Rural Sociology Wageningen University

On the 9th of May, I (Pieter Seuneke) will defend my PhD-thesis entitled:
From production-oriented farming towards multifunctional entrepreneurship: exploring the underlying learning process
Context
My thesis focusses on the many European and Dutch farming families which, urged by the environmental, social and economic crisis in agriculture, have diversified their conventional production-oriented farming activities by developing new non-farming businesses on their existing farms. Currently, there are many farmers who are involved in agro-tourism, nature and landscape management, processing and selling of farm products and, more recently in The Netherlands, professional (child)care and on-farm education. The development of such new business activities by these farmers represents a shift away from conventional production-oriented farming towards a more ‘multifunctional’ farming model in which the role of agriculture goes beyond mass food production.
Focus
Based on four different studies, all drawing on the empirical work done in the context of the Dutch research project…
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