System Of Direct Payments Research Articles

Site-specific and regionally optimal direct payments for mountain agriculture

Direct payments linked to land use play a key role for Swiss mountain agriculture. A theoretical investigation of the welfare effects of direct payments is presented. A regionalised linear programming model is described for the agricultural sector of the Swiss Canton of Grisons. A new optimal set of site-specific and regionally specified direct payments is developed. Under the assumptions presented in the model, approximately one quarter of the actual direct payments could be saved with the optimised system compared to the projection solution with site-specific direct payments at the same level as under the current situation and undifferentiated between regions. The current system of direct payments should be replaced by regionally specified direct payments that rise with increasing altitude and differentiate between less productive and more productive land.

Development of livestock in numbers and structure from the regional and administrative aspect

The contribution deals with the development of livestock since 1990. Since that year, beef and dairy cattle numbers have dropped by more than 50 percent in the Czech Republic. This decrease has been partly compensated by an increase in efficiency, yet milk production has dropped to 55% in this period and beef production to 60% compared with 1989. The declining amount of cultivated land in the Czech Republic has resulted in a decrease in the stocking rate and the corresponding production. It adversely influences the economy namely in highland areas. In this sense the high rate of permanent pastures with low stocking rate enables to efficiently exploit the EU direct payments and thus the direct payment system discriminates above all the farms in highland areas (potato and oat-growing areas and upland production areas).

In Situ Agrobiodiversity Conservation in the Swiss Inner Alpine Zone

This paper considers Swiss experiences of in situ agrobiodiversity conservation. The Swiss recognise the multifunctionality of agriculture, particularly within the marginal, mountainous areas of the country and are spending public and private funds to maintain crop landraces, agroecosystems, landscapes, agricultural practices, and rural communities. State programs in marginal agricultural regions tie economic assistance to biodiversity conservation practices, through the use of direct payment systems. With the removal of many import restrictions and state-led marketing, alternative innovative programs linked to local values of diversity provide opportunities for conservation. In situ agrobiodiversity conservation ideas being pursued include awareness-raising schemes, scientific initiatives, the establishment of diversity gardens and community-based programs. Any extension of the in situ conservation programs could have substantial implications for regional development.

Present Problems of Hilly and Mountainous Areas under Enforcement of the Direct Payment System

Present Problems of Hilly and Mountainous Areas under Enforcement of the Direct Payment System

Direct payment policies for the regeneration of less-favoured areas: a comparative study of the EU and Japan

This paper evaluates the constitution, significance and limitations of direct payment policy to farmers in hilly mountainous areas (i.e., Japan's less-favoured areas), where small-sized terraced paddy field farming is predominant. A significant period of depopulation and the successive aging of the rural society have resulted in the decline of farming output and the abandonment of farmland. As a result, a direct payment system to farmers in LFAs was introduced in 2000 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF). This paper discusses the significance and limitations of the current system compared to the same policy in the EU, and make suggestions related to the system for new rural management systems.

Do EU direct payments to beef producers belong in the ‘blue box’?

In the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, so‐called ‘blue box’ support measures were exempted from reduction commitments, provided they were delivered under ‘production‐limiting’ programs. Although classified as ‘blue box’, the EU system of direct payments (DP) to beef farmers imposes ‘claim‐limiting’ restrictions rather than ‘production‐limiting’ restrictions, allowing farmers to keep additional animals over and above the number upon which they are eligible to claim DP. The present paper provides empirical evidence that EU direct payments capitalise into the market prices of male calves and young steers in Ireland. It is also likely that DP capitalises into the prices of beef cows and heifers. Given this capitalisation process, some farmers can obtain ‘capitalised’ DP on animals produced over and above the ‘claim‐limiting’ restrictions, by selling these animals through auction markets. Thus, ‘capitalised’ DP probably encourages production over and above the limiting measures.

第四報告 : 中山間地域直接支払い政策の意義と限界 : イギリス条件不利地域政策との比較検討を通して(統一テーマ:中山間地域の現局面と政策課題,2001年度 林業経済学会春季大会)

第四報告 : 中山間地域直接支払い政策の意義と限界 : イギリス条件不利地域政策との比較検討を通して(統一テーマ:中山間地域の現局面と政策課題,2001年度 林業経済学会春季大会)

Community care (direct payments) act 1996

Rachael Spain explains how the Direct Payments system will impact on the care provided by nurses

Swiss Agricultural Policy and the Environment: An Example for the Rest of Europe to Follow?

The independence of Switzerland from the EU has allowed the development of unilateral agri-environmental policies. Article 31b provides a comprehensive approach to ecological farming that now covers more than half of the farmed area of the country. It is a progressive direct payment system developedin full consultation with farmers and contrasts with environmental incorporation in the Common Agricultural Policy in a number of significant ways. Despite a number of modifications to the scheme in its initial implementation,it provides the foundation for a pervasive sustainable agriculture in combination with the production of high quality ecologically-based food products.

A nutritional analysis of the Food Stamp Program.

Conflicting claims made both for and against the Food Stamp program have never been based on empirical evidence of its effects on the adequacy and the quality of diets of poor people. In this study, individual diets are measured against dietary standards appropriate for individuals and models of nutritional adequacy are constructed which make possible a determination of the program's impact on many different components of human nutrition. Two types of multiple regression models of nutrient sufficiency--ratios of dietary intake to standard as well as nutrient densities--were developed with dietary recall data from 181 and 195 subjects, respectively. These subjects were selected in a random, probability sample of a low-income area of Tulsa. Oklahoma in 1978 and all had annual household incomes which placed them at or below the poverty level. Separate models were developed for each of six nutrients, calories, protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A and vitamin C, and a large number of covariates were included in these models to isolate the effects due to program participation. The results suggest that the effects of food stamps are not uniformly positive nor are they similar to the effects which could be expected under a less expensive system of direct cash payments.

A system of direct compensation payments to farmers as a means of reconciling short-run to long-run interests

The paper is written to answer two questions. First, should a system of direct compensation payments be introduced for the improvement of the EEC's Common Agricultural Policy? Second, how to define the DCP-system in order to make its principle practicable in a way which makes it on the one hand acceptable to those who are farming from the beginning of the system as well as for those entering later on, and on the other hand acceptable to the other part of the population and to the governments concerned. It appears from the analysis of the first question that the purpose of the present market and price policy has to be changed fundamentally. What it should do is to ensure a level of producer prices for basic agricultural products which is consistent with a situation of equilibrium concerning a rehabilitated world market, instead of trying, as at present, to ensure prices for farm products which as far as practicable result in a reasonable degree of income parity for agriculture in its present form. Newly designed market and price regulations should therefore create within the member countries of the Common Market prices for agricultural products being equal to ‘normalized’ prices of a future world market which would not be distorted by overprotection of national or ‘common’ markets. The as yet unknown price level is thought to be approximated adequately by reducing the present level of EEC prices for basic farm products by about 20%. One of the functions of the direct compensation payments will be to provide for the immediate loss of income evolving from such a reduction in agricultural prices. The analysis of the second question shows that it is possible to design an adequate system of direct compensation payments. Adequate, because it reconciles the interest of the present and the coming farmers to the interest of society at large concerning food supply, environmental values and costs both. The DCP-system will not give rise to insuperable exchequer problems. It provides ample time for a reorientation of agriculture according to the patterns of comparative advantages within the Commom Market as well as in the world at large.

Medical care under social security in France.

Social insurance was initiated in France on a national scale in 1930 and now covers about 98.5 per cent of the population. The coverage expanded the limits of traditional sickness insurance for curative medicine and had a growing impact on overall health and social policy. French social insurance is a public service run by organizations which retain the voluntary status of the old mutual funds. The social security budget is independent of that of the government, which contributes less than 20 per cent of the overall social budget of the nation. The relationships between the medical profession, private and public hospitals, preventive care organizations, social insurance funds, and central and local governments have become very complex. The huge social security organization has acquired competence in planning and in technical organizational matters and consequently has had a great influence on medical care patterns. Social security adopted the direct payment system in its relationships with the medical profession; therefore the latter has retained its independent status. But, for public and private hospitals, the payment system is indirect. A special branch was created in 1945 to deal with capital investments in hospitals and health institutions concerned with preventive medicine. Social insurance contributed greatly to facilitating access of patients to all kinds of medical care, either public or private, curative or preventive, and helped the government by participating in the construction of a complex network of health institutions for the benefit of the whole population. This task is not yet achieved, and greater coordination and additional resources are necessary. But there is no doubt that social insurance was and still is a powerful factor in the continuing improvement of the nation's health and living conditions.