MULTIFUNCTIONAL AGRICULTURE: CHALLENGES AND AVENUES FOR ITS DEVELOPMENT

This paper identifies the challenges of local multifunctional agriculture and ways to develop it. A review of the relevant literature shows that the competitiveness and sustainability of farms are the main issues in adopting a multifunctional agricultural model. In addition, financial assistance granted to farmers by the local public authority in the form of flexible contracts, and the development of specific markets could well be the two credible economic instruments for financing such agriculture. The deployment of these instruments is constrained by the characteristics of externalities and/or public goods, recognised in the non-market functions of agriculture.