What factors determine whether farmers exceed the minimum uptake requirements of voluntary agri-environmental schemes: the case of the reduced tillage in Switzerland

Vor 5 Tagen

Frick AG, Aargau, Schweiz Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau FiBL Vollzeit

Art des Angebots: Masterarbeit

Background

This analysis aims to examine the management characteristics and farm structural constraints that are correlated with exceeding minimum standards – and/or the degree to which minimum standards are exceeded – that must be met to receive payments for voluntary agri-environmental schemes. The case study would be based on the reduced tillage scheme, where, to date, farmers must perform ploughless cultivation on at least 60% of their arable land using either mulch, strip tillage, direct drilling, or a combination of these methods.

However, many farmers exceed the bare minimum levels needed to qualify and, as such, "over-perform" relative to the basic requirements, generating positive spill-over effects for ecosystem service provision. The analysis would utilise farmer characteristics, farm usage of complementary practices, and structural data to understand the determinants of such "beyond voluntary requirements" adoption among farmers.

This is an important policy question, as it may help determine which factors can be harnessed to improve the uptake and impact of soil conservation schemes. Additionally, this analysis could shed some light on aspects such as the additionality of current soil conservation schemes relative to the uptake behaviour of farmers, irrespective of the current scheme requirements.

Methods

The analysis would use standard econometric methods to account for self-selection of farmers to enrol in the scheme, such as the Heckman, Double-Hurdle or Switching Regression approach. One of the initial steps of the thesis would be to determine the most appropriate method to use to answer such questions. The software used to conduct the analysis would ideally be R, but Python and Stata are also possibilities.

The thesis will use the following data, described here:Data covering soil management practices and farm characteristics on Swiss arable farms | Scientific Data

Contact

Charles Rees

Start Date

By Arrangement (Duration 6 Months)

Literature

Devilliers, E., Möhring, N. and Finger, R., 2024. Estimation and comparison of the performance of low-input and conventional agricultural production systems. Q Open, 4(1), p.qoad032.

Garcia, V., Möhring, N., Wang, Y. and Finger, R., 2025. Farmer behavior toward herbicide‐free agriculture and conservation tillage. American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

Möhring, N., Mark, J. and Finger, R., 2025. Pesticide-free agriculture: insights into farmer adoption across crops. Q Open, 5(2), p.qoaf014.

Rees, C., Ineichen, L., Finger, R. and Grovermann, C., 2025. Data covering soil management practices and farm characteristics on Swiss arable farms. Scientific Data, 12(1), p.1471.

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Kontakt

Charles Rees

M.Sc. ETH Sc.

Departement für Agrar- und Ernährungssysteme

FiBL Schweiz

Ackerstrasse 113

CH-5070 Frick

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