Abstract
Réunion Island is a French overseas territory in the Indian Ocean which provides a distinctive research opportunity to develop a regional bio-economic model for the dairy industry. The model aims to address questions related to social, economic and environmental priorities of the local dairy industry. Since Reunion is an island it is a natural closed system for various components of the models such as labour, dairy cattle, and land. The present study models the dairy sector at a regional (island) level, in close collaboration with key stakeholders, to study the impact of new agricultural policies in terms of changes to subsidy norms, price fluctuations and environment, with reference to nitrogen excess. The model generates a number of scenarios, to explore the effects of various industry controls on the environment (N excess), such as fixing the stocking rate according to EU norms, increasing or reducing the milk subsidy, intensification (such as an increase in milk production to 40 million litres per year) and labour and price constraints (such as an increase or reduction in the milk price or a reduction in labour hours). The model can be used to calculate N as an environmental indicator which is introduced by two sources (i) by way of fertiliser for fodder requirements and (ii) by the manure excreted by the dairy animals.
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Acknowledgements
The work reported in this paper has been funded under European Union Marie Curie Actions as a Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) Project (EU FP6 MTKD-CT-2004-509256) and was hosted by CIRAD. Both the institutions are thankfully acknowledged. The enthusiastic participation of key stakeholders, viz., the local dairy cooperative SICALait, l’Union Réunionnaise des Coopératives Agricoles (Urcoopa) and Union de Associations Foncières Pastorales (UAFP) is gratefully acknowledged.
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Nidumolu, U.B., Lubbers, M., Alary, V., Lecomte, P., van Keulen, H. (2011). Modelling Nitrogen Balance for a Regional Scale Livestock-Pasture System as a Discussion Support Tool. In: Flichman, G. (eds) Bio-Economic Models applied to Agricultural Systems. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1902-6_7
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