54
D. Kirschke et al.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
BW
BAY
BB
HE
MV
NI
NRW
RP
SL
SN
ST
SH
TH
D
German States
Catch crops/Green cover
Fallow land
Nitrogen-fixing crops
Afforested areas
Buffer strips
Landscape features
Short rotaon coppice
Fig. 3.10 Use of Ecological Focus Areas in Germany, 2015 (Source Own compilation according
to Lakner et al. (2016).)
soil and groundwater, but biodiversity is hardly affected. Set-aside land, on the other
hand, is certainly positive for biodiversity, though the area is limited. An interesting
new development is to use pulses on EFA (Fig. 3.7), which explains the revival of
pulses production in Germany in recent years. This example shows how land use
may more be affected by the policy framework than by comparative advantage.
Summing up, the new greening regulation under the CAP certainly has an impact
with respect to permanent grassland and pulses, but the overall land use implications
are limited. In particular, the greening regulation will hardly contribute to alleviating
the conflict between agricultural land use and nature and natural resource protection.
Consequently, the greening regulation is a rather inefficient instrument to enhance
biodiversity and ecological objectives (Pe’er et al. 2014; BfN 2017). On the other
hand, greening contributes to making agricultural land scarcer, thus, impacting on
land markets and prices.
The specific feature of the German REA is to support various types of renewable
energies like wind and water power, solar energy, and bioenergy by guaranteeing
sale and prices of the electricity produced. The production of biogas has become an
important activity field for German farmers: From 2000 the installed electric output
of biogas plants in Germany increased from 65 megawatt to 1,377 MW in 2008; it
jumped to 3,905 MW in 2014 and 5,228 MW in 2019, respectively. In recent years
installation somewhat stagnates on this high level due to corrections of the REA and
reduced incentives (Statista 2019).
This development has led to a remarkable land use change in German agriculture.
Since silage maize has proven to be the most profitable crop for biogas production, the area of maize production has increased considerably. It amounted to 1.2
million hectares in 2003, increased to 1.6 million hectares in 2008 and was about
2.2 million hectares in 2019. This increase in maize production area is not evenly
distributed all over Germany, but maize production is concentrated in some regions
D. Kirschke et al.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
BW
BAY
BB
HE
MV
NI
NRW
RP
SL
SN
ST
SH
TH
D
German States
Catch crops/Green cover
Fallow land
Nitrogen-fixing crops
Afforested areas
Buffer strips
Landscape features
Short rotaon coppice
Fig. 3.10 Use of Ecological Focus Areas in Germany, 2015 (Source Own compilation according
to Lakner et al. (2016).)
soil and groundwater, but biodiversity is hardly affected. Set-aside land, on the other
hand, is certainly positive for biodiversity, though the area is limited. An interesting
new development is to use pulses on EFA (Fig. 3.7), which explains the revival of
pulses production in Germany in recent years. This example shows how land use
may more be affected by the policy framework than by comparative advantage.
Summing up, the new greening regulation under the CAP certainly has an impact
with respect to permanent grassland and pulses, but the overall land use implications
are limited. In particular, the greening regulation will hardly contribute to alleviating
the conflict between agricultural land use and nature and natural resource protection.
Consequently, the greening regulation is a rather inefficient instrument to enhance
biodiversity and ecological objectives (Pe’er et al. 2014; BfN 2017). On the other
hand, greening contributes to making agricultural land scarcer, thus, impacting on
land markets and prices.
The specific feature of the German REA is to support various types of renewable
energies like wind and water power, solar energy, and bioenergy by guaranteeing
sale and prices of the electricity produced. The production of biogas has become an
important activity field for German farmers: From 2000 the installed electric output
of biogas plants in Germany increased from 65 megawatt to 1,377 MW in 2008; it
jumped to 3,905 MW in 2014 and 5,228 MW in 2019, respectively. In recent years
installation somewhat stagnates on this high level due to corrections of the REA and
reduced incentives (Statista 2019).
This development has led to a remarkable land use change in German agriculture.
Since silage maize has proven to be the most profitable crop for biogas production, the area of maize production has increased considerably. It amounted to 1.2
million hectares in 2003, increased to 1.6 million hectares in 2008 and was about
2.2 million hectares in 2019. This increase in maize production area is not evenly
distributed all over Germany, but maize production is concentrated in some regions