Main areas of research

The field research in FarmPath had two parts:

 

Firstly, each country studied three case studies of specific ‘initiatives’ (these included new approaches to agricultural production, marketing, organization or land management including energy production, countryside consumption, new forms of governance, farmers collaboration, new marketing channels, high nature value farming and reducing the environmental impact of farming).

 

The case studies were selected in sets of three, such that seven ‘clusters’ containing similar cases were studied across the seven study countries. Find out more information about the first stage of research here.

 

The second phase of research aimed to build on the first stage mentioned above to identify ideal future situations for agriculture and the steps needed reach those ideals in Europe. This stage in the research involved a series of focus groups with local stakeholders who were selected to represent the full spectrum of people with rural interests, and those involved in land management and agriculture across the European regions under investigation in the project. Find out more about the second stage of research here.