Hitting the Grass Ceiling: Barriers to the Adoption of Species-rich Grassland for Dairy Farmers in the Netherlands & Flanders

Abstract

Agricultural intensification and scale enlargement have profoundly impacted biodiversity and climate resilience of grasslands, presenting serious sustainability challenges for the dairy sector. Increasing botanical richness of swards can help restore and sustain biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and climate resilience. However, species-rich grasslands (SRG) are not yet widely adopted in practice. This study explores the barriers to the adoption of species-rich grassland experienced by farmers in the dairy sector, particularly in the Netherlands and Flanders, and to provide a deeper, context-sensitive understanding of the underlying structural factors that give rise to these barriers and that explain how they affect different farmers. To this end, the research combines several theoretical perspectives to develop a broader, multi-dimensional framework that accounts for the complexity of SRG adoption. The study employed a qualitative research design, the study draws on a literature review and FGDs with key stakeholders and experts from the Dutch and Flemish dairy sector.

The findings identified 10 key barriers to SRG adoption. Among the most prevalent for both the Netherlands and Flanders were economic path dependence and a lack of practical knowledge and skills. Despite significant overlap in barriers across both regions, some notable differences were that Flemish farmers experienced a greater lack of access to independent high-quality advice, while Dutch farmers were more constrained by sociocultural factors, such as peer pressure and established norms in the farming community. The results suggest that these barriers are shaped by a complex interplay of underlying structural factors and often reinforce one another. Furthermore, the findings indicate that although the barriers affect the adoption of both productive and extensive SRG, they are especially prevalent for the latter, underscoring the need for targeted support mechanisms.

The research aims to contribute to the theory in three key ways: (1) by examining individual, contextual and temporal aspects of SRG-specific adoption barriers as well as the underlying structural factors that shape them, the study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of why such barriers persist, thereby facilitating the identification of leverage points to dismantle barriers; (2) by offering a conceptual distinction between SRG and similar descriptive terms that are used in the academic discourse on grassland plant diversity, the research aims to foster a consistent shared understanding of terminology; and (3) by including both productive and extensive SRG within its scope, the study contributes to a more integrated understanding of how ecological and economic aspects of these different grassland management styles interact with adoption barriers.