Characterizing agroecological and conventional farmers: uncovering their motivations, practices, and perspectives toward agriculture

ABSTRACT

The way farmers perceive their relationship with the agricultural system affects the type of farm management implemented. Thus, it is fundamental to understand the needs, views, and motivations of farmers to integrate scientific knowledge more effectively in the day-to-day problems of farmers and foster the adoption of more sustainable practices. We interviewed 12 agroecological and 10 conventional horticultural farmers from the Madrid Region of Spain to characterize their profiles and evaluate their views toward agriculture, challenges experienced, and adopted farm practices. We found that the sociocultural profiles and the number of products grown differed widely among farmers. Further, significantly more sustainable practices were adopted by agroecological farmers compared to conventional farmers, with wider diversification in productive activities. Based on the different perceptions of agroecological and conventional farmers, we discuss the barriers and opportunities for spreading agroecology in the study area.

KEYWORDS:

• Agroecological management
• agroecological practices
• conventional management
• farmer perspectives
• horticulture

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge all the farmers for their time, collaboration, and kindness. Sara Palomo-Campesino is funded by a grant from the Spanish National Institute for Agriculture and Food Research and Technology (INIA), co-funded by the European Social Fund (FPI-INIA).

This study received funding under the AgroecologiCAM and SIMBIOSIS projects, funded by the European Union, the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Community of Madrid Regional Government under the Madrid Rural Development Programme (PDR-CM 2014-2020), from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the CONTRACTS 2.0 project (grant agreement 818190), and from the SAVIA project funded by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Dirección General de Investigación e Innovación de la Consejería de Educación e Investigación de la Comunidad de Madrid (SI1/PJI/2019-00444).

Disclosure Statement

None of the authors have any relevant financial or non-financial competing inerests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria [FPI-INIA].