The overall goal of LIFT was to identify potential benefits of the adoption of ecological farming in the European Union and to understand how socio-economic and policy factors impact the adoption, performance and sustainability of ecological farming at various scales, from farm- to regional level.
To assess the sustainability of ecological practices, researchers conducted over 30 case studies across Europe, each focusing on different approaches within different contexts. The case studies encompassed many types from arable, livestock and mixed farming to specialisations such as dairy, beef cattle, cereals, fruit and vegetables, orchards and olives. A multi-scale sustainability assessment framework was then developed, in which findings from farm-level performance and territorial sustainability assessment were combined through multi-criteria analysis and stakeholders’ expertise.
A farm typology of ecological farm types was developed by combining main archetypical farming approaches with main agroecological principles. The five ecological farming approaches in the LIFT typology are: conservation agriculture; low-input farming; integrated/circular farming; organic farming; agroecological farming. Farms that do not fall within these ecological types are named standard farms in the LIFT typology.
On this basis, researchers have developed a tool that allows an easy application of the LIFT typology and enables comparing the multi-performance of any given farm with those of a defined peer group. The project has also developed a free user-friendly LIFT adoption-tool which enables users to input farm data to obtain the likelihood of that farm being an adopter of ecological practices.
