ADAPTED FARMING SYSTEMS FOR A RURAL LANDSCAPE - A SOCIAL TYPOLOGY OF DUTCH FARMERS

Agricultural practices in The Netherlands are based on a strong socio-economic sector. Current production methods have an immense and often unwanted impact on the environment and threaten its function for urban and rural populations in a nation that is densely populated, industrialized and urbanized. A comparative qualitative study was carried out in five different regions, each region representing a particular rural landscape of great value. The study assessed the willingness and capability of full-time farmers in land-based agriculture to modify their farming practices and farm organization in favour of a multi-functional rural landscape. According to their perceptions and ideas about the use of rural land, in each region only one (dominant) type of farmer was to be found, with a few individual 'exceptions'. By investigation their orientation to adapted farming systems (i.e. sustainable agriculture and landscape management), several groups were identified within the dominant type. However, these groups cannot be considered as sub-types: the differences were too minimal, due to the preoccupation of many respondents with optimum agricultural production and the unavailability of equivaler.