Abstract
Grasslands received policy attention in the Czech Republic only just fifteen years ago, when they were threatened to be abandoned in the economic transition process. The supports to farming on grasslands have grown gradually, particularly after the EU accession. The policy followed the notion of jointness between grassland management and beef cattle raising and conditioned Agri-environmental (AE) and Less Favoured Areas (LFA) payments by a minimum livestock density. There are many reasons why the current policy will change in the new programme period. This paper attempts to assess the impact of the envisaged changes on grassland maintenance. It is showed that overall future supports to farming will be sufficient to keep positive profit on grassland farms, however the structure of supports might be less appropriate to the actual objectives of grassland protection and hence, there is a threat of policy failure in the end.
Highlights
Grasslands received policy attention in the Czech Republic only just fifteen years ago, when they were threatened to be abandoned in the economic transition process
Raising suckler cows was stimulated by several measures since that, by the minimum livestock density condition for the grasslands maintenance support and Less Favoured Areas (LFA) payments, specific Top-ups (European Council, 2009), the support to organic beef and a specific investment support
In the paper we repeatedly touched the issue of social value of grasslands
Summary
Grasslands received policy attention in the Czech Republic only just fifteen years ago, when they were threatened to be abandoned in the economic transition process. Beef production dropped due to the collapse of demand by 40 % between 1990 and 1995 and cultivation of grasslands as well. The support to grasslands was linked to extensive beef production. There were almost no suckler cows herds before 1995. Raising suckler cows was stimulated by several measures since that, by the minimum livestock density condition for the grasslands maintenance support and LFA payments, specific Top-ups (European Council, 2009), the support to organic beef and a specific investment support. In 2011 (2010), there were 183 thousand (167 thousand) suckler cows, 700 thousand hectares of grasslands under the maintenance support (MoA, 2012). The average of all area supports per hectare of grasslands reached 15 thousand CZK (approximately € 600) in 2011. In spite of terrible unprofitability of the extensive beef production, such a support is perceived to be inadequate, generating excessive profits on large extensive farms (Doucha et al 2012a)
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