Can you imagine what EU agriculture will look 10 years from now?
And what the impact of the various policy scenarios will be?
Think of sustainability aspects including individual farm income and its distribution across countries, regions, or farm types of various sizes.
What will be the impact of these policy scenarios on structural change in agriculture, the number and size of farms, and on food security?
How will climate policies and technological innovation influence key agricultural sustainability issues?
Modelling as a key tool
These are challenging policy questions given the uncertainties brought by economic, geopolitical, environmental, and climate drivers. Modelling is a key tool to achieve insights into impacts of events and policy reforms on the agricultural sector. However, much of the ongoing modelling work lacks representation of the farm scale and understanding of the farmer’s behaviour. The modelling we know does not look at how decision making and behaviour at farm level influences impacts of policies at the agricultural sector level.
MIND STEP final conferece
MIND STEP has developed individual farm models, including agent-based models, focussing on different topics in regional case studies. Examples are advances in the field of modelling of behavioral aspects, adoption of risk management instruments, adoption of new technologies, adoption of eco-schemes, modelling of crop management practices, modelling of land use change and modelling of agricultural structural change at regional and sectoral level. These advances have been used to also improve the representation of the farm level and farmer’s behaviour in the integrated, agricultural, EU wide policy models, which are intensively used by the European Commission.
This autumn, we will organise MIND STEP final conference where partners will present our project results. The results will improve public decision making in agricultural, rural, environmental and climate policies.
The objective of the final conference
The MIND STEP team has developed a set of results, including a toolbox of data and models for the analysis of EU agricultural and environmental policy with a focus on the farm scale and behaviour of the individual farmer. Together, we can discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with sustainable agriculture, exchange knowledge and experiences, and identify innovative solutions that can be implemented at various scales. Together, we can create a new kind of economic modelling to build bridges between stakeholders in the policy process and contribute towards securing food production for future generations. At the same we make sure that environmental impacts are minimized and that long-term sustainability of our agricultural systems is maintained.
Outline of the conference:
- The final MIND STEP conference will take a half day on October 26th.
- Next to presentations of major results, findings, and conclusions from the MIND STEP team, there will be a set of key-note speakers from different organisations to provide their insights and opinions on the project’s achievements and the prospects for their future uses.
- Ample time will be dedicated to open discussion with the participants, to answer further questions and to engage in continued dialogue with the MIND STEP stakeholders.
- The conference will be organized as a hybrid meeting to permit online participation as well as personal attendance in Brussels
If you're eager to show your interest in joining the conference, get in touch with us at mindstep@wur.nl.