Governance Structures for the Multifunctionality of Agriculture in the EU - Bottom-up View of Local Stakeholders in Europe

The multifunctional character of agriculture has gained increasing attention in both policy and research over the last few years. The most relevant policy initiative for the programming period 2000-2006 in terms of multifunctionality is Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999, while LEADER+ is of particular interest due to its innovative approach to governance (Schader and Stolze, 2005a). In order to improve governance structures it is necessary to find out what the governance situation is at the regional level and what regional stakeholders think about the multi-level governance system. So far, there is little empirical evidence regarding the way local stakeholders perceive governance processes in the EU in terms of rural development. The aims of this study were: - to identify the governance structures relevant to the multifunctionality of agriculture, - to determine the strengths and weaknesses of regional implementation of the second pillar of the EU Common Agricultural Policy, - and to develop recommendations for good governance in rural development policy

Organic Farming - An efficient and integrated system approach responding to pressing challenges

- One strict and easily understandable rule in organic farming such as the ban of synthetic fertilisers often results in a number of environmental benefits. - Organic farming support helps to minimise costs for farm support while increasing its environmental effects. - Cost effectiveness of organic farming support can result from consistency of the policy measure, the system approach of organic farming and resulting synergetic environmental effects, as well as increased market values and lower transaction costs

The societal demand for multifunctionality – priorities from the perspective of regional stakeholders

In order to foster a multifunctional agriculture that is adapted to the societal demand, the preferences of the regional population for functions provided by agriculture have to be identified. This demand, however, is difficult to measure economically, since multifunctionality is partly concerned with public goods. Our study aimed at identifying the societal demand for economic, ecological and sociocultural functions of agriculture and the underlying reasons within the framework of multifunctionality. Therefore, methods which can measure several functions at the same time and which include also qualitative information in addition to revealing Willingness-to-pay (WTP) values were regarded as most appropriate. For our research question, we opted for an indirect method, based on stated, collective preferences of regional representatives and experts for rural development (e.g. mayors from towns located in the case studies, representative from tourist or environmental organisations, experts from agricultural or regional administrative bodies, coordinators of Leader projects and researchers). We applied Stakeholder Delphi Approach: The first step aimed at seizing the whole range of relevant views on the issue by individual face-to-face interviews, while the second step condensed this information to a prioritisation of functions using a budget game approach. The results of the interviews were analysed by means of qualitative content analysis. Prioritisations and budget allocations were interpreted with descriptive statistics. Assuming that there are regional differences concerning the societal demand, this study was implemented in four case studies: River Gudenå (Denmark), Ostprignitz-Ruppin (OPR) (Germany), Mugello, (Italy), and Kościan (Poland). First, each case study was analysed separately, then a cross-country comparison was carried out. The results of this research indicate that there is a considerable societal demand for multifunctional agriculture in all cases studied. However, the roles the stakeholders attributed to regional agriculture varied between the case studies. In most of the case studies, the stakeholders opted for a relatively balanced demand allocation in terms of economic, ecological, and socio-cultural functions, whereas the stakeholders in OPR put a slight emphasis on economic functions. While the stakeholders of the OPR case study gave absolute priority to the provision of jobs, the stakeholders in the Danish case study were strongly concerned about the elimination of negative effects of agriculture such as smells and nitrate in drinking water. In both cases a significant share of the demand was allocated towards para agricultural activities, such as agri-tourism and the provision of renewable energies, whereas functions directly related to food production attained a relatively small proportion of the demand. The case study “Kościan” in Poland suggests, in contrast, a strong societal demand for food-production related functions, such as regional food supply and quality food production, while an improvement of the rural infrastructure was also highly prioritised. In the case of Mugello (Italy) two clusters of agricultural functions were identified: A high societal demand was stated both for the functions related to food production and landscape related functions, including the maintenance of a hydro-ecological equilibrium. We conclude that despite the regional differences concerning the importance of multifunctional services of agriculture, there is a strong demand for multifunctional agriculture as a whole. These results have to be interpreted with care, given the explorative character of the study. We faced a variety of methodological challenges. Particularly, the relatively small sample per case study and the limited information flow to the involved stakeholders needs to be addressed in future studies. Nevertheless, our results give valuable insights into the demand structure and its underlying reasons for the complex matter of multifunctionality. Thus, on the basis of our results we are able to provide policy recommendations for a future Model of European Agriculture backed by the preferences prevailing in society. Furthermore, we give suggestions for further research concerning the societal demand for the functions of agriculture

Physical approaches for the performance optimization and investigation of organic batteries

The increasing awareness of the negative impacts humanity has on the global ecosystem resulted in an ever growing demand for a more sustainable energy and material consumption over the past decades. Environmentally benign electricity generation and energy storage represent two of the key technological approaches to address this issue. In this context, organic radical batteries (ORB) and redox flow batteries (RFB) possess significant advantages as energy storage technologies due to the sustainable material basis they rely on and the performance characteristics they offer. However, while material development is continuously advancing in this research field, methods for the proper characterization and performance optimization of ORBs and RFBs still need to keep pace with this development to exploit the full potential of these technologies. This thesis, therefore, aims to contribute with a physical perspective to the investigation and optimization of these novel energy storage systems. In particular, porous electrode morphologies in ORBs and special methods to produce them are investigated. Furthermore, non-conventional cell designs for the electrochemical reactors of RFBs are investigated and their impact on the performance parameters of the RFB are explored. Finally, two methods for the reliable and accurate measurement of the electrolytes' state-of-charge as one of the most important key parameters were developed and characterized

The trade-off between scope and precision in sustainability assessments of food systems

With sustainability becoming an increasingly important issue, several tools have been developed, promising to assess sustainability of farms and farming systems. However, looking closer at the scope, the level of assessment and the precision of indicators used for impact assessment we discern considerable differences between the sustainability impact assessment tools at hand. The aim of this paper is therefore to classify and analyse six different sustainability impact assessment tools with respect to the assessment level, the scope and the precision. From our analysis we can conclude that there is a trade-off between scope and precision of these tools. Thus one-size-fits-all solutions with respect to tool selection are rarely feasible. Furthermore, as the indicator selection determines the assessment results, different and inconsistent indicators could lead to contradicting and not comparable assessment results. To overcome this shortcoming, sustainability impact assessments should disclose the methodological approach as well as the indictor sets use and aim for harmonisation of assumptions

CH-FARMIS 2.0: A Sector-Model to Assess the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Swiss Direct Payment Schemes

Quantitative sector models are an essential tool to forecast the sector-wide economic effects of agricultural policies. However, to cover ecological effects with economic sector models is still a methodological challenge. This poster describes a promising approach, which is currently implemented at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) to meet this challenge. CH-FARMIS is a sector consistent farm group model, which is able to forecast economic impacts of policies on farm, regional and sector-level. In a flexible way, CH-FARMIS is able to split up the farm sector in farm groups according to various characteristics (region, farming system, farm type, etc.). CH-FARMIS is based on positive mathematical programming (PMP) to allow for a realistic reproduction of the Swiss agricultural sector. Currently, CH-FARMIS is augmented in two ways in order to illustrate the environmental impacts of farmers’ decisions and land use: Firstly, intensity levels of farm production are introduced. Secondly, all farm activities and their intensity levels are equipped with ecological indicators, which are derived from LCA data. In an iterative Delphi-procedure, polling a set of competence teams, the LCA data is adapted to the model needs and transposed from farm level to sector level. The following indicators will be implemented in CH-FARMIS 2.0: Biodiversity, water contamination (N, P) and energy use. The enlarged version of CH-FARMIS will be a flexible tool which can be used for both exante assessments of policy reforms and the quantitative evaluation of single direct payments. CH-FARMIS 2.0 is planned to be operable in mid 2008

Bewertung der Nachhaltigkeit der biologischen Landwirtschaft in der Schweiz durch Experten

This paper aims to present the results of an expert and stakeholder based Delphi approach for analysing the performance of Swiss organic agriculture in terms of sustainability. We analysed four different production systems: Bio Suisse standards, public organic standards, integrated farming and farming according to Swiss cross compliance standards. The study illustrated that none of the farming systems performs 100% sustainable against any of the indicators. However, organic production showed an about 1-20% better performance than conventional and integrated systems. Particularly high scores were achieved for product quality, animal welfare, and biodiversity, while performing below average regarding resource use, food security and climate change. We conclude that organic production can be described to be ‘more sustainable’ than conventional production. However, substantial improvements in performance are possible. The means for making organic systems more sustainable include gains in productivity, additional incentives for on-farm nature protection elements and strict enforcement of animal husbandry standards

EU governance structures for the multifunctionality of agriculture

This report on EU governance structures for the multifunctionality of agriculture represents Deliverable 6.1 of the MEASCOPE project. Executive Summary In order to adapt to external and internal necessities, Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) the emphasis is gradually shifted from market price support measures to direct payments and rural development policy. This results in a stronger focus on the multifunctional character of agriculture, which comprises the fact that the agricultural sector not only produces food and fibre, but also shapes the landscape, provides environmental benefits and contributes to socio-economic aspects of life in rural areas. The way how this new policy area of rural development is governed on the various levels, is an important factor for its success. The objective of this report is to reveal these governance structures for rural development policy and to reflect the current research in this area. It gives a brief introduction to the general governance debate and how governance is discussed in Europe. The second chapter focuses on the policy process, which is divided into the preparation-, decision-, implementation-, and the control phase. The third chapter analyses rural development policy within two steps. Both of them take account of the measures of the Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 and of the LEADER initiative. The first step describes the governance structure of rural development policy reviewing official EU documents. The second step provides an overview on the scientific debate on governance in the rural development policy. The allocation of competences in rural development policy was often criticised. Decisionmaking-, financial-, and implementation responsibilities are shared differently among the levels. According to the Concept of Fiscal Federalism this hinders the efficiency. Furthermore, regional and local actors lack competencies in designing rural development policy referring to the local conditions. While alternative approaches like local decision-making committees are not foreseen in the mainstream rural development scheme, the LEADER initiative explicitly supports such groups. The majority of papers evaluated the bottom-up approach and the integrated concept of rural development of the LEADER programmes as an innovative and effective policy tool. Others question the excellent evaluation results and see problems in the lack of democratic legitimacy of the LEADER local action groups (LAG). On the other hand, the implementation of agri-environmental and rural development policy is practiced very flexible across Europe. This leads to a north-south gradient of how these common policies are implemented. The report questions how Europe can overcome this gradient and predicts an even stronger gap between the EU-15 and the new Member States. To implement the rural development policy in a common way and to adjust it at the same time to the specific needs in the different regions in Europe is still an unsolved governance problem

How cost-effective are direct payments to organic farms for achieving environmental policy targets?

Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management,

Dynamics and decoherence in the central spin model using exact methods

The dynamics and decoherence of an electronic spin-1/2 qubit coupled to a bath of nuclear spins via hyperfine interactions in a quantum dot is studied. We show how exact results from the integrable solution can be used to understand the dynamic behavior of the qubit. It is possible to predict the main frequency contributions and their broadening for relatively general initial states analytically, leading to an estimate of the corresponding decay times. Furthermore, for a small bath polarization, a new low-frequency time scale is observed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Published version. See also http://www.physik.uni-kl.de/eggert/papers/index.htm