Deliverable 3.3 - Synthesis Report on the Main Insights Gained from the In-depth Assessments in 30 Regions

This document presents an in-depth comparative assessment of the local and regional food systems analysed in SALSA. Its aim is to improve the understanding of the current and potential role of SF in regional Food and Nutrition Security (FNS). This deliverable is a synthesis report on the main insights gained from the analysis completed for the 30 reference regions.

The data used in this report was gathered in five major steps from WP3, combined with the different steps of the work in WP2, described in the respective Deliverables. The results are divided into 6 different subsections, each providing a different analysis contributing to answer SALSA's main research questions: first, a summary of the key socio-economic and agricultural profiles of the regions analysed is provided; second, the production estimations obtained in WP2 are compared to official statistics; third, an innovative approach to quantifying SF' contribution to their regional food and nutrition security (availability dimension) is presented; fourth, a comparative analysis of SF' market linkages is provided and the key patterns discussed; fifth, the key actors shaping food systems are identified; and finally, the small farm typologies obtained in D.3.2. are contrasted against the key characteristics of their particular regional food systems. At the beginning of each section, the key highlights are provided.

Our results bring new insights to the current debate around SF and their contribution to FNS, which argues that SFs are still a key element of global FNS. Our results are in line with these arguments and bring a much needed focus on European small farm, evidencing that there are still many SF in Europe supporting regional FNS with locally supplied and produced food.

Thus, this specific report aims to analyse, precisely, the contribution of SF to the availability dimension of regional FNS. This is done by looking from a regional level perspective at the activities and flows activated by SF, or in other words, small farm's market linkages, through the analysis of different key food products in 30 reference regions in Europe and Africa, which in total lead to 109 food products systems (being each product in general analysed in more than one region).