FACCE MACSUR Reports (Modelling European Agriculture with Climate Change for Food Security)
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Ethical aspects in the economic modeling of water policy options
No full textModel-based ecological-economic studies on water management can be a valuable source of information for policy decisions on water-related issues; however, disputable normative assumptions may be involved. Deliberately or unintentionally, such assumptions can make these studies policyprescriptive. Using the conceptual design of a spatially explicit agro-economic model as an example, this article introduces and employs a framework for analyzing normative assumptions in applied economic studies to increase transparency. We argue that the many value-laden issues identified in the studies cannot be - and should not be - avoided. Instead, if used properly and transparently, they can increase the policy-relevance and usability of model-based studies without being policy-prescriptive or “subjective.” This requires analyzing and comparing the practical consequences of alternative policy goals or other value-laden assumptions. Therefore, this article secondly demonstrates, through an example, how researchers can deal more constructively with normative assumptions; our model calculations indicate different consequences of alternative ethical assumptions on how water-intensive agricultural products could be globally distributed. Finally, we argue that applied economic studies can improve their coverage of the ethical aspects of water policy, including (1) social equity, (2) intergenerational justice and (3) ecological sustainability
Filling gaps: AgMIP scenario results from CAPRI
Get PDFClimate change impacts on food production, socioeconomic changes (population and income growth in large parts of the world) and biofuel policies affecting demand quantities have risen scientific, political and public interest in long-term forecasts on food security. Whereas first quantitative analyses from global economic models are starting to appear (e.g. (von Lampe et al., under review)), similar studies on smaller regional scales are not yet available. However, acknowledging that climate change affects crop yields differently across scales and regions (e.g. (Reidsma et al., 2007)) and considering the specific political setting given through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Europe, the MACSUR project focuses on the impact of climate change and socioeconomic changes on European agriculture and its contribution to global food security. We present a Europe-wide analysis of the effect of selected climate and socioeconomic scenarios on food security in terms of food prices using the Common Agricultural Policy Regionalised Impact modelling system (CAPRI)
Climate change impact on production and income of Mediterranean farming systems: a case study
No full textAdaptation to climate change calls for local responses. The impact of a 2020-30 climate scenario was assessed on a 54,000 ha Mediterranean district characterized by a variety of farming systems (FS), ranging from low-input rainfed (42% of the district area and 16% of the district net income) to high-input irrigated. Climate was generated with a Regional Atmospheric Modelling System nested into a full coupled atmosphere-ocean global simulation model, under the A1B emission scenario. Crop responses to climate were assessed using EPIC after calibration. The Temperature Humidity Index was used to assess the impact on dairy cow milk yield. Farmer choices were simulated on 13 representative FS by an hybrid model of supply, territory and farm. The adaptive choices were simulated through Discrete Stochastic Programming, fed by probability distribution functions output of crop and animal models. The expected decrease in spring rainfall (-33%) will affect hay-crop production and the net income (NI) of rainfed livestock farms (-5 to -12%). The increased summer temperature will affect dairy cows NI up to -5.9%. Rice production is expected to increase up to +10%. Overall, the NI of irrigated and rainfed farms will be -2.1% and -5.4% of the current NI respectively, with livestock FS being the most affected and rice and horticultural FS the most resilient. Results will provide an ideal mediating object for engaging policy makers and stakeholders in designing visionary adaptive strategies
Description of the compiled experimental data available in the MACSUR CropM database
Get PDFThe input data necessary for crop model simulations and data for their calibration/validation (and thus requirements for observations and measurements in suitable experiments) have been collected through out the project together with data for additional analysis of abiotic factors influencing yields. A list of possible dataset was collated in the first year of project however very few of the existing datasets were found usable for the crop model simulation as they fell short of the requirements defined in the part 2.3. However database has been populated as planned with the results of the ongoing MACSUR studies and will serve in the same way for the MACSUR 2 duration
LiveM Highlights and outlook
Get PDFImproving health and welfare is an important adaptation and mitigation strategyDeveloping process based modelling, responsive to adaptationLinks to climate and land use change modelling are essential Livestock systems likely to be hit hardest by climate changeNeed to develop animal health models that respond to adaptation by farmersBringing together direct and indirect impacts of climate change vitalAdaptation and mitigation need to be considered and modelled togetherLinking models across scales is important to support policy decisionsLearning between sectors carries potential for novel solutions and methodological advancesEffective communication of outcomes to stakeholders (how?
Simulating crop rotations and management across climatic zones in Europe – an intercomparison study using fifteen models
Get PDFProcess based crop simulation models are widely used to assess crop production under current or future climate conditions. Most studies on climate impacts on crop growth are so far focussed on single crops and single-year simulations. However, it is known that the position of crops within a rotation can influence crop growth significantly due to carry-over effects between seasons. We compared crop models on crop rotation effects from five sites across Central Europe providing in total data of 301 cropping seasons and treatments. Treatments comprised irrigation, nitrogen (N) fertilisation, atmospheric [CO2], tillage, residue management, cover crops and soils. Crop rotations were simulated with 15 crop models as single-year simulations and/or continuous simulations over whole crop rotations in “restricted calibration” runs. Lower RMSE between observed and simulated crop yields were obtained for continuous runs as compared to single-year runs. Relatively low carry-over effects were observed due to equilibration of soil water over winter and high N fertilisation levels. Consistently, a sub-set of models applied to an additional rainfed Mediterranean site reproduced larger carry-over effects of soil water. Irrigation, N supply, cover crops and atmospheric [CO2] showed clearer effects than tillage and crop residue management. Model performance varied distinctly between crops showing the necessity to provide experimental data for model calibration also for less prominent crops
Sector level agricultural development following different adaptations to climate change
Get PDFFuture crop yields in northern Europe are subject to many factors and uncertainties, according to recent agro-ecological studies. Based on our farm level analysis, we concluded that prices of agricultural products are the primary drivers in the adaptation to climate change. They, as well as the policy conditions, affect the level of fertilization and the use of other inputs, land use and the intensity and the volume of agricultural production. We outlined 5 main scenarios of agricultural adaptation in Finland, and used an agricultural sector model to assess the impacts of the 5 scenarios on total production and land use in the whole country and in its four main regions. In the scenarios with unchanged product prices in the real terms, we find that a small increase or decrease in crop yields is possible. Significantly higher yields would require also 20-30% higher prices of crop products. Our sector modeling results suggest that avoiding decreases in crop yields is important for agricultural income in the long-term, even if livestock production in also maintained by national subsidies. Decreasing yields will result in increasing nutrient surplus and most likely in increased nutrient leaching, while increasing crop yields, even slightly, would significantly decrease nutrient surplus and increase farm income. Significant increases in crop yields and prices, however, are required before production clearly increases in Finland. Interestingly, cereals production would increase relatively more than livestock production, in the case of high future prices. This is explained by the abundant land resources, as well as the high opportunity cost of labor and policy systems maintaining current livestock production
Intercomparison of timothy models in northern countries
Get PDFForage-based livestock and dairy production are the economic backbone of agriculture in many northern countries. In northern Europe and eastern Canada, forage grasses are commonly grown intensively for silage and hay as a part of crop rotation. In those regions, timothy (Phleum pratense L.) is one of the most widely grown grass species. Models that simulate the development of yield and nutritive quality have been developed for timothy, but the performance of different models has not been compared so far.In this study, we compare the performance of the models BASGRA, CATIMO, and STICS for the predictions of timothy yield at 7 sites located in Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Canada. In addition to yield, model predictions of additional variables, such as leaf area index, specific leaf area, and nutritive quality are gathered on a daily basis. Observed data will be used for two distinct calibrations: 1) Cultivar-specific and 2) ”global”, using all cultivars. The performance of the models will be tested by simulating all sites and years with both the 5 cultivar-specific parameter sets and the global parameter set.The first results of the comparison will be presented with a particular emphasis on dry matter yield predictions.The results will provide information about the uncertainties related to yield predictions of different timothy models and calibrations, the strengths and weaknesses of different modelling approaches, and the sensitivity of models to cultivar-specific parameters