An approach associating local experts and researchers to apprehend the local agricultural dynamic of a territory

Abstract

The decline of population and services in rural areas is a concern to local decision-makers. Faced with changes in policies and markets, these decision-makers do not have the diagnostic tools to estimate the combined effects of such changes in their region. They need tools to understand the effects of Common Agricultural Policy changes, taking into account local characteristics of the agricultural population and economy. This led us to develop an approach to model the effects of macroeconomic and local changes for all farms of an area over several years. Based on a typology, economic farm models and scenarios of agricultural changes, we can approximate the overall farm production of a small territory, the creation of added value and the overall income specific to each type of farm in the area, in a reference year and after a few years, for various policy scenarios and supply chain developments. The approach was developed in 2009 in a high altitude area of the French Massif Central. It gives markers to decision-makers dealing with the effects of local and international agricultural changes on their territory.