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Research article2019Peer reviewedOpen access

Farmers' preferences for nutrient and climate-related agri-environmental schemes: A cross-country comparison

Hasler, Berit; Czajkowski, Mikolaj; Elofsson, Katarina; Hansen, Line Block; Konrad, Maria Theresia; Nielsen, Helle Orsted; Niskanen, Olli; Nommann, Tea; Pedersen, Anders Branth; Peterson, Kaja; Poltimaee, Helen; Svensson, Tobias Haeggmark; Zagorska, Katarzyna

Abstract

We use data from a survey of 2439 farmers in 5 countries around the Baltic Sea (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland and Sweden) to investigate their preferences for adopting agricultural practices aimed at reducing nutrient leaching and greenhouse gas emissions. The measures considered are set-aside, catch crops and reduced fertilization. Contracts vary with respect to the area enrolled, contract length, possibility of premature termination, availability of professional advice and compensation. We quantitatively describe farmers' preferences in terms of their willingness-to-accept compensation for specific attributes of these contracts, if implemented. The results vary substantially between farm types (farmers' characteristics) and between the 5 countries, and support differentiation of contract obligations and payments to improve the uptake of Agri-Environmental Schemes. The results can be readily used to improve the design of country-specific nutrient reduction policies, in accordance with the next Common Agricultural Policy.

Keywords

Agri-environmental schemes; Baltic Sea; Choice experiment; Farmers' preferences; Willingness to accept

Published in

AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
2019, Volume: 48, number: 11, pages: 1290-1303 Publisher: SPRINGER

      SLU Authors

      • UKÄ Subject classification

      Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
      Public Administration Studies

      Publication identifier

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01242-6

      Permanent link to this page (URI)

      https://res.slu.se/id/publ/102426