Towards diverse agricultural land uses: socio-ecological implications of European agricultural pathways for a Swiss orchard region

Takamasa Nishizawa; Sonja Kay; Johannes Schuler; Noëlle Klein; Tobias Conradt; Michael Mielewczik; Felix Herzog; Joachim Aurbacher; Peter Zander

doi:10.1007/s10113-023-02092-5

Towards diverse agricultural land uses: socio-ecological implications of European agricultural pathways for a Swiss orchard region

Reg Environ Change. 2023;23(3):97. doi: 10.1007/s10113-023-02092-5. Epub 2023 Jul 22.

Authors

Takamasa Nishizawa¹, Sonja Kay², Johannes Schuler¹, Noëlle Klein^{2

3}, Tobias Conradt⁴, Michael Mielewczik⁵, Felix Herzog², Joachim Aurbacher⁶, Peter Zander¹

Affiliations

¹ Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) e.V., Farm Economics and Ecosystem Services, Müncheberg, Germany.
² Agroscope, Agricultural Landscapes and Biodiversity, Zurich, Switzerland.
³ ETH Zürich, Planning of Landscape and Urban Systems (PLUS), ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁴ Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany.
⁵ Agroscope, Department of Sustainability Assessment and Agricultural Management, Socioeconomics, Ettenhausen, Switzerland.
⁶ Institute of Farm and Agribusiness Management, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany.

Abstract

Diverse agricultural land uses are a typical feature of multifunctional landscapes. The uncertain change in the drivers of global land use, such as climate, market and policy technology and demography, challenges the long-term management of agricultural diversification. As these global drivers also affect smaller scales, it is important to capture the traits of regionally specific farm activities to facilitate adaptation to change. By downscaling European shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) for agricultural and food systems, combined with representative concentration pathways (RCP) to regionally specific, alternative socioeconomic and climate scenarios, the present study explores the major impacts of the drivers of global land use on regional agriculture by simulating farm-level decisions and identifies the socio-ecological implications for promoting diverse agricultural landscapes in 2050. A hilly orchard region in northern Switzerland was chosen as a case study to represent the multifunctional nature of Swiss agriculture. Results show that the different regionalised pathways lead to contrasting impacts on orchard meadows, production levels and biodiversity. Increased financial support for ecological measures, adequate farm labour supplies for more labour-intensive farming and consumer preferences that favour local farm produce can offset the negative impacts of climate change and commodity prices and contribute to agricultural diversification and farmland biodiversity. However, these conditions also caused a significant decline in farm production levels. This study suggests that considering a broader set of land use drivers beyond direct payments, while acknowledging potential trade-offs and diverse impacts across different farm types, is required to effectively manage and sustain diversified agricultural landscapes in the long run.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10113-023-02092-5.

Keywords: Climate change; Diverse agricultural land uses; Global land use drivers; Scenario development; Shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs); Trade-off.