Conclusions - Transition Pathways towards Sustainability in Agriculture: Case Studies from Europe - page 214

financial investments, and are usually connected to the economic viability of holdings,
employment generated, adequacy of income, availability of housing and the quality of
rural infrastructure.
In EU support programmes, young farmers are often conflated with new entrants.
There was considerable evidence from the FarmPath research that new entrants were
important sources of innovation. For example, Lošťák et al. (this volume) describe how
new entrants created an innovative certification scheme for food products, using potential
that had remained unrecognized by local farmers. Similarly, Pinto-Correia et al. a (this
volume) emphasize the role of urban actors who purchased properties in the countryside
in order to fulfil rural lifestyle aspirations, and used this acquired land in new, and often
innovative, ways. However, there was also considerable debate about what constitutes a
'new entrant'. Although it was clear that new entrants were not necessarily 'young' (i.e.
new farmers under the age of 35, as per EU definitions), in many cases, 'new entrants' to
farming, who formed niche tandems for innovation, were returning residents: individuals
who were raised in the region but left to pursue employment elsewhere, returning with
new business skills and ideals of rural life (for example, in the Portuguese lifestyle
farming case and the Greek local quality convention, Karditsa). These individuals re-
entered agriculture as 'hybrid actors', enabling niche development. These actors appear
more open to innovation, and to establishing partnerships to undertake activities outside of
normal production processes, challenging the incumbent regime. The examples above
show that newcomers to the agricultural sector do not necessarily have to be farmers but
are often members of other sectors, or have different backgrounds.
It was also evident that a particular type of innovation does not always emerge from
the same type of source. For example, Darrot et al. (this volume) demonstrate that AAFN
were initiated by farmers in France, consumers in the Czech Republic and retailers from
the tourist industry in Greece. This is consistent with the tenet in the MLP that niches
arise on the periphery, or in another regime. Therefore, in seeking to support agricultural
innovation and transition, governments should not necessarily look solely to the
agricultural sector. Interventions could also usefully encourage young people from rural
areas to experience urban employment and return to rural regions later in life.
Enabling sustainability transitions in the agricultural sector
In this section, we reflect on findings in relation to the types of transition processes
(towards productive, consumptive and protective functions) the cases in this topic inform,
whilst recalling Pinto-Correia et al. b's (this volume) finding that regions typically aspire
to a combination of functions for their agricultural sectors.
The research findings suggest that the MLP is well suited to understanding initiatives
focused on altering the productive function of agriculture. Concepts were easily
implemented in the study of on-farm renewable energy production (Sutherland et al. b, this
volume): a clear technological basis led to a commercial product, which fitted well with
existing farming production norms and benefited from both state and industry investment.
The findings suggest that such production-oriented transitions may be the easiest to
mainstream. However, although anchoring into a new production-based regime can
provide a source of stability for individual farms, the focus on efficient production in the