IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v182y2020ics0308521x19308510.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A review of European models to assess the sustainability performance of livestock production systems

Author

Listed:
  • van der Linden, Aart
  • de Olde, Evelien M.
  • Mostert, Pim F.
  • de Boer, Imke J.M.

Abstract

A large variety of models has been developed to explore the multidimensional, and sometimes conflicting, sustainability consequences of innovations and policies for European livestock farms. Implementation of innovations and policies generally results in both synergies and trade-offs between the environmental, economic, and social dimension of sustainability, and among sustainability themes within these dimensions. An overview of the specific sustainability themes addressed by livestock models is lacking, which hinders the further development of models to evaluate a wide array of sustainability dimensions and themes. The aim of this review, therefore, is to provide an overview of European livestock models that can be used to explore synergies and trade-offs among sustainability themes. This systematic literature review yielded 215 European livestock models at the animal level, herd or flock level and farm level. Models were mainly developed in Western Europe, and may have, therefore, a reduced accuracy when applied to other regions than Western Europe. Most models cannot assess a wide array of synergies and trade-offs among sustainability dimensions and themes, as only 33% covered all three sustainability dimensions. Models addressed four sustainability themes on average. Social themes are often lacking in models and additional efforts are needed to develop more integrative models by adapting and extending existing models, especially for monogastric animals. Adaptation and extension of existing models is facilitated by improving the availability of livestock models, increasing the percentage of livestock models published open source, collaborating on the development of joint and generic models and by improving descriptions of the programming languages and programs used and the stakeholders involved. This model review can be used to identify which models or combinations of models are best suited to explore the sustainability consequences of innovations and policies for livestock farms in Europe.

Suggested Citation

  • van der Linden, Aart & de Olde, Evelien M. & Mostert, Pim F. & de Boer, Imke J.M., 2020. "A review of European models to assess the sustainability performance of livestock production systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:182:y:2020:i:c:s0308521x19308510
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2020.102842
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X19308510
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agsy.2020.102842?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Langeveld, J.W.A. & van Keulen, H. & de Haan, J.J. & Kroonen-Backbier, B.M.A. & Oenema, J., 2005. "The nucleus and pilot farm research approach: experiences from The Netherlands," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 227-252, May.
    2. Kremmydas, Dimitris & Athanasiadis, Ioannis N. & Rozakis, Stelios, 2018. "A review of Agent Based Modeling for agricultural policy evaluation," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 95-106.
    3. Darrel C. Ince & Leslie Hatton & John Graham-Cumming, 2012. "The case for open computer programs," Nature, Nature, vol. 482(7386), pages 485-488, February.
    4. Veysset, P. & Bebin, D. & Lherm, M., 2005. "Adaptation to Agenda 2000 (CAP reform) and optimisation of the farming system of French suckler cattle farms in the Charolais area: a model-based study," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 179-202, February.
    5. Latruffe, Laure & Diazabakana, Ambre & Bockstaller, Christian & Desjeux, Yann & Finn, John & Kelly, Edel & Ryan, Mary & Uthes, Sandra, 2016. "Measurement of sustainability in agriculture: a review of indicators," Studies in Agricultural Economics, Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, vol. 118(3), pages 1-8, December.
    6. Janssen, Sander & van Ittersum, Martin K., 2007. "Assessing farm innovations and responses to policies: A review of bio-economic farm models," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 622-636, June.
    7. Kipling, Richard P. & Bannink, André & Bellocchi, Gianni & Dalgaard, Tommy & Fox, Naomi J. & Hutchings, Nicholas J. & Kjeldsen, Chris & Lacetera, Nicola & Sinabell, Franz & Topp, Cairistiona F.E. & va, 2016. "Modeling European ruminant production systems: Facing the challenges of climate change," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 24-37.
    8. Ramsden, S. & Gibbons, J. & Wilson, P., 1999. "Impacts of changing relative prices on farm level dairy production in the UK," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 201-215, December.
    9. Kragt, M.E. & Pannell, D.J. & McVittie, A. & Stott, A.W. & Vosough Ahmadi, B. & Wilson, P., 2016. "Improving interdisciplinary collaboration in bio-economic modelling for agricultural systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 217-224.
    10. van Calker, K.J. & Berentsen, P.B.M. & Giesen, G.W.J. & Huirne, R.B.M., 2008. "Maximising sustainability of Dutch dairy farming systems for different stakeholders: A modelling approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 407-419, April.
    11. Reidsma, Pytrik & Janssen, Sander & Jansen, Jacques & van Ittersum, Martin K., 2018. "On the development and use of farm models for policy impact assessment in the European Union – A review," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 111-125.
    12. van Ittersum, Martin K. & Ewert, Frank & Heckelei, Thomas & Wery, Jacques & Alkan Olsson, Johanna & Andersen, Erling & Bezlepkina, Irina & Brouwer, Floor & Donatelli, Marcello & Flichman, Guillermo & , 2008. "Integrated assessment of agricultural systems - A component-based framework for the European Union (SEAMLESS)," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 96(1-3), pages 150-165, March.
    13. Ness, Barry & Urbel-Piirsalu, Evelin & Anderberg, Stefan & Olsson, Lennart, 2007. "Categorising tools for sustainability assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 498-508, January.
    14. Morel, Kevin & Farrié, Jean-Pierre & Renon, Julien & Manneville, Vincent & Agabriel, Jacques & Devun, Jean, 2016. "Environmental impacts of cow-calf beef systems with contrasted grassland management and animal production strategies in the Massif Central, France," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 133-143.
    15. Dimitris Kremmydas, 2012. "Agent based modeling for agricultural policy evaluation: A review," Working Papers 2012-3, Agricultural University of Athens, Department Of Agricultural Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ibán Vázquez-González & María do Mar Pérez-Fra & Ana Isabel García-Arias & Bernardo Valdês-Paços & Edelmiro López-Iglesias, 2021. "Rendered Agroecosystem Services and Dysservices of Dairy Farming: A Bottom-Up Approach in Galicia (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-20, July.
    2. Noha Mahmoud & Allan Leck Jensen & Cairistiona F. E. Topp & Claus Aage Grøn Sørensen & Michael Nørremark & Vera Eory & Nicholas J. Hutchings, 2021. "A Method to Quantify the Detailed Risk of Serious Injury in Agricultural Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, March.
    3. Haddad, Salwa & Escobar, Neus & Bruckner, Martin & Britz, Wolfgang, 2022. "Promoting extensive cattle production in the European Union has major implications for global agricultural trade and climate change," Discussion Papers 324710, University of Bonn, Institute for Food and Resource Economics.
    4. Schreefel, L. & de Boer, I.J.M. & Timler, C.J. & Groot, J.C.J. & Zwetsloot, M.J. & Creamer, R.E. & Schrijver, A. Pas & van Zanten, H.H.E. & Schulte, R.P.O., 2022. "How to make regenerative practices work on the farm: A modelling framework," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    5. Konefal, Jason & de Olde, Evelien M. & Hatanaka, Maki & Oosterveer, Peter J.M., 2023. "Signs of agricultural sustainability: A global assessment of sustainability governance initiatives and their indicators in crop farming," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    6. Daniel Puente-Rodríguez & Harmen van Laar & Maayke Veraart, 2022. "A Circularity Evaluation of New Feed Categories in The Netherlands—Squaring the Circle: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-27, February.

    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. Huber, Robert & Bakker, Martha & Balmann, Alfons & Berger, Thomas & Bithell, Mike & Brown, Calum & Grêt-Regamey, Adrienne & Xiong, Hang & Le, Quang Bao & Mack, Gabriele & Meyfroidt, Patrick & Millingt, 2018. "Representation of decision-making in European agricultural agent-based models," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 143-160.
    2. Schreefel, L. & de Boer, I.J.M. & Timler, C.J. & Groot, J.C.J. & Zwetsloot, M.J. & Creamer, R.E. & Schrijver, A. Pas & van Zanten, H.H.E. & Schulte, R.P.O., 2022. "How to make regenerative practices work on the farm: A modelling framework," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    3. Britz, Wolfgang & Ciaian, Pavel & Gocht, Alexander & Kanellopoulos, Argyris & Kremmydas, Dimitrios & Müller, Marc & Petsakos, Athanasios & Reidsma, Pytrik, 2021. "A design for a generic and modular bio-economic farm model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    4. Mosnier, Claire & Duclos, Anne & Agabriel, Jacques & Gac, Armelle, 2017. "Orfee: A bio-economic model to simulate integrated and intensive management of mixed crop-livestock farms and their greenhouse gas emissions," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 202-215.
    5. Le Gal, P.-Y. & Dugué, P. & Faure, G. & Novak, S., 2011. "How does research address the design of innovative agricultural production systems at the farm level? A review," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(9), pages 714-728.
    6. Robert Huber & Hang Xiong & Kevin Keller & Robert Finger, 2022. "Bridging behavioural factors and standard bio‐economic modelling in an agent‐based modelling framework," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 35-63, February.
    7. Chopin, Pierre & Blazy, Jean-Marc & Guindé, Loïc & Wery, Jacques & Doré, Thierry, 2017. "A framework for designing multi-functional agricultural landscapes: Application to Guadeloupe Island," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 316-329.
    8. Stefano Gaudino & Pytrik Reidsma & Argyris Kanellopoulos & Dario Sacco & Martin K. Van Ittersum, 2018. "Integrated Assessment of the EU’s Greening Reform and Feed Self-Sufficiency Scenarios on Dairy Farms in Piemonte, Italy," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-27, September.
    9. Reidsma, Pytrik & Janssen, Sander & Jansen, Jacques & van Ittersum, Martin K., 2018. "On the development and use of farm models for policy impact assessment in the European Union – A review," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 111-125.
    10. Ditzler, Lenora & Klerkx, Laurens & Chan-Dentoni, Jacqueline & Posthumus, Helena & Krupnik, Timothy J. & Ridaura, Santiago López & Andersson, Jens A. & Baudron, Frédéric & Groot, Jeroen C.J., 2018. "Affordances of agricultural systems analysis tools: A review and framework to enhance tool design and implementation," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 20-30.
    11. Louhichi, Kamel & Kanellopoulos, Argyris & Janssen, Sander & Flichman, Guillermo & Blanco, Maria & Hengsdijk, Huib & Heckelei, Thomas & Berentsen, Paul & Lansink, Alfons Oude & Ittersum, Martin Van, 2010. "FSSIM, a bio-economic farm model for simulating the response of EU farming systems to agricultural and environmental policies," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(8), pages 585-597, October.
    12. Mössinger, Johannes & Troost, Christian & Berger, Thomas, 2022. "Bridging the gap between models and users: A lightweight mobile interface for optimized farming decisions in interactive modeling sessions," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    13. Jacquet, Florence & Butault, Jean-Pierre & Guichard, Laurence, 2011. "An economic analysis of the possibility of reducing pesticides in French field crops," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1638-1648, July.
    14. Viaggi, Davide & Raggi, Meri & Gomez y Paloma, Sergio, 2011. "Farm-household investment behaviour and the CAP decoupling: Methodological issues in assessing policy impacts," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 127-145, January.
    15. Weerahewa, Jeevika & Dayananda, Dasuni, 2023. "Land use changes and economic effects of alternative fertilizer policies: A simulation analysis with a bio-economic model for a Tank Village of Sri Lanka," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    16. Eigner, Amanda E. & Nuppenau, Ernst-August, 2019. "Applied spatial approach of modelling field size changes based on a consideration of farm and landscape interrelations," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    17. Louhichi, Kamel & Flichman, Guillermo & Blanco Fonseca, Maria, 2009. "A generic template for FSSIM," Reports 57463, Wageningen University, SEAMLESS: System for Environmental and Agricultural Modelling; Linking European Science and Society.
    18. Shang, Linmei & Heckelei, Thomas & Börner, Jan & Rasch, Sebastian, 2020. "Adoption and Diffusion of Digital Farming Technologies – Integrating Farm-Level Evidence and System-Level Interaction," 60th Annual Conference, Halle/ Saale, Germany, September 23-25, 2020 305586, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    19. Lhermie, Guillaume & Wernli, Didier & Jørgensen, Peter Søgaard & Kenkel, Donald & Lin Lawell, C.-Y. Cynthia & Tauer, Loren William & Gröhn, Yrjo Tapio, 2019. "Tradeoffs between resistance to antimicrobials in public health and their use in agriculture: Moving towards sustainability assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-1.
    20. Kocjančič, Tina & Debeljak, Marko & Žgajnar, Jaka & Juvančič, Luka, 2018. "Incorporation of emergy into multiple-criteria decision analysis for sustainable and resilient structure of dairy farms in Slovenia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 71-83.

    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:eee:agisys:v:182:y:2020:i:c:s0308521x19308510. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    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.