Pluralism of agricultural advisory service providers – Facts and insights from Europe

Agricultural advisory services (AAS) have regained importance for policy makers worldwide and especially in the European Union (EU), because of increased attention to food production and related innovation processes in rural areas. However, a systematic overview of AAS in the EU is missing, and there is a lack of evidence about their diversity and organisational pluralism. With this paper, we systematically explore the variety of advice providing bodies in Europe regarding organisational features, characteristics of service provision and the targeted client groups. The results show a pluralism of organisations that is a widely represented phenomenon across the EU. It implies a variation of service provision quality and targeted clients within and among countries. Moreover, we identify groups among the farming population that apparently are not served by any type of provider. We conclude on impacts of organisational pluralism and especially privatisation of AAS for various client groups, and point out further research needs with the evaluation of AAS performance in general and the potential of farmer-based organisations in particular. •Pluralism of agricultural advisory service providers in the European Union is remarkably widespread.•Farmer-based service providers play a major role in 10 out of 27 countries, private organisations have emerged everywhere.•Private providers are numerous in many countries and a cause of AAS fragmentation.•The farmer:advisor ratio and share of one-to-one advice in service provision varies according to organisational type.•While medium and large-scale farms are widely addressed, other farm groups receive less or no attention from any provider.