Abstract
This paper reviews the findings from the last 20 years on the behavioural factors that influence farmers’ decisions to adopt environmentally sustainable practices. It also proposes policy ...options to increase adoption, based on these behavioural factors and embedded in the EU Common Agricultural Policy. Behavioural factors are grouped into three clusters, from more distal to more proximal: (i) dispositional factors; (ii) social factors and (iii) cognitive factors. Overall, the review demonstrates that considering behavioural factors enriches economic analyses of farmer decision-making, and can lead to more realistic and effective agri-environmental policies.
A greener path for the EU Common Agricultural Policy Pe'er, Guy; Zinngrebe, Yves; Moreira, Francisco ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
08/2019, Volume:
365, Issue:
6452
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
It's time for sustainable, environmental performance
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU) is one of the world's largest agricultural policies and the EU's ...longest-prevailing one. Originally focused mostly on supporting production and farm income, the CAP has progressively integrated instruments to support the environment. Nonetheless, there is considerable agreement among EU citizens that the CAP still does not do enough to address ongoing environmental degradation and climate change (92% of nonfarmers, 64% of farmers) (
1
). In May and June 2018, the European Commission (EC) published the financial plan and legislative proposal for the CAP post-2020 (
2
), prompting numerous proposed amendments that the newly elected European Parliament (EP) will now have to consider. With an eye toward the next and final reform stages, including budget discussions and “trilogue” negotiations between the EC, the Council, and the EP to begin in autumn 2019, we examine whether the proposed post-2020 CAP can address key sustainability issues and meet societal demands for higher environmental performance.
•Food policy integration is needed for a transition to sustainable food systems.•A policy framework that links the policy cycle to transition theories is developed.•The evolution of Food and ...Nutrition Security through the CAP cycles is analysed.•A map of food-related policy instruments is developed to assess synergies and gaps.•An effective food policy needs to be system-oriented and knowledge-integrated.
A new food policy coherent with the goal of achieving sustainable food systems implies changing visions and radically revising the understanding of the system on which agricultural and food-related policies act. This paper identifies and discusses policy processes that contribute to sustainable food systems in Europe. Based on a conceptual framework that links the policy cycle approach to transition theories, we (i) assess the evolution of policy cycles of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to highlight how the food and nutrition concepts have evolved and been reframed throughout the five phases of the CAP, (ii) map and classify available policy instruments to assess potential synergies and gaps in view of their reorganization and (iii) indicate and discuss strategic tools for sustainable food policies. This contribution goes beyond the current literature highlighting the obstacles which hinder the transition to a policy regime that embodies the nexus among food and nutrition security, natural capital preservation and climatic and social justice, and proposing new avenues for food policy studies.
The objective of this article is to examine the association between agricultural subsidies and dairy farm technical efficiency in the European Union, and in so doing we make novel contributions to ...the literature. We include in the analysis nine diverse western European Union (EU) countries over an 18-year period (1990–2007) encompassing the various Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms enacted since the inception of the EU. Further, we account for input endogeneity using an original method of moments estimator. Our results show that the effect of subsidies on technical efficiency may be positive, null, or negative, depending on the country. The analysis reveals that the introduction of decoupling with the 2003 CAP reform weakens the effect that subsidies have on technical efficiency.
Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data have provided an unprecedented opportunity for crop monitoring due to its high revisit frequency and wide spatial coverage. The dual-pol (VV-VH) ...Sentinel-1 SAR data are being utilized for the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as well as for other national projects, which are providing Sentinel derived information to support crop monitoring networks. Among the Earth observation products identified for agriculture monitoring, indicators of vegetation status are deemed critical by end-user communities. In literature, several experiments usually utilize the backscatter intensities to characterize crops. In this study, we have jointly utilized the scattering information in terms of the degree of polarization and the eigenvalue spectrum to derive a new vegetation index from dual-pol (DpRVI) SAR data. We assess the utility of this index as an indicator of plant growth dynamics for canola, soybean, and wheat, over a test site in Canada. A temporal analysis of DpRVI with crop biophysical variables (viz., Plant Area Index (PAI), Vegetation Water Content (VWC), and dry biomass (DB)) at different phenological stages confirms its trend with plant growth dynamics. For each crop type, the DpRVI is compared with the cross and co-pol ratio (σVH0/σVV0) and dual-pol Radar Vegetation Index (RVI = 4σVH0/(σVV0 + σVH0)), Polarimetric Radar Vegetation Index (PRVI), and the Dual Polarization SAR Vegetation Index (DPSVI). Statistical analysis with biophysical variables shows that the DpRVI outperformed the other four vegetation indices, yielding significant correlations for all three crops. Correlations between DpRVI and biophysical variables are highest for canola, with coefficients of determination (R2) of 0.79 (PAI), 0.82 (VWC), and 0.75 (DB). DpRVI had a moderate correlation (R2≳ 0.6) with the biophysical parameters of wheat and soybean. Good retrieval accuracies of crop biophysical parameters are also observed for all three crops.
•Proposed a new dual-pol radar vegetation index for Sentinel-1.•DpRVI follows the phenological trend with plant growth.•Investigated Dop and eigenvalue spectrum of dual-pol data to map crop condition.•DpRVI outperforms VH/VV and RVI for correlations with biophysical parameters.
The ambition of the Conservative government elected in June 1970 was to fundamentally change the system of support for British agriculture. Rather than a relatively free import regime, with farm ...revenues supported by guaranteed prices and deficiency payments, minimum import prices
(mips) and variable import levies would be deployed to switch support from taxpayers to consumers. This idea, however, was far from novel. It reflected a policy shift first envisaged in 1963 and then pursued by both Conservative and Labour governments through the 1960s. It also anticipated
membership of the European Economic Community (EEC) and adoption of its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The Government's declared aim was to switch the system of farm support whether or not EEC membership was secured, and to that end an interim levy scheme, pending adoption
of the CAP, was planned. This meant abrogating various international commitments. The USA's response was particularly hostile (as it had been in 1963â-"4) and became more so when the UK proposed to add a system of export restitutions/allowances to its protectionist
regime. Although an interim levy scheme was eventually introduced, the UK's ambitions were severely constrained by US opposition, and the impact of its policy was largely muted by soaring world market prices. Whether the UK would have followed through with its longer-term plans had EEC
membership not materialized remains an open question.
This paper investigates the impact of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies on farm employment in Hungary and Slovenia. Econometric models were estimated separately for total farm labor, family ...labor, and hired labor. We find that total subsidies and, within these, Pillar I subsidies, have positive effect on farm employment of paid labor in Hungary and family labor in Slovenia. Irrespective of the country and type of employment, farm employment is significantly positively associated with farm size. Mixed results are found for Pillar II and investment subsidies. Rural development measures with agri-environmental and less favored area subsidies, and investment subsidies are particularly important for the family farm labor in Slovenia, but not for the paid labor, neither the family farm labor in Hungary. The impact of control regional labor market variables is mixed between the employment of family farm and paid labor within and between the analyzed countries. A strong link between main type of farm employment, different types of CAP subsidies and farm size suggests on the importance of CAP subsidies for maintaining of farm employment and job creation for young and unemployed, and land use policy. This might explain farmers political demand for status quo with only minor CAP subsidy changes, with raising society awareness on monitoring of effective and efficient use of subsidies.
•Distinguish different types of policy instruments on different types of farm labor.•Different types of subsidies diversify farm employment and land use.•Pillar I subsidies are positively linked to prevailing type of farm employment.•Farm size increases different types of farm employment.•The level of different types of farm employment may promote land use.
The Income Stabilisation Tool (IST), which was recently added to the European Common Agricultural Policy's risk management toolkit, is a mutual fund that aims at stabilising farmers' income. We ...investigate the drivers of farmers' participation in an IST for the apple sector in the Autonomous Province of Trento in Italy, which is the only region that has operationalised the IST in the European Union. Our analysis is based on a theoretical framework based on the Unified Theory of Use and Acceptance of Technology. Using a three‐year panel dataset of 3268 farm households, we estimated a logit model with the Mundlak–Chamberlain procedure. Our results show that higher crop production specialisation, associated with greater risk exposure, favours participation in the IST. Similarly, previous experience with mutual funds increases the acceptance of the IST. The analysis also provides evidence of how the new tool interacts with existing on‐farm protection strategies, leading to a discussion of the presence of adverse and advantageous selection effects. Our paper sheds light on farmers' acceptance of newly implemented sector‐specific ISTs and generates better knowledge and understanding of lock‐ins and levers that influence participation in such schemes, which are relevant to other EU regions or member states that are considering the introduction of ISTs.
The agricultural and food sector is an ideal case for investigating the political economy of public policies. Many of the policy developments in this sector since the 1950s have been sudden and ...transformational, while others have been gradual but persistent. This article reviews and synthesizes the literature on trends and fluctuations in market distortions and the political-economy explanations that have been advanced. Based on a rich global data set covering a half-century of evidence on commodities, countries, and policy instruments, we identify hypotheses that have been explored in the literature on the extent of market distortions and the conditions under which reform may be feasible.
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