DEPARTMENT of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia chief economist Ross Kingwell has addressed an international workshop tasked with assessing the European Union’s new agricultural policy.
Speaking last week at European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Professor Kingwell explained how to use farm modelling to assess the impacts of a change in agricultural policy.
“Depending on the nature of the policy change, farm businesses and their environment can be affected differently and some changes can occur quickly or slowly,” he said.
After 2013, the European Union will embrace a new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), elements of which are still under review. The European Union has moved away from price supports towards decoupled payments. Rather than receive payments based on their level of farm production, farmers will receive government payments for provision of environmental and landscape services.
The European Commission is allocating several million dollars to European researchers for farm modelling of policy options under the new CAP.
Prof Kingwell and Prof James Richardson, from Texas A&M University, were two international experts invited to share their knowledge with around 50 other farm modellers from Europe’s leading universities and research institutes.
Prof Kingwell, also of the University of Western Australia, shared his expertise in farm modelling in Western Australia to show how the impacts of new policies could be assessed.
“The European Commission will use farm modelling to help design and refine their agricultural policies and indicate their likely impacts in different countries and regions in Europe,” Prof Kingwell said.
The workshop ‘Developments and Prospects of Farm Level Modelling for post 2013 CAP Impact Analysis’ was held on June 6 and 7, enabling leading experts in farm modelling to share their knowledge and experience in undertaking impact assessments.
