Journal ArticleDOI
Essential multiple functions of farms in rural communities and landscapes
TLDR
In this paper, the authors examined four Swedish rural communities to increase their understanding of the functions that a diverse agriculture provides and which of these are lost as farms cease operation and overall rural social capital is depleted.Abstract:
As farms are consolidated into larger operations and small farms close down for economic reasons, rural areas lose ecological, social and economic functions related to farming. Biodiversity and scenic, open-vista landscapes are lost as fields are left unmanaged. Social and economic benefits such as local job opportunities and meeting places disappear. Four Swedish rural communities were examined to increase our understanding of the functions that a diverse agriculture provides and which of these are lost as farms cease operation and overall rural social capital is depleted. Workshops and interviews with village action groups and with farmers were carried out. Both groups identified key functions from farming that are important to the rural community, such as production of food and fiber, businesses and jobs, human services, local security, ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling and biodiversity, and functions pertaining to quality of life. Several ways in which village action groups can support agriculture were identified that current industrial agriculture and even agri-environmental schemes fail to achieve. These include organizing local meeting places, encouraging local processing and consumption and supporting farmers in their work. We conclude that agriculture and village action groups match well in community development and that policies supporting this match would be useful.read more
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BookDOI
Farming systems research into the 21st century : the new dynamic
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a survey of the state of the art in the field of farming systems research in Europe, focusing on the role of action-oriented learning theories for change in agriculture and rural networks.
Journal ArticleDOI
Targeting perennial vegetation in agricultural landscapes for enhancing ecosystem services
Heidi Asbjornsen,Virginia Hernandez-Santana,Matt Liebman,Jules Bayala,Jiquan Chen,Matthew J. Helmers,C. K. Ong,Lisa A. Schulte +7 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors synthesize the current scientific theory and evidence for the role of perennial plants in balancing conservation with agricultural production, focusing on the Midwestern USA as a model system, while also drawing comparisons with other climatically diverse regions of the world.
Journal ArticleDOI
Operationalising resilience in farms and rural regions – Findings from fourteen case studies
Amit Ashkenazy,Tzruya Calvão Chebach,Karlheinz Knickel,Karlheinz Knickel,Sarah Peter,Boaz Horowitz,Rivka Offenbach +6 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the more encompassing notion of social-ecological resilience and contend that among the causes of this divergence are the disparate spatial and temporal scales used to assess and plan enhancing resilience.
Journal ArticleDOI
A social-ecological analysis of ecosystem services in two different farming systems.
Erik Andersson,Björn Nykvist,Björn Nykvist,Rebecka Malinga,Fernando Jaramillo,Regina Lindborg +5 more
TL;DR: This exploratory study uses existing in situ qualitative and quantitative data on biophysical and social indicators to compare two contrasting Swedish farming systems with regard to ecosystem service supply and demand of a broad suite of services and shows that the value of a service is not necessarily connected to the quantity of the service.
Book ChapterDOI
Farms and farmers facing change: The adaptive approach
TL;DR: In the last decades, there have been profound changes in the understanding of farming systems: farms are no longer seen as facing a stable environment, thus allowing a focus on optimising production systems as mentioned in this paper.
References
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Book
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Journal ArticleDOI
Global Consequences of Land Use
Jonathan A. Foley,Ruth DeFries,Gregory P. Asner,Carol C. Barford,Gordon B. Bonan,Stephen R. Carpenter,F. Stuart Chapin,Michael T. Coe,Michael T. Coe,Gretchen C. Daily,Holly K. Gibbs,Joseph H. Helkowski,Tracey Holloway,Erica A. Howard,Christopher J. Kucharik,Chad Monfreda,Jonathan A. Patz,I. Colin Prentice,Navin Ramankutty,Peter K. Snyder +19 more
TL;DR: Global croplands, pastures, plantations, and urban areas have expanded in recent decades, accompanied by large increases in energy, water, and fertilizer consumption, along with considerable losses of biodiversity.
Journal ArticleDOI
Qualitative data analysis
TL;DR: There are some common threads that run across most of these common threads in the analysis of qualitative research, and this Research Made Simple piece will focus on some of them.
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