SEAMLESS PD2.3.2

This PD starts with a brief review of the start-of-the-art in agricultural multifunctionality research, highlighting the fact that much of the current literature on the subject is qualitative rather than quantitative. From this literature, we focus on a definition of multifunctionality that is advocated by the European Union whereby the provision of commodity and non-commodity outputs are couched in terms of their joint production'. We then present a formalised economic framework to guide the development of multifunctionality indicators based on this concept of joint production. This formalised economic framework is then used to provide a backdrop to the identification of theoretically plausible mathematical relationships between commodity and non-commodity outputs which, until now, have not been systematically articulated in the multifunctionality literature. Testing our framework and our thinking against real-world data is currently hampered because of logistical difficulties in acquiring that data; an issue not unique to SEAMLESS but rather a wider phenomenon encountered by multifunctionality researchers throughout Europe. Therein explains the largely theoretical (albeit quantitative) nature of this PD. Our work will continue until the data have been acquired and analysed