CONTEXT

Most stockless organic farms depend on the import of organic nitrogen. Biogas digestates offer an interesting solution to address this need for flexible nitrogen fertilizers. Their application could support the conversion of specialized arable farms, contributing to the politically targeted expansion of organic production. However, various regulations on the use of off-farm biogas digestates exist, which differ considerably in allowed N imports. Despite the growing interest in the application of biogas digestates in stockless organic farming in practice and research, its impacts on the economic potential of converting from conventional to organic farming have not been investigated.

OBJECTIVE

This study assesses the economic potential of organic production for specialized arable farms without taking up animal production based on cooperating with a conventional biogas plant. The study considers the impacts of different regulations on importing off-farm biogas digestates.

METHODS

The assessment employs the bio-economic farm model FarmDyn to evaluate multiple economic performance indicators for three stockless arable case study farms with varying cropping patterns under conventional and organic production. The German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia serves as the case study area. A large-scale sensitivity analysis quantifies the impact of relevant parameters with a high uncertainty or possible large impact.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that organic farming has a high economic potential for specialized arable farms when biogas digestate is applied. Taking existing subsidies into account, organic farming economically outperforms conventional production for all assessed farms and regulatory scenarios. However, stronger restrictions on the application of biogas digestates shift crop rotations toward higher shares of crops with low nutrient requirements and legumes. This reduces, especially in case of fodder legumes, revenues and increases labor requirements, and lowers profitability and labor productivity. Distance to the biogas plant and subsidies for organic production impact strongly on profitability, whereas input prices show small effects. Results underline that the economic performance of stockless organic farming depends highly on import possibilities of nutrients. Furthermore, they suggest that subsidies for organic farming should better reflect its economic potential across farm types to reduce deadweight effects and boost conversion where it is costly.

SIGNIFICANCE

The study is the first to assess the impact of different regulations governing the import of fermentation substrates on the economic potential of stockless organic farming for specialized arable farms. This is relevant as conversion of stockless arable farms is lagging behind but could considerably contribute to reach policy targets for organic production.

中文翻译：

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进口沼气沼液的无库存耕作农场有机生产的经济潜力：德国西部的案例研究分析

语境

大多数无库存有机农场依赖有机氮的进口。沼气沼渣提供了一个有趣的解决方案来满足对灵活氮肥的需求。它们的应用可以支持专业耕种农场的转变，有助于有机生产的政治目标扩张。然而，存在关于使用非农场沼气消化液的各种规定，这些规定在允许的氮进口方面有很大差异。尽管在实践和研究中，人们对沼气沼液在无库存有机农业中的应用越来越感兴趣，但尚未研究其对从传统农业向有机农业转变的经济潜力的影响。

客观的

本研究评估了在与传统沼气厂合作的基础上，在不从事动物生产的情况下，专业耕种农场有机生产的经济潜力。该研究考虑了不同法规对进口非农场沼气沼液的影响。

方法

该评估采用生物经济农场模型 FarmDyn 来评估三个无库存耕地案例研究农场的多项经济绩效指标，这些农场在常规和有机生产下具有不同的种植模式。德国联邦州北莱茵-威斯特法伦州作为案例研究区。大规模敏感性分析量化具有高度不确定性或可能产生较大影响的相关参数的影响。

结果和结论

我们的研究结果表明，当应用沼气沼液时，有机农业对于专业耕种农场具有很高的经济潜力。考虑到现有的补贴，有机农业在经济上优于所有评估农场和监管情景的传统生产。然而，对沼气沼液应用的更严格限制使作物轮作转向更高比例的低营养需求作物和豆类。这会减少（尤其是在饲料豆类的情况下）收入并增加劳动力需求，并降低盈利能力和劳动生产率。与沼气厂的距离和对有机生产的补贴对盈利能力有很大影响，而投入品价格的影响很小。结果强调，无库存有机农业的经济表现在很大程度上取决于养分的进口可能性。此外，他们建议对有机农业的补贴应该更好地反映其在各种农场类型中的经济潜力，以减少无谓效应并促进成本高昂的转化。

意义

该研究首次评估了管理发酵底物进口的不同法规对专业耕种农场无库存有机农业经济潜力的影响。这是相关的，因为无库存耕地农场的转换滞后，但可能大大有助于实现有机生产的政策目标。