ABSTRACT

Farmers increasingly have to navigate through a complex web of agricultural and environmental regulations. In the EU, for example, the Nitrate Directive aims to control the nutrient levels in the water and agri-environmental schemes aim to protect habitats and increase biodiversity. The trade-offs between such environmental policies are not clear. Therefore, this paper studies the interaction between manure policy, especially derogation policy, and meadow bird schemes for the Netherlands. We develop a mathematical programming farm model with nine representative dairy farm types, based on location and economic size, that gain utility from both profit and agri-environmental services production. We show that the abolishment of derogation and the introduction of a low-protein feeding measure – both aimed at reducing nitrogen emissions – reduce total land contracted for meadow birds. This is because (1) without derogation makes farms switch to more maize production, hence reducing grassland, and (2) the protein measure requires extra feed production on-farm which most farms cannot accomplish and which makes contracting for the meadow bird scheme less attractive. Especially farms on peat and more intensive farms, who are more dependent on buying feed, reduce the amount of land contracted. We advocate that policy makers should become aware of how policies interact and that researchers do not study them in isolation.

摘要

越来越多的农民不得不在复杂的农业和环境法规网络中前行。例如，在欧盟，硝酸盐指令旨在控制水中的营养水平，而农业环境计划旨在保护栖息地和增加生物多样性。这些环境政策之间的权衡并不明确。因此，本文研究了荷兰的粪肥政策，尤其是减损政策与草地鸟类计划之间的相互作用。我们根据位置和经济规模开发了一个具有九种代表性奶牛场类型的数学规划农场模型，从利润和农业环境服务生产中获得效用。我们表明，废除减损和引入低蛋白喂养措施——旨在减少氮排放——减少了草地鸟类的总承包土地。这是因为 (1) 没有减损会使农场转向更多的玉米生产，从而减少草地，以及 (2) 蛋白质措施需要在农场生产额外的饲料，这是大多数农场无法完成的，这使得承包草地鸟类计划的吸引力降低. 尤其是泥炭养殖场和集约化养殖场，对购买饲料的依赖度更高，减少了承包土地的数量。我们提倡政策制定者应该意识到政策是如何相互作用的，研究人员不要孤立地研究它们。因此减少草地，以及 (2) 蛋白质措施需要额外的农场饲料生产，大多数农场无法完成，这使得签订草地鸟类计划的合同变得不那么有吸引力。尤其是泥炭养殖场和集约化养殖场，对购买饲料的依赖度更高，减少了承包土地的数量。我们提倡政策制定者应该意识到政策是如何相互作用的，研究人员不要孤立地研究它们。因此减少草地，以及 (2) 蛋白质措施需要额外的农场饲料生产，大多数农场无法完成，这使得签订草地鸟类计划的合同变得不那么有吸引力。尤其是泥炭养殖场和集约化养殖场，对购买饲料的依赖度更高，减少了承包土地的数量。我们提倡政策制定者应该意识到政策是如何相互作用的，研究人员不要孤立地研究它们。