Integrated Assessment of the EU’s Greening Reform and Feed Self-Sufficiency Scenarios on Dairy Farms in Piemonte, Italy
Specialised dairy farms are challenged to be competitive and yet respect environmental constrains. A tighter integration of cropping and livestock systems, both in terms of feed and manure flows, can be beneficial for the farm economy and the environment. The greening of the direct payments, which w...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2018-09-01
|
| Series: | Agriculture |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/9/137 |
| _version_ | 1818648634055458816 |
|---|---|
| author | Stefano Gaudino Pytrik Reidsma Argyris Kanellopoulos Dario Sacco Martin K. van Ittersum |
| author_facet | Stefano Gaudino Pytrik Reidsma Argyris Kanellopoulos Dario Sacco Martin K. van Ittersum |
| author_sort | Stefano Gaudino |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Specialised dairy farms are challenged to be competitive and yet respect environmental constrains. A tighter integration of cropping and livestock systems, both in terms of feed and manure flows, can be beneficial for the farm economy and the environment. The greening of the direct payments, which was introduced in the European Union’s greening reform in 2013, is assumed to stimulate the transition towards more sustainable systems. The aim of this study was to quantitatively assess the impacts of greening policies on important economic and environmental indicators of sustainability, and explore potential further improvements in policies. The Farm System SIMulator (FSSIM) bioeconomic farm model was used to simulate the consequences of scenarios of policy change on three representative dairy farms in Piedmont, Italy, i.e., an ‘intensive’, an ‘extensive’, and an ‘organic’ dairy farm. Results showed that in general, there is a large potential to increase the current economic performance of all of the farms. The most profitable activity is milk production, resulting in the allocation of all of the available farm land to feed production. Imposing feed self-sufficiency targets results in a larger adaptation of current managerial practice than the adaptations that are required due to the greening policy scenario. It was shown that the cropping system is not always able to sustain the actual herd composition when 90% feed self-sufficiency is imposed. Regarding the greening policies, it is shown that extensive and organic farms already largely comply with the greening constrains, and the extra subsidy is therefore a bonus, while the intensive farm is likely to sacrifice the subsidy, as adapting the farm plan will substantially reduce profit. The introduction of nitrogen (N)-fixing crops in ecological focus areas was the easiest greening strategy to adopt, and led to an increase in the protein feed self-sufficiency. In conclusion, it is important to note that the greening policy in its current form does not lead to reduced environmental impacts. This implies that in order to improve environmental performance, regulations are needed rather than voluntary economic incentives. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T01:21:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e31832044ea047059cecf16b973cc178 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-0472 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T01:21:32Z |
| publishDate | 2018-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Agriculture |
| spelling | doaj.art-e31832044ea047059cecf16b973cc1782022-12-21T22:08:48ZengMDPI AGAgriculture2077-04722018-09-018913710.3390/agriculture8090137agriculture8090137Integrated Assessment of the EU’s Greening Reform and Feed Self-Sufficiency Scenarios on Dairy Farms in Piemonte, ItalyStefano Gaudino0Pytrik Reidsma1Argyris Kanellopoulos2Dario Sacco3Martin K. van Ittersum4Department of Agriculture, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Turin, via L. Da Vinci 44, 10095 Grugliasco, ItalyPlant Production Systems Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 430, 6700 Wageningen, The NetherlandsOperations Research and Logistics Group, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6708 Wageningen, The NetherlandsDepartment of Agriculture, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Turin, via L. Da Vinci 44, 10095 Grugliasco, ItalyPlant Production Systems Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 430, 6700 Wageningen, The NetherlandsSpecialised dairy farms are challenged to be competitive and yet respect environmental constrains. A tighter integration of cropping and livestock systems, both in terms of feed and manure flows, can be beneficial for the farm economy and the environment. The greening of the direct payments, which was introduced in the European Union’s greening reform in 2013, is assumed to stimulate the transition towards more sustainable systems. The aim of this study was to quantitatively assess the impacts of greening policies on important economic and environmental indicators of sustainability, and explore potential further improvements in policies. The Farm System SIMulator (FSSIM) bioeconomic farm model was used to simulate the consequences of scenarios of policy change on three representative dairy farms in Piedmont, Italy, i.e., an ‘intensive’, an ‘extensive’, and an ‘organic’ dairy farm. Results showed that in general, there is a large potential to increase the current economic performance of all of the farms. The most profitable activity is milk production, resulting in the allocation of all of the available farm land to feed production. Imposing feed self-sufficiency targets results in a larger adaptation of current managerial practice than the adaptations that are required due to the greening policy scenario. It was shown that the cropping system is not always able to sustain the actual herd composition when 90% feed self-sufficiency is imposed. Regarding the greening policies, it is shown that extensive and organic farms already largely comply with the greening constrains, and the extra subsidy is therefore a bonus, while the intensive farm is likely to sacrifice the subsidy, as adapting the farm plan will substantially reduce profit. The introduction of nitrogen (N)-fixing crops in ecological focus areas was the easiest greening strategy to adopt, and led to an increase in the protein feed self-sufficiency. In conclusion, it is important to note that the greening policy in its current form does not lead to reduced environmental impacts. This implies that in order to improve environmental performance, regulations are needed rather than voluntary economic incentives.http://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/9/137bioeconomic modellingdairy farminggreening policyfeed self-sufficiencyagro-environmental indicatorscommon agricultural policy |
| spellingShingle | Stefano Gaudino Pytrik Reidsma Argyris Kanellopoulos Dario Sacco Martin K. van Ittersum Integrated Assessment of the EU’s Greening Reform and Feed Self-Sufficiency Scenarios on Dairy Farms in Piemonte, Italy Agriculture bioeconomic modelling dairy farming greening policy feed self-sufficiency agro-environmental indicators common agricultural policy |
| title | Integrated Assessment of the EU’s Greening Reform and Feed Self-Sufficiency Scenarios on Dairy Farms in Piemonte, Italy |
| title_full | Integrated Assessment of the EU’s Greening Reform and Feed Self-Sufficiency Scenarios on Dairy Farms in Piemonte, Italy |
| title_fullStr | Integrated Assessment of the EU’s Greening Reform and Feed Self-Sufficiency Scenarios on Dairy Farms in Piemonte, Italy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Integrated Assessment of the EU’s Greening Reform and Feed Self-Sufficiency Scenarios on Dairy Farms in Piemonte, Italy |
| title_short | Integrated Assessment of the EU’s Greening Reform and Feed Self-Sufficiency Scenarios on Dairy Farms in Piemonte, Italy |
| title_sort | integrated assessment of the eu s greening reform and feed self sufficiency scenarios on dairy farms in piemonte italy |
| topic | bioeconomic modelling dairy farming greening policy feed self-sufficiency agro-environmental indicators common agricultural policy |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/9/137 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stefanogaudino integratedassessmentoftheeusgreeningreformandfeedselfsufficiencyscenariosondairyfarmsinpiemonteitaly AT pytrikreidsma integratedassessmentoftheeusgreeningreformandfeedselfsufficiencyscenariosondairyfarmsinpiemonteitaly AT argyriskanellopoulos integratedassessmentoftheeusgreeningreformandfeedselfsufficiencyscenariosondairyfarmsinpiemonteitaly AT dariosacco integratedassessmentoftheeusgreeningreformandfeedselfsufficiencyscenariosondairyfarmsinpiemonteitaly AT martinkvanittersum integratedassessmentoftheeusgreeningreformandfeedselfsufficiencyscenariosondairyfarmsinpiemonteitaly |