Farm management indicators and farm typologies as a basis for assessments in a changing policy environment

This paper focuses on the assessment of farm management indicators and argues that typologies are a necessary tool for comprehensive environmental assessments. In the paper Andersen et al., [(2004a). Farming and the Environment in the European Community—using agricultural statistics to provide farm management indicators. Paper presented at OECD Expert meeting, March 2004, New Zealand. 〈http://webdomino1.oecd.org/comnet/agr/farmind.nsf/viewHtml/index/$FILE/Anderson_et_al.PDF〉 (1st of February 2006).] presented at the OECD expert meeting on farm management indicators in New Zealand in March 2004, a set of farm management indicators was presented in the framework of a typology of grazing livestock farming systems in the EU-15 (includes all Member States of the European Union before 2004). The present paper presents new results on farm management indicators within the framework of an extended typology for all farming sectors. It presents an environmentally oriented extension to the EU typology of farms currently used for assessing the situation of farming within the European Union. The extended typology is tested in relation to emerging policy issues such as environmental sustainability and rural viability by analysing some of the farm management indicators suggested in Andersen et al., [(2004a). Farming and the Environment in the European Community—using agricultural statistics to provide farm management indicators. Paper presented at OECD Expert meeting, March 2004, New Zealand. 〈http://webdomino1.oecd.org/comnet/agr/farmind.nsf/viewHtml/index/$FILE/Anderson_et_al.PDF〉 (1st of February 2006).]. Finally, recommendations in relation to the next generation EU farm typology are given.