Linking farmers’ decision making to environmental impacts
Agricultural policies should enhance the sustainability of agriculture while ensuring farmers’ livelihoods. However, the models used to support European Commission (EC) agricultural policy making are lacking resolution. They do not consider how farmers make decisions, how farms differ and what the environmental and socio-economic impacts of those policies at the local level are when implemented. The EU-funded BESTMAP(opens in new window) project filled this gap. To do so, it was first necessary to overcome the significant hurdle of harmonising heterogeneous agricultural data across EU countries and regions for spatially explicit modelling. The team then combined agent-based models, ecosystem service evaluations and socio-economic analyses to see what works where – and why.
Linking farmers’ decisions to environmental impacts
“The BESTMAP project created a modelling framework that helps to predict how agricultural policies – like subsidies for ecofriendly farming – impact biodiversity, ecosystem services and farmers’ incomes,” explains project coordinator Guy Ziv of the University of Leeds(opens in new window). It complements previous macro models by connecting environmental impacts with farmers’ decision to adopt the policies. For example, suppose a government wants to know if increasing payments for flower strips will be attractive to farmers and help pollinators. The BESTMAP framework predicts whether different types of farms will participate. It then models and maps the environmental and socio-economic consequences. Policymakers can change various policy parameters to see their effects, helping them to design smarter policies that support both nature and farming livelihoods.
Farmers are an essential ingredient for success
BESTMAP studied five European regions (Czechia, Germany, Spain, Serbia and UK) and developed farming system archetypes. The team quantified agri-environmental measure impacts on biodiversity, water quality, carbon sequestration and farm income, and used agent-based models to show how policy design affects adoption. Qualitative data from diverse farmers provided crucial behavioural insights. “Our farmer interviews showed that economic constraints and rigid rules often undermine the impact of theoretically beneficial policies. In addition, our models and analyses often confirmed farmers’ perceptions, such as the tendency of governments to implement agri-environment-climate measures(opens in new window) (AECMs) on less productive land,” notes task leader and consortium coordination team member Michael Beckmann of Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus – Senftenberg(opens in new window).
Paving the way to a new policy design cycle
The project upscaled results to the EU level, providing a deep understanding of the impact of the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) on environmental protection and farmer support. It revealed variable CAP effects across regions and farm types. In addition, “BESTMAP identified general shortcomings of the past CAP which limited their adoption and effectiveness. These include high bureaucratic burden, inflexible contracts and lack of spatial targeting in AECMs. These insights are crucial for improving future agricultural policies at EU and national levels,” underscores Beckmann. BESTMAP engaged stakeholders in co-design workshops to create a practical dashboard and policy recommendations. The dashboard allows users to view the outcomes of predefined scenarios in case study regions. Interested parties can use all datasets(opens in new window) associated with the open source framework as well as use, improve and adapt the project’s biophysical and socio-economic models(opens in new window), further enhancing their utility. “The BESTMAP framework does not just analyse policy – it helps redesign it. We propose a new policy cycle that’s more adaptive, region-specific and inclusive of farmers’ voices. By showing how and where measures work, we provide a blueprint for smarter, fairer, greener agriculture in Europe,” concludes Beckmann.
