Common Agricultural Policy Reform Research Articles

Opportunities for small‐scale biorefinery for production of sugar and ethanol in the Netherlands

AbstractDevelopments such as the Common Agricultural Policy reform, growth of the bio‐based economy, increasing energy prices, increasing sustainability demands, and expected growth of global sugar demand change the environment in which the sugar producing industry operates. In order to remain competitive and profit from this, the traditional large‐scale sugar producing industry can adapt. The aim of this study was to address sustainability and energy issues of the traditional sugar production process and to provide opportunities for improving the process and value chain. The methodological approach included evaluating function and resource usage of the unit operations. More sustainable alternative unit operations and processes were identified and studied. The results indicate that the current sugar production and by‐product valorization focuses on centralized processing and has been individually optimized per sector and industry based on relatively inexpensive transportation and energy without a focus as such on the bio‐based economy. For incorporation of the opportunities, a process for targeting new bio‐based markets and supplementing large‐scale sugar production was designed. It was found that small‐scale biorefineries as an alternative and/or supplementation of the traditional large‐scale process have the ability to increase the overall sustainability of sugarbeet processing, for example reduce energy usage and carbon footprint, by reducing transportation movements. Moreover, it provides opportunities for leaving out certain unit operations and using less capital‐intensive technologies. With a holistic approach throughout the value chain, the introduction of small‐scale biorefineries can help meet the challenges of the sugar producing industry, while simultaneously benefitting people, planet, and profit.

Analyse et déterminants de l’évolution des performances d’élevages bovins et ovins allaitants en zones défavorisées de 1990 à 2012

Au cours des vingt dernières années, les réformes de la Politique Agricole Commune (PAC) se sont succédées avec, au départ, des aides attribuées en compensation de la baisse des prix garantis. Un soutien a été accordé aux élevages herbagers et/ou extensifs. Malgré cela, les revenus des exploitations d’élevages allaitants, bovins et ovins, sont restés, en moyenne, parmi les plus faibles de l’ensemble des exploitations agricoles françaises. Une des réponses à la PAC, mais également aux signaux du marché et aux aléas, a été un accroissement constant de la taille de ces exploitations et de la productivité du travail (de + 45 à + 60% en 20 ans selon les régions), accompagnée d’une simplification des pratiques, pour une quasi-stagnation des revenus par travailleur en euros constants. Ces observations réalisées sur le long terme, à partir des réseaux ovins et bovins allaitants de l’INRA de Clermont-Theix, amènent à se poser des questions sur les notions d’économie d’échelle, sur l’efficacité des systèmes de production et sur les évolutions futures des structures de ces exploitations.

The 2013 Common Agricultural Policy reform and its impact on small ruminant farming in Austria

Following a transition year, the new Common Agricultural Policy period, starting in 2015, is expected to bring a number of major changes in the payment scheme of Pillar 1. Using the example of the Austrian small ruminant sector (sheep and goats), this paper describes the effects of an area-based payment scheme instead of the Single Farm Payment Scheme applied previously. The calculations are based on the specifi cation and simulation of seven different farm models and on an analysis of the Austrian Integrated Administration and Control System data sets. The results of both analyses suggest redistribution effects in favour of less extensive farm management systems. However, farms with high single farm payments per hectare are expected to face big cuts in direct payments by 2015. To avoid hardship the amount of the payments will be gradually amended over the coming years until 2019.

The 2013 Common Agricultural Policy reform and its impact on small ruminant farming in Austria

Following a transition year, the new Common Agricultural Policy period, starting in 2015, is expected to bring a number of major changes in the payment scheme of Pillar 1. Using the example of the Austrian small ruminant sector (sheep and goats), this paper describes the effects of an area-based payment scheme instead of the Single Farm Payment Scheme applied previously. The calculations are based on the specifi cation and simulation of seven different farm models and on an analysis of the Austrian Integrated Administration and Control System data sets. The results of both analyses suggest redistribution effects in favour of less extensive farm management systems. However, farms with high single farm payments per hectare are expected to face big cuts in direct payments by 2015. To avoid hardship the amount of the payments will be gradually amended over the coming years until 2019.

Beyond Crofting: Assessing Change on Scotland's Small-Scale Holdings

In this paper, we go ‘beyond crofting’ to assess the changes to both croft and non-croft small-scale land management in Scotland from 2000 to 2011, through an analysis of agricultural census statistics. We find that although small-scale holdings (defined as holdings of less than 10 ha) occupy a very small percentage of Scotland's agricultural land, they account for 19.6% of Scotland's agricultural labour. Small-scale holdings also play important roles within the commercial poultry and horticulture sectors, and house 35.9% of reported horses. Small-scale land management is increasing throughout Scotland, but with evident regional distinctions. Upland and island holdings (many of which are crofts) have seen substantial reductions in their sheep numbers as part of the wider reduction in agricultural activity associated with 2005 Common Agricultural Policy reforms. In contrast, sheep numbers are growing on small-scale holdings in the lowlands, underpinned by a complex mix of commercial and lifestyle drivers. We highlight that benefits traditionally associated with crofting, such as population retention and rural development, could also be associated with small-scaling holding in general. However, the increase in small-holding and retention of labour in some regions may be evidence of peri-urban gentrification processes, rather than fulfilment of traditional crofting functions in remote areas.

EUにおける困窮者向け食料支援プログラムの改革について

The Food Distribution Programme for the Most Deprived Persons in the European Union (MDP), which enables the surplus intervention stocks of agricultural products to be distributed to the deprived in member states, has been in place since 1987 as an instrument of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The primary purpose of the MDP is to stabilize an agricultural market by reduction in the intervention stocks and the appendant one is to help people in need. The current MDP was decided to end in 2013 but the reformed MDP is scheduled to take place since 2014 (the detail is not dealt with in the article). The aim of the article is at the introduction of co-financing to the MDP, which has been one of the contentious policy tools during the argument on how the MDP should be reformed. Co-financing means burden sharing between the EU and a member state on the implementation cost of an EU policy. Its introduction facilitates the increase in size of financial resources for the MDP, compared to the current system under the principle of financial solidarity where the EU bears the entire cost. Section 1 shows that the MDP, despite a part of the CAP, has functioned as a de facto social policy since its beginning. Section 2, describing two turning points of the MDP, i.e. the start of distribution of purchased food in 1996 and the judgment of the General Court in 2011 upholding a complaint by Germany to annul a regulation concerning the MDP, explains the process where both of them, together with CAP reforms after 1992, terminated it. After the judgment, some member states requested its reform for continuation because of its social significance. Focusing on reform plans of the MDP, especially the introduction of co-financing recommended by the European Court of Auditors and the European Commission, section 3, in consideration of two different impacts of its introduction not only on people in need but on the financial responsibility of a member state, concludes that its introduction brings the improvement of accessibility of the deprived to the aid of the MDP, accompanied by a situation where a member state with more people in need assumes heavier financial responsibility for the implementation of the MDP.

Implications of Agrarian Structures upon the Agricultural Supply in Romania

The main objective of the paper is to identify the structural factors that led to a chronic insufficiency of the Romanian agri-food domestic supply in the last decades. The paper makes an update and re-evaluation of problems related to Romania's agriculture production potential, in the context of the current evolutions of the agrarian and production structures and of the possible effects of the Common Agricultural Policy Reform. The changes produced in the last decade are investigated with regard to farm consolidation, increase of farm area, agricultural land operation modality and land market problems. At the same time, the production structures are also analyzed in relation to farm size. The main conclusion of the study is that the current agrarian structures contribute by different modalities to ensuring the domestic agricultural supply and food security. The calculation of certain statistical indicators on production variability and its diversification on the large, medium and small-sized farms revealed the strong specialization of production on the large farms and production diversification on the small farms.

Disentangling the consensus frame of food security: The case of the EU Common Agricultural Policy reform debate

This article addresses which food security frames can be identified in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post-2013 reform process, and which actors deploy particular food security frames. The concept of frames refers to relatively distinct and coherent sets of meaning attributed to a concept, such as food security. The article shows that in the European Union (EU) food security is a consensus frame which can be broken down in six conflicting and overlapping sub-frames and which has complicated the debates about the future of the CAP. We demonstrate that during the CAP-reform debates of 2009–2012 a variety of food security arguments were deployed by a broad range of stakeholders, who attached different meanings and made different claims about the relationship between the CAP and food security. Inductive frame analysis reveals that the consensus frame of food security can be broken down into six conflicting and overlapping sub-frames: (1) the productionist frame, (2) the environmental frame, (3) the development frame, (4) the free trade frame, (5) the regional frame, and (6) the food sovereignty frame. Each of these frames was invoked by a specific group of stakeholders, whereby the productionist and environmental frames were deployed most often. The European Commission, meanwhile, invoked various frames at the same time in its communications. As a result of these various framings of the relationship between the CAP and food security, a clear political vision on this relationship is lacking. We conclude that politicians and policymakers may need to develop a coherent vision on what food security entails, and on how the CAP could contribute to both European and global food security.

Modelling farming system dynamics in High Nature Value Farmland under policy change

Understanding the factors driving changes in farm management is needed for designing policies and subsidy schemes to protect High Nature Value Farmland (HNVF). We describe farming system dynamics in HNVF of southern Portugal, between 2000–2002 and 2008–2010, encompassing a period of major policy transformations introduced by the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union in 2003. We also assess how farming system dynamics was modulated by structural, biophysical and policy factors constraining agricultural options. Farming systems changed in about 40% of the farmed area during the period of study. Overall, there was a marked transition from arable systems to either specialized livestock or permanent crop systems, involving major declines in the traditional system of dry cereal rotations and sheep grazing. Transitions were influenced by farm size, soil quality and coverage by open oak woodlands, while there was little effect of agri-environment schemes and legal regulations specifically targeted to support the traditional farming system. Despite these changes, agricultural intensity remained essentially stable, though there was a marked decline in land-use heterogeneity with likely negative impacts on biodiversity. Observed changes agree with ex-ante impact assessments of the CAP reform in Iberian cereal steppes, which suggested that decoupling of payments from production could promote shifts from the traditional cereal–fallow–sheep system towards specialized livestock grazing systems. Effectively protecting HNFV may thus require a better integration of horizontal policies and agri-environment schemes.

Romania and the political agreement for the common agriculture policy reform.

In the last years, the European Commission proposed an important consultative process that leads to several reform proposals designed to change the Common Agriculture Policy. They cover all the policy areas: the direct payments, market organisation and the rural development in order to promote a long-run sustainable agriculture. The paper aims to summarise the main policy-changes and to discuss what are the main possible outcomes for Romania. It uses a bibliographical study of the main European Commission regulations. Results point out that the reforms can help Romania to overcome several structural drawbacks. The direct payment convergence between member states, the special young farmer setup payment and the possibility to use the Simplified Area Payments Scheme until 2020 will increase the competitiveness capacity of the Romanian farms. The CAP greening and also the support for the innovative technologies can pose problems from the farm adaptive capacity and also from administrative point of view.

European agricultural landscapes, common agricultural policy and ecosystem services: a review

Since the 1950s, intensification and scale enlargement of agriculture have changed agricultural landscapes across Europe. The intensification and scale enlargement of farming was initially driven by the large-scale application of synthetic fertilizers, mechanization and subsidies of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Then, after the 1990s, a further intensification and scale enlargement, and land abandonment in less favored areas was caused by globalization of commodity markets and CAP reforms. The landscape changes during the past six decades have changed the flows and values of ecosystem services. Here, we have reviewed the literature on agricultural policies and management, landscape structure and composition, and the contribution of ecosystem services to regional competitiveness. The objective was to define an analytical framework to determine and assess ecosystem services at the landscape scale. In contrast to natural ecosystems, ecosystem service flows and values in agricultural landscapes are often a result of interactions between agricultural management and ecological structures. We describe how land management by farmers and other land managers relates to landscape structure and composition. We also examine the influence of commodity markets and policies on the behavior of land managers. Additionally, we studied the influence of consumer demand on flows and values of the ecosystem services that originate from the agricultural landscape.

Exploring the knowledge landscape of ecosystem services assessments in Mediterranean agroecosystems: Insights for future research

Abstract Ecosystem service assessment has recently become one of the most important scientific frameworks to address the challenges inherent in environmental management, particularly those in agroecosystem management. Agroecosystems provide important ecosystem services to society including provisioning, regulating, and cultural services. However, the Mediterranean Basin agroecosystems have suffered the effects of two drivers of change, rural abandonment and intensification of agrarian practices, which threaten multifunctional landscapes and erode the capacity to deliver ecosystem services. In this study, we explored the knowledge landscape of ecosystem services research throughout the Mediterranean Basin's agroecosystems through a review of 165 publications. We (1) analyzed the current research state and trends; (2) examined the existing research gaps and biases; and (3) evaluated the associations between factors related to the methodologies employed, the ecosystem services analyzed, and the agroecosystem characteristics. Our results indicated that monetary approaches and provisioning ecosystem services are attracting most of the scientific attention, possibly jeopardizing the regulating and cultural services provided by these ecosystems. Moreover, results suggested that there is a lack of integrated approaches that consider the three dimensions of sustainability, i.e. biophysical, sociocultural and monetary. Most studies did not use primary data or involve stakeholders in the assessments and scarce evidence was available regarding ecosystem services provided under different management alternatives. Finally, specific relationships were detected between the methodologies applied, the ecosystem services assessed and the characteristics of the agroecosystem. We argue these gaps might have potential implications in current scientific and political debates, such as the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the Common Agricultural Policy reform. We therefore provide recommendations for research and policy-making, agendas.

Analysis of the Exploitation Structures and Land Management in Romania vs. European Union

Romanian agriculture has undergone a long process of transition from command to market economy and adaptation mechanisms of the common agricultural market integration in the European structures and the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Romanian agriculture is uneven in terms of mining structures and their dual nature is emphasized to the vast majority of Member States of the European Union. Although some progress has been made to maintain a disproportionately large number of individual farms, small and very small bad, as a small number of large and very large units whose activity was not restructured to become compatible with market requirements unique. CAP reform is in process, so that after 2013 to simplify the mechanisms and to adapt to new realities imposed by sustainable growth and competitiveness of European agriculture. Romania will be able to benefit from the opportunities offered by future CAP and apply toolbox towards developing the agricultural sector, including strengthening agricultural exploitations, as the main source of support to the sector will be represented by European funds.

La sostenibilidad del olivar: producción convencional vs. ecológica en Los Pedroches

The sustainability of olive groves: Conventional vs. ecological production in Los Pedroches (Andalusia, Spain) Agricultural sustainability has become in one of the main strategic objectives to be achieved with the next Common Agricultural Policy reform to be approved in 2013. Within this framework, this paper aims to perform a comparative analysis between conventional and ecological olive production in a county of Andalusia (Los Pedroches) in order to find the differences in their overall sustainability and its di fferent components (i.e., economic, socio-cultural and environmental). This comparison is interesting because the results achieved could justify different public support for these two productive systems.

La confederación campesina: un sindicato agrícola líder del movimiento altermundialista francés. análisis de una situación paradójica

The paper analyses the very special process which led the Confédération Paysanne (CP) to become part of the antiglobalization movement. In the first part, after a brief introduction to the specific range of radical protest against the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the seventies and in the eighties, the author describes the inward outcomes of the 1992 CAP reform. And he tries to put on a local viewpoint the démontage of the McDonald’s restaurant in Millau (August 1999) which was the beginning of the obvious involvement of the CP at the heart of the antiglobalization movement. The second part deals with the post-Millau events and discusses the contradictory effects of the new visibility in the media of the CP claims.

Towards sustainable management of Mediterranean river basins: policy recommendations on management aspects of temporary streams

In 2011, the European Council stressed the significance of water quality for sustainable development in Europe and emphasized the need for better integration of the water policy objectives into the Common Agriculture Policy reform in rural areas. Since 2000, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) has required the EU Member States to target good ecological status for their water bodies. However, the implementation of the Directive for the numerous Mediterranean temporary streams has been delayed indicating the need for elaboration of the tools and methods that address the special characteristics of such water bodies. This requirement has been addressed by the recently completed MIRAGE project. In the context of the recent publication of the European Commission's Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Waters, the MIRAGE-proposed framework for the characterization of the eco-hydrological dynamics and the systematic description of the measured impact for temporary rivers could bring considerable added value to the EU revision of all relevant water policies. The project recommends additions to WFD articles including an explicit definition of temporary rivers, adaptation of environmental objectives to their peculiarities and establishment of a proper method to determine the initial status and specific actions in River Basin Management Plans.

The CAP reform beyond 2013: the economic performance of agricultural enterprises within the Visegrad Group

The economic performance measurement of agricultural companies involves wide range of traditional and modern performance indicators, both aggregated and analytical. The applicability of those indicators, especially the analytical such as Balanced Scorecard or Benchmarking, is still at least disputable due to the specifics of this branch of business. However, there are some efforts to modify the policy of this branch through the EU Common Agricultural Policy reforms, which are based on many open discussions among concerned parties on both national and international levels. The objective of this paper is to assess and analyse the current situation of measurement and management of economic performance of agricultural enterprises within the Visegrad group and further delineate the possibilities of efficient management of economic performance of those entities, especially in the context of scenario proposals of agricultural development beyond 2013. The future development of the agriculture in the EU member states, which is projected via proposed scenarios beyond the year 2013 calls up the employment of modern economic performance indicators both for production and non-production outputs of agricultural business entities. The objective of this effort should be seen via ensuring the sustainable and balanced development of European agricultural sector.

Agricultural expenditure in the European Union budget: a graphical analysis

The review of the European Union (EU) budget and the Common Agricultural Policy reform are tightly connected issues influencing each other. We assume that the outcomes will be influenced by their impact on the net balances of Member States (MSs), and use isobudget and isobalance functions to analyse different hypotheses about the EU budget expenditure. These functions are key in understanding substitutability or complementarity between agricultural and other expenditures and shed some light on the positions of the MSs in favour or against possible reform proposals.

CAP Reform and the Objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy

While the Treaty objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as now expressed in Article 39 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union may not themselves have been amended, this contribution considers whether amendments elsewhere within the Treaty, together with interpretation by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), have gone some way towards producing a broader Treaty framework, more sensitive to the numerous demands now being made of agriculture. Although there are grounds for holding that there is not full alignment between the current reform proposals and the Treaty objectives of the CAP as enshrined in Article 39(1) TFEU, together with the broader Treaty framework, some caution might be prudent before proceeding to major Treaty amendment. The original objectives as laid down in the Treaty of Rome have found a new resilience and are perhaps more relevant now than two decades ago, so any amendment might usefully take the form of expansion as opposed to deletion, as it is not difficult to conceive that each of the five original objectives will be accorded at least temporary priority over the years ahead.

A comparison of winter bird communities in agricultural grassland and cereal habitats in Ireland: implications for Common Agricultural Policy reform

Capsule In winter, grassland sites had greater bird numbers compared to winter cereals, but a number of species of conservation concern were exclusively recorded on winter cereals. Aims To compare the winter bird communities in grassland and winter cereal fields. Methods Grassland and winter cereal fields were surveyed for overwintering birds in a landscape of mixed grassland and arable agriculture. Results Generalized Linear Models demonstrated that total bird abundance, the mean abundance of the majority of ecological groups and that of several common species, were significantly greater in grassland compared with winter cereal fields. However, a number of species of conservation concern, e.g. Skylark Aluda arvensis, were observed only on winter cereal fields. Only a minority of bird variables showed a positive response to field size. Of these, total bird species richness and the Shannon and Simpson's diversity indices showed positive significant responses to increasing field size, which may alternatively and perhaps more correctly be interpreted as a positive response to field boundary density within the farmed landscape. Conclusions Farmland habitats are important for the provision of overwintering resources for birds, and policy directed towards bird conservation should target the management of locally significant habitat types. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of the proposed revision of the Common Agricultural Policy in 2014, particularly the proposed measure for crop diversification.