The Effects of Interventions Targeting Increased Organic Seed Use—The Cases of Perennial Ryegrass in England and Durum Wheat in Italy

Eva Winter, Christian Grovermann, Stefano Orsini, Francesco Solfanelli and Joachim Aurbacher
Additional contact information
Eva Winter: Department of Socioeconomics, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), 5070 Frick, Switzerland
Christian Grovermann: Department of Socioeconomics, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), 5070 Frick, Switzerland
Stefano Orsini: The Organic Research Centre, Trent Lodge, Stroud Rd, Cirencester GL7 6JN, UK
Francesco Solfanelli: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences (D3A), Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Joachim Aurbacher: Institute of Farm and Agribusiness Management, Justus-Liebig University of Giessen, 35390 Giessen, Germany

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-26

Abstract: To meet policy goals targeting increasing the share of organic agriculture, an organic seed needs to be provided. Currently, this is far from being the case. This study investigates two cases of important crop country combinations in organic agriculture, namely perennial ryegrass in South-West England and durum wheat in Italy. A novel multi-agent value chain approach was developed to assess public and private-sector interventions aiming at increasing organic seed use. Phasing out of derogations for non-organic seed comes with 2–7% gross margin losses at the farm level. Seed producers and breeders profit by 9–24%. Mitigating measures can be subsidies of 28 €/ha or price premiums of 12 €/ton at the farm gate for durum wheat, in the case of durum wheat in Italy, and subsidies of 13 €/ha or price premiums of 70 €/ton for lamb meat, in the case of perennial ryegrass in England. Further mitigating measures are the promotion of farm-saved durum wheat seed and investments in breeding for better nitrogen efficiency in organic perennial ryegrass seed production.

Keywords: organic seed; value chain analysis; agent-based modelling; policies; farm to fork strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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