Imagine trying to change a lifelong habit but feeling stuck because everything around you—from the tools you use to the way you make money—keeps you doing things the old way. This work identifies those 'traps' that keep farmers from going green. It tests new incentives and business plans to make sustainable farming a practical and profitable choice.
Farmers are stuck in old production methods due to systemic and behavioral barriers, making it difficult for companies and governments to implement sustainable food chain transitions.
The project developed 3 thematic system dynamic models and 10 causal loop diagrams to map farming system interactions.
If you are a software provider dealing with low adoption of sustainable features — this project developed behavioral insights and theories of change that help design tools farmers actually want to use. This increases user retention by removing psychological barriers to change.
If you are a lender dealing with the risk of farmers failing during a green transition — this project developed business strategies and system dynamic models that identify critical points of failure. This allows for better risk assessment of sustainable loans.
If you are a retailer dealing with a lack of sustainable produce suppliers — this project developed evidence on the effectiveness of interventions across 12-15 countries. This helps you co-design supply chain incentives that actually encourage farmers to switch systems.
Based on available project data, specific pricing for the resulting business strategies is not provided, as the project focuses on research and co-design.
The project tests interventions in 12-15 countries and screens 160 cases, suggesting a design intended for broad European scaling.
Based on available project data, there is no mention of specific patents or licensing terms, though the project focuses on exploitation and dissemination of results.
The project specifically supports the Green Deal and Farm to Fork ambitions by creating policy mixes and business strategies that move farmers toward climate-neutral and biodiversity-friendly systems.
The project runs from 2022-09-01 to 2026-08-31, with current reports indicating that system dynamic models have already been developed in the second reporting period.
The consortium is heavily research-oriented, consisting of 5 universities and 4 research organizations. With only 1 industry partner and 1 SME (an 8% industry ratio), the project is driven by academic rigor and behavioral science rather than immediate commercial product development. However, the reach is broad, spanning 9 countries.
Contact the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (BE) regarding the system dynamic models.
Request a deep dive into the behavioral theories of change for your agri-business strategy.
