Multi-actor arrangements for farmland management in Eastern Spain

• DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105738
• Publication Date: 2021-09-16T06:02:46Z
• Authors: José-María Garcia...; Victor Martinez-G...; Lorena Tudela-Marco
• Keywords: 2. Zero hunger; ECONOMIA APLICADA; 9. Industry and infrastructure; 05 social sciences; 0507 social and economic geography; 1. No poverty; Social innovation; Farmland consolidation; Cooperatives; 15. Life on land; ECONOMIA, SOCIOLOGIA Y POLITICA AGRARIA; 15.- Proteger, restaurar y promover la utilización sostenible de los ecosistemas terrestres, gestionar de manera sostenible los bosques, combatir la desertificación y detener y revertir la degradación de la tierra, y frenar la pérdida de diversidad biológica; 02.- Poner fin al hambre, conseguir la seguridad alimentaria y una mejor nutrición, y promover la agricultura sostenible; 08.- Fomentar el crecimiento económico sostenido, inclusivo y sostenible, el empleo pleno y productivo, y el trabajo decente para todos; 12.- Garantizar las pautas de consumo y de producción sostenibles; Collective entrepreneurship; Mediterranean agriculture

[EN] Farmland abandonment is common in the southern EU countries. This complex phenomenon has a set of interlinked causes and consequences, among the latter the undermining of farmers' cooperatives role as supply aggregators. The paper discusses a multi-actor farmland consolidation model that avoids some of the drawbacks identified by literature to some models of land mobilization, mostly transaction and agency costs. This model consists on a local-based strategy of common land management, led by a cooperative and supported by a set of external agents. As empirical evidences, we show the attitudes of cooperatives' managers surveyed towards common land management and present a case study implementing this multi-actor model. This piece of evidence shows that strengthening social capital is crucial to the success of these social innovation experiences.<br/>The authors are grateful for the financial support of Ministry of Science and Innovation/European Regional Development Fund, Spain. Project "Strengthening innovation policy in the agri-food sector" (RTI2018-093791-B-C22). Data of land management practices in agricultural cooperatives were obtained with the support of Catedra de Estructuras Agrarias UPV-Generalitat Valenciana. They are also grateful to the journal editor and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions which significantly improved this paper.<br/>