Professor Frank Vanclay of the University of Groningen presented principles relevant to implementing the European Commission's ambitious Vision for EU Agriculture at Teagasc's Mellows Campus on Thursday, 29 May, offering practical guidance on making farming more attractive.

Speaking just three weeks after the European Commission launched its Vision for "Shaping together an attractive farming and agri-food sector for future generation", Professor Vanclay outlined evidence-based social principles that could transform how agricultural policy and extension services operate across Europe.

Four Key Principles for Agricultural Transformation

• Making Farming Attractive Beyond Economics: Professor Vanclay emphasised that attracting young people to agriculture requires addressing emotional, cultural, and identity aspects of farming, and not just economic incentives. “Sustainability means staying on the farm", he explained, highlighting how policies must consider the deep desire of farmers to hand their operations to their children, while ensuring farming appeals to diverse groups including women farmers and non-traditional farm workers.
• Addressing Structural Disadvantages: The presentation challenged common assumptions about struggling farmers. "Marginal farmers are structured to be marginal due to historical policies and global economic forces, not poor individual choices", Professor Vanclay noted. He advocated for differentiated support tailored to specific farming styles and local contexts rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.
• Farmer-Led Innovation Systems: Professor Vanclay stressed that farmers are natural experimenters who construct their own knowledge. Successful innovation policy should co-create solutions with farmers, rather than simply transfer technology, respecting local knowledge and ensuring compatibility with diverse farming approaches. This is particularly relevant for the success of CAP eco-schemes.
• Simplifying Policy Implementation: Complex and inflexible programmes reduce farmer trust and participation, Professor Vanclay warned. He called for simpler, context-sensitive programmes co-designed with farmers to enhance both legitimacy and effectiveness.

Policy Implications

The timing of Professor Vanclay's presentation is particularly significant as EU member states begin implementing the Commission's Vision. His framework offers concrete guidance for designing CAP measures, extension services, and innovation programmess that could genuinely reverse the trend of agricultural decline and youth disengagement from farming.

Dr Áine Macken-Walsh, Teagasc Sociologist and seminar chair said; "While the Vision sets out what the future of EU agriculture should look like, Professor Vanclay provides powerful guidance on how to achieve this by working with farmers' values, identities, and lived realities."

Aidan Murray, Head of the Schemes Support Unit in Teagasc, highlighted the importance of schemes at their early development stages, in advance of them ‘hitting the ground’. “Scheme design, and getting the views of as many as possible is vital for the eventual success and effectiveness of these schemes, gaining from the experience of advisors and farmers themselves”, the Teagasc specialist said.

Paul Maher, Head of International Relations and Corporate Strategy in Teagasc provided an international developing world context to discussions. He said; “the ongoing challenge of developing agricultural extension globally points to the ongoing importance of Vanclay’s principles, and incorporating them into different systems of advice with different funding mechanisms requires a case-specific approach”.

Dr David Meredith, Head of the Teagasc Department of Agri-Food Business and Spatial Analysis, welcomed the presentation of Professor Vanclay and highlighted that his presentation marked the end of a six-part series featuring international and Irish research. “The series demonstrates the significance of collaboration and knowledge exchange between advisors, researchers and policy makers, which is fundamentally important to how Teagasc engages with farmers and reinforcing its commitment to evidence-based, farmer-centred approaches”, Dr Meredith said.