IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/apstra/49223.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Less favoured area measure in the Netherlands: a welcome or negligible addition?

Author

Listed:
  • Schouten, Marleen A.H.
  • Gaaff, Aris
  • Heijman, Wim J.M.

Abstract

The Less Favoured Areas (LFAs) Directive (75/268) which was introduced in 1975, was the first common European instrument of regional agricultural structural policy. LFAs are areas where agriculture is hampered by permanent natural handicaps. The major objectives were to ensure the continuation of farming, thereby maintaining a minimum population level and preserving scenic landscapes and environmentally valuable habitats. In the Netherlands, the LFA measure is used as an additional payment, to compensate farmers for negative economic effects due to the conservation of these natural handicaps. It was not implemented as a stand alone policy, but is linked to measures aiming at active nature and landscape conservation management. In this paper, the effects will be examined of the regulations aiming at the conservation of natural handicaps on farm businesses within LFAs, when comparing them to farm businesses outside LFAs, where these regulations and handicaps do not exist. The main data source that was used is the Farm Accountancy Data Network. Reference groups of farms were compiled with the use of the simple and multiple imputation approach in Stars (Statistics for Regional Studies). Both analyses were tested with the use of a parametric and a nonparametric test. When comparing the results of both analyses, it can be concluded that there is no evidence that there is a statistical difference in family farm income corrected for and not corrected for LFA payment between the LFA farm businesses and the reference groups. Based on these findings it can be concluded that the size of the compensatory allowances is small and there is no evidence that it has a significant effect on the family farm income of LFA farm businesses. The main purpose of the Dutch LFA policy is to compensate farm businesses for negative economic effects due to the conservation of natural handicaps. Although this may be true for some individual farms, based on the methods used in this paper, it appears not to be the case for the collectivity of LFA premium beneficiaries as a whole.

Suggested Citation

  • Schouten, Marleen A.H. & Gaaff, Aris & Heijman, Wim J.M., 2009. "Less favoured area measure in the Netherlands: a welcome or negligible addition?," APSTRACT: Applied Studies in Agribusiness and Commerce, AGRIMBA, vol. 3(1-2), pages 1-6.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:apstra:49223
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.49223
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/49223/files/2Less%20favoured%20area%20measure%20in%20the%20Netherlands.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.49223?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vrolijk, Hans C.J. & Dol, Wietse & Kuhlman, Tom, 2005. "Integration of small area estimation and mapping techniques; Tool for Regional Studies," Report Series 29078, Wageningen University and Research Center, Agricultural Economics Research Institute.
    2. Dax, Thomas, 2005. "The redefinition of Europe's Less Favoured Areas," MPRA Paper 711, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schouten, Marleen A.H. & Gaaff, Aris & Heijman, Wim J.M., 2008. "Less Favoured Area Measure in the Netherlands: a welcome or negligible addition?," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 44382, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Philippe Pointereau & Sylvain Doublet & Frédéric Coulo & Marion Houtin & Maxime Moncamp & Paolo Prosperi & Jean Michel Terres, 2010. "Case Study - France, Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation (SoCo Project)," JRC Research Reports JRC55636, Joint Research Centre.
    3. František Střeleček & Radek Zdeněk & Jana Lososová, 2010. "Vývoj zaměstnanosti v znevýhodněných oblastech v letech 2002-2006 [Development of Employment in Less Favoured Areas in 2002-2006]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2010(6), pages 761-773.
    4. Pesti, Csaba S. & Kaposzta, Jozsef, 2008. "Adaptation Of Statistical Matching In Micro-Regional Analysis Of Agricultural Production," Bulletin of the Szent Istvan University 47555, Szent Istvan University, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences.
    5. Roesch, Andreas, 2011. "A New Sampling Design for Swiss Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) Data," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 115984, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Šalkauskienė, Vilma & Gudritienė, Daiva & Abalikštienė, Edita, 2019. "Analysis of the non-productive land use in Lithuania," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 135-141.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:apstra:49223. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.apstract.net/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.