ABSTRACT
Given recent policy regulations, arable farmers in the Netherlands have to integrate environmental quality as an objective along with the conventional objectives of income and employment. Integrated Arable Farming Systems (IAFS) are considered an effective way to achieve a competitive, safe and more sustainable agriculture. In IAFS, pesticides and fertilizer inputs are replaced by measures requiring greater management skills, such as multifunctional crop rotation and integrated crop protection. Since 1979, IAFS prototypes have been developed and tested on experimental farms (Wijnands and Vereijken, 1992). In 1990, a project set up to disseminate IAFS prototypes included a pilot group of 38 innovator farms. These farms easily attained the governmental targets of diminishing inputs and also achieved attractive financial results (Wossink, 1994). As a follow-up in 1993, a second project included 500 arable farmers who intend to convert to integrated farming. These 500 farmers can be seen as potential early adopters. Despite these encouraging figures, there has been limited progress in the conversion towards IAFS (Schoorlemmer et al., 1994).
