Agricultural land abandonment is a major contemporary global land-use change process (Prishchepov, 2020), although less studied than deforestation or urbanization. It is defined as a reduction or even a cessation of agricultural activities and management, associated with a shift in land cover due to vegetation succession (Fayet et al., 2022b; Subedi et al., 2022)).
Often perceived as underutilized, unproductive, or even wasted, and thus available, these land face various transformations (Baka, 2013; Gidwani & Reddy, 2011; Nalepa & Bauer, 2012). In the context of renewed competition for land (Harvey & Pilgrim, 2011), abandoned farmland have been particularly targeted over the past two decades for the implementation of environmental conservation, renewable energy, and food policies, all of which demand significant land surfaces. These include efforts to store carbon and preserve biodiversity through rewilding, to produce solar and wind energy or biofuels, and to promote agroecology and local food supply chains (Fayet et al., 2022b, 2022a).
Thus, framed here as new 'resource frontiers' (Rasmussen & Lund, 2018), abandoned farmland provide a compelling lens for examining contemporary political ruptures that affect land, its governance, and mechanisms of control (Goldstein & Yates, 2017; Peluso & Lund, 2011), as they drive transformations in land use, ownership structures, actors, and modes of valuation.
This article analyzes the politics of policymaking and policy implementation for abandoned farmland. Abandoned land policies are promoted by different groups of public and private actors (e.g. local authorities, industrial firms, farmers) with different interests, beliefs and resources. In addition, these actors face and have to deal with land owners and users to effectively turn so-called abandoned farmland into new resources for green transitions. Consequently, the design and implementation of these policies often lead to local controversies and distributive conflicts (Aklin & Mildenberger, 2020) opposing competing land interests and imaginaries (Sippel & Visser, 2021).
By proposing a theoretical framework combining policy analysis and critical agrarian studies, which we will apply to four case studies in France and Italy, we aim to answer the following questions: who are the different groups competing for abandoned farmland? What are their respective interests, their understandings, views, and visions of abandoned farmland? And how do distributive conflicts shape policies on abandoned farmland?
The case studies focus on (past or ongoing) local initiatives in France and Italy targeting abandoned farmland to foster sustainable transitions: the Petit Daoud wind farm project promoted by Total Energies in Guadeloupe (France); the Pouget (Hérault, France) policy supporting starting farmers; the Roma (Italy) food policy allocating public land to organic farmers; and the Sardinian (Italy) agrivoltaic projects.For each case study, we will map the coalition of actors promoting (and framing) these local policies, characterizing their resources, their imaginaries of abandoned farmland, and, their strategies on these land. In addition, we will pay particular attention to the tensions and conflicts triggered by these policies - i.e. who are the critical actors and/or opponents, as well as the barriers and limitations encountered during the implementation -e.g. lack of human/financial resources, material/ecological constraints, etc.
