Understanding the drivers of sustainable animal farming in Sweden : an integrated quantitative and qualitative analysis

Sammanfattning

Sustainable animal farming has become an important practice that addresses environmental challenges, economic pressures and food security concerns. This study aims to examine the key factors associated with adoption of sustainable animal farming practices in Sweden. The researcher used mixed method approach because the researcher did quantitative analysis with qualitative insights to provide a comprehensive understanding of the research problem. The quantitative component analyzed the association between five key variables namely farmer attitudes, environmental factors, economic and market conditions, government policies, and knowledge and advisory services with sustainable farming. The results revealed a positive correlation between farmer attitudes, environmental factors, knowledge and advisory services and government policies with sustainable animal farming. The economic factors are not show significant association between sustainable animal farming. The qualitative data were collected through ten semi-structured interviews with animal farmers across southern Sweden. Thematic analysis of the interviews identified several major themes, including economic constraints, policy and regulatory challenges, environmental awareness, market dynamics, knowledge gaps, and structural differences between farm types. While farmers demonstrated positive attitudes and strong environmental awareness, the findings highlight that economic pressures, particularly high investment costs and unstable market conditions are the most significant barriers to sustainability adoption. Additionally, government policies support sustainable practices, their complexity and lack of flexibility limit their effectiveness, especially for small-scale farmers. The study also found that consumer demand for sustainable products is growing but remains inconsistent due to price sensitivity while advisory services, although valuable, require more practical and tailored approaches. Four variables showed statistically significant positive associations with sustainable animal farming namely farmer attitudes, environmental factors, government policy, and knowledge/advisory services. Economic and market conditions showed a weak positive but non-significant association in the survey data. The qualitative results show that economic factors are major barriers based on thematic analysis. The researcher identified economic factor was qualitatively important but not statistically supported as a linear survey association in this sample.