Methodology for quantification of contribution of small farms to local food systems and food and nutritional security

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Small farms in Europe contribute to social cohesion and environmental sustainability. Given there is little information available about this contribution, the SALSA project aims to provide a better understanding of the current and potential contributions of small farms and food businesses to sustainable food and nutrition security.

Small farms

For the purpose of the project, small farms were defined for statistical purposes as those with less than 5 hectares or with 8 economic units.

The project used also a participatory approach that ended up with a more complete, not statistical, definition depending on the position of the farm in the food chain/system. The approach was used to select small farms to be included in the SALSA survey, and it was flexible to consider what in the context of each region and in relation to its farm structures, was relevant to be classified as a small farm, and was accepted as such.

To asses and quantify the current contributions, a methodology was developed based on data collection and data analysis in 30 reference regions in Europe and Africa, which in total resulted in 109 food product systems (each product was analysed in more than one region).

Data collection was organised along five steps:

Selection of key products in each region and providing the first overview of the regional food system for each product selected. This was based on available statistical information and semi-structured interviews with a diverse set of key informants in each region.
Provision of direct information on SF and small food businesses from questionnaires to a diverse sample of small farmers and small food business owners.
Validation and refining the food system maps using inputs from focus group discussions, with one focus group organised per key product.
Drafting regional reports, including peer-reviews and revisions.
Comparative analysis of the food systems presented in the regional reports.

Each step drew from different types of sources of data and infromation, including:

region-specific data of the food systems,
food system maps and narratives,
data on small farms' production potential,
small farms typologies.

The data from these sources was used to create a database containing a set of indicators describing each of the 109 food systems analysed. An analysis of the database was performed using descriptive statistical analysis and random forest analysis.

The quantification of the importance of small farms for the local food systems and for the availability component of regional food and nutrition security was done using two key regional level indicators:

% of total regional production produced by small farms;
minimum amount of product produced by small farms that stays within the reference region (i.e. the flow of product that goes directly from small farms for self-provisioning or through direct selling to proximity consumers).

A mixed-method approach was used for the calculation of the indicators, including data from official statistics (Eurostat, official national statistics), expert estimations based on interviews with small farms, key informant interviews and focus groups.

By using this approach, interesting results were obtained on how much small farms contribute to the local food system compared to the total regional production, in which regions small farms are more specialised and export oriented as well as differences between types of products in terms of their contribution to regional availability of food and nutrition security.

Set of 30 regional reports with the results of the validated in-depth analysis of regional food systems and the contribution of small farms and related small food businesses to FNS

Synthesis report on the main insights gained from the in-depth assessments in 30 regions

For small farm definition, see 'Deliverable 1.1 Report on Initial Conceptual Framework'

SALSA presentation at the Good Practice Workshop of the Evaluation Helpdesk

Relevance for monitoring and evaluation of the CAP

A mixed method approach for evaluating food and health and nutritonal security. The mixed approach combines official statistics, interviews, and focus groups to assess small farms' contribution to local food systems and nutritional security. The same method can be relevant for assessing the effects of CAP interventions on food and health, including safe, nutritious and sustainable food. In this sense, it can help assess contributions to Specific Objective 9 ‘Improve the response of EU agriculture to societal demands on food and health, including safe, nutritious and sustainable food, food waste, and animal welfare. It is also relevant for local food markets (if farm sales go directly to consumers) or to local food supply chains, i.e. contributions to Specific Objective 3 ‘Improve the farmers' position in the value chain’.

Complementing FADN. The methodology for quantifying small farm contribution to local food systems also makes visible something hidden, i.e. food produced by small farms stays out of statistics. Small farms are a dimension that is excluded from the FADN, and it was made visible only through discussions with key informants (part of the mixed-method data collection). The information obtained was then further discussed in focus groups. With this spiral approach, more and more information was obtained about how small farms are connected to the market and their role in local food systems (only data on consumption was obtained through statistics).

Triangulation: the crop data info and sentinel data from the other outputs of the project (crop type maps, crop area and crop production estimations) could be useful to triangulate the input from the focus group discussions and some other quantitative info from statistics.

Last modification date:

09/12/2021

Project details

SALSA:
Small farms, small food businesses and sustainable food security

Objectives

The overall goal will be to provide a better understanding of the current and potential contribution of small farms and food businesses to sustainable Food and Nutrition Security (FNS)

Specific objectives:

Assess the current role of small farms and small food businesses in achieving sustainable FNS in Europe and in selected African regions.
Evaluate the means by which small farms can respond to expected increases in demand for food, feed and fibre of an increasing population in an increasingly resource constrained world.
Assess the capacity of small farms and small food businesses to contribute to FNS under alternative future scenarios for 2030/50 and to identify the main determinants of the capacity to respond.
To help better tailor international cooperation and research and to develop tools to guide decision makers in enhancing the role of small farms in FNS.
Establish a community of practice and to enhance the use of the FAO’s channels as well as European and African networks and platforms, incluidng the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD), the European LEADER Association for Rural Development (ELARD) and the European Innovation Partnership ‘Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability’ (EIP Agri).

Timeframe:

2016 to 2020

Contacts of project holder:

Teresa Pinto-Correia, scientific coordinator, Instituto Mediterrâneo de Agricultura Ambiente e Desenvolvimento (MED), University of Evora (Portugal)

Project website(s):

SALSA

CORDIS database

Territorial coverage:

Grèce, Italie, Lettonie, Pologne, Portugal, Roumanie, Espagne

Relevant CAP Objectives:

1. Ensure fair income
3. Rebalance power in food chain
9. Protect food and health quality

Data Collection Systems Used:

Ad-hoc data collection
National land use surveys
Eurostat

Associated Evaluation Approaches:

Desk research
Impact evaluation ongoing
Data analysis

Type of Output:

Methodology

Spatial Scale:

Farm holding
Regional

Keywords:

nutritional security
small farms
supply chain
sustainable food production