Support For Organic Farming Research Articles

A pragmatic assessment of government support for organic agriculture in Ireland

Drawing on a pragmatic approach, this paper provides an analysis of government support for organic farming in Ireland. Varying levels of encouragement and programmes are provided to farmers in their conversion from conventional to organic production, and in their maintenance of organic production. As support policies vary across regions and are linked to European Union legislation, it is challenging to document the many types of support in place. This paper investigates relevant technical, financial, and policy support available to organic farmers in Ireland. As an exploratory study, it develops an assessment of Ireland within eight key categories of organic agricultural support: policy, leadership, technical support, financial support, research, education and information, marketing and promotion, and future outlook. Information and data from the Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF), the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc), and other government and semi-governmental agencies were utilized to assess the level of support in each category. This assessment provides key findings which will allow policymakers, organizations and citizens to better understand the current situation and set a path for the future development of organic farming in Ireland.

Biodiversity Protection in European Union Agriculture

Biodiversity conservation is an important element of EU environmental policy and it influences certain instruments of the Common Agricultural Policy (agri-environmental programmes, cross–compliance rules, organic farming support). These play an increasingly important role in this policy. However, in some Member States they are insufficiently directed to nature conservation. Direct payments affect an increase in threats to biological diversity, although this impact was restricted in the course of the CAP reform (implementation of a regional system combined with cross-compliance rules). Moreover, the withdrawal or significant reduction of the instrument would result in even greater losses. Low effectiveness of existing activities contributes to the continuous degradation of biological diversity in European rural areas: the specialized payments for farmers in the Natura 2000 network are implemented to a limited extent, specialised support directed for High Nature Values (HNV) farming has not yet been introduced in practice, execution of cross-compliance rules was insufficient. In years 2014-2020 nature conservation within the CAP will grow in importance and it will implicate improvement of the effectiveness of actions implemented in the Member States.

Application of quality labels in support of conservation of local breeds – a challenge for Slovenian Krškopolje pig

Slovenia has only one preserved indigenous local pig breed, the Krškopolje pig which has a black coat colour with a white belt across shoulders and forelegs. The breed became endangered despite in situ gene bank implementation in the early nineties of the 20th century. At that time around 40 farms were still raising Krškopolje pig. A promotion and support for organic farming along with the subsidies for the use of Krškopolje pig increased the interest for the breed. An important milestone is also the year 2003 when individual marking of all newborn piglets was introduced. Presently there are 77 registered farms of Krškopolje pigs with about 200 breeding sows in total, 100 gilts (older than 200 days) and 48 boars. In the latest available status (August, 2013), the farms had from 1 to 13 sows with median value of 2. Only 11 (14%) farms have 5 or more sows in their herd (one farm usually has over 20 sows). Although the situation improved during the last years, the breed is far from being safe. In order to develop a sustainable use of Krškopolje pig and thus its preservation, it would be necessary to develop economically sustainable exploitation through valorisation of its products. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are discussed under Slovenian circumstances of agricultural production.

Evaluation of cost-effectiveness of organic farming support as an agri-environmental measure at Swiss agricultural sector level

The economic efficiency of financial support of organic farming has been questioned by economists and policy makers. However, little empirical research has been done in order to evaluate the economic performance of these payments. Thus, the aim of this paper is to calculate the cost-effectiveness of organic farming support in achieving environmental policy targets compared to other agri-environmental measures.The cost-effectiveness of agri-environmental measures can be understood as a function of policy uptake, environmental effects, and public expenditure. Taking the Swiss agricultural sector as an empirical case study, cost-effectiveness of organic farming support and other single agri-environmental measures was calculated. For this purpose, the sector-representative PMP model FARMIS was extended by three modules encompassing: (a) life cycle assessments for fossil energy use, biodiversity and eutrophication according to the SALCA methodology, (b) public expenditure, including policy-related transaction costs, and (c) uptake of agri-environmental measures.The calculations revealed a slightly higher policy cost with organic farming support of 14CHF/ha for a 1% average improvement in the environmental indicators, compared to a combination of three single agri-environmental measures (11CHF/ha), including both extensification of arable land and meadows. In view of an average public expenditure on agriculture of 2.5kCHF/ha in Switzerland, these differences can be considered as marginal. Sensitivity analyses confirm that the cost-effectiveness of organic farming support is very similar to combined agri-environmental measures. Furthermore, the model reveals that the cost-effectiveness of specific agri-environmental measures is higher when implemented on organic farms rather than on non-organic farms.

Conocimiento geográfico y reconexión entre producción y consumo: el caso de la ganadería orgánica en Gales, Reino Unido

Desde fines de la década del noventa, en Gales, los escándalos alimentarios ("mal de las vacas locas" (EEB) y "fiebre aftosa") han puesto de manifiesto los graves problemas de la comoditización agraria (productos con bajo valor agregado) en un contexto donde la cooperación entre agricultores ha sido históricamente baja y las asimetrías en la cadena de suministro de alimentos deprimían los precios al productor. El fomento de la ganadería orgánica como herramienta de política agraria ha logrado reconectar a productores y consumidores a través de agregar valor a los productos y reducir las distancias espaciales de las cadenas de suministro. Cambrian Foods o Black Mountain Foods son claras experiencias exitosas que utilizan importantes elementos del conocimiento geográfico a través de los mercados de agricultores (farmer markets) y cestas orgánicas (box schemes) para promover cadenas agroalimentarias locales. Sin embargo, continúan predominando las cadenas de distribución globales (Tesco entre otras) orientadas claramente hacia la transacción de comodities desarraigados del territorio. El conocimiento geográfico es una rama en el estudio de la Geografía del consumo, óptica teórica desarrollada por la escuela británica que dice relación con el análisis de las dinámicas espaciales que se generan en la relación producción-circulación-consumo de alimentos agrarios.

Are public payments for organic farming cost-effective? Combining a decision-support model with LCA

Purpose The agricultural sector fulfils several functions such as the production of food energy and landscape conservation. An equilibrium between economic development and environmental protection should be found and research should aid political decision-making. In recent years, great efforts have been made to assess the environmental and economic implications of changes in both environmental and agricultural policies. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been extended by cost functions and social parameters. The validation of suggestions for political measures can be improved by combining existing environmental and economic models. This approach is applied in this paper in order to compare an increased support for organic farming with specific environmental policy measures, focusing on the resulting impacts and socioeconomic indicators.

A pragmatic assessment of government support for organic agriculture in Ireland

Drawing on a pragmatic approach, this paper provides an analysis of government support for organic farming in Ireland. Varying levels of encouragement and programmes are provided to farmers in their conversion from conventional to organic production, and in their maintenance of organic production. As support policies vary across regions and are linked to European Union legislation, it is challenging to document the many types of support in place. This paper investigates relevant technical, financial, and policy support available to organic farmers in Ireland. As an exploratory study, it develops an assessment of Ireland within eight key categories of organic agricultural support: policy, leadership, technical support, financial support, research, education and information, marketing and promotion, and future outlook. Information and data from the Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF), the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc), and other government and semi-governmental agencies were utilized to assess the level of support in each category. This assessment provides key findings which will allow policymakers, organizations and citizens to better understand the current situation and set a path for the future development of organic farming in Ireland.

DEVELOPMENT AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES OF ORGANIC FARMING IN LATVIA

Nowadays the organic farming as method and organic food takes important role for the sustainable and environmental friendly agricultural and food production. The paper analyzes the development and issues of future perspectives of organic farming in the Latvia. Some findings of organic agriculture development are given, estimating the primary information on organic farming in Latvia regarding the trends of the organic farms’ number, utilized organic agricultural and share of organic land in the total agricultural land. Besides, the state policy and support for organic farming have analyzed and compared with European Union (EU) and it’s Member States. The influence of Latvia’s accession to the EU on the organic farming development is assessed. Some issues of further perspectives of development of Latvian organic agriculture are evaluated.

Dependency of organic farms on direct payments in selected EU member states: Today and tomorrow

This paper examines the development of the role of government support in the financial situation of organic farms in selected Western and Eastern European countries, contrasting dependency on direct payments with that of conventional farms and assessing the impact of foreseeable changes in the political and economic environment. The results show that direct payments play an important role in the financial viability of organic farms in both Western and Eastern European countries. The level of specific support for organic farming is put into perspective, as other support payments and market returns contribute larger shares to total farm revenue in all the countries analysed. Modelling analyses show that support payments will continue to play an important role in the profitability of organic farms in Western Europe after implementation of the 2003 reform of Common Agricultural Policy in the EU. For organic farmers in Eastern European countries, the importance of support payments increases strongly with EU accession, as first pillar payments are introduced and environmental payments are expanded significantly.

Financial relevance of organic farming payments for Western and Eastern European organic farms

AbstractOrganic farming in the European Union has been supported widely since 1994. Against the background of discussions concerning the design and level of organic farming support, and the relevance of organic payments for the economic success of organic farms, the question emerges as to the impact of support payments on the sustainable development of organic farming in Europe. Different databases and methodological approaches have been chosen to demonstrate the role of organic farming payments for the viability of organic farms for selected Western and Eastern European study countries. Economic analyses are based on national Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) in the Western European countries and on ‘typical farms’ in the Eastern European group. As a supplement to the modeling analyses, a detailed survey of 50 organic farms was carried out in each of the study countries. Organic farming payments were assessed to be ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to the economic situation on farms by the majority of the farmers surveyed. The outcome of the economic analyses shows that organic farming payments contribute on average 4–6% of gross output in the Western European countries and 4–19% in the Eastern European countries studied. The results put the level of specific support for organic farming into perspective, as other support payments and market returns contribute larger shares of total farm revenue in all the countries analyzed. Organic farming payments account for 10–30% of family farm income plus wages in Western European study countries and—after EU accession—up to three-quarters in some of the Eastern European countries, thus highlighting the considerable vulnerability of organic farms to changes in organic farming policy. As a general trend in both the West and the East, it can be observed that the policy dependency of farms has increased over recent years. Changes in organic area support, which are actually under discussion in some countries, must be carried out with a sense of proportion, since support payments will continue to play an important role in the profitability of organic farms. Nevertheless, in order to reduce dependency on area payments, organic farming support should follow an integrated approach, using a mix of support measures including, e.g., the improvement of processing and marketing facilities, support for farm cooperation and activities designed to enhance demand.

Policy instruments in support of organic farming in Austria

This paper explores the connection between agricultural policy measures and the development of organic farming in Austria from 1991 onwards. First, past policy measures are reviewed. Then, various new policy strategies for the further development of the organic sector in Austria are elaborated and their potential impact discussed. The analysis suggests that the current direct policy measures cannot be considered as effective instruments, for the further development of the organic sector in Austria. Indirect measures, such as tax policy, GMO legislation and consumer information as well as structural and administrative measures within the agricultural sector are provided as instruments encouraging the further development of organic farming in Austria.

Research in organic production systems – past, present and future

SUMMARYA large body of published research now exists on economic, social, technical and policy related aspects of organic production. The dramatic increase in published research over the last 20 years reflects not only the existence of policy support for organic farming in some countries but also the availability of government funding for research on organic farming. This has resulted in a broadening out of organic research from privately funded, specifically organic research organizations, into universities and mainstream research institutes. In parallel, publication of research results from organic farming has increasingly appeared in refereed literature in addition to literature sources more available to farmers and advisors. Research scientists from Europe, North America and Australasia have all made important contributions to the peer-reviewed literature. The literature is dominated by comparisons of organic and other forms of agriculture, although in many cases these comparisons are not fully valid. Research directed specifically at organic systems is often much more valuable in developing improved production systems than comparative research. Research on organic farming embodies both holistic and reductionist research approaches. Trans-disciplinary research also has an important role to play in understanding the complexities of the ecological approach to agriculture typified by organic farming. Working within the principles and standards of organic agriculture will mean that some research will always be specific to organic production systems. However, in future an increased transfer of knowledge from organic to conventional agriculture and vice versa is envisaged.

A Framework to Assess State Support of Organic Agriculture

ABSTRACT Support for organic farming varies from state to state, and there have been few attempts to document what types of support currently exists. This research assesses regionally specific and relevant support available to organic farmers at the state level. This exploratory study develops a framework of ten key categories of organic agricultural support: (1) Leadership, (2) policy, (3) research, (4) technical support, (5) financial support, (6) marketing and promotion, (7) education and information, (8) consumer issues, (9) inter-agency activities, and (10) future developments. Data from state departments of agriculture, land grant universities, extension services, and other state-level agencies provide the basis for a numerical assessment of support in each category. State assessments are based on the number of activities, availability of information, and attention from personnel for each of the ten categories. A pilot study of Minnesota and Illinois was conducted to verify the utility of the framework and to explore the variation of support available within a region. This assessment framework is a valuable tool for farmers, researchers, state agencies, and citizen groups seeking to document existing types of organic agricultural support and discover topics that need more attention.

Meritorik und Transaktionskosten: Ökonomische Argumente für eine Förderung des ökologischen LandbausMerit goods and transaction costs: Economic arguments for policy support of organic farming

In response to conventional agricultural economists, who criticize state-subsidized organic farming by arguing that ecological benefits can be attained more efficiently, this paper presents two new arguments for policy support of organic farming. First, it presents the widely-held positive opinion of organic products and the apparent contradiction that few people are willing to buy them. Along with the calls for support of organic farming, this makes organic food a so-called individualistic merit good. Secondly, it is argued that supporting organic farming is worthwhile because it is a broadly recognized agricultural production system and it is environmentally friendly - suggesting, in the end, reduced transaction costs.

Vom Aschenputtel zum Lieblingskind – Zur politischen Förderung des ÖkolandbausOrganic farming: A grassroots movement taken over by policy?

The rapid development of organic farming over the last decade is partly due to increased consideration of organic farming in policy measures. Examining this view, this article briefly discusses the current state and development of the organic farming sector and three lines of justification for policy support for organic farming: organic farming supplies public goods; the organic farming sector can be defined as an infant industry; and organic farming should be supported for risk precaution. Then, based on the observation that policy makers consider organic farming support justified, an integrated approach to organic farming policy is outlined.

Organic livestock production systems and appropriate development in relation to public expectations

There has been considerable growth in the number of organic farms, including livestock, in the EU over the last few years. Livestock production, and especially ruminant livestock production, forms an integral part of many organic farms due to its role in nutrient recycling on farms. In 14 out of 16 European countries, livestock products were within the top five organic products. The recent development of organic farming represents the penetration of important aspects of recent major changes in society at large into agriculture. The development can be attributed to increased consumer interest in organic products while, at the same time, farmers are interested in converting to organic production methods, often stimulated by government support or subsidies. It is important that the organic production systems can fulfil the expectation of each of these stakeholders if organic livestock production is to increase further. This is discussed in detail. It is argued that organic livestock production in future will be carried out by farmers who are committed to organic ideals and, therefore, it is important that new livestock systems are developed which comply to a higher degree with these ideals. The consumer’s interest in organic farming seems mainly to be related to care of their own health and the environmental impact of agriculture, but also to considerations of animal welfare. Large regional differences also exist as regards consumers’ priorities. In European countries and the EU support for organic farming is justified as an element in stimulating/regulating the agricultural sector to be more supportive of rural development, diversifying production, and reducing the environmental load of agriculture. The different priorities in different regions in Europe reflect the different concerns as regards agricultural development in the individual regions. In central and Eastern European countries there is also growing interest in organic production methods, mainly because these systems are expected to offer a more profitable and sustainable production system based on low input. So it appears that organic livestock production systems have to reflect different expectations. Livestock rearing should contribute to more balanced overall farm production, food safety (in a broad sense) should be enhanced, and animal welfare should be improved compared to conventional production methods. Also, the systems should support rural development, nature conservation, and the environmental load should be low. The success of the expansion of organic systems will depend on how far these different expectations can be fulfilled without resulting in the premium prices of the products being too high. Research, development, and advisory service have major roles in supporting the development of such a livestock system, which addresses major current societal concerns. There probably is a need for better interaction between mainstream agricultural research and research groups specializing in areas of importance for organic farming.

Strategies to reduce surplus production and environmental burden

This paper discusses basically three strategies to reduce surplus production and environmental burden: the combination of a decrease of product prices, direct income payments in the form of withdrawal premiums, and administrative measures to observe limits; the application of an ecological package that aims at a simultaneous reduction of surplus production and burden; and special support of organic farming by deficiency payments. Different combinations of the basic strategies are shown in the conclusions. The paper is written in form of a dialogue to facilitate the discussion of pro and contra. Copyright 1990 by Oxford University Press.