An economic assessment of drought effects on three grassland systems in Switzerland

Finger, Robert; Gilgen, Anna Katarina; Prechsl, Ulrich E.; Buchmann, Nina (2013). An economic assessment of drought effects on three grassland systems in Switzerland. Regional environmental change, 13(2), pp. 365-374. Berlin: Springer 10.1007/s10113-012-0346-x

[img]
Preview
Text
art%3A10.1007%2Fs10113-012-0346-x.pdf_auth66=1391675576_02489b6e254727fb8c4fb3b341dfe902&ext=.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Publisher holds Copyright.

Download (218kB) | Preview

This paper analyzes the economic impacts of summer drought on Swiss grassland production. We combine field trial data from drought experiments in three different grasslands in Switzerland with site-specific information on economic costs and benefits. The analysis focuses on the economic implications of drought effects on grassland yields as well as grassland composition. In agreement with earlier studies, we found rather heterogeneous yield effects of drought on Swiss grassland systems, with significantly reduced yields as a response to drought at the lowland and sub-alpine sites, but increased yields at the wetter pre-alpine site. Relative yield losses were highest at the sub-alpine site (with annual yield losses of up to 37 %). However, because income from grassland production at extensive sites relies to a large extent on ecological direct payments, even large yield losses had only limited implications in terms of relative profit reductions. In contrast, negative drought impacts at the most productive, intensively managed lowland site were dominant, with average annual drought-induced profit margin reductions of about 28 %. This is furthermore emphasized if analyzing the farm level perspective of drought impacts. Combining site-specific effects at the farm level, we found that in particular farms with high shares of lowland grassland sites suffer from summer droughts in terms of farm-level fodder production and profit margins. Moreover, our results showed that the higher competitiveness of weeds (broad-leaved dock) under drought conditions will require increasing attention on weed control measures in future grassland production systems. Taking into account that the risk of drought occurrence is expected to increase in the coming years, additional instruments to cope with drought risks in fodder production and finally farmers’ income have to be developed.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) > Plant nutrition [discontinued]
10 Strategic Research Centers > Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR) > NCCR Climate
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS)

UniBE Contributor:

Gilgen, Anna Katarina

Subjects:

500 Science > 580 Plants (Botany)

ISSN:

1436-3798

Publisher:

Springer

Projects:

[UNSPECIFIED] NCCR Climate PLANT/SOIL

Language:

English

Submitter:

Peter Alfred von Ballmoos-Haas

Date Deposited:

04 Feb 2014 09:36

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:26

Publisher DOI:

10.1007/s10113-012-0346-x

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Drought Grassland Weeds Yield Economic costs and benefits

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.38656

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/38656

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback