Green Care in Switzerland:

a subject for further development and a research project in the planning stage
Hans Wydler
Introduction
As in other countries, agriculture in Switzerland is undergoing rapid structural change. Productivity is increasing, and subsidies are likely to decrease in a more liberalised market in the near future. Swiss agriculture can be expected to adapt to the current situation in the EU. Actually the situation in Switzerland is characterised by a large number of small farms, some of which are earning insufficient household income. The number of farms and of people employed in the agricultural sector are expected to further decrease over the next few years. In some peripheral communities the infrastructure and the ways of earning a living are precarious, owing to this trend. Alternative or additional work and earning opportunities on farms and in rural regions are in demand. Well known in Switzerland are agrotourism opportunities and different types of direct marketing of farm products to consumers. The extent to which farms deliver health, social or educational services is currently unknown, and this constitutes the subject of the planned project.

Agroscope Reckenholz-Tnikon Research Station ART, Switzerland

Different levels and steps in the planned project
Description of the status quo of green care in Switzerland Farm/household level Models and explanations of green care services Processes and implementations

Green care working definition for the project

Green care is the creation of added value and surplus through effecting services. Effected on the farm place. May be produced using natural resources of rural households, e.g. plants, animals, landscape as well as other rural factors and qualities of those involved. Involves both paid and unpaid work. In the spheres of a) Health (e.g. care services for the handicapped and the elderly, services for health and well-being and services with therapeutic aims) or b) Social work (e.g. socio-pedagogical work, occupational work) or c) Education (e.g. school farms). Produced in any type of household (e.g. different production structure and amount of production, in public or private status, under different legal forms of ownership, as well as rent or cooperation of different farms. Produced by dependent or independent labour, Produced by any member of the household (e.g. the partner of a farmer, the farmers children, his or her parents, or any other person living on the farm).

Establishing a database of all house-holds/farms Two models of behavioural change are applied:
supplying green care services in Switzerland; interviews of households currently delivering green care services. Screening interviews (CATI) in a sample of farms in one or two specific regions; In-depth interviews (CAPI) in relevant cases. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (according to Ajzen und Fishbein) and the Transtheoretical Model of Change (according to DiClemente and Pro-chaska).

Checklists and optimised access to resources for households at every step and in every sphere of green care, based on project results.

Aims of the project

Encouraging green care services on farms and in rural households Establishing a farm/household perspective on green care A first target is to describe the status quo of green care in Switzerland. Acquiring a better knowledge of supporting und restricting factors in delivering green care services, not only at farm level, but also at context level, and at the level of interaction of the two. Providing an outline of practical results and tips of use to different players in the field (e.g. mediators and organisations active in advising households and farms). Some interventive aspects will be achieved, such as the green care online database, useful for farms, clients and organisations.

Context level

Listing of all organisations and net-works that

finance, order, advise, control or assure the quality of green care ser-vices. Monitoring of activities in a specific region for promoting green care; identi-fication of supporting and restricting factors.

Identification of relevant ecological factors for green care. Cooperation in existing rural and spatial development projects. Cooperation with local stakeholders, networks and organisations.

Networking within different interest groups on the concept of green care. Anchoring of green care in different systems such as the farm advisory system. Description of the possibilities for financing green care in the three spheres of health, education, and welfare activities.

Agroscope ART
Research for agriculture and nature We conduct research into environmentally compatible and economically competitive farming. Our primary concern is for a highly diverse rural area. We develop and assess sustainable plant-production and animalhusbandry systems. We combine ecology, economics and agricultural engineering in a holistic approach to research.

Methods and proceedings

The length of the project is four years, from January 2008 to December 2011. Resources for basic accomplishment of the project are guaranteed (four man-years); additional money is required for enquires and implementation; A multi-level and multi-step analysis of knowledge acquisition is intended. Decision-making in rural households will be investigated within a system-context framework.
Empirical steps
Status quo Status quo of a region

Farm-Context interaction level

Clients

Incorporation of the collected data into an ecological model of resources and risk factors: Using existing structural information on involved communities in interaction with the results of the household interviews. Identification of green care potential at both household and ecological terms and conditions level. Organisations

Farms

Structure of offerings

Documentation of success factors for local initiatives. Arriving at hints for practice. Facilitating access to necessary resources for different players. Know-how transfer between different initiatives and projects. Analyses of the collected data from different perspectives of groups of interest. Establishing hints for quality-assurance systems.

We create scientific knowledge and decision-making tools for agriculture, government authorities and society.

Literature
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behaviour. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179-211. Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behaviour. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. Prochaska, J. O. & DiClemente, C. (1984). The transtheoretical approach: crossing traditional foundations of change. Homewood, Ill.: Don Jones/Irwin. Prochaska, J. O. & DiClemente, C. (1986).Towards a comprehensive model of change. In: W. R. Miller & N. Heather (eds.), Treating addictive behaviours: processes of change, New York: Plenum Press, pp. 3-27.

Models + Explanations
Explanations Potentials

Processes + Implementation Processes Facilitation

Methods

Farm level Context level

B1

B2

B3

B4

B5

B6

U1

U2

U3

U4

U5

U6

Households: Interviews by telephone (screening interviews) and computer- assisted personal interviews (in a selected sub-sample). Organisations: Mix of different methods: Interviews with experts, analyses of documents and organisations.

Qualitative methods: in analysing green care development processes, participatory research and action research methods are used. Quantitative methods: Statistical procedures such as regression and structural modelling are used in Context-Household interaction analyses.

Using different social-science methods. Establishing a synopsis of the different project stages and levels from the viewpoint of promoting green care.

For further information

Hans Wydler, lic.phil. E-mail: hans.wydler@art.admin.ch Socioeconomics Working Group at the Research Station Agroscope Reckenholz-Tnikon ART, an institution in the Federal Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) of the Swiss Confederation Address: Tnikon, CH-8356 Ettenhausen, Switzerland Tel. +41 52 368 31 31; Tel.: direct dial +41 52 368 32 06; Fax +41 52 365 11 90 www.art.admin.ch

Farm-Context interactions

S1

S2

S3

S4

S5

S6