Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
increase in the demand for small farms for uses other than production. In all three countries,
the impact of agricultural modernization is evident in a decrease in the number of farm
units, abandonment of production on land less suitable for agriculture, or a shift from
market-oriented production to self-sufficiency. Also, in Bulgaria and Portugal small-scale
agriculture has been downsizing markedly, accompanied by an increase in the average size
of farm units, and the small-scale agriculture remaining is mostly carried out by a local,
ageing population. Very low agricultural wages and low social value of farming also
characterize recent trends in all three cases.
In recent years, investment in land in the study areas has been increasing. This is due to
the amenity value of the land, for both permanent and for secondary residence (week -end
and holiday). This is related to the small size of farms, their difficulty engaging in the
globalized economy, the landscape quality of the area, and the relative proximity to a large
city (Sofia, Aberdeen and Lisbon). In this way, rural housing and real estate markets have
become important sub-regimes.
Two other trends have strong impacts and reinforce these changes to small-scale farms
in all three cases (i) increased accessibility to rural areas from urban centres and increased
mobility of individuals; and (ii) technological innovation in computers, internet connections
and mobile phones, which has created a new structure of connections and opportunities for
long-distance work.
Further, an important aspect shaping land use in lifestyle farming areas, particularly in
the Portuguese and Bulgarian cases, is often related to nature conservation and
environmental legislation, and to the interests of associated actors. New houses cannot be
built next to existing farm buildings due to planning restrictions, which increases pressure
on farms and farm buildings. While on one hand this may appear to constrain the
development of the niche, it is in fact maintaining important attractiveness factors in the
area (landscape,environmental quality, and low population density).
Finally, to some extent, lifestyle farming can also be related to the leisure regime, as it
represents consumption of the experience of rural lifestyle (including, in some cases,
raising livestock and horses).
Landscape
The analysis of these cases demonstrates the importance of landscape factors in creating an
enabling environment for change. Within the MLP conceptualization, landscape is defined
as socio-technical: the long term exogenous trends at the macro level (Darnhofer, this
volume). These trends include demographics, political ideologies, social values, macro-
economic patterns and climate change. Within the MLP, landscape level factors may
destabilize the regime, exposing systemic problems or contradictions and creating
'windows of opportunity' for niches to influence the regime and for the mainstreaming of
niche innovations. In the case of lifestyle farming, while these landscape factors (Fig. 5.2)
clearly had an influence - the change in societal values towards an 'experience' culture, for
example - the territorial and spatial dimensions played a key role in the locations where
lifestyle farming has occurred. It also appears that the agricultural regime itself was
gradually destabilized by low commodity prices and farming incomes, which led to low
land prices and pluriactivity, opening the door to recreational land use by (comparatively)
wealthy ex-urbanites in these regions.
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