The Role of Farm Advisors in Multifunctional Landscapes: A Comparative Study of Three Danish Areas, 1995 and 2008

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of farm advisors on farmers’ decisions regarding ‘Multifunctional landscape commons’, a concept covering environmental and landscape values that benefit the public but which depend on farmers’ management practices. The influence of advisors is analysed by combining data about the source of advice with evidence of land use and landscape changes and participation in subsidy schemes. The study compares three agricultural areas in Denmark. Structured interviews were carried out with all farmers possessing more than 2 ha land in 1995–6 and in 2008. Vertical, production and business-oriented advisory services predominate, together with legal and organisational spatial competence networks. A new group of hobby farmers and pensioned farmers tend not to be included in traditional advisory networks, leaving them to carry out landscape changes and multifunctional landscape commons without professional guidance and consultancy. This means the horizontal coordination among farmers, that is, the territorial competences, decrease.

Key Words:

• Landscape change
• commons
• multifunctionality
• agricultural extension system
• knowledge network

Acknowledgements

Data for this paper have been collected under the ‘Multiland’ project: ‘The multifunctional agricultural landscape—management and planning’. The project has been partly financed by the research programme of the Danish Ministry of Food Agriculture and Fisheries: ‘The future role of the agricultural sector and the food sector and development in a regional perspective’. The project is coordinated by Forest and Landscape, University of Copenhagen, with participants from Aarhus University, University of Southern Denmark, and Roskilde University (Multiland, 2010).

Notes

1. Full-time farmers are defined as younger than 67 years and with no non-farm income. Part-time farmers are younger than 67 years with an off-farm income which is less than farm income. Hobby farmers are younger than 67 years with an off-farm income which exceeds their farm income. Pensioners are above 67 years or receiving any kind of pension. Others are funds, companies, municipalities, church, etc.

2. Cross-tabulation of the advisor profile with DFU membership for the whole dataset shows χ² significance level = 3.83×10⁻⁵⁴(***). For the individual case studies, χ² significance levels are: Bjerringbro-Hvorslev = 2.88×10⁻³⁴(***), Saltum = 3.00×10⁻⁵(***), Sdr. Omme = 4.89× 10⁻¹⁰(***). The significance level of advisor profiles for case study area is χ² = 3.31×10⁻⁷(***), whereas the significance level for DFU membership for case study area is χ² = 0.045 (*).