Swiss Small Family Farmers
Skills: Research, Prototype, Interview, Strategy Design, System Thinking
September 2022 - December 2022
The Problem
There is a threat to the existence of future generations of Swiss family farms due to high-stress levels.
Family farms are an important part of Swiss tradition, and they help preserve the environment, biodiversity, and landscape. However, there are several social, economic, and environmental factors that threaten their existence. Many family farmers are willing to jeopardise farm continuation by not having a successor. This is because they recognised the difficulties of farming, mainly the heavy workload and uncertainty.
In a group of 3, we analysed the food system, and used primary and secondary research to design a future strategy that could improve social aspects of the food system.
Project Components
The project involves a system map of the current situation, a reality map based on interviews, ice berg model, and a future strategy.
Contributers
Our team of 3
Hans Kasper Hugentobler (Professor)
HSLU Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts
The Root of the Problem
From the time spent among family farmers in Lucerne and the interviews conducted, we organised the data and created a reality map. This allowed us to gain a holistic understanding of the challenges a farmers specially as female face daily. The map emphasises on the empathy.
The main part of our intervention is combining interdisciplinary experts, which can be from
governmental, community-based or an NGO organization. In the region, we utilize people who
are knowledgeable about various areas and form the "Support System Board." The strategy will
be primarily designed for small vegetable farmers and later on will be applied on a larger scale.
The team is matched with farmers based on the criteria such as farm structure, practice, location,
family, age, education and so on. Afterwards, they would schedule meetings in a group or
separately up to the needs of the farmer. The work is suitable for people in their early careers on a voluntary basis and in return, they receive food and experience on a farm.In the first stage, the experts will work together in close collaboration with the farmer to provide help to alleviate the stress factors in connection to the gathered problems from the reality map and system map. As part of the second stage, the board will prepare the farmer for the transition to the future farm.
