Five barriers to more nature-inclusive dairy farming

grazing cattle

How can the Netherlands transition to more nature-inclusive dairy farming? It's rather complex, research from the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development at Utrecht University shows. The researchers provided policy advice to the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.

Through an innovation system analysis the researchers have identified five barriers to a transition to more nature-inclusive dairy farming:

  1. There is no concrete and broadly supported vision on nature-inclusive dairy farming and its aims;
  2. There is a lack of structural rewarding of societal services it can provide;
  3. Farmer financial freedom is limited by high debt;
  4. The knowledge system is insufficiently attuned to the needs of farmers wanting to make the switch;
  5. Change should come from within the sector, but so far there is no coordinated lobby to set the current system in motion.

Learn more in this narrated e-presentation by Professor Hens Runhaar, Professor Marko Hekkert, Niko Wojtynia and Dorith Vermunt's innovation system analysis on the transition to more nature-inclusive dairy farming.

Researchers