FoPIA-Surefarm 2 Case Study Report Sweden

We investigate the egg and broiler production system in Sweden. The system is undergoing continuous adaptation driven by continuous change in consumer preferences (animal welfare, food quality), continuous change in regulation which also requires technology adoption, as well as stricter standards applying to domestic products than imported products, making it more difficult for Swedish producers to be competitive on international markets. The main functions of the farming system are providing affordable and healthy food, economic viability, and maintaining natural resources in a good condition. Taking good care of animal health and welfare is also among the main functions and is considered a precondition for delivering healthy food. Indicators that are most representative for these main functions (function indicators) are presented in Table 1. On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being very low to 5 being perfect, the performance of the function indicators ranges from 2.8 for viable income, 3 (FoPIA-SURE-Farm 1) and 4 (FoPIA-SURE-Farm 2) for animal health and welfare, 3.6 for delivering healthy products, to 3.9 for maintaining the natural resources in good condition

An experiment on the link between risk preferencesand the willingness to become a farmer

This study investigates the link between risk preferences of agricultural students and their willingness to become a farmer. We conducted an incentivized experiment with 577 students of an agricultural university in Indonesia. Discriminating between alternative theories of decision‐ making under risk, we find that students' risk preferences behave in accordance with cumulative prospect theory, but risk preferences are not predictive of students' willingness to become a farmer. Framing the experimental lottery task in either an agricultural or a general entrepreneurship context does not alter the predictive power for the willingness to become a farmer. Our results contribute to the debates on risk and farm generational renewal, as well as the (lack of) parallelism in behavioral field experiments

Information processing in stated preference surveys A case study on urban gardens

For valid preference elicitation, stated preference surveys must provide information on the good to be valued, and respondents must process and recall the information. Previous studies show that the amount and type of information can affect stated preferences and the validity of value estimates, but how respondents process this information has been less researched. Some studies find correlations between preferences and respondent engagement with the information, but our study is the first to randomly and exogenously manipulate factors of engagement in a stated preference survey. Drawing on stated preference guidance and psychological concepts, we estimate the effect of quiz questions (asking about the content of the information) and self -reference questions (asking how the information personally relates to the respondent) on (i) engagement, (ii) information recall, and (iii) stated preferences in a discrete choice experiment survey valuing the ecosystem services of urban gardens in the German cities of Berlin and Stuttgart. Our results indicate that respondents spend more time on the information page when confronted with quiz rather than self-reference questions. For both question types, we do not find effects on recall or stated preferences. The results suggest that questions which increase engagement offer no simple fix to enhance information processing. Thus, alternative ways of reinforcing engagement, comprehension, and information recall in stated preference surveys should be developed and applied

Markteffekte medienwirksamer Lebensmittelskandale: Eine Ereignisstudie

Das Vertrauen der Konsumenten in gesunde Nahrungsmittel wird regelmäßig durch Lebensmittelskandale erschüttert. Im Zusammenhang mit der Diskussion von Maßnahmen, die seitens der Produzenten und/oder des Staates ergriffen werden, um Nahrungsmittelsicherheit zu gewährleisten, stellt sich die Frage, wie der Markt, genauer gesagt: die Verbraucher, auf das Bekanntwerden von Lebensmittelskandalen reagieren. In dem Beitrag wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob und wie sich Lebensmittelskandale, die eine mediale Verbreitung gefunden haben, auf Preise und Verbrauchsmengen ausgewählter tierischer Agrarerzeugnisse auswirken. Als methodischer Ansatz werden Ereignisstudien gewählt, die eine einfache Möglichkeit bieten, die Marktwirkungen sachlich und zeitlich klar definierter Ereignisse statistisch zu untersuchen. Das Hauptergebnis der empirischen Analyse lautet, dass für vier ausgewählte Fleischskandale in Deutschland im Zeitraum zwischen 2001 und 2006 kein signifikant negativer Einfluss auf Agrar- und Verbraucherpreise nachzuweisen ist. Daraus kann allerdings nicht der Schluss gezogen werden, Lebensmittelskandale seien für das Geschehen auf Agrar- und Produktmärkten irrelevant.Lebensmittelskandal, Ereignisstudie, Fleischmarkt, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Adaptability of the High-Value Egg and Broiler Production in Sweden

The Swedish egg and broiler sector faces strict regulation, changes in consumer’ preferences for high-quality food, and a need for constant technological adaptation. The aim of this chapter is to map key characteristics and to assess the resilience of the sector

Fair payments for effective environmental conservation

Incentive-based measures are increasingly popular to alleviate ongoing biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions from land use change. However, effectively using scarce conservation funds remains a major challenge. Using behavioral economic experiments in the buffer zone of a Vietnamese national park, we show that unfair payment distributions that are beyond land users’ control can reduce the environmental effectiveness of incentives, and that women exert more effort. Our study region is threatened by forest degradation and is part of the nationwide Vietnamese Payments for Forest Ecosystem Services program, making it an important and relevant context for improving the effectiveness of conservation measures. These results show that policymakers aiming for effective and efficient programs should pay close attention to fairness and gender

Do land markets improve land-use efficiency? evidence from Jiangsu, China

Inefficient use of scarce and fragmented land challenges the sustainability of agriculture. Land markets may improve land-use efficiency. In recent years, China has employed various instruments to promote land markets. This paper investigates whether land markets affect households' land-use efficiency, based on data from 1,202 farm households in Jiangsu Province. The measure of land-use efficiency was derived from a stochastic frontier production function, and a control function approach was employed to correct for selection bias. The results indicated that many households are using land inefficiently. While renting in land increases land-use efficiency, it is not affected by renting out land, implying that households are not giving up land for efficiency gains. We also provide suggestive evidence that the positive effect of renting in land results from abundant agricultural labour due to labour market failure

Forest-owner support for their cooperative's provision of public goods

This study investigates why members support their forestry cooperative's provision of awareness-raising campaigns. The members pay for the cooperative's dissemination of information to the government, non-governmental organizations, and the public to achieve a more favorable opinion about forestry. The possible gains of the campaign are non-rivalry goods and apply to members and non-members alike, which makes the campaign a public good. A sample of 782 members of a Swedish forestry cooperative completed a questionnaire based on four theoretically motivated hypotheses. The findings indicate that members are unconcerned about nonmember benefits from campaigns. Members particularly appreciate raising awareness of production-related issues. Social influences among the population of forest owners have no major impact. Trust in the cooperative is essential for member support of the provision of public goods. Members support the cooperative's campaigns even if the outcomes are uncertain or occur in a distant future

D5.5 Impacts of future scenarios on the resilience of farming systems across the EU assessed with quantitative and qualitative methods

For improving the sustainability and resilience of EU farming systems, it is important to assess their likely responses to future challenges under future scenarios. In the SURE-Farm project, a five-steps framework was developed to assess the resilience of farming systems. The steps are the following: 1) characterizing the farming system (resilience of what?), 2) identifying the challenges (resilience to what?), 3) identifying the desired functions (resilience for which purpose?), 4) assessing resilience capacities, and 5) assessing resilience attributes. For assessing the resilience of future farming systems, we took the same approach as for current farming systems, with the addition that future challenges were placed in the context of a set of possible future scenarios, (i.e., Eur-Agri-SSP scenarios). We evaluated future resilience in 11 case studies across the EU, using a soft coupling of different qualitative and quantitative approaches. The qualitative approach was FoPIA-SUREFarm 2, a participatory approach in which stakeholders identified critical thresholds for current systems, evaluated expected system performance when these thresholds would be exceeded, envisaged alternative future states of the systems (and their impact on indicators and resilience attributes), as well as strategies to get there. Quantitative approaches included models simulating the behavior of the systems under some specific challenges and scenarios. The models differed in assumptions and aspects of the farming systems described: Ecosystem Service modelling focused on the biophysical level (considering land cover and nitrogen fluxes), AgriPoliS considered, with an agent-based approach, socio-economic processes and interactions within the farming system, and System Dynamics, taking a holistic approach, explored some of the feedback loops mechanisms influencing the systems resilience from both a qualitative and quantitative approach. Each method highlighted different aspects of the farming systems. For each case study, results coming from different methods were discussed and compared. The FoPIA-SURE-Farm 2 assessment highlighted that most farming systems are close to critical thresholds, primarily for system challenges, but also for system indicators and resilience attributes. System indicators related to food production and economic viability were often considered to be close to critical thresholds. The alternative systems proposed by stakeholders are mostly adaptations of the current system and not transformations. In most case studies, both the current and alternative systems are moderately compatible with 'Eur-Agri-SSP1 – Agriculture on sustainable paths’, but little with other Eur-Agri-SSPs’. From the point of view of ecosystem services and nitrogen fluxes, the more resilient case studies are those able to provide multiple services at the same time (e.g., hazelnut cultivations in Italy and vegetable and fruit cultivation in Poland, able to provide good levels of both food production and carbon storage) and those well connected with other neighbouring farming systems (e.g., the Dutch case study receiving manure by the livestock sectors). The System Dynamic simulation (applied quantitatively for the Dutch and French case study) highlighted the need to develop resources that can increase farmers’ flexibility (e.g., access to cheap credit, local research and development, and local market). It also showed that innovation, networks, and cooperation contribute to building resilience against economic disturbances while highlighting the challenges for building resilience to environmental threats. From the application of AgriPoliS to the German case study it was concluded that changes in direct payment schemes not only affect the farm size structure, but also the functions of the farming system itself and therefore its resilience. The report showed complementarity between different methods and, above all, between quantitative and qualitative approaches. Qualitative approaches are needed for interaction with stakeholders, understand perceptions of stakeholders, consider available knowledge on all aspects of the farming system, including social dimensions, and perform a good basis for developing and parameterizing quantitative models. Quantitative methods allow quantifying the consequences of mental models, operationalizing the impact of stresses and strategies to tackle them and help to unveil unintended consequences, but are limited in their reach. Both are needed to assess resilience of farming systems and suggest strategies for improvement and to help stakeholders to wider their views regarding potential challenges and ways to tackle them