Dynamic Trajectories and Maturity of Farmer Collaboration for Biodiversity Sensitive Farming – Insights from the Framework Farmer Clusters

Bohnet, I.C., Hager, G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2259-0278, Rellensmann, T., McHugh, N.M., Ablinger, D., Bagnoni, V., Banks, G., Beyer, M., Duijvestijn, L., Franck, P., Janeckova, K., Kaasik, R., Martin, Y., Moonen, A.-C., Salehi, A., Sánchez-García, C., Schoone, M., Scott, C., Travnicek, J., van Rijn, P., et al. (2025). Dynamic Trajectories and Maturity of Farmer Collaboration for Biodiversity Sensitive Farming – Insights from the Framework Farmer Clusters. SSRN Electronic Journal 10.2139/ssrn.5374048. (Submitted)

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Abstract

ContextBuilding on the Farmer Cluster (FC) approach, which has emerged over the past decade in England to address ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss at the landscape scale, FRAMEwork, a Horizon 2020 project, established a network of eleven FCs across Europe.ObjectiveTo test the effectiveness of the FRAMEwork FCs, a new level of technological and scientific support was offered to the FCs providing a facilitated space for collaboration, co-production of knowledge, co-innovation, peer-to-peer learning, and monitoring.MethodsWe provide an overview of the eleven FCs and a comparative case study analysis to understand the dynamic trajectories and levels of maturity shaping the outcomes of the FCs. Expanding from the ‘success criteria’ of collaboration for sustainable agriculture by Velten et al. (2021), we identified five formative dimensions – governance, leadership, facilitation, group characteristics and context – influencing the outcomes of FCs, before analysing these dimensions in more detail.ResultsWe found that the five dimensions are interdependent and dynamic, affecting the functioning of the FCs, and leading to different levels of maturity. Comparing the situation of each FC regarding the five dimensions and the level of maturity we found that the FCs started in distinct contexts with diverse initial conditions across Europe – from favourable to unfavourable. This led to different dynamic trajectories on a pathway to biodiversity sensitive farming.SignificanceThe maturity assessment matrix offers a valuable tool for FCs to reflect on their progress and capacity in achieving their goals, guiding future efforts for effective FC management.

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