are activities implemented in the scope of the Rural Development Programme (RDP). Their primary objective is the support of agricultural activity and equalisation of changes for the development of farms in areas with unfavourable environmental conditions, characterised by low soil productivity. The implementation of the RDP is a chance to improve the spatial structure of rural areas. Rational land use is an issue of key importance in the context of the production potential of agriculture. This paper presents the results of detailed analysis of literature concerning problematic areas. The analysis in this paper covers geodesic-cartographic sources of data on problem areas. The resources from databases of the real estate cadastre and other cartographic thematic studies were considered. One of the technical-legal instruments supporting rural development, namely the land consolidation process, was characterised. For the purposes of the development of the concept of the rational management of problem areas, primary criteria were determined (i.e. location, land relief, soil conditions in terms of quality and usefulness, etc.), as well as detailed criteria. The criteria were ascribed point weights. The effect of the research is the development of the concept of alternative management of agricultural problem areas in the process of the development of a land consolidation project. The obtained results in the form of georeferenced data permitted the development of a methodology of the management of agricultural problem areas during land consolidation works, applicable in any socio-economic condition, independent of the geographic location of the region.

This paper describes the national databases and methods that have been used to construct a new expert system-based tool to map High Nature Value (HNV) agricultural land in Estonia. Twenty appropriate indicators from four thematic groups, i.e., land use management, nature conservation, landscape diversity and inherent natural quality, were selected on the basis of use in the literature, the requirement of consistent national datasets and statistical analysis. Each variable was divided into four appropriate classes to produce indicator values according to expert judgement. These classes were added together for each 1 km square to provide a single score to develop an expert system to define HNV. A statistical analysis showed there are few moderate correlations between the individual indicators, suggesting that their selection was sound. The HNV scores for all 1 km squares with agricultural land in Estonia exhibit a normal distribution. The top and bottom 10% of the 1 km squares (3707 and 3501 squares, respectively) were identified in order to investigate the structure of the data further. The former is termed Exceptionally High HNV (EHNV) and the latter Relatively Low HNV (RLNV), while the intermediate class is termed Median HNV (MHNV). The distribution of these groups in Estonia shows readily identifiable patterns linked to known biodiversity “hot spots”. A cluster analysis within the EHNV squares produced three classes whose distribution and composition are described to demonstrate the detailed character of Estonian agricultural land with high biodiversity. The methodology is adaptable to other countries that have extensive relevant data bases. The map will be valuable for agricultural policy makers to identify zones with high biodiversity where agri-environment schemes can be targeted. Other stakeholders could also direct development away from EHNV 1 km squares.

The increasing global demand for diverse biomass-based products such as food, feed and fuel can transform African agriculture from a food-supplying to a biomass-supplying and processing sector in the growing international bioeconomy. This study addresses the requisite policy and institutional environment needed to foster the development of a competitive and sustainable bioeconomy in Africa. The paper uses the case of cassava in Ghana for an empirical case study. The novel concept of biomass-based value webs, that is, interlinked agricultural value chains, is combined with Porter’s Diamond model to analyse the extent to which Ghana is positioned to develop a competitive cassava value web. Empirical data collection involved mapping the physical biomass flows, applying the ‘Net-Map’ tool to identify all the actors in the emerging value web and their linkages, as well as in-depth interviews with the identified actors. The study finds that despite the huge opportunities for cassava biomass in Ghana, there are coordination problems between farmers, processors and industrial end-users. This has hindered the potential for increased cassava production, processing and utilisation. There is also generally a lack of private sector initiatives in the development of new cassava based products. Accordingly, industrial end-users tend to depend on imported alternatives. Unsuccessful government initiatives and the absence of legislation such as a composite flour policy or a biofuel blend policy have also been major contributing factors to the unrealised industrial potential of cassava in Ghana. The findings therefore suggest that competitive cassava utilisation in the emerging bioeconomy hinges on stronger institutional linkages between value web actors and government support mainly in the form of local content policies that encourage the use of cassava based products.

Ensuring that national food systems have capacity to withstand volatility and shocks is a growing concern. Given the complex processes involved, multi-scalar, multi-stressor analyses of critical food systems are needed. This paper presents a multi-scalar analysis of the Mexican maize system to provide insight into the sector’s evolution. The literature suggests that, over the last 30 years, climate trends, domestic and international market dynamics, and domestic policy changes have affected Mexico’s maize sector. In contrast, this study finds no conclusive evidence of wide-spread abandonment of maize. In addition, while economic globalization and climatic changes are often presented as the primary drivers of change in Mexico’s maize sector, results of this study show that domestic policy has been equally, if not more, influential in the sector’s evolution. More than international market integration, the relatively recent geographic concentration of commercial supplies within Mexico has increased national sensitivity to idiosyncratic shocks affecting the dominant supply region. In this light, smallholder persistence across Mexico may represent an underutilized strategic asset in policy efforts to enhance both domestic food security and national-level resilience. The Mexican case illustrates the potential role for proactive domestic policy in shaping sensitivities in the national food system to both internal and exogenous shocks.

Due to a simultaneous decline in agricultural practice and an increased favorability and demand by society, grazing based milk production has become a topic of heightened interest in European agricultural policy, as well as dairy product marketing. This paper studies the behavior of German farmers with respect to the adoption of grazing practices. To do so, a structural equation model based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) is developed. Generally, the TAM hypothesizes that the perceived usefulness and the perceived ease of use are key determinants of the intention to use and the actual usage behavior of a technology. The results indicate that the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use statistically significantly influence the adoption of grazing practices. Other important aspects are the production limitations on the individual farm, and the farmers' subjective norm towards grazing. Furthermore, the analysis reveals differences between conventional and organic farmers, showing that the influence of farmers' beliefs on the usage behavior tends to be greater for conventional farmers. The results show that farmers' subjective norm influences multiple other constructs of the model, including the intention to use. Under the assumption that farmers' perceptions of societal expectations depend on the public discourse, this indicates the relevance of public information and communication for the farmer's decision-making processes.

City governments in sub-Saharan Africa have historically been beholden to national governments. Lack of national urban policies and tensions between national and city governments are common. Yet, for decades, research has identified small-scale innovations at the urban scale. Rarely, however, are policy innovations in African cities so influential as to lead national governments to scale up city based actions. This is particularly true in sectors that have been the dominant purview of central governments. This paper examines how citizens, civil society organizations, city governments and national bureaucrats in two cities of East Africa – Kampala and Nairobi – have interacted to produce policy innovation in agriculture. Agriculture has always been a sector of high national importance in Africa, but increasingly cities are becoming focal points for agricultural policy change. The two cities compared in the paper are unusual in having a collection of interests who have been advocating for improved support and recognition of urban food production. Indeed, these cities are rare for having continually promoted the formalization of urban agriculture in local and national policy. While advocacy for urban agriculture is common globally, what is not clear is under what conditions local advocacy produces policy uptake and change. What are the conditions when city-based advocacy deepens the institutionalization of policy support locally and nationally? Drawing from theory and research on policy change and African urban politics and governance, and qualitative data collection in each country, this paper argues that while external, international assistance has helped initiate policy dialogue, domestic civil society organizations and their engagement with local and national bureaucrats are key to policy support at the local and national scales.

International audience; Large private agricultural projects are described by their promoters as “win-win” partnerships: investments supposedly make it possible to increase agricultural productivity in developing countries, and to create thousands of jobs in the industry. These arguments, which are used in Sierra Leone where the priority of the agricultural policy is to attract foreign capitals, rely on the conviction that lands occupied by large private agricultural projects are “under-farmed” or even “unused” and that, therefore, their opportunity cost is nil. However, where family farms are well-established, the differential between the jobs created and those destroyed must be examined carefully. This is what we propose to do in this article, by examining the case of an ethanol and electricity production unit relying on an industrial sugar cane plantation of more than 12 500 ha, in the centre of the country. By analysing family farming in a control region close to that of the project, we show that family farming supplanted by the project would enable more farm labourers to make a living than the number of jobs potentially created by the industrial production unit.

This study evaluates the development of a national agri-environment scheme under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on “commonage” or collectively owned land in the Republic of Ireland. In doing so, it explores the role of alliance building in reasserting marginalised narratives in multi-level agri-environmental governance processes. To this end, process tracing analysis is carried out on government policy documents and reports; interdepartmental exchanges; parliamentary testimonies; and media reports relating to the policy development process. This allows, firstly, for the tracing of the historical emergence of collectively owned land as a differentiated agricultural space. Secondly, it explores how a specific governing device – Commonage Management Plans (CMPs) – emerges in national debates as means of regulating these spaces. Finally, it provides insight on how alliances comprised of commonage farmers, farm extension professionals, and politicians at national and international levels successfully challenged aspects of the proposed CMPs. This illustrates how marginalised, but capable actors may navigate multi-level governance structures to influence state institutions and policy outcomes. We thus make two main contributions. First, we foreground the role of alliances to provide an illustration of how marginalised actors may gain influence in multi-level governance processes. We demonstrate how these alliances are built around specific shared narratives and operate with cognisance of the power dynamics in which they operate. Second, we highlight how both consultation and contestation contribute to co-producing policy design outcomes. However, the case study indicates that more extensive participative policy making could address such contestation more effectively.