MIND STEP Database and Model Interfaces
This tool will develop a suite of individual decision making (IDM) models for farms with ongoing work developing interfaces to access FADN, testing the use and considering the expansion of various other models.
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Output Description
MIND STEP aims to develop a suite of individual decision making (IDM) models addressing the farm level. There is a need for various data to support these different IDMs and integrate them at the farm level. MIND STEP’s approach is to design and set up database-specific interfaces instead of building ‘one new big database’. These interfaces will also allow evaluators to access data from databases or existing global and European models or allow models to utilise new data. Ongoing work shows, for example, the development of interfaces to access FADN, the efforts to enrich existing IDMs with new data sources, the utilisation of open agricultural data collection and other interfaces.
For accessing FADN data, an existing interface for importing, housekeeping, and working with ‘raw’ and ‘calculated’ FADN data was further elaborated and developed to an integrated FADNUtils package written in the R language.
As concerns individual decision-making models, MIND STEP is currently further developing and testing the use of FARMDYN and IFM-CAP.
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FARMDYN is an example of an IDM utilised by MIND STEP. FARMDYN simulates farm management and investment under changes in boundary conditions such as prices or policy instruments for a wide range of different farming systems. It has been used to model GHG emissions related to the dairy sector or phosphate emissions from the pig sector in Germany. Some of the data required by FARMDYN, for example, grassland yields by production system and seasonality, are not available from FADN or national farm statistics but can be approximated using Earth Observations. MIND STEP proposes to populate FARMDYN grassland tables using satellite images.
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JRC Sevilla developed the Individual Farm Model for Common Agricultural Policy Analysis (IFM-CAP) to assess the impacts of CAP on farm economic and environmental performance. The model started in 2013, aiming to evaluate the effects of the CAP towards 2020. IFM-CAP uses data from FADN, the Farm Structure Survey (FSS), CAPRI database and Eurostat. The data are adjusted to the model format, the outliers and the missing values are addressed. Because some of the indicators, such as unit input costs of crops, are not directly available in FADN, they are estimated using external data sources. IFM-CAP is based on the assumption that farmers maximise their expected utility at given yields, product prices and CAP subsidies, subject to resource endowments (arable land, grassland and feed) and policy constraints.
AgroDataCube in the Netherlands provides an extensive collection of both open and derived data for agri-food applications. Open data has been collected from the Dutch government, Rijkswaterstaat, KNMI and Wageningen University and Research. Interoperability and re-usability create added value to the data. MIND STEP explores ways of utilising AgroDataCube into the FARMDYN.
Relevance for monitoring and evaluation of the CAP
MIND STEP’s development of IDMs will improve the capacity to model agricultural and rural development policies and support policy design, impact assessments and monitoring. MIND STEP’s contributions to evaluation will be achieved by facilitating access to databases and incorporating models to assess policy impacts. Access to individual farm level data depends on General Data Protection Regulation and its application in each Member State.
Access to multiple databases: The data products developed by MINDSTEP refer to interfaces which (a) access databases, (b) access the databases of global models and (c) connect various databases with models. In this way, evaluators will have better access to stand-alone databases like FADN and databases linked to European and global scale models such as the GLOBIOM and MAGNET.
Access to farm-level data: MIND STEP explores ways to utilise open data relevant for evaluating agricultural and rural development policies by linking them with individual decision-making models at the farm level. For data that are not open, special procedures including anonymisation and possibly aggregation may apply. However, results from models based on individual farm-level data will always be available.
Use of models to assess policy impacts: The FARMDYN farm-level model is a simulation model that can be used to evaluate the effects of agricultural policy on different farming systems. The results of the model can be triangulated with observations and expert opinions.
MIND STEP will offer a range of stand-alone and ready-to-use tools that concerns access to databases. These tools will require marginal adaptation to individual decision-making models to simulate and evaluate the effects of agricultural policy on the various farming systems and Member States.
Relevance of the output per CAP Objectives
- Specific Objective 1 - Ensure a fair income for farmers
- Specific Objective 2 - Increase competitiveness
- Specific Objective 3 - Improve farmers' position in the food chain
- Specific Objective 4 - Climate change action
- Specific Objective 5 - Environmental care
- Specific Objective 6 - Preserve landscape and biodiversity
- Cross-cutting Objective - Fostering knowledge and innovation
Additional output information
Data collection systems used:
- IACS/LPIS
- FADN(FSDN)
- Copernicus
- LUCAS Soil or relevant soil inventories
- Natura 2000 Database
- Eurostat
- Ad-hoc data collection
Type of output:
- Database/ data registry
- Database interoperability
- Methodology
Associated evaluation approaches:
- Desk research
- Scenario analysis
- Data analysis
- Impact evaluation ante
- Impact evaluation ex post
Spatial scale:
- Parcel
- Farm holding
- Sub-regional / local
- Regional
- National
- EU level
Project information
Modelling Individual Decisions to Support the European Policies related to Agriculture
The overall ambition of MIND STEP is to support public decision making in agricultural, rural, environmental and climate policies, taking into account the behaviour of individual decision-making units in agriculture and the rural society.
Specific objectives:
- To develop a highly modular and customisable suite of individual decision making (IDM) models focussing on the behaviour of individual agents in the agricultural sector to analyse impacts of policies better.
- To develop linkages between the new IDM models and current models used at the European Commission to improve the consistency and broaden the scope of the analysis of policies.
- To develop an integrated data framework to support analysis and monitoring of policies related to agriculture.
- To apply the MIND STEP model toolbox to analyse regional and national policies and selected EU CAP reform options and global events affecting the IDM farming unit, working with policymakers, farmers and other stakeholders.
- To safeguard the governance and future exploitation of the MIND STEP model toolbox.
Project’s timeframe: 2019 – 2023
Contacts of project holder: Hans van Meijl, Stichting Wageningen Research (NL) mindstep@wur.nl
Website: Mind Step: https://mind-step.eu/
CORDIS database: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/817566
Territorial coverage: Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands