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.
Characterizing and quantifying crop diversity (“effective number of crops”) across scales is needed to understand a wide range of issues related to resilience of farms and the agricultural sector, ...the provision of ecosystem services, and ultimately to provide a scientific basis for effective agro-environmental policies. We use a novel European Union (EU) wide satellite-derived product at 10 m spatial resolution to produce datasets of crop diversity across spatial (1-100 km) and administrative scales for the year 2018. We focus on the 27 EU countries and the United Kingdom. We define local crop diversity (α-diversity) at the 1km scale corresponding to large farms or clusters of small-to-medium sized farms. Across countries, the α crop diversity ranges from 2.3 to 4.4 with the highest levels achieved by systems dominated by a high number of small farms (less than 10 ha on average). Computed at grid level aggregation, γ-diversity (the number and area of crops that are grown independently from the precise location, for landscape region, and country levels) increases rapidly from 2.85 at 1 km to 3.86 at 10 km and levels off 4.27 at 100 km. Such diversity levels are higher than that reported for the U.S.A., likely related to differences in farm structure and practices. β-diversity, the ratio of γ and α diversity, provides a measure of the diversity between agroecosystems and ranges from 1.2 to 2.3 across EU countries. Based on the magnitude and change of γ-diversity across scales, we classify countries’ diversity in four groups with possible consequences for regional to national agro-environmental policy recommendations, in particular the monitoring activities and indicator development of interventions for the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the EU. Forthcoming annual high-resolution continental Copernicus crop type maps will facilitate temporal comparisons. Various ecosystem co-variates are to be explored for deeper understanding of the link of crop diversity to agro-ecosystem services.
•An EU wide crop diversity analysis is derived from a 10m EO crop map•We characterize α (local), γ (landscape) and β (γ/α) diversity up to national scale•We cluster EU countries in 4 policy approaches from their multi-scales crop diversity•EU countries with farms smaller than 10 ha show the highest local diversity•Landscape diversity is 40-50% higher in the EU than in the USA
In the European Union (EU-27) and UK, animal farming generated annually more than 1.4 billion tonnes of manure during the period 2016–2019. Of this, more than 90% is directly re-applied to soils as ...organic fertiliser. Manure promotes plant growth, provides nutritious food to soil organisms, adds genetic and functional diversity to soils and improves the chemical and physical soil properties. However, it can also cause pollution by introducing toxic elements (i.e., heavy metals, antibiotics, pathogens) and contribute to nutrient losses. Soil organisms play an essential role in manure transformation into the soil and the degradation of any potential toxic constitutes; however, manure management practices often neglect soil biodiversity.
In this review, we explored the impact of manure from farmed animals on soil biodiversity by considering factors that determine the effects of manure and vice versa. By evaluating manure's potential to enhance soil biodiversity, but also its environmental risks, we assessed current and future EU policy and legislations with the ultimate aim of providing recommendations that can enable a more sustainable management of farm manures.
This review explored the relationship between manure and soil biodiversity by considering 407 published papers and relevant legislative provisions. In addition, we evaluated whether benefits and risks on soil biodiversity are considered in manure management. Thereafter, we analysed the current legislation in the European Union relevant to manure, an important driver for its treatment, application and storage.
This review found that coupling manure management with soil biodiversity can mitigate present and future environmental risks. Our analyses showed that manure quality is more important to soil biodiversity than manure quantity and therefore, agricultural practices that protect and promote soil biodiversity with the application of appropriate, high-quality manure or biostimulant preparations based on manure, could accelerate the move towards more sustainable food production systems. Soil biodiversity needs to be appropriately factored in when assessing manure amendments to provide better guidelines on the use of manure and to reduce costs and environmental risks. However, radical changes in current philosophies and practices are needed so that soil biodiversity can be enhanced by manure management.
Manure quality in the EU requires greater attention, calling for more targeted policies. Our proposed approach could be applied by European Union Member States to include soil protection measures in national legislation, and at the EU level, can enable the implementation of strategic goals.
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•More than 1.4 billion t y−1 of manure are generated in the EU and UK and re-applied to soils with potential harmful effects.•Current European regulations on manure disposal are scattered across different legislations and ignore soil biodiversity.•This review of 407 documents revealed that manure quality is more important to soil biodiversity than manure quantity.•To promote soil biodiversity by manure amendments, a radical transformation in the way agriculture is conducted is needed.•This approach could reinforce EU MS' commitment to protect soils and improve future agricultural policies at the EU level.
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, Letnik:
365, Številka:
6452
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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.
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.
Agriculture intensification is one of the most impacting drivers of European biodiversity decline. The Natura 2000 (N2000) network constitutes a key tool for conservation of species and natural ...habitats in Europe. Its action to counteract negative impacts of agriculture is mainly based on implementation of Agri-environment schemes (AES) in the N2000 sites. As economical resources are usually limited, spatial targeting is essential for such conservation policy. Here we evaluated whether AES distribution was in spatial coordination with species and habitat conservation states, and agriculture-driven pressures in the French N2000 network. Using the Pressure-State-Response framework, we tested the hypothesis that AES were mainly implemented in sites mostly exposed to pressures, having higher representativeness of species and habitats and higher degradation levels. We combined different sources of information (i.e., standard data forms of the N2000 policy, data collected by the observatory of rural development and national geographical information) to produce pressure, state and response spatial indicators. We declined the analysis per category of pressures related to agricultural activities and considered species and habitat vulnerability to each pressure category. We found limited spatial coordination between AES, pressure and state variables: only 37 % of the fitted models were significant. Significant relationships between AES implementation and agricultural intensification pressure were mostly negative. Considering all indicators, our hypotheses were disproven for more than half of the significant relationships. The results revealed a spatial mismatch between AES distribution and the ecological needs within the N2000 network, as more resources were devoted to sites less exposed to pressure. Our results raise the need of a more strategic approach for the N2000 policy. Indeed, the state of biodiversity conservation and the level of human pressures should be automatically considered a-priori of any implementation of management measures to effectively focus the efforts on the causes of current biodiversity crisis.
•We assess agri-environmental schemes (AES) targeting in French Natura 2000 network.•AES distributions compared to agricultural pressures and biodiversity variables.•AES financial expenses and cover poorly target pressures and biodiversity.•More AES are implemented in Natura 2000 sites showing less agricultural pressures.•Better efficiency of N2000 policy needs strategic approaches for AES implementation.
This study investigates the influence of the Single Area Payment Scheme on the competitiveness of the agriculture sector in Romania. It also evaluates the impact of SAPS on farm productivity by ...examining data collected from a thorough survey of Romanian farmers. The survey employed quantitative methodologies to examine a wide array of agricultural enterprises, aiming to offer a comprehensive perspective on the impacts of SAPS. The findings provide vital insights into how SAPS influences agricultural practices and economic outcomes in Romania.
The study used statistical analysis to evaluate the impact of SAPS on important factors such as productivity, market positioning, and economic viability. It used the sample size formula n = (Z^2 * p * (1-p)) / E^2 to determine the sample size for the survey, where we estimated the proportion of the population with a certain characteristic (p) based on data collected from the Payments and Intervention Agency for Agriculture and the Z-score corresponding to the desired level of confidence. In this case, for a confidence level of 95% (Z = 1.96), a standard deviation of 0.5 and a margin of error of +/- 5% (E = 0.05), I estimated p at 0.5 (the characteristics of the researched population being quite heterogeneous, even if the size of the holding translates into the amount of the collected amount, nominal differences do not exist).
Evidence suggests that Romania possesses one of the most extensive agricultural regions inside the European Union. However, the agricultural sector is marked by a fragmented organization, consisting predominantly of small-scale farms returning poor levels of productivity.
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.
No caben dudas de que la Comunidad Económica Europea (1958), devenida en Unión Europea en 1995, constituye el esquema integracionista con mayor alcance mundial en la era moderna. Sin embargo, su ...evolución no ha estado exenta de altibajos, expresando las propias contradicciones inherentes al fenómeno y la manifestación de las diferentes realidades que han enfrentado sus integrantes a lo largo del tiempo. Se pueden señalar muchos ejemplos de las acciones implementadas por el proyecto europeo con vistas a potenciar su papel hegemónico mundial, pero sobresalen, por su envergadura e implicaciones, la Política Agrícola Común, la instrumentación del euro como moneda común de una buena parte de los miembros y la ampliación del número de participantes. El análisis de estos tres aspectos constituye el principal objetivo de este trabajo, del que se deriva la connotación del proceso y sus múltiples consecuencias mundiales.
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•The water footprint related to food loss and waste is quantified.•The logarithmic mean Divisia index is applied to decompose the change in the water footprint.•The case of Lithuania ...shows that cereal crops pushed the green and grey water footprints up.•Changes in area sown and yields were important for grey, green, and blue water footprints.•Changes in the crop-mix and loss rate did not offset other factors.
Food production has significant impacts on the environment, particularly in terms of water usage. Losing food along the supply chain means that all resources, including water, used to produce that food are wasted. Through the lens of the water footprint, this paper expands the scope of water resource assessment by looking at the blue, green, and grey water footprints associated with food losses along the supply chain. The index decomposition analysis (IDA) is applied to quantitatively analyze the effect of four driving factors (total area sown, crop-mix, yield, and food loss rate) to water resources related to food losses along the agri-food chain in Lithuania for the period 2003–2021. The analysis only considers food crop products meant specifically for human consumption. The results indicate an increase in the water footprint associated with food losses along the supply chain, rising from 100.5 million m3 to 131.2 million m3. This represents a 30.6% increase over the period 2003–2021, equivalent to an average annual increase of 2.6%. The total agricultural area sown under crops and yields emerge as the most significant factors shaping this increase. These effects were partially offset by changes in the crop-mix and reduced loss and waste rates.
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