Sticking plaster or real help? Conditions and ways of improvement of farmers’ well-being: A qualitative comparative synthesis from six European countries

Despite a substantial body of research and diagnoses, a gap remains in the literature concerning the identification of the pressures and constraints that shape farmers’ well-being today across different national and regional contexts in Europe, as well as the assessment of the effects of mechanisms designed to address them. The aim of this article was to identify the challenges and the specific problems that affect farmers’ well-being in Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Italy Poland and Romania, and to explore the social innovations that respond to them. The analysis draws on secondary empirical material – six country mapping reports prepared between 2020 and 2022 – and applies a qualitative approach to identify three overarching challenges and nine specific problems linked to low levels of farmers’ well-being. A comparative case synthesis indicates that social innovations that are bottom-up, multi-actor, inclusive and responsive to locally identified needs are associated with positive effects on farmers’ well-being, particularly its social dimension.