The multifunctionality of agriculture and contractual policies. A comparative analysis of France and the Netherlands (original) (raw)
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Efforts to include multifunctionality in agricultural policies can be seen as a response to two important changes underway since the 1990s: economic liberalization and environmental conservation. Public policies now encourage production systems that preserve natural resources while maintaining jobs and the social fabric in rural areas. In this paper we investigate the effectiveness and equity of the principles behind the distribution of public subsidies through Land Management Agreements (LMA, Contrats territoriaux d'exploitation), the principal agricultural multifunctionality instrument deployed in France. In an overview of the theories of social justice, we identify several competing principles of justice and demonstrate that the LMA scheme leads to a mode of regulation that is compatible with Rawls' principle of difference. Though the LMA itself may benefit to larger farms, the agrienvironmental measures (AEM, Mesures agri-environnementales) linked to the LMA had the direct effect of reducing gaps in incomes between participating farmers. We also point out the difficulties involved in reconciling equity and multifunctionality at any scale of implementation (individual farm, territory, etc.). Such difficulties are seen to arise from the apparent incompatibility of the principle of equality, invoked by proponents of rural viability, and the principle of merit, invoked by proponents of environmental stewardship.
Multifunctional agriculture and the new rural development policy paradigm in Europe
This paper outlines the theoretical and conceptual basis for the current 11-country research project 'towards a policy model of multifunctional agriculture and rural development' (TOP-MARD) in which the authors are engaged. It sets the discourse on multifunctional agriculture in the context of what the OECD calls the 'New Rural Paradigm', and explores the ways in which both the market and non-market 'functions' of agriculture and farm households link with the economic development and quality of life in different types of rural territory, and how different kinds of policies influence these linkages. This is the core of the claim of originality for the research.
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Conceptualisation of multifunctional agriculture in Dutch policy and research has to be understood within the typical Dutch context and can be related to different perspectives of agriculture and the rural area. The Netherlands is a densely populated country with a very produc-tive agricultural sector, exporting most of its production. Limited space, the needs for and side-effects of agricultural modernisation and increasing societal demands towards food and the rural area have since long set the debate.
Journal of Environmental Management, 2009
Today's acknowledgement of the multifunctionality of agriculture (MFA) implies the production of new knowledge to integrate different functions at farm level (primary production, environmental protection, food safety, etc.). At the same time, agricultural sectors of European countries have recently faced changes in the organisation of their R&D activities, including a trend of commercialisation and privatisation of advisory services for farmers. To assess the consequences of these changes on support for innovations related to MFA, this paper explores the potential of combining two analytical frameworks: an institutional economic approach (IEA) and a sociological network approach (SNA). This potential is illustrated by a historical analysis of advisory services in France and the Netherlands from 1945 until now. This analysis stresses the importance of collective procedures for the accumulation of technical knowledge in agriculture. It also shows that these procedures could not be analysed from a strictly technical perspective. They are the expression of institutional arrangements involving social groups of farmers and the state, and are grounded in national contexts. A historical perspective also enables us to understand better why the privatisation of extension services cannot meet the requirements of support for farm innovations in the MFA context.
ANALYZING THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY AS A CASE OF CONCEPTUAL SHIFTS (1957-2016).
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the oldest and the most expensive communitarian policy in the history of European political integration. It exists since the Treaty of Rome of 1957 and from then on, it has evolved under the operationalization of three central concepts: productivity, competitiveness, and sustainability. This paper will observe in which way the operationalization of these concepts serves the purpose of explaining the legislative history of the CAP and its most important stepping stones: The Treaty of Rome, the Mansholt Plan of 1968, the MacSharry Reform of 1992, the Agenda 2000, the Fischler Reform of 2003, the CAP Health Check of 2008, the Lisbon Treaty of 2009, the 2013 CAP reform and the initial effects of the “Brexit” process.
Journal of Rural Studies, 2017
After nearly three decades of agri-environmental policy in the European Union, the negative environmental impacts of agricultural practices are still an ongoing problem. Though a substantial body of work underlines the economic, cultural, and social factors that could encourage farmers to adopt less damaging farming practices, many researchers as well as practitioners raise the question of the efficacy of leaving agri-environmental policy processes in the hands of farmers' organizations and national agricultural departments. The activation of non-agricultural actors in these processes is increasingly considered as a driving force toward greener agri-environmental schemes. Using the case of two French regions during the 2007e2013 period, this study examines the effects of the new, decentralized, and multi-stakeholder governance of agri-environmental scheme implementation. This analysis explores how the presence of regional and local political entities and environmentalist organizations affect (or not) both the content of agri-environmental schemes and the traditional corporatist style of agricultural policy making. This study shows two main results. First, it reveals that non-agricultural actors adopt various strategies to neutralize the reformist effect their presence should theoretically have generated within agri-environmental policy. Second, it indicates the dominance of a sectoral and corporatist policymaking style over the territorial modes of policy implementation. Together, these dynamics underline a path dependency phenomenon in agricultural policies, one characterized by the political-economic dominant position of agricultural administrations and farmers' groups.
Journal of Rural Studies, 2002
The paper examines the key new discretionary features of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after the Agenda 2000 reforms. These include the possibilities for reallocating a proportion of farmers' direct payments and the implementation of the Rural Development Regulation, hailed by the European Commission as the new 'second pillar' to the CAP. The paper compares and contrasts the ways in which Britain and France are taking a lead in using these features, according to their distinctive national agricultural agendas and rural priorities, and considers the implications for the future development of European policy. r
Unraveling the European Agricultural Policy Sustainable Development Trajectory
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Amidst growing concerns about the impact of agriculture on the environment, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been overhauled to prioritize sustainable rural development in European agriculture. Based on this line of thought, the present contribution delves into the details of the CAP’s shift, focusing on the main environmental concerns faced in the policy-making framework. Grounded in a political science perspective, the current study looks at how environmental and climate change concerns were gradually elevated inside the CAP’s policy-making framework and how they helped create the “green architecture” for European agriculture. Examining the process of policy change under the lens of historical institutionalism and neo-institutionalism within the multilevel governance framework of the European Union (EU), the key role played by the gradual introduction of measures aimed at promoting measurable environmental criteria and climatic targets is highlighted. For instance, measure...
Policy Instruments in the Common Agricultural Policy
West European Politics, 2010
Policy changes in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) can be explained in terms of the exhaustion and long-term contradictions of policy instruments. Changes in policy instruments have reoriented the policy without any change in formal Treaty goals. The social and economic efficacy of instruments in terms of evidence-based policy analysis was a key factor in whether they were delegitimised. The original policy instruments were generally dysfunctional, but reframing the policy in terms of a multifunctionality paradigm permitted the development of more efficacious instruments. A dynamic interaction takes place between the instruments and policy informed by the predominant discourses.