Weaknesses
There was a much broader range of weaknesses identified though there was still a considerable amount of agreement on key weaknesses across all countries (Table below). The two most common themes that arose were “social” and “farm business” related weaknesses. While social issues were important in all countries, there was more agreement between countries on the farm business weaknesses. A lack of willingness to change was identified as a key weakness in Wales, high farmer workload and issues surrounding peri-urban farming of livestock in France, an aging population with a lack of young farmers entering the business and limited adoption of technology in Spain and a lack of farmer co-operation in Sweden were identified as key “social” weaknesses with mixed farming. Poland did not perceive as many social weaknesses as other countries, mentioning only the high farmer workload associated with mixed farming.
