News
ANLiegen Natur magazine reports about research of the chair group in the area of agroforestry
In the current issue of ANLiegen Natur (issue 46/1, 2023), the journal for nature conservation and applied landscape ecology of the Bavarian Academy for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management (ANL), a report entitled "The willingness of Bavarian farmers to cultivate agroforestry systems in the face of regional weather extremes" discusses current research results of the Chair Group of Production and Resource Economics.
You can find the link to the ANLiegen Natur article here.
Science Magazine reports on research by Maya Göser, Dr. Stefan Wimmer and Professor Johannes Sauer
The well-known Science magazine, which since its founding in 1880, has strived to publish and disseminate special scientific discoveries and research results, reports on the current research of Maya Göser, Dr. Stefan Wimmer and Professor Johannes Sauer in the August 25, 2023 issue.
The Science article, which can be found under the heading "In Brief: News at a glance," refers to the research paper "Research excellence and scientific advisory boards," published in the August 2023 Science and Public Policy Journal. The study analyzes the extent to which research excellence is a determining factor in being appointed as a member of a scientific advisory board, using data from the United States and Germany.
The link to the Science article can be found here.
The link to the research article can be found here.
Current Projects
INCiTiS-FOOD: Integrated and circular technologies for sustainable city region food systems in Africa
INCiTiS-FOOD aims to improve food and nutrition security in African city regions and reduce the food-system-related environmental footprint while contributing to circularity. Furthermore, the project will empower communities by opening up opportunities for them in agri-food supply and value chains, and by achieving environmental justice through transformative food policies. This will be achieved through... more
Net-CSA Bio: Network on Climate-Smart agriculture: Integrating biodiversity and ecosystem conservation
The “Network on Climate-Smart agriculture: Integrating biodiversity and ecosystem conservation (Net-CSA bio)” aims at fostering cooperation in research and teaching between TUM-PuR and scientists from Colombian universities and research institutes. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and focuses on three main pillars: scientific excellence, capacity building, and network enhancement. The scientific pillar focuses on... more
NOVASOIL: Innovative business models for soil health
The general objective of the NOVASOIL project is to demonstrate the benefits of investing in soil health for society and the environment. Innovations to improve soil health will be promoted by establishing a network of experts, the experimental design and testing of effective and efficient cooperation models, and the development of contractual frameworks that support the implementation of the models by various actors. The expected key outcome of the project is a... more
RETOUCH Nexus - Resilient water governance under climate change within the WEFE Nexus
With increased water scarcity due to anthropocentric and natural causes, the trade-offs and synergies intrinsic to efficiently allocate water resources to various competing uses have become more polarized. Realizing the importance of an integrated approach in water governance, the RETOUCH Nexus project introduces and promotes the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus as a multi-level and cross-sectoral approach that advocates the EU water economy and, in addition, relies on ecological and social considerations. The overall objective of RETOUCH Nexus is... more
GRASSWORKS - What works and why in grassland restoration in Germany? A multi-region social-ecological assessment and pilot implementation of successful approaches.
GRASSWORKS aims to contribute to the comprehensive and global transformation to reversing species and habitat loss and focus on a greater appreciation of grassland biodiversity and its many ecosystem functions and services. The project focuses on three model regions in North, Central and South Germany, over three ree regions that vary in their economic, social-ecological and socioeconomic contextual conditions. The project is based on the hypothesis that biodiversity restoration success depends on the extent to which projects address the diverse levels of ecological complexity, as well as the social engagement of diverse stakeholders. This is a... more
PONDERFUL- POND Ecosystems for Resilient FUture Landscapes in a changing climate
Ponds and “pondscapes” (networks of ponds) are crucial for biodiversity conservation and their multiple societally beneficial ecosystem services (ES) provide the means to play a crucial role in mitigating and adapting to climate change. However, ponds are largely neglected in water- and nature-related policies and there is insufficient knowledge on how to manage and restore ponds to maximize nature-based solutions (NBS) to increase resilience of ecosystems and society to climate change. The overarching objective of PONDERFUL is to generate and integrate biodiversity, ecosystems, social, economic and policy knowledge to design and implement evidence-based, nature-based strategies using pondscapes for mitigation and adaptation to climate change... more
IPM Popillia - Integrated Pest Management of the invasive Japanese Beetle, Popillia japonica
The IPM Popillia project seeks to limit the invasion of quarantine pests such as the Japanese Beetle, a pest that was found in Europe for the first time in 2014, using sustainable and environmentally friendly control strategies. Japanese Beetles are already abundant in natural conservation areas, grasslands, forest margins, small structured, fragmented landscapes, or close to residential areas and private gardens, but slowly become a threat to agriculture. The European Union's (EU) Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (SUD) restricts the use of conventional methods of controlling invasive pests in crops and non-crop areas. This implies that pest management strategies using conventional pesticides are technically not feasible or socially inacceptable to address the menace of the Japanese Beetle in crops and non-crop areas that are currently or will in the future be affected... more
Current publications
The role of rational decisions in technical inefficiency analysis of Spanish pig farms: The influence of water use management
Ait Sidhoum, A.; Vrachioli, M.; Guesmi, B. & Gil, J. M. (2023). Resources, Conservation and Recycling
There has been limited research on the degree to which rational inefficiency arises when environmental factors are considered. Thus, our goal is to contribute to the literature by applying the concept of rational inefficiency to pig farming and investigating the relationship between water use and farm technical efficiency levels. This research aims to provide a better understanding of the complex interactions between pig farming production, the natural environment, and economic performance. The stochastic frontier analysis is applied to a cross-section dataset of 523 Catalan farms specialized in pig production in 2018.
Revisiting the impact of decoupled subsidies on farm preformance: a counterfactual analysis using microdata
Mennig, P. & Sauer, J. (2023). Applied Economics
The 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which decoupled farm subsidies from production, was expected to increase farmers’ market orientation and to positively impact farm productivity. This theoretical effect of decoupling on farm performance has been verified in a few ex-post analyses. However, these studies lack important aspects of farm-level policy impact evaluations. First, they do not use a well-defined counterfactual scenario, second they do not account for farm heterogeneity when measuring performance and third they do not assess farm performance in a comprehensive manner. We address these shortcomings by combining quasi-experimental empirical methods with a latent-class production function.
Incentives, Rewards or Both in Payments for Ecosystem Services: Drawing a Link Between Farmers' Preferences and Biodiversity Levels
Canessa, C.; Venus, T. E.; Wiesmeier, M.; Mennig, P. & Sauer, J. (2023). Ecological Economics
Agri-environmental-climate schemes provide payments for ecosystem services by compensating farmers to implement management actions or obtain ecological results. To compare farmers' preferences for action-based schemes, result-based schemes, or a hybrid, we conduct a discrete choice experiment in a case study from Germany. We elicited farmers' preferences for alternative grassland biodiversity payments through an in-person survey and measured farm ecological performance using a biodiversity index.
