"Oli semmonen ylimääränen kannustin kokeilla”

Maanviljelijöiden kokeilut ympäristöpolitiikan kehittämisen keinona

Abstrakti

Farmers develop their farming methods and practices via experimentation. This experimentation is an
important means for the creation of new local knowledge. It allows farmers to introduce and adjust new
farming methods and knowledge at their farms to better fi t their particular farming systems. In addition,
experimentation enables farmers to create novelties in relation to farming practices. The experiments can
be seen as operating between agri-environmental policies and actually occurring changes in farming practices.
This informal experimentation performed to develop one’s livelihood does not play visible role in
the emerging literature related to sustainability experiments. In this article, I scrutinize farmer experiments
as an essential part of sustainability experiments and assess the role of farmer experiments in mediating
between environmental policies and farming practices. The analysis is based on thematic interviews of 31
Finnish farmers. Farmer experiments were identifi ed important in translating innovative technologies and
practices promoted by policies to the local circumstances. For the experimentation to occur, policies need
to leave suffi cient room for local adaptation while encouraging practice change. If collected in a systematic
manner, farmers’ experiments could be used as an important source for improving the policies as well as
facilitating the spreading of environmentally friendly practices.