Publication with land use scenarios for the Steyr-Kirchdorf region in the Austrian Journal of Agricultural Economics and Rural Studies. Stefan Kirchweger publishes a joint paper with Wolfgang Baaske and colleagues from BOKU Vienna on „Animal husbandry in the field of tension between climate protection and farm value creation“ in the Austrian Journal of Agricultural Economics and Rural Studies (Vol. 31.9) of the Austrian Society for Agricultural Economics.
Abstract:
Animal husbandry plays an important role both in climate protection and in the value added of the regional agricultural production. In this study, selected land use scenarios were generated for the Steyr-Kirchdorf region and the changes in greenhouse gas emissions and the value added on farm level were investigated. For this purpose, a regional biophysical model was coupled with an agro-economic model. Results show that a change in dietary habits lead to a significant reduction in GHG-emissions. However, due to the high importance of livestock production in the case study region, this would result in a significant decrease in the value added unless no compensatory measures are taken along the value chain. One such measure could be the promotion of organic production but this requires appropriate economic framework conditions.