‘Farmers are stuck in the system. It is up to us as a society to make choices.’

Dutch farmers are entrepreneurs in heart and soul. And according to Jaap Sok, this has everything to do with their history: ‘Since the Second World War, farmers have been encouraged to produce more and more. They have become highly specialised and have optimised their businesses, with the result that many Dutch farmers excel as successful entrepreneurs.’ This economic progress was long considered a success story, but it also has a downside. Environmental limits, such as nitrogen emissions and water and soil quality, are exceeded significantly. Moreover, this type of intensive agriculture has led to a considerable loss of biodiversity.

To tackle these crises, farmers need to start thinking ‘more ecologically’ or ‘more sustainably’. But according to Sok, contrary to what people sometimes assume, sustainable thinking is not automatically incorporated into farming. ‘Not because farmers aren’t interested, but because the current system forces them to intensify and increase production. Many farmers do want to work more sustainably, but lack the right incentives to do so."

On 21 December 2024, Nieuwe Oogst published an article about the farmers' protests of 2022. Agricultural economists Jaap Sok and Yann de Mey from the Business Economics chair group, together with researchers from Germany, Belgium and France, investigated how farmers deal with policy uncertainty and risks. In this background article, Jaap Sok highlights the challenges for agricultural entrepreneurship in a changing system and gives his vision on the 'way forward'.

As a behavioural and agricultural economist, Jaap Sok has studied the behaviour of farmers in various situations, including times of crisis such as outbreaks of animal diseases and the use of crop protection products. According to Sok, farmers' behaviour is highly dependent on the context in which they operate: “Firstly, there is no such thing as ‘the farmer’; every sector and entrepreneur has their own circumstances, something that is often forgotten,” Sok emphasises. In the case of animal diseases, such as the bluetongue virus, farmers find themselves in acute crisis situations in which emotions and risk perception play a major role.

“Farmers have to make quick decisions under pressure from policy and interventions,” explains Sok, “which often leads to short-term choices that are not always beneficial in the long term.” The situation is different when it comes to crop protection. “There, the focus is more on the long term,” says Sok. ‘Farmers have to deal with major financial obligations and a market that imposes strict production requirements. Even if they want to use more sustainable methods such as integrated crop protection (IPM), they are often constrained by a system that offers little room for change.’

Policymakers eagerly look to behavioural economics research in the hope of finding new incentives that will encourage farmers to change their behaviour. But according to Sok, the limits of this type of research have now been reached: "Farmers need long-term certainty. If we want to reward them for more sustainable production, there must be long-term policy incentives in place. This requires thinking at the system level, rather than the continuous introduction of new subsidies and regulations every few years."

“We put too much pressure on farmers,” Sok continues. “To achieve the changes we want to see, we as a society need to make clear choices.” Sok is therefore also investigating the role and vision of consumers, citizens and chain parties, such as wholesalers and supermarkets. ‘As consumers, people mainly see farmers as food producers. But if you ask them as citizens about the role of farmers, their function becomes much broader, for example as landscape managers. The domestic market places high production expectations on farmers, but also increasingly recognises the importance of sustainability. All these visions together point in a clear direction.’

According to Sok, it is essential that society develops a long-term vision for the agricultural sector and translates this into clear and consistent policy. ‘Not only at national level, but also at European level,’ he emphasises. ‘Our Dutch agriculture and the market surrounding it are inextricably linked to Europe.’ 

A clear policy does not mean that farmers should be constrained by strict frameworks full of rules, Sok explains. ‘Dutch farmers are entrepreneurs with a wealth of social capital. Their collaborative strength is essential for progress and must be nurtured.’ Sok emphasises that when setting environmental targets, farmers must be given the freedom to help shape this system. ‘Set clear environmental and economic goals, design measurement systems to monitor them, and give farmers the space to achieve them with their creativity and innovative power.’

He refers to the recent PAVEx pilot project, which investigated how cooperation between arable farmers and dairy farmers can contribute to achieving environmental goals. ‘The results of that project showed that there is a lot of potential in a joint approach by farmers. Incentives that are aimed at the collective level rather than at individual farms can also be particularly effective,’ says Sok. However, he emphasises one crucial condition: continuing to work on systemic change. ‘Otherwise, we will continue to optimise within the current system, and that is not a solution. If we have learned anything from climate change and biodiversity loss, it is that fundamental changes are needed.’