What stimulated you to investigate the (ownership-based) behaviour of farmers in terms of the land they cultivate?
A particular focus of my research primarily into the environmental behaviour of farmers in Austria was on the ownership status of land and in especially leased land. The majority of my thesis investigates whether efforts to protect the soil are less in the case of leased land than they are for land owned by the farmers themselves. This issue reflects my own interest in human behaviour in relation to environmental issues.
This raises the question of whether the steadily rising prevalence of leased land could have negative environmental impacts. To some extent, ownership changes the relationship between a farmer and the land they work as well as the commercial planning horizon. This was the hypothesis, which is based on the theory and literature from other countries and is also very relevant in Austria. Besides this, agricultural land is being increasingly purchased by non-agriculturalists as an investment, which is extremely relevant in other European countries but also growing in importance in Austria.
What are the most important findings of your work?
There is a correlation between leasing and the planting of ‘intensive’ or erosion-risk crops such as corn, potatoes and beet. This correlation is based on farms which lease more land growing more such crops. However, the correlation is not based on specific farms differentiating between leased and owned land. If only the land of specific farms is compared, it is not possible to identify a statistically significant difference between leased and owned land. Nonetheless: The larger the farm and the more animals are raised, the more clearly a farm-specific effect can be seen, in other words, more intensive crops are grown on leased land than owned land. The opposite is true in the case of organic farms. A survey of more than 300 arable farms keeping records revealed no differences in the use of soil protection methods on ‘typical’ leased and owned land.
These findings do not necessarily mean that there is not a ‘lease effect’ in terms of managing the soil since there are several factors which influence any relationship between ownership and soil protection: the provisions of the lease, such as the leasing period, the (perceived) security of the lease, the leasing rate or contractual agreements relating to soil protection, as well as the role and characteristics of the landlord, agricultural knowledge, legal and other contractual circumstances.
Many of these factors in Austria are such that leased land is (still) farmed in a manner very similar to owned land. However, given that the ownership structure of land is changing and that more and more individuals without an agricultural background are buying land, perhaps for speculative reasons, it is unclear whether leasing will develop in a direction which is less favourable in terms of soil protection.
What relevance do your findings have for a crop processing company such as AGRANA?
Maintaining fertile soils is not only relevant from an environmental and sustainability perspective but of course also for every single farm, every stakeholder along the food value chain and for society as a whole. Particularly in the case of crops such as sugar beet, corn and (starch) potatoes, it is essential to protect the soil against erosion. But maintaining soil fertility and the accumulation of humus is also a key element of sustainable management everywhere else. A fundamental understanding of the mechanisms and drivers of (non-)sustainable soil management is important for all the above stakeholder groups since they also bear a certain responsibility to counteract trends when circumstances change. In the case of ‘ownership’ as an influencing factor, my work highlights that the increase in leased land does necessarily have a negative impact on the continuation of soil-sensitive farming practices but that this depends on the specific characteristics of the lease. The more impersonal leasing relationships and the shorter and less certain the leasing contracts, the more likely it is that the leased land will be worked in a less sustainable manner.
Such developments must be counteracted, for example by regulating leasing agreements so that they offer planning certainty (including by means of sample lease contracts, legislation and the like) or promoting soil-sensitive farming practices by means of other prevailing circumstances. Examples of this would include soil protection measures or grants for certain farming methods such as crop rotation, mulch sowing or humus accumulation methods. When changes – such as in the ownership of land – no longer guarantee future-oriented farming methods, it is the responsibility of all those affected to take targeted action to protect the soil so that they can continue to benefit from fertile soils in the future.
About Heidrun Leonhardt
Born and raised in Graz. Bachelor’s degree in environmental and organic resource management from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU). Master’s degree from the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Return to the BOKU for a doctoral chair at the Institute for Sustainable Economic Development. Since then, a member of the working group for agriculture and the environment and as a post-doctoral employee.