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Agri-environmental Stewardship
Schemes and ‘Multifunctionality’
Thomas L. Dobbs and Jules N. Pretty
Agricultural policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic face new choices about
farming and the environment. Member states of the European Union (EU) are
shaping policies to implement the Agenda 2000 reforms of the Common Agricul-
tural Policy (CAP), and these reforms are strongly influenced by the concept of
multifunctionality. The Rural Development Regulation, designed as a second pil-
lar of the CAP, allows EU member states to shift up to 20 per cent of their CAP
funds to rural development and agri-environmental programmes. This could bring
a major expansion of environmental stewardship programmes in Europe as EU
members redirect funds from commodity support to environmental and rural
development objectives. The United Kingdom, for example, shifted 2.5 per cent
of all direct payments to farmers under CAP commodity regimes to rural develop-
ment and agri-environment initiatives in 2001, and plans call for the proportion
to rise gradually to 4.5 per cent in 2005 and 2006 (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisher-
ies and Food; Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food). The United
Kingdom’s Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food recently rec-
ommended an increase to 10 per cent starting in 2004, and that serious considera-
tion be given to increasing the proportion to the maximum 20 per cent ‘if
substantial CAP reform is not delivered in 2006–07’ (Policy Commission on the
Future of Farming and Food, p77).^1 Although the US government enacted new
federal ‘farm’ legislation for the years 2002–2007, which greatly expands pro-
grammes and funding for conservation (USDA, 2002), debates about agricultural
and related environmental policies also continue in the United States.
We draw on our recent review of agri-environmental programmes in the
United Kingdom (Dobbs and Pretty) to examine key issues associated with a major
expansion of stewardship payment programmes on both sides of the Atlantic. We
describe the evolution of agricultural and agri-environmental policies in the United
Kingdom and the concept of multifunctionality now driving European dialogue
Reprinted from Dobbs T and Pretty J, Agri-environmental stewardship schemes and ‘multifunctional-
ity’. Review of Agricultural Economics 26(2), 220–237, Blackwell, Oxford, 2004.