French WP6 issues: Document related to WP6-data and database, accompanying farmers' individual notices and complementing WP6 P1 DR1 report on technical organisation of the follow-up

EU project SSPE-CT-2003-502070French WP6 issues: Document related to WP6-data and database, accompanying farmers' individual notices and complementing WP6 P1 DR1 report on technical organisation of the follow-u

Agricultural policies in France: from EU regulation to national design.

The present document presents the French way EU agricultural policies have been, are, and will be, implemented, considering not only the means but also financing resources and procedures to achieve the national agricultural goals. For a better understanding a review of the CAP foundations is firstly provided in order to address the historic issues of the evolution of European agricultural policies. Then, main agricultural highlights of the French situation are briefly depicted, in order to better frame the two head points that are the French translation of markets policy on the one hand and of rural development on the other hand. Both issues are policy-oriented and sketches of national underlying strategies are given whenever the available data were relevant enough.EU Agricultural Policies, France

LE CONSEIL EN AGRICULTURE: Revue de littérature et analyse des dispositifs de conseil

Peu d'études ont recensé jusqu'à présent la teneur des débats scientifiques internationaux liés aux différentes thématiques relatives au conseil agricole. C'est ce que propose de faire la présente revue de littérature, et ce selon une approche intégrée effectuée à la lumière des différents enjeux agricoles.Agriculture; Conseil agricole; revue de littérature

La difficile question des biens publics en agriculture : réflexions autour des outils économiques

[Paper in French] The European Union (EU) has gradually increased the importance of environmental issues in the objectives and instruments of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Agro-environmental schemes, enforced within all of the Member States since the 90’s, are contracted by the farmers on a voluntary basis. Since the enforcement, in 2005, of the cross-compliance of the whole CAP direct payment, almost all farms in the EU are now subject to environmental and sanitary constraints. The efficiency of these mechanisms and their consistency with pre-existing instruments are nonetheless questionable, as shown by various research and evaluation reports. However, the provision of public goods through agriculture can be seen as a legitimate objective of the agricultural policy, even though the clear wish to propose a simplified CAP does not prima facie fit with a broad consideration of the public good issue in agriculture. This article proposes a critical review of the CAP in reference to that objective. A particular attention is paid to the provision of environmental public goods based on the assessment of past actions and recent progress. Besides, we question whether the CAP should, and could, support the farmers in meeting objectives in terms of environmental production. Our analysis intends to shed light on these issues which are currently largely debated. Finally, we present perspectives offered by economic instruments that could be mobilised in view of delineating the different options for the future CAP (post-2013). Within the next years technological progress, market forces, and the impacts of climate change will probably be the most important drivers of the evolution of agricultural structures, and therefore of the provision of environmental public goods. With its influence on the various determinants of the agricultural activities, the CAP has a key-role to play in the provision of such public goods. Hence, the future policy will have to pay greater attention to public goods if, in response to the social demand, it is decided to make them one of the backbones of the new CAP design. However, such a greening reorientation of the policy can turn thorny with respect to the maintenance of the initial objectives of the European policy: securing farms’ viability and maintaining the competitiveness of the agricultural sector within the EU.Common Agricultural Policy, public goods, agriculture, environment, economic instruments

Comparative Analysis of Technical Efficiency in European Agriculture

Technical efficiency has long been analysed as a measure of farm performance, however most studies are restricted to a single country case. This paper presents a comparative analysis of field crop and dairy farm performance across eight EU countries, including two New Member States (NMS), focusing on long run stability and mobility patterns. The main research question is how relative performance of farms fluctuates over time, i.e. whether poorly performing farms remain always inefficient whilst some farms are always very efficient. Results show that on average 60% of farms maintain their efficiency ranking in two consecutive years, whilst 20% improve and 20% worsen their positions, for all countries. Due to the unstable economic conditions, farms in NMS are more mobile than those in EU15.Farm technical efficiency, SFA, FADN, stability analysis, Farm Management, P52, Q12,

Productivity and Subsidies in European Union Countries: An Analysis for Dairy Farms Using Input Distance Frontiers

The major objective of this paper is to examine the association between agricultural subsidies and farm efficiency using data from the European Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) for operations specializing on dairy. The analysis covers the 18 year period going from 1990 to 2007 and includes the following seven countries: Denmark; France; Germany; Ireland; Spain; the Netherlands; and the United Kingdom. Separate translog stochastic input distance frontiers are estimated for each country. The key results show high average technical efficiency (TE) ranging from 91.8% to 94.9%, average rates of technological change going from -0.6% to 1.4%, and increasing returns to scale (1.24 to 1.44) across all seven countries. In addition, higher subsidy and hired labor dependence are found to be significantly associated with higher technical inefficiency across all seven countries. Moreover, the latest Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) regime introducing fully decoupled payments has reduced TE in all countries considered except Denmark.Subsidies, CAP, technical efficiency, technological progress, returns to scale, Europe, dairy production, input distance frontiers, Livestock Production/Industries, Productivity Analysis,

Synthèse bibliographique sur le conseil en agriculture

Le conseil agricole revêt une importance de plus en plus stratégique pour les agriculteurs, étant par exemple un moteur essentiel de changement, de structuration des productions, et des adaptations des pratiques en vue de répondre au mieux aux différentes attentes de la société et des évolutions contextuelles. Cependant les évolutions des contextes économiques et agricoles nationaux et mondiaux engendrent de sérieux changements et adaptations en matière d'organisation et d'orientation des dispositifs de conseil. Bien que le thème du conseil agricole ait fait l'objet d'une multitude d'articles de recherche ou cours des dernières décennies, peu d'études ont recensé jusqu'à présent la teneur des débats scientifiques en cours dans la littérature académique. Ce travail, basé sur une revue de littérature, s'inscrit donc dans un contexte global d'identification des grandes thématiques de recherche liées au conseil agricole, ainsi que des équipes majeures impliquées dans ces travaux. Les différents débats en cours, ainsi que les disciplines, les méthodes, les objets, les écoles de pensées ou encore les postures de recherche sont cependant également abordés et organisés autour de cinq grands thèmes majeurs : 1) l'environnement et l'arrangement institutionnel existant ou nécessaire pour un système de conseil efficace et pertinent ; 2) l'évolution de la demande et de l'offre de conseil ; 3) les compétences mobilisées dans le cadre du conseil ; 4) les démarches, les méthodes, les outils ainsi que le contenu du conseil ; 5) l'évaluation et les impacts des systèmes de conseil.Cette synthèse bibliographique n'a cependant pas la prétention de faire un état de l'art exhaustif pour chacune des thématiques évoquées ci-dessus, mais bien de dresser un panorama du champ du conseil en agriculture en pondérant l'importance relative de chacun des thèmes. L'objectif est donc bien d'offrir une vision aussi complète que possible des travaux de recherche conduits dans la sphère scientifique internationale, et ainsi d'éclairer un positionnement stratégique et pertinent des futures recherches à mener dans le domaine.SYNTHESE BIBLIOGRAPHIQUE ; REVUE DE LITTERATURE;CONSEIL EN AGRICULTURE ; ANALYSE DE DONNEES ; AGRICULTURE

Sustainability indicators for improved assessment of the effects of agricultural policy across the EU: Is FADN the answer?

peer-reviewedPolicy reform of the CAP and society’s expectations of agriculture have resulted in a growing need for improved information on the effectiveness of policy in achieving high-level objectives for more sustainable practice in agriculture. This is a high priority given its importance for consumers, public policy and private industry. Data collection programmes will need to adapt their scope if their information is to adequately address new information needs about high-level objectives. Assessment of sustainability at the farm level is hindered by the lack of data with which to derive appropriate, meaningful, and relevant indicators. This is particularly problematic for assessment of agricultural sustainability across the European Union (EU). Various databases exist at the EU scale regarding agricultural data sources and we identify one of these, the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), as having considerable potential to assess farm-level sustainability at EU level. We critique several examples of published work that has attempted to assess agricultural sustainability using: FADN data alone; FADN data in combination with data from supplementary surveys, and; FADN data in combination with data from other EU databases. We conclude that the FADN would need to broaden its scope of data collection if it is to address the new information needs of policy, and we discuss the challenges in expanding FADN with a view towards wider farm-level assessment of sustainability. These include careful selection of indicators based on various criteria, the representativeness of the FADN, and the need to include new themes to address environmental, social, and animal welfare effects of policy.This work was partly funded by the FLINT project under the EU Seventh Framework Programme grant number 613800