Promoting clover-grass: Implications for agricultural land use in Finland

• Autores: Heikki Lehtonen, Olli Niskanen
• Localización: Land use policy: The International Journal Covering All Aspects of Land Use, ISSN 0264-8377, ISSN-e 1873-5754, Nº. 59, 2016, págs. 310-319
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Clovers, such as red clover (Trifolium pratens), are often cultivated with grass in Northern Europe. Clover forages are suitable for sustainable low-input or organic dairying, since they require less nitrogen fertilization, while providing higher protein content in feed, than pure hay grasses. A partial equilibrium, economic sector model was used in analyzing land use and production effects of measures promoting clover-grasses, in forage production, in Finland. Reduced costs, higher clover-grass yield levels, premium payments for clover-grasses, and fertilizer taxes could increase clover-grass areas and feed use. The results suggest that premium payments for clover-grass areas or reduced costs may have little effect, while fertilizer taxes and higher yield levels of clover are more likely to result in significantly increased clover-grass production. We also found that the effectiveness of clover-grass promotion measures is highly dependent on crop and livestock product prices, as well as fertilizer prices. However, the potential for increasing clover-grass is limited due to, e.g., manure spreading requirements. It was found that it is hard to increase clover-grass area above 30%, from the current 15%, of overall grassland area in Finland.