Advisory Services and Financial Incentives as Policy Feedback — Farmers' Support for Agri-Food Policy Instruments

In Switzerland, Farms within Canton Lucerne are randomly assigned to one of three arms — two treatment arms (advisory services (Arm 1); advisory services plus an experimental budget (Arm 2)) and an internal control (Arm 3); farms in the external control cantons (Aargau, Thurgau, and St. Gallen) are assigned directly to the external control (Arm 4), without random assignment among themselves.

Arm 1 — Advisory services (n≈75): Farms first receive an initial advisory session: a three-hour on-site consultation conducting a location and potential analysis with the farm operator, enabling an informed choice of a subsequent tailored advisory track: (1) speciality crops or speciality arable farming, (2) Agri-PV combined with speciality crops, (3) regenerative plant production, (4) agroforestry, or (5) a voucher for an equivalent advisory service of the farm's own choice. Tailored advisory is delivered by regional public advisory services and specialised consultancies.

Arm 2 — Advisory services plus experimental budget (n≈50): Farms receive the same initial and tailored advisory as Arm 1, plus a one-time unconditional cash payment of CHF 10,000, disbursed in July 2027 via the cantonal agricultural authority, conditional on completion of the initial advisory session. The same fixed sum is paid to every Arm 2 farm irrespective of farm size. Prior to disbursement, Arm 2 farms submit a non-binding intention document describing their planned use of the budget; no repayment obligation applies if a farm subsequently withdraws or uses the funds differently than stated.

Arm 3 — Internal control (n≈300–600): Located within the treatment region (Canton Lucerne); receives no treatment; participates in all three survey waves and provides farm census data access.

Arm 4 — External control (n≈300–600): Located in Cantons Aargau, Thurgau, and St. Gallen; receives no treatment; same survey and census participation as Arm 3.

Both control groups (Arms 3 and 4) are jointly eligible for a prize draw after each survey wave (20 farms, CHF 500 each, drawn from both groups combined), as compensation for survey participation rather than a treatment component.

2026-09-14

2029-02-28

Survey-based indicators (baseline, Year 1, Year 2):

Overall policy support: 7-point scale (strongly reject → strongly support.). "Would you support or reject more state measures to expand plant food production (excluding feed) in Switzerland?"

Policy-instrument battery, introduced with: "Would you support or reject the following state measures? Assume all other support programs and framework conditions remain unchanged." 7-point scale (fully reject → fully support):

The policy-instrument battery covers the following twelve measures, each classified by Target (Plant/Animal), Type (Financial/Regulatory/Information), Direction (Incentive/Disincentive), and Point of Intervention (Producer/Intermediary/Consumer):

Farm-specific advisory and training services from public bodies (e.g., Agridea, cantons) to promote plant food production (excluding feed) — Plant, Information, Incentive, Producer.

State-funded experimental budget of CHF 10,000 to promote plant food production (excluding feed) — Plant, Financial, Incentive, Producer.

Simplification of spatial planning procedures for plant food production (excluding feed), e.g. structural investments for specialty crops (greenhouses, hail protection) or post-harvest infrastructure for arable crops (drying, dehulling) — Plant, Regulatory, Incentive, Producer.

Stronger state-subsidized crop insurance for plant crops to protect against yield losses — Plant, Financial, Incentive, Producer.

Higher border protection for plant crops (excluding feed) that are currently only slightly or not at all protected (e.g., protein crops) — Plant, Regulatory, Incentive, Producer.

Increase in per-crop subsidies (Einzelkulturbeiträge) for plant crops (excluding feed crops) that are currently only slightly or not at all supported (e.g., protein crops) — Plant, Financial, Incentive, Producer.

Stronger state financial support for marketing and innovation along the value chain for plant foods (e.g., regional processing infrastructure, pilot and demonstration projects) — Plant, Financial, Incentive, Intermediary.

An exit premium for livestock farms (e.g., pig breeders) in Switzerland — Animal, Financial, Incentive, Producer.

Voluntary reduction targets for livestock numbers in Swiss agriculture — Animal, Regulatory, Disincentive, Producer.

A reduction of VAT on plant foods — Plant, Financial, Incentive, Consumer.

An increase of VAT on animal foods — Animal, Financial, Disincentive, Consumer.

A mandatory minimum share of plant foods in institutional catering (e.g., canteens, hospitals, schools) — Plant, Regulatory, Incentive, Intermediary.

The general policy-support item is the primary test of H1/H2. The full instrument battery, disaggregated by Target/Type/Direction, is examined exploratively by instrument type, without confirmatory hypotheses.

Candidate mediator variables for RQ2 (material vs. interpretive channel):

Material channel: Risk perception battery; income share and value-creation/market-distribution items.

Risk perceptions of plant transition: 7-point likert scale (no risk – high risk); introduced with: "We now ask about three types of risk on your farm: production risk, market and price risk, and external financing risk. If you do not currently operate a given farm branch, please imagine you were responsible for that branch."

Production risk: “How do you perceive the production risk of different production branches on your farm?”; rated for: arable land for direct human consumption; arable land for feed production; specialty crops, animal production

Market and price risk: “How do you perceive the market and price risk of different production branches on your farm?”; rated for the same four branches.

External financing risk: "How do you perceive the external financing risk of different production branches on your farm?"; rated for the same four branches.

Income share from plant food production: level estimates (0–100%), collected in each wave; change derived by differencing.

"What percentage, do you estimate, does plant food production (excluding feed) contribute to your farm's agricultural income*?"

Current calendar year (all waves)

5 years ago (baseline only)

Next calendar year (all waves)

In 5 years (all waves)

Value creation (market distribution): measured via the distribution of monetary revenue from plant food production (excluding feed) across sales channels, collected at each wave (baseline, Year 1, Year 2), with the reference year adjusted accordingly (2026 at baseline, 2027 at Year 1, etc.). Percentage shares sum to 100%. Change in channel composition across waves is derived by differencing wave-specific shares.

"How do you estimate the composition of monetary revenue* solely from plant food production (excluding feed) by sales channel for the year [current wave year]?

Direct marketing (%)

Retail/wholesale (%)

Cooperatives/collection points (%)

Trade (%)

Other (%)



Interpretive channel: TPB items (as in the companion RCT); felt appreciation as a farmer and institutional legitimacy

Theory of Planned Behaviour constructs — attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control (exploratory mechanism).

Attitude: semantic differential, 7-point scale, 4 item pairs. "Expanding plant food production (excluding feed) on my farm in calendar year [wave-year+1] would be for me..." — disadvantageous–advantageous; risky–not risky; effortful–effortless; discouraging–appealing. Note: this item set includes material channel items (risky–not risky; effortful–effortless).

Subjective Norm: agreement scale, 4 items (2 injunctive/personal referents, 2 descriptive/social referents). "How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements?" — People who are important to me (family, partner, farmers nearby) expect me to expand plant food production (excluding feed) on my farm in calendar year [wave-year+1]; My most important advisors expect me to expand plant food production (excluding feed) on my farm in calendar year [wave-year+1]; Farmers in my region will expand their plant food production on their farm in calendar year [wave-year+1]; Farmers in my network will expand their plant food production on their farm in calendar year [wave-year+1]

Perceived Behavioural Control: "How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements?" — If I wanted to, I could successfully expand plant food production (excluding feed) on my farm in calendar year [wave-year+1]; It is up to me whether I expand plant food production (excluding feed) on my farm in calendar year [wave-year+1]; I have the skills and resources needed to expand plant food production (excluding feed) on my farm in calendar year [wave-year+1]

Felt appreciation as a farmer:

"In general, how much do you feel appreciated as a farmer?" 7-point scale (not at all strongly → very strongly).

Institutional Legitimacy

"All in all: are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way democracy functions in Switzerland?" 7-point scale (very dissatisfied → very satisfied).

"Now on the topic of agricultural and food policy. All in all: are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way agricultural and food policy functions in Switzerland?" 7-point scale (very dissatisfied → very satisfied).

Mediator variables are used to test RQ2 and are not confirmatory for H1/H2.

The study follows all four arms across three data-collection waves over approximately three years (baseline September–October 2026, Year 1 November 2027, Year 2 November 2028), with an optional Year 3 wave in November 2029 pending a decision on study extension.

Experimental Design Details

Farm-level survey data are linked to farm census data via farm identification number across all waves, allowing comparison of stated (survey) and revealed (census) preferences. We recruit from Canton Lucerne as the treatment region and from Cantons Aargau, Thurgau, and St. Gallen as an external control region with comparable farm structural characteristics. Within both regions, farms are eligible if they are located in the respective recruitment region, are eligible for Swiss direct payments, and operate animal production at the time of recruitment (Standard Livestock Unit > 0). Contact data for outreach is provided by the Federal Office for Agriculture (BLW); farms already at the BLW's cap on survey invitations in the current calendar year cannot be proactively invited but remain eligible and may register by contacting the project team directly; eligible farms are then granted access to the survey. Eligible farms with available contact data are invited near-exhaustively within each region. The study deliberately targets farms that have not already fully committed to plant food production; subject to sufficient overall sample size, the analysis may exclude farms for which plant food production already constitutes 91–100% of agricultural income at baseline, and farms that indicate at baseline they would not accept either treatment if assigned, with such restrictions pre-registered and applied only if they do not compromise statistical power. Eligible farms receive a written invitation letter and follow-up email, with a reminder letter and email sent to non-respondents two weeks later, and two information events (in-person and hybrid) before registration closes at the end of October 2026. Farms are informed of their arm assignment by letter-post and email in early December 2026; farms assigned to Arms 1 and 2 must actively confirm participation via a confirmation link. Replacement farms are recruited from the pool of registered control farms with similar characteristics on pre-specified balancing variables where withdrawals or non-confirmations occur.

Not available

Following completion of survey registration, eligible farms in Canton Lucerne will be randomly assigned to the three study arms: 75 farms to Arm 1, 50 to Arm 2, and the remaining eligible farms to Arm 3. Farms in the external control cantons (Aargau, Thurgau, and St. Gallen) will be assigned directly to Arm 4 and will not enter this randomization procedure.

We will use rerandomization to improve covariate balance. Candidate allocations will be generated by computer and evaluated using Mahalanobis distance across a set of covariates grouped into priority tiers, including baseline outcomes, geographic characteristics, and other farm-level characteristics. Balance thresholds for each tier will be calibrated beforehand using simulated allocations and fixed prior to the final randomization.

For the final randomization, a new and independent set of allocations will be generated by computer, and the allocation ultimately used will be drawn uniformly at random from those satisfying all balance criteria. Randomization will take place after survey registration closes but before treatment delivery and before any post-treatment outcomes are observed.

The individual farm

No

Non-clustered design

725–1325 farms

Arm 1 n≈75; Arm 2 n≈50; Arm 3 n≈300–600; Arm 4 n≈300–600