Review of the environmental and socio-economic barriers and benefits to organic agriculture in Scotland

4. Stakeholder consultation - Table of Priorities

To help identify areas for future prioritisation for the organic sector in Scotland, benefits and barriers, identified in the SWOT analysis, were prioritised in order of importance by members of the Scottish Organic Forum together with some of their members and contacts.

4.1 Methods for gathering stakeholder opinion on priority areas for action

Key benefits and barriers to Scottish farming, as identified in the SWOT analysis, were summarised into two lists. The two lists highlighted key environmental and socio-economic benefits and barriers to organic farming in Scotland. Each list was circulated to members of the Scottish Organic Forum. Members were invited to rate the benefits and barriers for organic farming on importance (High, Medium or Low), difficulty of addressing (Hard, Moderate or Easy) and identify which major groups could be best targeted to address them (Farmer, Consumer or Other). A mean from the ratings of importance from the 19 respondents was calculated to assess the groups’ collective opinion. The items on each list were ranked in order of importance according to the respondents (Tables 5 and 6), and the order of importance was correlated cross-tabulated against the ease of actions to address the barrier or highlight the benefit (Figures 4 and 5).

4.2. Results of the stakeholder consultation

4.2.1. Benefits

Table 5 shows the potential benefits of organic farming in Scotland in order of importance according to the stakeholder group. The group thought that the benefit rated most important to organic farming in Scotland by respondents was (A) Increased demand for organic produce (Table 5). Figure 4 compares the most importance of each benefit with the ease of addressing. Generally the benefits considered most important were also thought to be the ones which could most easily be targeted in with future action.  The benefit rated most difficult to address in any future prioritisation was (S) Improved diversity of varieties and livestock genetics to benefit organic producers.

The benefits highlighted as potential targets for future policy due to their high importance in relation to perceived ease of addressing were: (A) Increased demand for organic produce, (B) Organic farming supports greater biodiversity than conventional farming, (D) Organic farming generally supports improvement of soil health characteristics, and (E) Organic subsidies add value to the land by supporting greater biodiversity and ecosystem service provision.

Respondents most commonly highlighted farmers as the major target group for addressing the benefits stated within the table of priorities (Table 5).

Table 5: List of environmental and socio-economic benefits to organic farming in Scotland in order of mean importance – A (most important) - T (least important) – and the main group(s) to target to address each one, according to respondents.

Figure 4: The correlation between mean importance of environmental and socio-economic benefits to organic farming in Scotland and the difficulty of addressing them (see Table 6 for key). Letters within the red circle represent priorities that could be considered targets for future policy due to their high importance and perceived ease of implementation.
N.B. Metric calculation: For importance, a rating of High (H) scored 10, Medium (M) 5 and Low (L) 0. For difficulty, a rating of Hard (H) scored 10, Moderate (M) 5 and Easy (E) 0. The scores were totalled for each benefit/barrier and divided by the total number of responses, resulting in a mean score between 0 (lowest importance/easiest to address) and 10 (highest importance/hardest to address).

4.2.2. Barriers

The barrier rated by respondents as the most important to organic farming in Scotland was (A) Poor awareness of the complete benefits of organic farming (Table 6). The barriers rated equally as the most difficult to address were: (C) Reduced certified organic livestock and crop and (G) Reduced organic and in-conversion Scottish land area and producers (Figure 5)

The barriers highlighted as potential targets for future policy, due to both high importance and perceived ease of addressing were: (A) Poor awareness of the complete benefits of organic farming, (B) Direct payments important to financial viability of organic farms, (E) Inconsistent availability of organic produce in markets and supermarkets, and (F) Consumer knowledge of organic certification is low and is often not distinguished from alternative environmental certification i.e. LEAF. 

Respondents most commonly highlighted farmers as the major target group for addressing the proposed barriers (Table 6). However, consumers were thought by the stakeholder group to be the priority target for addressing their most important barrier to organic farming (poor awareness of the complete benefits of organic farming).

Table 6: List of environmental and socio-economic barriers to organic farming in Scotland in order of mean importance – A (most important) - T (least important) – and the main group(s) to target to address each one, according to respondents. 

Figure 5: The correlation between mean importance of environmental and socio-economic barriers to organic farming in Scotland and the difficulty of addressing them (see Table 7 for key). Letters within the red circle represent priorities that could be considered targets for future policy due to their high importance and perceived ease of implementation. N.B. Metric calculation: For importance, a rating of High (H) scored 10, Medium (M) 5 and Low (L) 0. For difficulty, a rating of Hard (H) scored 10, Moderate (M) 5 and Easy (E) 0. The scores were totalled for each benefit/barrier and divided by the total number of responses, resulting in a mean score between 0 (lowest importance/easiest to address) and 10 (highest importance/hardest to address).