An interactive approach to policy impact assessment for organic farms in Europe

Organic farming has increasingly become an integral part of the European Common Agricultural Policy. This book analyses the impact of possible future EU policy options on typical organic dairy and arable farms in the EU. A novel methodological approach is tested in terms of applicability and feasibility of using it for international comparative policy impact analysis for organic farms. This approach links focus groups, consisting of farmers and advisors, with a policy impact assessment simulation model in an interactive manner

Modelling Livestock Component in FSSIM

This document summarises the development of a ruminant livestock component for the Farm System Simulator (FSSIM). This includes treatments of energy and protein transactions in ruminant livestock that have been used as a basis for the biophysical simulations that will generate the input production parameters for FSSIM. The treatments are derived principally from the “French” feed evaluation and rationing system for protein and energy. Currently, we have constructed routines that are capable of simulating input-output relationships for energy and protein in the following representative systems; dairy cattle; suckler cows; growing and finishing cattle; sheep and goats. The calculations of energy and protein requirements for these classes of livestock are described in detail in this documen

Phasing out milk quotas: Possible impacts on German Agriculture

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Modelling Livestock Component in FSSIM

Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Livestock Production/Industries,

Modelling and simulating change in reforesting mountain landscapes using a social-ecological framework

Natural reforestation of European mountain landscapes raises major environmental and societal issues. With local stakeholders in the Pyrenees National Park area (France), we studied agricultural landscape colonisation by ash (Fraxinus excelsior) to enlighten its impacts on biodiversity and other landscape functions of importance for the valley socio-economics. The study comprised an integrated assessment of land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) since the 1950s, and a scenario analysis of alternative future policy. We combined knowledge and methods from landscape ecology, land change and agricultural sciences, and a set of coordinated field studies to capture interactions and feedback in the local landscape/land-use system. Our results elicited the hierarchically-nested relationships between social and ecological processes. Agricultural change played a preeminent role in the spatial and temporal patterns of LUCC. Landscape colonisation by ash at the parcel level of organisation was merely controlled by grassland management, and in fact depended on the farmer's land management at the whole-farm level. LUCC patterns at the landscape level depended to a great extent on interactions between farm household behaviours and the spatial arrangement of landholdings within the landscape mosaic. Our results stressed the need to represent the local SES function at a fine scale to adequately capture scenarios of change in landscape functions. These findings orientated our modelling choices in the building an agent-based model for LUCC simulation (SMASH - Spatialized Multi-Agent System of landscape colonization by ASH). We discuss our method and results with reference to topical issues in interdisciplinary research into the sustainability of multifunctional landscapes

Environmental good production in the optimum activities portfolio of a risk averse-farmer

An analytical framework is proposed for analysis of environmental good production by farmers in the case of price uncertainty. Environmental good production contracted by means of agri-environmental agreements is treated as a riskless option in the farmer’s production activities portfolio. It is shown that agri-environmental agreements aiming at biodiversity competing with beef production are likely to increase management intensity on the non-enrolled land, and that the effect of the payments for these agreements on the number of hectares enrolled is ambiguous. It is also demonstrated that an increase in the output price variability and/or a decrease in the level of decoupled subsidies will induce an increase (decrease) in the area enrolled in agreements aiming at biodiversity competing with (complementary to) beef production. The obtained results are illustrated by means of efficient frontiers generated using mathematical programming farm level models of suckler cow farms in Monts du Cantal, in France.uncertainty, portfolio optimisation, biodiversity, agricultural policy, mathematical programming

Mixed Crop Livestock Farming Incorporating Agroforestry Orchards Facing the New Cap

In the context of the new CAP, decoupling subsidies from production should incite farmers to reorganize their production systems, particularly through diversification opportunities. In this paper we focus our analysis on the conditions that could permit the development of extensive orchards by modelling mixed crop livestock farms, which incorporate orchards. A mathematical programming model is built to simulate various intensification levels characterizing different technical pathways within the different farm activities (cattle breeding, forage fields, arboriculture). This model also enables us to take into account some environmental indicators related to these pathways. Moreover, the method illustrates technical complementarities existing within the diversified systems, thanks to the joint production phenomena introduced into our analysis. We show how these complementarities can be integrated into the farmer's decision criteria.decoupling, diversification, agroforestry orchards, joint production, mathematical programming, Agribusiness, C61, D24, Q12, Q21,

Farm-level Economic Evaluation of Net Feed Efficiency in Australia’s Southern Beef Cattle Production System: A Multi-period Linear Programming Approach

Selection of beef cattle for increased net feed efficiency is a current major focus for research. At present the trait seems to be more apparent in Australia’s southern beef production system which is dominated by mixed farming enterprises. Farm-level evaluation of net feed efficiency should take account of the farming system for which it is proposed along with the dynamic nature of genetic selection. Gross margin, linear programming and multi-period linear programming approaches to evaluation of the trait at the farm-level using a representative farm are compared. Implications of the trait for researchers and beef producers are identifiedfarm-level evaluation, genetic traits, linear programming, Farm Management,

EXPLORING THE ROLE OF SUCCESSION PATTERNS IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN'S DUALISTIC FARM STRUCTURES

This paper analyses the interplay between farm adjustments on individual farms in dualistic farm structures over time using an agent-based simulation approach. In particular, explore the development of individual farms when there are off-farm work opportunities and different propensities of younger farm successors to take over the farm. Results show that despite of large numbers of individual farms leaving agriculture, the impacts on land use, production, and income are independent on different propensities to take over a farm.dualistic farm structures, individual farms, generation change, succession, Farm Management, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

The EU-Wide Individual Farm Model for Common Agricultural Policy Analysis (IFM-CAP v.1): Economic Impacts of CAP Greening

This report presents the first EU-wide individual farm level model (IFM-CAP) aiming to assess the impacts of CAP towards 2020 on farm economics and environmental effects. The rationale for such a farm-level model is based on the increasing demand for a micro simulation tool capable to model farm-specific policies and to capture farm heterogeneity across the EU in terms of policy representation and impacts. Based on Positive Mathematical Programming, IFM-CAP seeks to improve the quality of policy assessment upon existing aggregate and aggregated farm-group models and to provide assessment of distributional effects over the EU farm population. To guarantee the highest representativeness of the EU agricultural sector, the model is applied to every EU-FADN (Farm Accountancy Data Network) individual farm (83292 farms). The report provides a detailed description of the first IFM-CAP model version (IFM-CAP V.1) in terms of design, mathematical structure, data preparation, modelling livestock activities, allocation of input costs, modelling of the CAP post-2013 and calibration process. The theoretical background, the technical specification and the outputs that can be generated from this model are also briefly presented and discussed. Model capability is illustrated in this study with an analysis of the EU farmers' responses to the greening requirements introduced by the 2013 CAP reform.JRC.D.4-Economics of Agricultur