Assessment of an alternative decoupled agricultural support scheme for cop crops: The case of irrigated farms in the Guadalquivir Valley

Abstract

In this paper we compare the current CAP Reform with a more market-orientated policy which allows the substitution of COP for vegetables (including potatoes). In order to reproduce farmers’ decision-making process, we first group farmers by farm size into three categories and then elicit a general utility function for each group. The elicitation of the bi-attribute utility functions, based on observed crop land allocation, does not require interaction with the farmers. The validation of the model seems to justify the methodological approach. The results regarding the alternative scheme proposed suggest that, with the same EAGGF expenditure, small and medium-sized farms in this region would benefit from this alternative scheme in terms of higher expected total gross margin, flexibility and freedom of crop choice.