Assessing the Impacts of Rural Development Plan Measures on the Sustainability of Agricultural Holdings Using a PMP Model

Abstract

Rural Development Plan (RDP) measures support farmers in improving the sustainability of their agricultural holdings. The implementation of these policies has economic, social, and environmental impacts, which are monitored either ex-ante, ongoing, or ex-post, as required from the European Commission impact assessment guidelines. In this frame, this paper aims to assess the impacts of RDP measures on the sustainability of agricultural holdings. For this reason, a positive mathematical programming (PMP) model was developed and implemented in combination with a set of economic, social, and environmental indicators. The model was used to assess the ex-post impacts of the measure titled ‘Modernization of agricultural holdings’ of the Greek RDP 2007–2013. This research was conducted on a sample of 219 agricultural holdings in a region of northern Greece. The impacts were measured through the changes of the crop plan in the agricultural land. The results show that the measure has positive economic impacts, negative social impacts, and negative impacts on most of the environmental indicators. The results also underline the significant role of the impact assessment process in supporting policymakers in understanding the impacts of their policies.

A Multicriteria Decision Analysis Model for Optimal Land Uses: Guiding Farmers under the New European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (2023–2027)

“…Multi-criteria mathematical programming has been applied over time to find constructive land use changes and discover optimal farm plans based on the aforementioned criteria. This is something that is proved by reviewing a wide range of the relative literature [17,18,49,56]. Sumpsi et al (1993Sumpsi et al ( , 1997 [57,58] and Amador et al (1998) [59] developed methodologies for simulating agricultural systems using multi-criteria techniques.…”

“…The first part involves establishing a set of objectives «f1(x), f2(x)…fn(x)» that essentially represent the real goals of the farmers [59] such as profit maximization, cost, and labor minimization [17]. Once the objectives are set, the analysis proceeds to the second part, where a pay-off matrix is determined [18]. The elements of this matrix are computed by optimizing an objective in each different row [49].…”

“…The elements of this matrix are computed by optimizing an objective in each different row [49]. Once the pay-off matrix is obtained, the analysis proceeds to the third step, where the following system of equations q is solved [17,18,49]:…”

“…To develop the model, data were initially collected using a questionnaire based on the scientific literature [17,18,49]. The questionnaire analysis consists of three sections.…”

“…Subsequently, the decision support model was developed, considering the new CAP rules regarding proper water management, as well as other economic, environmental, and social parameters, along with the producers' real aims (e.g., gross profit maximization). Finally, the multi-criteria analysis method was applied to extract the new land uses [17,18] for each of the five farmer groups.…”