Impact of Topical Policies on the Future of Small-scale Farms in Poland - A Multiobjective Approach

Contrary to what was expected at the beginning of the transformation, semisubsistence farm households (SFHs) have persevered. There is an ongoing debate about what could prompt SFHs to become more profitable or to exit farming. A number of policy measures within the Common Agricultural Policy address this issue. This contribution assesses the impact of selected EU rural development measures on SFHs in Poland. Under the heading of multiple criteria decision-making, different approaches have been discussed in the literature. In this contribution, a multiobjective linear programming household model using compromise programming is applied. Four household objectives are optimised simultaneously: net agricultural production, net non-farm income, and household cash balance are maximised, while agricultural labour input is minimised. All together, four representative SFH types were simulated. Simulation results show that fine-targeting of policy measures to specific household situations is a strong precondition for successful development. The differing results between the multiobjective approach as compared to programming with one objective are also discussed. Keywords: Semi-subsistence agriculture, policy analysis, transition countries, multiobjective modelling

WEGENER Stefan;  FRITZSCH Jana;  BUCHENRIEDER Gertrud;  CURTISS Jarmila;  GOMEZ Y PALOMA Sergio; 

2009-10-22

IAMO

JRC54378

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC54378,