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5 - Swiss agricultural policy reform: landscape changes in consequence of national agricultural policy and international competition pressure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Nadja El Benni  and
Bernard Lehmann
Edited by
Jørgen Primdahl  and
Simon Swaffield
Jørgen Primdahl
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Simon Swaffield
Affiliation:
Lincoln University, New Zealand
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Summary

Introduction

As in many other industrialised countries, the contribution of Swiss agriculture and forestry to GDP is very low (0.8%). Despite this, every year 2.5 billion Swiss francs (CHF) are redistributed from taxpayers to farmers (SFSO, 2008b), mainly in the form of direct payments. The direct-payment system is strongly focused upon landscape conservation, and ecological and ethnological considerations. Animal welfare standards and the retirement of compensation areas are also sensitive considerations for farming in Switzerland. These payments directly influence productivity and are a highly relevant income source for the majority of farmers. As a consequence, they directly affect landscape change.

The current system originated in 1992, when Switzerland rejected economic integration with the European Union (EU) but decided to pursue a similar outcome through agricultural policy reform and bilateral agreements. The reform was initiated as a response to increasing international competition and environmental problems. It shifted emphasis away from market support and introduced decoupled direct payments. These payments are based on a cross-compliance approach to fulfil the criteria of the Green Box in the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture (Jörin et al., 2006). The first bilateral agreement came into force in 2002. It brought about tariff reductions and the removal of technical barriers to trade. By 2007, after a five-year transition period, the second bilateral agreement liberalised the cheese market between Switzerland and the EU (Jörin et al., 2006).

The combination of decoupled payments and bilateral agreements made it a challenge for Swiss farmers to maintain market share.

Type
Chapter
Information
Globalisation and Agricultural Landscapes
Change Patterns and Policy trends in Developed Countries
 , pp. 73 - 94
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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