ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agroecology and Ecosystem Services
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1604961
This article is part of the Research TopicBiodiversity in Agriculture: Enhancing Ecosystem Services and Sustainable FarmingView all 12 articles
Recognizing Diversity to Enable an Agroecological Transition: Understanding the Potential of Family Farmers in Portugal
Provisionally accepted
- 1Escola Superior Agrária de Viseu, Instituto Politecnico de Viseu, Viseu, Portugal
- 2CERNAS-IPV-Centre for Natural Resources, Environment and Society, Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, Polytechnic Campus, 3504-510 Viseu, Portugal, Viseu, Portugal
- 3GreenUPorto, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
- 4Higher Agricultural School of Castelo Branco, Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco, Castelo Branco, Castelo Branco, Portugal
- 5CERNAS-IPCB-Research Centre for Natural Resources, Environment and Society, Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco, 6001-909 Castelo Branco, Portugal, Castelo Branco, Portugal
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The agroecological transition of family farms in Portugal poses a significant challenge within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the European Green Deal. Despite their multifunctional contributions to rural territories, family farms-particularly smallholders-remain structurally disadvantaged by policy frameworks that continue to favor large-scale, high-input agricultural models. This study demonstrates that aligning family farming with agroecological principles yields tangible benefits and requires support through differentiated, typology-sensitive public policies. Using a tailored methodology, data were collected from 40 farms initially classified as conventional or agroecological. Ward's hierarchical clustering, supported by complementary significance tests, identified three distinct farmer typologies: conventional, proto-agroecological, and agroecological. These typologies reflect meaningful differences in ecological integration, systemic thinking, and social engagement. The findings highlight the need for targeted policy frameworks that recognize farm diversity and promote multiple pathways toward agroecology. This typology-based approach provides an empirically grounded foundation for designing more inclusive and contextresponsive institutional support for family farmers in Portugal.
Keywords: agroecology, food systems, Territorial governance, policy instruments, Cluster analysis
Received: 02 Apr 2025; Accepted: 28 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Costa-Pereira, Aguiar, Delgado and Costa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Inês Costa-Pereira, Escola Superior Agrária de Viseu, Instituto Politecnico de Viseu, Viseu, Portugal
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.