A regionalised production and income simulation model for the Austrian agricultural sector

The objective of the research project is the development of a net of farm-level-models in order to simulate price and policy scenarios for the austrian agricultural sector. First, the farm-level models are built for representative farms (farm types), which are selected by structural and regional criteria. The results of the farm models are then aggregated to various regional levels by weight vectors. As a database we use the farms census data from 1999 on farm level and combine them with the INVEKOS data pool in order to get the latest information on land use and livestock. The model especially serves for the simulation of various policy tools, which cannot be analysed with most of the existing models. So, we can simulate the effects of mountain-farm premiums and environmental premiums as well as usual animal and land premiums, price and quota changes. The emphasis in results are income and production effects, but the model also yields a basis for the calculation of various environmental indicators. Results can be analysed on various regional levels (community, district, NUTS 0-3, and production region etc.) and according to different structural criteria (farm- size, farm-emphasis, bio/conventional farming, full/part-time farming and production handicap). The model will be part of the Network of Models for the Austrian Agricultural Sector.