UK Environmental-Economic Consequences of Decoupled CAP Payments

摘要

In our two farm business case studies, designed to represent typical arable and upland livestock farms in England, the costs of changing to more extensive agricultural production are reduced by 40-70% following decoupling. The consequences of this are that the compensation paid to farmers to take these steps is significantly lower, and will have a more predictable impact on public expenditure. For environmental policies in agriculture, previously rejected economic instruments (such as taxes) and alternative measures (such as market mechanisms), may now have lower costs for the farming industry as a result of decoupling. Therefore,policy choices made under the old coupled system may no longer be justified. In the longer term, the Government's fanning strategy will need to be updated to reflect these changes in economic incentives.