Farmer Heterogeneity in Policy Preferences for Sustainable Farming Systems

Agriculture is a key contributor to climate change, biodiversity loss, and declining ecosystem services. While European policies aim to ensure safe, nutritious, and affordable food, reduce environmental harm, improve animal welfare, and support rural livelihoods, they often fall short of their intended goals. One key reason is that current policies insufficiently account for the heterogeneity among farms and farmers, especially behavioral and socio-demographic factors that influence policy uptake. This PhD project aims to identify the factors shaping farmers' preferences for agricultural policy instruments that promote the adoption of more Sustainable Farming Systems (SFS). By uncovering heterogeneity in preferences—driven by behavioral traits, socio-demographic profiles, and farm characteristics—the research offers evidence-based recommendations for more targeted and effective policy design and implementation. The first paper explores farmers' acceptability of different types of policy instruments aimed at enhancing agrobiodiversity for pest management. The second examines how institutional context—public versus private regulation—affects farmers' preferences for pesticide reduction contracts, focusing on behavioral factors such as trust, risk, and loss aversion. The third paper investigates the role of policy framing in shaping farmers' acceptance and perceived effectiveness of biodiversity policies. Finally, the fourth paper analyses the drivers of pesticide use across Europe to identify the contextual and behavioral conditions under which pesticide reduction policies are likely to succeed. 

This PhD project is carried out by Apoorva Vardhan (2022-2026) under the Horizon Europe Project ENFASYS.