Economic and environmental impacts of introducing grain legumes in farming systems of Midi-Pyrenees region (France): A simulation approach

The reconciliation of economy and environment is a key factor in achieving sustainability.The European Union wishes to achieve the sustainability of its agriculture in order to producehigh quality food materials and to manage energy crisis and the risks related to climate andmarket fluctuations. These risks can be mitigated by reducing negative impacts of agriculturalactivities on the environment. Therefore, this study was designed to derive and promote thepotential tools to increase the land area under grain legumes in Midi-Pyrenees region (France)where it currently stands at only 1 to 3%. For this purpose modeling chain APES-FSSIMIndicator was used to assess different alternative scenarios of proposition of new grain legumesbased cereals rotations, provision of higher premium on grain legumes, increase in sale priceand yield of grain legumes, reduction in price and yield variability of grain legumes andcombination of all these scenarios. Results showed that alternative scenario of provision of morepremiums on grain legumes was more efficient in increasing the grain legume area than otheralternative scenarios, but this would require a level of subsidies much higher than the currentcrop-specific subsidies in EU. However, in case of combination of all these scenarios, theincrease in grain legumes area was maximum for all three selected farms from the study area.In addition farm income was increased by 11 to 26% and energy consumption was decreased by4 to 9% for the selected farms. It is concluded that grain legumes area in Midi-Pyrenees farmingsystems can be increased by following the above mentioned alternative strategies