Landowner response to policies regulating land improvements in Finland: Lease or search for other options?

Pouta, Eija; Myyrä, Sami; Pietola, Kyösti

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2011.08.001

Cited by 17 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(35 reference statements)

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“…on liming and sub-soil drainage), introduction of direct-drilling and minimum tillage, insufficient use of fungicides, soil compaction and expanded area under organic production, to mention only some major changes in crop management and cropping systems [36–39]. All these drivers contribute differently to the stagnation of national major cereal yields [1].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land Use, Yield and Quality Changes of Minor Field Crops: Is There Superseded Potential to Be Reinvented in Northern Europe?

2016

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Diversification of agriculture was one of the strengthened aims of the greening payment of European Agricultural Policy (CAP) as diversification provides numerous ecosystems services compared to cereal-intensive crop rotations. This study focuses on current minor crops in Finland that have potential for expanded production and considers changes in their cropping areas, yield trends, breeding gains, roles in crop rotations and potential for improving resilience. Long-term datasets of Natural Resources Institute Finland and farmers’ land use data from the Agency of Rural Affairs were used to analyze the above-mentioned trends and changes. The role of minor crops in rotations declined when early and late CAP periods were compared and that of cereal monocultures strengthened. Genetic yield potentials of minor crops have increased as also genetic improvements in quality traits, although some typical trade-offs with improved yields have also appeared. However, the gap between potential and attained yields has expanded, depending on the minor crop, as national yield trends have either stagnated or declined. When comparing genetic improvements of minor crops to those of the emerging major crop, spring wheat, breeding achievements in minor crops were lower. It was evident that the current agricultural policies in the prevailing market and the price environment have not encouraged cultivation of minor crops but further strengthened the role of cereal monocultures. We suggest optimization of agricultural land use, which is a core element of sustainable intensification, as a future means to couple long-term environmental sustainability with better success in economic profitability and social acceptability. This calls for development of effective policy instruments to support farmer’s diversification actions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land Use, Yield and Quality Changes of Minor Field Crops: Is There Superseded Potential to Be Reinvented in Northern Europe?

2016

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“…Ironically, also flooding causing anoxia, especially for the particularly sensitive barley crop, is reasonably common Rantanen 1987, 1989). This is, however, often attributable to insufficient infiltration capacity of the soil that may be due to neglected investments in the maintenance of subsurface drainage, which is increasingly common for leased fields with short contract periods (Pouta et al 2012). Nonetheless, repeated, heavy rains lasting for at least two weeks were often more probable in some northern parts the country than in the southern and inland regions in the early growing season (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal variation in weather events critical for boreal agriculture: II Precipitation

Peltonen‐Sainio

Pirinen

Mäkelä

et al. 2016

AFSci

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There is great temporal and spatial variation in precipitation in Finland. Both drought episodes and repeated, abundant rains may interfere with crop growth, yield and quality formation, and many agricultural operations (such as tillage, sowing, crop protection and harvesting). The windows for optimal operations are often narrow due to the short growing season and variable weather conditions. Field traffic at high soil moisture may e.g. cause soil compaction. Also, the high environmental footprint on agriculture under high latitude conditions is often attributable to fluctuations in precipitation. The station-wise precipitation observations from the Finnish Meteorological Institute for the time period of 54 years (1961‒2014) were interpolated to a regular 10 km × 10 km grid covering the whole country. Several successive time slices were used to calculate the likelihood of: 1) drought periods and 2) periods with repeated rains with above normal precipitation sum so that both of these lasted for at least a) two weeks or b) three weeks. We demonstrated substantial spatial and temporal variation in the likelihood of drought and repeated rains: drought episodes were common during the early half of the growing season, while again repeated rains with high accumulated precipitation (lasting for two weeks) became common in the latter part of the growing season. Though, we highlighted in this paper some examples of how these events may affect agriculture and their environmental impacts, the datasets published here may be applied for many other assessments.

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“…All these are apt to contribute to the higher risks of low NDVI values for a small parcel revealed by this study. However, the risk of low productivity did not differ depending on whether the land was owned or leased, though farmers are often cautious about making any investments with a long payback period in the typical case of short-term leasing contracts [43].…”

Section: An "Ideotype" For a Field Parcel When Considering Risks Relamentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk of Low Productivity is Dependent on Farm Characteristics: How to Turn Poor Performance into an Advantage

Peltonen‐Sainio

Jauhiainen

2019

Sustainability

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The principle role of agriculture is to produce food for the increasing human population. However, the environmental footprint needs to be simultaneously reduced. Data from the Finnish Food Authority (181,108 parcels in the south-western crop production region of Finland) were used to identify the farming system, farm type, farm size, field parcel scale, physical parcel characteristics, cultivated crops, crop rotations and cultivars. Sentinel-2 derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values were used to identify fields with very low productivity. Thereby, the impacts of farm and field characteristics on risks of low NDVI values and their associated means of coping by the farmer were studied. High variations in field parcel characteristics and growth capacity were typical in the studied area. Although it is challenging for farmers, high variation can provide many opportunities for the development of multifunctional and resource-smart production systems, e.g., by optimizing land use: allocating high-quality fields for food production, and poorly performing fields for extensification, i.e., the production of environmental benefits. Many usable policy instruments are available to support such a transition, but more focus should be put onto the most efficient means to enable progress towards environmentally, economically and socially sustainable high-latitude agricultural systems.

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Landowner response to policies regulating land improvements in Finland: Lease or search for other options?

Cited by 17 publications

References 34 publications

Land Use, Yield and Quality Changes of Minor Field Crops: Is There Superseded Potential to Be Reinvented in Northern Europe?

Land Use, Yield and Quality Changes of Minor Field Crops: Is There Superseded Potential to Be Reinvented in Northern Europe?

Spatial and temporal variation in weather events critical for boreal agriculture: II Precipitation

Risk of Low Productivity is Dependent on Farm Characteristics: How to Turn Poor Performance into an Advantage

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