AgroCO2ncept

The Federal Office for Agriculture in Switzerland (external pageFOAGcall_made) supports projects in which farmers collectively try to increase their resource efficiency through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and pesticides or the use of renewable energies. These so called “resource programs” should promote technological and organizational innovations for a sustainable Swiss agricultural sector and provide an origin for new and innovative policy support. To monitor and evaluate these projects, the FOAG also finances research that accompanies these programs.

Our group AECP accompanies and conducts research in the resource program "external pageAgroCO2ncept Flaachtalcall_made". In this program, farmers from the Flaachtal region test the feasibility of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through various measures in crop production, animal farming and machinery on farm and regional level from a practical perspective. At the same time, the farmers aim at increasing their profitability through collaborative efforts in cost reduction and marketing of local products. The goal of our research in the context of “AgroCO₂ncept” is to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and to generalize practical on-farm experiences for better policy designs and implementations in agricultural climate adaptation and mitigation. Our research focuses on the whole-farm and collective approach of the project and provides new knowledge for different stakeholders along the Swiss farming sector.

We use an agent-based modelling approach to analyze the program and generalize our findings. The model will simulate the development of the individual farms and their (social-) interactions to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the different GHG reduction measures. This provides the possibility to address research gaps in the context of calibrating and validating agent-based models using social network data. In addition, the use of an agent-based model mirrors the conceptual approach of the “AgroCO₂ncept” program and serves as an effective tool to evaluate the policy program. The 4-year PhD-project is based on a transdisciplinary research exchange between farmers, farm advisory services, project consulting companies, the FOAG and our research group.

Publications

Kreft, C., Angst, M., Huber, R., & Finger, R. (2023). Farmers’ social networks and regional spillover effects in agricultural climate change mitigation. Climatic Change, 176(2), 8 external page>>call_made

Kreft, C., Finger, R., & Huber, R. (2023). Action- versus results-based policy designs for agricultural climate change mitigation. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy external page>>call_made

Kreft, C., Huber, R., Schäfer, D., & Finger, R. (2023). Quantifying the impact of farmers’ social networks on the effectiveness of climate change mitigation policies in agriculture. Journal of Agricultural Economics external page>>call_made

Kreft, Cordelia (2022) Behavioural Economics of Climate Change Mitigation in Swiss Agriculture: The role of farmers’ individual characteristics and social networks. DISS. ETH NO. 28696 >>

Kreft, C., Huber, R., Wuepper, D., & Finger, R. (2021). The role of non-cognitive skills in farmers‘ adoption of climate change mitigation measures. Ecological Economics, 189, 107169 external page>>call_made

Kreft, C. S., Huber, R., Wüpper, D. J., & Finger, R. (2020). Data on farmers’ adoption of climate change mitigation measures, individual characteristics, risk attitudes and social influences in a region of Switzerland. Data in Brief, 30, 105410. external page>>call_made

Kreft, C.S., Angst, M., Huber, R., Finger, R., 2021. Social network data of Swiss farmers related to agricultural climate change mitigation. Data in Brief 35, 106898. external page>>call_made

Blog contributions

Kreft, Cordelia (2023). Klimaschutz in der Landwirtschaft – was prägt die Entscheidungen von Landwirtinnen und Landwirten in der Schweiz? external page>>call_made

Kreft et al. (2023) Effiziente Direktzahlungen für Klimaschutz auf Schweizer Milch- und Fleischbetrieben external page>>call_made

Kreft et al. (2023) Einfluss sozialer Netzwerke auf die Wirksamkeit von Politikmassnahmen zur Reduktion von Treibhausgasemissionen in der Landwirtschaft external page>>call_made

Kreft, Cordelia (2023) Klimaschutz in der Landwirtschaft – was prägt die Entscheidungen von Landwirtinnen und Landwirten in der Schweiz? external page>>call_made

Kreft et al. (2023) Soziale Netzwerke und landwirtschaftlicher Klimaschutz external page>>call_made

Kreft et al. (2021): Landwirtschaftlicher Klimaschutz braucht Vertrauen in die eigenen Fähigkeiten external page>>call_made

Involved Persons: Dr. Robert Huber () (main contact), Cordelia Kreft (), Prof. Dr. Robert Finger ()

Funding: external pageFederal Office for Agriculturecall_made

Funding Period: 2017-2021