To assess the potential impacts of Mixed Farming and Agroforestry Systems (MiFAS) at the landscape scale, we analyse selected case studies from two perspectives: bottom-up and top-down.

The bottom-up approach considers a landscape as formed by farmers and their interactions among themselves and other actors. Indeed, farmers exchange feed, manure, and even information: therefore, even if single farms are specialized, the interactions among them can make the landscape mixed. Once these interactions are understood, a so-called ‘agent-based’ model is developed to provide new insights into landscape-level efficiency and resilience. Dynamic simulations of the agent-based approach help to identify the roles of the farms in the landscape, e.g. the most vulnerable farms in the landscape (i.e. the ones more at risk of nitrogen accumulation), or can show the importance of developing connections for increasing landscape efficiency and resilience.

The top-down approach considers a landscape as a set of different land uses and aggregated variables. It draws on EU EUROSTAT and FADN data to identify the regions in Europe most adapted to mixed system (greatest existing mixed farming and highest potential for developing it). Through this approach farm or regional typologies are constructed, based on land cover variables (e.g. percentage of grassland or maize fodder cultivation in a region), livestock density (e.g. number of cattle per surface unit), or other types of variables (e.g., average size of the farm).

All the above bottom-up and top-down results will be compared for the selected MIXED networks, with lessons to be learned for the upscaling and generalization across Europe. This landscape modelling work will be complemented by a review of relevant literature and project studies addressing mixed systems.

The landscape level research will deliver:

• a literature study and review of relevant research projects addressing MiFAS
• a report with a description of a graph-based modelling approach for farm interactions
• a report on the potential for expansion of mixed farming in European regions
• a Landscape scale impact assessment and solution scenarios for resilient mixed farming systems