Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development

Economics of Sustainable Agri-Food Systems


News

  • New Article on Communication Framing in Agricultural Climate Action

    This paper investigates effective communication strategies to enhance farmers' engagement with climate change mitigation. Through an online survey experiment of over 500 Irish livestock farmers, it examines the impact of message framing—focused on reputation concern or expenses—on information engagement, knowledge, and intentions to adopt greenhouse gas mitigation measures. The findings reveal the complexity of motivating climate action, suggesting that advisory programs should employ positively framed messages to generate interest, despite challenges inherent in discussing climate change mitigation.

  • New Article on Climate Change Mitigation in the Dairy Sector

    Combining climate change goals with economic targets is crucial for the dairy sector, which is a significant contributor to agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide. In this paper, we assess economic and climate change implications of dairy production with panel data of Irish dairy farms from 2013 to 2021. We calculate transient, persistent, and overall eco-efficiency with respect to GHG emissions by way of stochastic frontier analysis. Despite high overall eco-efficiency, our results uncover significant variability across farms, with some showing improvement and others decline in eco-efficiency over time. You can find the full article here

  • Beitrag zu Agradebatten: Deutschlands Bauernproteste: Stimmen aus der Landwirtschaft

    Mit ihren Traktoren und Plakaten haben Deutschlands Landwirt:innen in den letzten Monaten deutlich gemacht, dass sie mit der aktuellen Situation in der Landwirtschaft mehr als unzufrieden sind. Die Aufmerksamkeit der Öffentlichkeit wurde nicht nur durch Protestaktionen wie Sternfahrten und Verkehrsblockaden erreicht, sondern auch durch eine umfassende Berichterstattung der Medien. Bei so viel Aufregung und Aufmerksamkeit um das Thema Bauernproteste war es uns wichtig, die Beteiligten selbst zu fragen, was sie auf die Straße trieb. Um das herauszufinden haben wir im Mai 2024 über 300 Landwirt:innen in ganz Deutschland zu ihrer Einstellung zu den Bauernprotesten befragt. In unserem Beitrag zu Agradebatten stellen wir erste Ergebnisse dieser Befragung vor. Link to paper

  • New article: The contribution of innovation to farm level productivity

    Innovation drives productivity growth. This study uses a novel method to assess farm-level innovations on productivity in Irish dairy farms, revealing that more innovative farmers are more productive. However, smaller-scale innovative farms may see decreased productivity. We discuss policies to address unequal innovation gains among farmers.   Link to paper

  • New Article on Animal Welfare: Over 20% of Irish Dairy Farmers Choose Ignorance Over Reality in Calves' Transport

    We investigated 546 Irish dairy farmers’ choice to view a picture of transported dairy calves and find that over 20% of farmers prefer to remain in a state of ignorance. Farmers and farms’ characteristics appear to influence the probability to view the image and a treatment exploration suggest that the farmers’ decision is not a survey artefact.  Link to paper