Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
into the possible ramifications of any potential decrease in the use of public funds
to support agriculture and its associated amenities in the context of the Common
Agricultural Policy (CAP). By placing multifunctionality in this prescriptive or
normative context - because it prescribes multifunctionality as an alternative
strategy to land use segregation - the focus is on the demand for and supply of the
multiple functions of agriculture at both the individual farm and regional level.
Multifunctionality has strong links to the concept of sustainability. For example,
different functions of the rural landscape - in the sense of different types of land
use and related land covers - can be of mutual benefit, for example agro-biodiversity,
and generate economic sustainability among rural entrepreneurs and promote and
support ecological sustainability in the local area. Multifunctionality is then an
important element in the paradigm of sustainability. On the other hand, the various
functions can also be conflicting, such as in the case of intensive agriculture versus
water storage. We return to this point.
The relationship between multifunctionality and sustainability is not always
clear-cut or without conflict. However, SEAMLESS attempts to assess contribu-
tions of agriculture to sustainable development of the rural area and therefore is
inherently driven by concerns of multifunctionality.
Therein lies the rationale and motivation for the work presented below whereby
we present a theoretical framework for joint supply based on the assumption that
the degree of jointness has consequences both in terms of commodity production
costs and non-commodity production. Based on this framework, we next derive a
design for indicators of multifunctionality based on three sequential stages with
assessment of this approach undertaken on data from Auvergne, France: a
Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) two region according to
Eurostat before, finally, drawing some conclusions from this analysis.
Joint Supply, Theoretical Framework
As noted above, we are focusing our analysis of multifunctionality in terms of the joint
supply of commodity and non-commodity outputs. Methodologically this is perhaps
the most challenging definition to analyse and operationalise in terms of the formalised
economics it requires. However couching multifunctionality in different terms such as
the independent coexistence of commodity and non-commodity outputs would be
largely self-evident and as such not require the level of analysis presented here.
Etymologically, the word 'joint' was originally used to describe where two bones
meet and move in contact with each other (from Old French
joint
and Latin
junctus
).
This is a reasonable metaphor for describing how this word is now being used to
emphasise the relationship between commodity and non-commodity outputs in
agriculture in the sense that their production is interdependent. Indeed, the notion
of jointness is not unique to agriculture and prior to its emergence in this field it
had already been used to explain the existence of firms selling multiple products
(Baumol et al.
1981)
.
