Stakeholders' critical perception of diversification strategies in cereal-based rotations

Agriculture has long been at the core of Mediterranean culture, resulting in multifunctional landscapes and diverse ecosystem services. In Mediterranean Europe, policy favored specialized agriculture, and reversing this trend has proven difficult. Diversification of crop rotations holds ecological b...

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Autores: Rezgui, Ferdaous, Blanc, Louise, Plaza Bonilla, Daniel, Lampurlanés Castel, Jorge, Dordas, Christos, Papakaloudis, Paschalis, Michalitsis, Andreas, Hossard, Laure, Lambarraa-Lehnhardt, Fatima, Bellingrath-Kimura, Sonoko D., Paul, Carsten, Reckling, Moritz
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:recercat____::f71f82e63da5b58b2318e8a19c142947
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2026.128000
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/469940
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Multi-criteria assessment
Performance
Importance
Co-design
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dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Stakeholders' critical perception of diversification strategies in cereal-based rotations
title Stakeholders' critical perception of diversification strategies in cereal-based rotations
spellingShingle Stakeholders' critical perception of diversification strategies in cereal-based rotations
Rezgui, Ferdaous
Multi-criteria assessment
Performance
Importance
Co-design
title_short Stakeholders' critical perception of diversification strategies in cereal-based rotations
title_full Stakeholders' critical perception of diversification strategies in cereal-based rotations
title_fullStr Stakeholders' critical perception of diversification strategies in cereal-based rotations
title_full_unstemmed Stakeholders' critical perception of diversification strategies in cereal-based rotations
title_sort Stakeholders' critical perception of diversification strategies in cereal-based rotations
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Rezgui, Ferdaous
Blanc, Louise
Plaza Bonilla, Daniel
Lampurlanés Castel, Jorge
Dordas, Christos
Papakaloudis, Paschalis
Michalitsis, Andreas
Hossard, Laure
Lambarraa-Lehnhardt, Fatima
Bellingrath-Kimura, Sonoko D.
Paul, Carsten
Reckling, Moritz
author Rezgui, Ferdaous
author_facet Rezgui, Ferdaous
Blanc, Louise
Plaza Bonilla, Daniel
Lampurlanés Castel, Jorge
Dordas, Christos
Papakaloudis, Paschalis
Michalitsis, Andreas
Hossard, Laure
Lambarraa-Lehnhardt, Fatima
Bellingrath-Kimura, Sonoko D.
Paul, Carsten
Reckling, Moritz
author_role author
author2 Blanc, Louise
Plaza Bonilla, Daniel
Lampurlanés Castel, Jorge
Dordas, Christos
Papakaloudis, Paschalis
Michalitsis, Andreas
Hossard, Laure
Lambarraa-Lehnhardt, Fatima
Bellingrath-Kimura, Sonoko D.
Paul, Carsten
Reckling, Moritz
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Multi-criteria assessment
Performance
Importance
Co-design
topic Multi-criteria assessment
Performance
Importance
Co-design
description Agriculture has long been at the core of Mediterranean culture, resulting in multifunctional landscapes and diverse ecosystem services. In Mediterranean Europe, policy favored specialized agriculture, and reversing this trend has proven difficult. Diversification of crop rotations holds ecological benefits, yet adoption remains low. The objective of this study was to accompany Spanish and Greek stakeholders in a structured learning process beginning with the co-design of available diversification options. It continued with an ex-ante assessment of agri-environmental, social, and economic performance of these options, followed by a co-evaluation step where stakeholders rated both the assessed performances and the indicators used. These ratings were analyzed using an importance-performance matrix. Finally, the adoption likelihood of diversification was predicted using the Adoption and Diffusion Outcome Prediction (ADOPT) tool. The ex-ante assessment revealed that legumes, rapeseed, and intercropping systems generally outperformed continuous cereal cropping in the agri-environmental and social dimensions but not economically, with a profit reduction of up to 12 %. From the stakeholders’ ratings, we learned that they placed the greatest importance on the economic indicators. In contrast, the agri-environmental dimension was given little importance even when energy use indicators increased by 5–42 %. Likewise, diversified systems offered notable social benefits, such as reduced workload by up to 29 %, but social aspects were ranked as less important. This divergent performance of the diversified options was translated into low adoption rates. Legume systems reached a 23–28 % adoption rate in 8–10 years, while intercropping reached 14 % in 17 years, and rapeseed systems reached only 4–5 % in 9–11 years. Economic performance emerged as the main barrier to the adoption of diversification. This study evaluated the impacts of different diversification options available to local farmers from both scientific and a local stakeholder perspective. This process can be adapted to other regions to create shared knowledge, thus enabling a wide range of actors to better understand diversification impacts. This knowledge gain affects the stakeholder’s capacity to adopt diversification options and, beforehand, their willingness to do so.
publishDate 2026
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2026
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2026.128000
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/469940
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/469940
url https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2026.128000
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/469940
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PCI2020–112297
Reproducció del document publicat a https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2026.128000
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/HE/101135512
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv cc-by (c) Rezgui et al., 2026
Attribution 4.0 International
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rights_invalid_str_mv cc-by (c) Rezgui et al., 2026
Attribution 4.0 International
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dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
instname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
instname_str Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
reponame_str Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
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spelling Stakeholders' critical perception of diversification strategies in cereal-based rotationsRezgui, FerdaousBlanc, LouisePlaza Bonilla, DanielLampurlanés Castel, JorgeDordas, ChristosPapakaloudis, PaschalisMichalitsis, AndreasHossard, LaureLambarraa-Lehnhardt, FatimaBellingrath-Kimura, Sonoko D.Paul, CarstenReckling, MoritzMulti-criteria assessmentPerformanceImportanceCo-designAgriculture has long been at the core of Mediterranean culture, resulting in multifunctional landscapes and diverse ecosystem services. In Mediterranean Europe, policy favored specialized agriculture, and reversing this trend has proven difficult. Diversification of crop rotations holds ecological benefits, yet adoption remains low. The objective of this study was to accompany Spanish and Greek stakeholders in a structured learning process beginning with the co-design of available diversification options. It continued with an ex-ante assessment of agri-environmental, social, and economic performance of these options, followed by a co-evaluation step where stakeholders rated both the assessed performances and the indicators used. These ratings were analyzed using an importance-performance matrix. Finally, the adoption likelihood of diversification was predicted using the Adoption and Diffusion Outcome Prediction (ADOPT) tool. The ex-ante assessment revealed that legumes, rapeseed, and intercropping systems generally outperformed continuous cereal cropping in the agri-environmental and social dimensions but not economically, with a profit reduction of up to 12 %. From the stakeholders’ ratings, we learned that they placed the greatest importance on the economic indicators. In contrast, the agri-environmental dimension was given little importance even when energy use indicators increased by 5–42 %. Likewise, diversified systems offered notable social benefits, such as reduced workload by up to 29 %, but social aspects were ranked as less important. This divergent performance of the diversified options was translated into low adoption rates. Legume systems reached a 23–28 % adoption rate in 8–10 years, while intercropping reached 14 % in 17 years, and rapeseed systems reached only 4–5 % in 9–11 years. Economic performance emerged as the main barrier to the adoption of diversification. This study evaluated the impacts of different diversification options available to local farmers from both scientific and a local stakeholder perspective. This process can be adapted to other regions to create shared knowledge, thus enabling a wide range of actors to better understand diversification impacts. This knowledge gain affects the stakeholder’s capacity to adopt diversification options and, beforehand, their willingness to do so.The study was developed in the framework of the Biodiversify project (Boost ecosystem services through high Biodiversity-based Mediterranean Farming systems) from PRIMA Foundation, call 2019-2, a program supported by the European Union, and funded by national agencies: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) - (grant number 01DH20014) for Germany, the State Research Agency (aid PCI2020–112297 founded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR) for Spain, the General Secretariat for Research and Technology of the Ministry of Development and Investments for Greece and ANR for France (grant number: ANR-19-P026–0008–01). PRIMA is an Art.185 initiative supported and co-funded under Horizon 2020, the European Union’s Program for Research and Innovation. Daniel Plaza-Bonilla is a Ramón y Cajal fellow (RYC-2018–024536-I), co-funded by MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Social Fund. Louise Blanc was granted a predoctoral contract by the University of Lleida (UdL). Further funding came from the EU project LegumES (grant number 101135512).Elsevier2026info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2026.128000https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/469940https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/469940reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunyainstname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)Inglésinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PCI2020–112297Reproducció del document publicat a https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2026.128000info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/HE/101135512cc-by (c) Rezgui et al., 2026Attribution 4.0 Internationalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/oai:dnet:recercat____::f71f82e63da5b58b2318e8a19c1429472026-05-29T05:05:01Z
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