Sustainable intensification aims to minimize the negative impacts of the current agricultural system while maintaining productivity and economic outputs. This study demonstrates that contract farming is a potential mechanism to support many, but not all, farmers in adopting sustainable intensification practices. A discrete choice experiment on a hypothetical value chain contract introducing three sustainable intensification practices, namely extended crop rotation, reducing agrochemicals and planting flower strips, was conducted with a sample of 314 north-Italian wheat farmers. The results show that permanently eliminating glyphosate from the plot under contract is strongly resisted by farmers, while farmers have less strong preferences between introducing legumes or oilseeds in rotation, and between temporary or permanent flower strips. Findings also indicate that farmers who are more educated, are not members of cooperatives and who generally prefer more flexible sales arrangements are unlikely to be triggered to adopt sustainable intensification practices through contract farming. Overall, this study indicates that while voluntary contract arrangements can be a potential tool to increase uptake of sustainable intensification practices, they will likely need to be complemented with more public policy intervention in order to bring sustainable intensification practices to scale.

可持续集约化旨在最大限度地减少当前农业系统的负面影响，同时保持生产力和经济产出。这项研究表明，合同农业是支持许多（但不是所有）农民采用可持续集约化做法的潜在机制。以 314 名意大利北部小麦农民为样本，对引入三种可持续集约化做法（即延长作物轮作、减少农用化学品和种植花条）的假设价值链合同进行了离散选择实验。结果表明，农民强烈反对从合同地块中永久消除草甘膦，而农民对轮作种植豆科植物或油料种子，以及临时或永久花带的偏好不那么强烈。调查结果还表明，受教育程度更高、不是合作社成员并且通常更喜欢更灵活的销售安排的农民不太可能被触发通过合同农业采用可持续集约化做法。总体而言，这项研究表明，虽然自愿合同安排可以成为增加采用可持续集约化做法的潜在工具，但它们可能需要辅之以更多的公共政策干预，以扩大可持续集约化做法。