The European Commission asked for the development of an integratedcomputer toolkit for an ex ante assessment for effective and efficientagriculturaland environmental policies for the EU-25 in a changing Europe and world.Thirty research institutes from thirteen European countries are involvedin this project ‘Seamless’. The project is coordinated by WageningenUniversity. The project, with a total budget of 15 million Euro, plansto deliver a first prototype within 18 months and in four years time thesystem should be fully operational. A kick-off meeting for Seamless isheld this week in Lund, Sweden.
More than ever before, adequate agricultural and environmental policiesat EU, national and regional scale are needed that can facilitate agriculture’scontribution to sustainable development. Ex-ante assessment of new policies(i.e., assessment before their introduction) is essential to ensure theireffectiveness and efficiency. This is even more evident when taking intoaccount that roughly 40% of the total EU budget is used for the CommonAgricultural Policy, and 40% of the European land surface is used for agriculture.
Rural areas in Europe will face major developments as a result of thecontinuous enlargement of the EU, changes in farm support payments (resultingin lower prices for e.g. milk and sugar beet) and liberalization of worldtrade as a consequence of negotiations in the World Trade Organization.Such changes interact with changes in the physical and natural environment(e.g. climate change, loss of biodiversity). Next to these European andglobal developments, society demands a green and clean landscape, and farmingcommunities in rural areas are faced with continuous technological innovation.There is a growing awareness that agriculture’s contribution to sustainabledevelopment and a multifunctional land use is at stake.
Seamless
The Integrated Project Seamless has been developed in response to a researchand policy need formulated by the European Commission. This project aimsat the development of an integrated system with computer models and approachesto assess alternative agricultural and environmental policy options.The project seeks to link European science to society. The computer systemwill include quantitative models that simulate effects of the biophysicalenvironment and economic developments, next to procedures that enableassessment of qualitative aspects such as quality of life and visuallandscape quality. The latest developments in Information Technology(IT) should facilitate the integration of models from a wide range ofscientific domains. Interactive identification of the key indicators(e.g. for environmental pollution, economic performance or social acceptability)that can capture the relevant information associated with specific policyquestions will be crucial.
Over 80 researchers of thirty institutions from thirteen European countries,including several new member states, are involved in the project. Theseinstitutions bring together a vast amount of knowledge and expertise fromeconomic, environmental, agronomic, social and information technology disciplines.The project also includes co-operation with an African and an Americanresearch institute. The project is coordinated from Wageningen Universityby the chair group Plant Production Systems, in co-operation with the C.T.de Wit Graduate School for Production Ecology and Resource Conservationand the Agricultural Economics Research Institute (LEI).
MORE INFORMATION
Bouke de Vos, Press Officer Wageningen University and Research Centre,tel. +31 317 480 180, e-mail bouke.devos@wur.nl